Tales of a Lost Sword 71

Episode 71 Grace of the Traitor
The two guards fall to the ground inside the tent, blood splattering from their stomach wounds. Flynn lowers his double-edged dagger, a smug look on his face, his golden hair shining even in the dimness of the tent.

The Emperor pounds his fist angrily on the arm of his throne. “What is this insolence?! Who are you to attack my royal tent?”

“Hmph, I would have expected you to display a little bit more fear at my appearance,” Flynn growls in a low voice, “but I suppose even that is too much to ask for an ignorant worm of the false dimension.”

“Who are you?!” the Emperor demands again, raising his voice threateningly. “Bow before the emperor of the Nightless Empire at once! Know your place, peasant!”

“I would say the same to you…peasant!” retorts Flynn. He raises his dagger, spinning it in circles until it creates a loud whirring noise. “Prepare to die!”

“I shall not tolerate such irreverence in front of me!” the Emperor shouts, half rising from his seat. He calls for the guards outside his tent. “Guards! Dispose of this intruder at once!”

“They will not hear you,” Flynn snarls softly, his voice barely heard above the whirring of his dagger. His normally clear aqua blue eyes are darkened with a look suggesting madness.

Sasha stands at the edge of a balcony overlooking the grounds of the Academy down below. The battle against the Fatalist army of the Nightless Empire wages on, though the progress of the enemy has stagnated somewhat. Multiple professors and students from within the school have leaked onto the battlefield, engaging the invading army with ragtag gusto.

In particular, Sasha trains her attention upon four unknown people fighting against the enemy on one of the school’s lawns. She narrows her eyes as she peers at them from afar. ‘Who are those people…? They aren’t students, nor have I seen them in town before…’

Shifting uncomfortably, Sasha turns back indoors. ‘At any rate, with their help, the Academy may be saved…’

Alto slithers towards the four ARES members, his leering smirk spreading wide across his face. “Dear, dear,” he says, “it is quite distasteful to see members of the organization that I myself founded rebelling against me. This is most unpleasant. It is vile. It is disgusting.”

“The only thing here that’s disgusting is you, Alto,” Xavier hisses, his crossbow locked onto Alto’s heart. “We trusted you, and you threw it all away. To think I looked up to you…”

“You have no one to blame but yourself for that,” Alto sighs, waving Xavier away with his hand. “Humans have a natural inclination to trust, even if it may be lethal to them. Did you honestly expect me not to make use of that weakness?”

“Why are you even working for the Nightless Empire, anyway?” Valoria snaps.

“It lies within the bounds of my interest to do so,” Alto replies cryptically. Silently, he saunters up to Xavier’s side, reaching out with a pale white hand to touch Xavier’s head.

In the next second, a loud explosion sounds. Xavier slips out from under Alto’s reach, his breathing heavy as a huge crater now lies smoking on the ground where he had been standing moments before. Turning quickly, Xavier rapidly fires a bolt from his crossbow at Alto.

With surprising quickness and ease, Alto merely steps out of the way. He flattens his sneer, gazing wonderingly at Xavier. “Excellent reflexes, Xavier,” he compliments. “However, that shall not be enough to stop me.”

‘Yes. Once this bunch is destroyed, there shall be no obstacles left. The Emperor shall die, and then I shall rule the Night World for myself!’

Xavier gazes loathingly at Alto, his eyes narrowed. “Die already!” He fires aother bolt from his crossbow. The bolt flies straight at Alto, who catches it straight out of the air with one swipe of his hand. He holds the bullet aloft in between his pale, spidery fingers, a faint, smug smile on his face, before letting it fall to the ground harmlessly.

Meanwhile, Kai slips unnoticed behind Alto, his dagger poised to strike Alto from behind. Unfortunately, Kai immediately finds his path blocked by a man in black butler suit with a giant shield. Alto turns, deftly pulling out a wand from his sleeve.

“Angel Ray!”

The flash of white light sails straight at Kai. In response, Kai barely dodges in time, sidestepping out of the way of a direct hit from the attack. As he steps back, Kai swipes the air with his dagger, unleashing a burst of ice into the air.

Alto remains stationary, though his butler quickly steps in the way and uses his shield to absorb the brunt of the ice attack. Narrowing his eyes dangerously, Alto moves into the offensive.

“Kill them!” he hisses to his butler, stepping into a quick stride. He heads straight for Xavier, his wand poised to strike.

