Tales of a Lost Sword 76

Episode 76 Friendship Does Not Exist
“Win at all costs.” Dances with Balrog stomps past the students assembled before him. They stand upon a clear green field. The sun shines brightly overhead, illuminating a warm if not slightly breezy day. Dances looks down his brown nose at the young students of various ages standing under the sunlight. His gaze lingers for a particularly long moment on a green-haired child of no more than six or seven years old.

“The mission comes before all else. Sad as it may be, if there arises an occasion in which you must choose between your allies or the mission, the mission must come first. Understood?”

“Yes,” a chorus of replies greets the aging master.

“Now, when in your battle formation…”

‘There was no other way to live. Either you lived through the mission or you didn’t. With stakes so high, getting yourself killed trying to protect someone was a foolish way to throw away your life. Your life belonged to the military. That was that. As far as they were concerned, you were just a bag of flesh trained to do their bidding. Just a bunch of expendable chess pieces.

‘I started out as an FP Specialist mage trained to provide long-range support and artillery for the Perion Division. Like with the rest of the Joukai, we were organized into teams of four. I was the only mage in my particular platoon. These were the early days of the Myougun, when they were just beginning to introduce Paradoxes to the world. None of us were hybrids, so it was important for us to work well as a team making use of each of our individual specialties.’

The barren cliffs of Perion lie bare and silent under the orange rays of the setting sun. A scratchy breeze blows through the vast, mountainous canyons, carrying with it many specks of dust and other debris.

A group of four children run about the rocky ledges alongside the mountain, playing gleefully in their exploration of the cliffs and rocks. One of them, a green-haired boy, lags behind. He glances worriedly over his shoulder.

“Hey…guys!” he cries sharply. “We’re not supposed to be playing! We’re supposed to be looking for that Paradox and kill it.”

“Aww, come on, Fayvard!” one of them, a black-haired boy who appears to be the leader, answers. A sheathed sword hangs by his side. “Don’t you wanna see what’s on the other side of this gorge?” He dances precariously on a narrow strip of rock hanging out over the gorge, holding his arms out on either side to balance himself.

“You’re gonna fall!”

“No, I’m not!” The other boys cheer as their leader completes a back flip on the outcropping of rock.

“Come on, Clay!” Fayvard screams impatiently. “We’re gonna get in tr—”

The boys shiver involuntarily as a high-pitched shriek suddenly rents the air above them. They all look up, as a massive black shadow blocks out the setting sun momentarily. In the next second, the entire mountain area grows pitch black as the sun disappears.

A cold, stifling fog drifts over the boys and the mountainside, dramatically reducing visibility. The eerie shriek fades away. But in a few seconds, it returns, louder than ever, sounding nearby.

“What was that?!”

Fayvard looks about him with confusion in the darkness, scrambling to locate his friends. “Clay! Baron! Montaine!”

A burst of wind knocks Fayvard off his feet. He lands on his rear, quickly scuttling back onto his feet as he rubs his rear. The shriek sounds extremely close, right by Fayvard’s side. The sound of two pairs of footsteps running away sounds nearby as well.

“Come on, Baron! Let’s get out of here!”

“Wait!” Fayvard shouts into the darkness, tears in his eyes now. “Where are you guys going?!”

Feeling his way through the darkness, his arms stretched out in front of him, Fayvard suddenly feels a strange black material in his hands. He pats the feathery material. Holding the palms of his hands to his eyes, Fayvard finds that they are covered with black feathers.

“What—” Stepping back, Fayvard screams as he spots a bright yellow eye encircling a blood red pupil. The creature knocks Fayvard to the ground with its unseen talons. He falls face forward, and finds himself back in the hazy sunshine.

Spitting blood and dirt out of his mouth, Fayvard quickly looks around, and finds a huddled mass of blood on the ground where Clay had been standing before on the edge of the gorge.

“Clay!” Fayvard shouts, rushing over to his friend.

Opening his eyes weakly, Clay stares blankly at Fayvard, his face covered with blood. The boy reaches with a bloody hand up to Fayvard’s face, stroking him with it.

“Fay…vard…” he hisses. “What hap—” But the boy coughs loudly, blood spewing directly out of his slashed throat.

Cradling Clay’s head in his arms, Fayvard shields him. “Don’t talk, you idiot! I’ll go get help—” He looks up, and immediately finds himself eye to eye with the huge vulture-like creature with yellow eyes and red pupils.

The Paradox flaps its wings, shrieking its bloodcurdling cry. Sailing back into the air, the creature circles Fayvard before disappearing into the darkness again.

Glancing back at Clay, Fayvard bites his lip, unsure about what to do.

“Fayvard!” one of the boys now calls from the other side of the mountain ledge. “We gotta go get help for Clay!”

Fayvard takes another glance at Clay on the ground, noting the tears in the latter’s eyes. Gritting his teeth, Fayvard suddenly bursts out with difficulty: “The…mission comes first!”

“What?!”

“The mission comes first!” Fayvard repeats, running frantically in the opposite direction. He starts climbing up the mountainside, the sharp rocks piercing the palms of his hands. “It’s Clay’s fault he got hurt!”

Speechless, the boys can do nothing but run away. Now halfway up the mountain, Fayvard looks once more back at Clay’s motionless body. ‘He…he’s gonna be dead anyway by the time we get back! I can’t let this chance to get the Paradox escape!’

The sun has set upon the rocky mountains of Perion. A dark, moonless sky looms overhead, a few stars twinkling weakly in the night air. Fayvard sits with his back against the wall of the mountain, his face hardened. The corpse of a massive Paradox lies on the ground nearby.

At the end of the ledge is Clay’s dead body. Turning his head in Clay’s direction, Fayvard rises to his feet. He stalks over to Clay’s bloody body, staring down at it.

Inspired by a sudden compulsion, Fayvard kneels over the body, and grabs Clay’s sheathed sword. He pulls the blade from its leather sheath, inspecting the clear, reflective metal.

“I’m sorry, Clay,” Fayvard mutters. “I shouldn’t have let you die like that. That was my fault. But the mission came first.” He stares at his own reflection in the mirror of the blade, two pupils staring back at him in his right eye.

“…Sorry.”

With one swift motion, Fayvard pierces his own arm with the blade. A fresh river of blood drains from the wound down his arm. Biting his lip, Fayvard lays down the sword. He now turns to Clay’s bloody body, his face dark.

“This way!” Two voices cry in the dead of the night. Baron and Montaine, Fayvard’s other two comrades, now return, their hurried footsteps the only sound disturbing the night. Along with them comes Dances with Balrog, his face stern.

As the three of them come to the very edge of the cliff, they find Fayvard poring over Clay’s dead body, his back to them. Fayvard stands up and turns to them as he hears them approach.

Even in the dim light, the two pupils glowing in Fayvard’s right eye can clearly be seen. In his right hand, he holds Clay’s sword. His youthful face appears hardened and aged, lighted up by a frown and glare.

‘Maybe it was right, maybe it was wrong. By abandoning Clay’s life, I was able to complete the mission. In the end, I received a medal for it. The others…dropped out of the Joukai soon afterward. All I could do was to hope to atone for Clay’s sacrifice