Xavier takes several steps back, attempting to maintain enough distance between himself and Alto to allow room for his crossbow to attack. Valoria darts in front of Xavier at the last second, slashing at Alto with her dual daggers.

At the last moment, a bright golden light surrounds Alto, reflecting Valoria’s attack. Valoria screams as she falls to her knees, blood dripping from various wounds quickly opening up across her body.

‘He can reflect attacks?!’ Xavier wonders, his jaw dropping slightly. However, he is barely afforded time to admire, as Alto rapidly moves towards him. Alto fires another Angel Ray.

Using his crossbow as a shield, Xavier manages to deflect the bulk of the attack. Nonetheless, the attack pushes Xavier back several paces as he skids to a stop. Hurriedly loading another bolt, Xavier manages to fire another shot at Alto, who again deflects it with his hand.

As the bolt touches Alto’s hand, it explodes into a crystal of frozen ice. Flakes of ice fall to the ground, as Alto is temporarily stunned from the blinding cold.

“There’s my chance!” Valoria hisses, rising despite her wounds and slashing her way past Alto. She manages to stab him near the hip with her katara. Blood gushes out of his wound, even as another flash of golden light causes an opposite reaction in Valoria’s own hip.

She presses her free hand against the wound, the blood rushing into her palm and through her fingers. Gritting her teeth, Valoria merely presses her katara deeper into Alto, forcing it in even as it hurts herself.

“Fool!” Alto cries, sweat running down his own brow from the pain. “You’ll merely kill yourself as well!”

Meanwhile, Alto’s butler sprints at Kai with amazing speed, using his gigantic shield as a battering ram. The shield slams into Kai, throwing him backwards with brute force. Kai lands on the ground several paces away with a sickening crunch, the sound of a bone snapping in his arm.

Rising slowly, Kai nevertheless bursts into a grin. The butler’s shield has turned to ice, its weight nearly doubled as the butler struggles to lift it. “Let’s go, Geronimo!” Kai screams, looking over his shoulder.

“Yeah!” Geronimo roars, bursting towards the butler with thundering speed. He swings one of his massive fists straight into the heart of the shield, shattering it into four pieces. His momentum carrying him forward, Geronimo follows through until he reaches the butler himself. Geronimo’s fist explodes into the butler’s face with devastating force, throwing the butler into the air. He lands on the ground motionless, his neck snapped.

“Powerful as always,” Kai notes, as Geronimo shakes his hand free of fragments of metal and ice.

“Yeah!” Geronimo booms. “Now for the grand prize!” He rushes straight at Alto from behind, who is still held into a locked position by Valoria’s katara.

Seeing Geronimo headed for him, Alto curses. “I shall not be outdone by you rats!” he cries, twisting himself free from Valoria’s grasp and teleporting out of the way. Nevertheless, he sheds a substantial amount of his own blood at the same time.

Alto pivots directly into Geronimo’s bosom. He fires another blast from his wand, slashing at Geronimo’s massive chest with his white magic.

Geronimo is immediately leveled by the direct hit, getting thrown into the air momentarily before landing on his back with a rumble.

However, Alto’s triumph is short-lived, as Valoria musters up even more strength and plunges her katara once again into Alto, this time from behind. She twists her katara into Alto’s back, drawing a thick stream of blood that gushes over her dark hands.

“This shall end it!” Kai says, dashing forward, dagger raised. He cuts through Alto with blinding speed, landing several blows across Alto’s body. The wounds explode with fountains of blood, before crystallizing into giant spears of ice.

“Alto…” Xavier mutters hoarsely from behind him. “There is no way you can defeat the four of us when we are all united against you. Give up, it’s over! Either repent for your wrongdoings now or we will kill you.”

“As if I would ever accept such a thing!” Alto gasps, blood running down from his mouth as well now. “I cannot die, the Night World shall be mine!”

“I see. So that’s all you care about after all,” Xavier sighs. He circles Alto, facing him from the front. Silently, Xavier loads a bolt into his crossbow.

“Goodbye, then.”

The bolt plunges into Alto’s forehead, directly between the eyes.

Flynn watches the Academy below from the top of a hill, his aqua eyes soaking in the peaceful scenery. The battle against the Fatalist army has largely died down, as the forces of the Maple World now shift their focus to restoration and cleaning up.

Holding out his right hand, palm up, Flynn gazes at the tiny ring now held in the center of his palm. “Hmph,” he whispers, “to think that these fools would go to such lengths for such a pitiful thing. They actually call this an Anti-Paradox…?”

Sitting down upon the grass, Flynn wraps his arms around his knees, staring up at the sunlit sky, his face grave. “All the same, that fool of an emperor is now dead. He may have been a fool, but perhaps I was mistaken about this place after all. That girl, Ophelia…there may be some people in this dimension worth saving after all.”

Sasha, accompanied by several of the other professors of the Academy, slowly approaches the battlefield. Xavier glances over in her direction, perplexed by the sight of so many official-looking people coming towards them.

Meanwhile, Kai is kneeling over Geronimo, a first-aid kit open by his side as he tends to Geronimo’s wounds. Valoria observes next to him.

“Who are you?” Xavier asks out loud, as Sasha and the others come to a stop before them.

Sasha looks at them curiously, still holding her child in her arms. “That should be my question to you guys. Who are you, and why were you fighting the Nightless Empire’s forces?”

Xavier glances nervously at the others, but Kai, absorbed in his work on Geronimo, does not seem to take notice. Valoria, noticing the others, stands up. “We are with the ARES Project,” she answers in a low voice. Silently, she places a hand on her katara.

A hint of recognition jars Sasha for a moment as she hears the name. “Oh, is that the group Ryuu told me Kunai was working with in the Night World…?”

“Ah, so you know Kunai?” Xavier asks eagerly. Valoria withdraws her hand from her katara’s hilt.

“Of course.”

“I see…”

Geronimo suddenly rises into a sitting position, to the alarm of Kai. “Hey! Get back down, you’re not well enough to sit up yet!”

But ignoring Kai, Geronimo turns his attention to Sasha. He kneels down on the floor on hands and knees, bowing low to her. “We beg for your forgiveness! If it were not for our failures, this battle in your world would have never happened. It is our fault and our fault alone that caused this trouble for you, ma’am.”

Temporarily stunned, Sasha can only watch as Geronimo signals for the others to follow his example. Reluctantly they do so, kneeling down on the floor as well.

“O-Oh, you don’t have to do this,” Sasha says, embarrassed.

“Still, though…what has happened to the Anti-Paradox? We defeated Alto, but it was not in his possession. It is not good for us to allow the Anti-Paradox to remain out in the open unsecured,” Kai says as he forces Geronimo back onto the ground.

“Rest assured it is in safe hands, pathetic humans,” a bright voice suddenly sails through the air towards them. Flynn strides onto the battlefield, a haughty smile on his face. “It has been taken care of, along with that fool of an emperor.”

“Flynn?!” Sasha cries, in alarm. “What are you doing out here?! Who set you free?”

“No one. My cell was destroyed during the course of the battle. Do not worry though. I am not here to cause trouble.” Reaching into his pocket, Flynn flips the ring over in the air towards Xavier, who clumsily manages to catch it in time. “That sorry excuse for an Anti-Paradox is yours. Do as you wish with it.”

“A-Are you sure?” Xavier stutters, surprised at this unexpected gesture. He holds up the ring in between his fingers for all to see.

“We were fools to have let it fall into the wrong hands to begin with,” Kai murmurs.

“Yeah…” Xavier agrees. “Through our own carelessness, we caused a lot of harm and trouble for this Academy in the Maple World.”

“There’s only one way for us to atone for our sins…” Geronimo says from the ground.

Valoria glances at each of her companions uncertainly. “We discussed it on the way here, but…you don’t mean you actually intend to follow through with it?”

“Follow through with what?” Sasha asks wonderingly.

“We owe everything to Kunai and the others. We’ll do it. We’ll sacrifice ourselves by using this Anti-Paradox to help Kunai defeat the Fatalists,” Xavier proclaims.

Sasha’s eyes widen. “You don’t mean…?”

“Yeah. We’ll become Fatalists ourselves!”

“There’s only a fifty percent chance of it working, you must have known about that!” Sasha cries. “Ryuu told me—”

“It doesn’t matter,” Xavier interrupts. “We’ll take the risk. Everyone! Are you ready?!”

As Xavier and his companions voice their approval, Sasha suddenly jumps with realization. “Huh? Where’s Ophelia?” Glancing back, Sasha speaks up. “Flynn—”

However, Flynn is nowhere to be seen. Only a cold breeze drifts by.
—END SEVENTY-ONE—
A nameless man in a black butler suit with a giant shield. FML, I can do better than this crap. Anyway, that’s that for the events of the false dimension for a while. Next chapter returns to the main action in the Fatalists’ dimension.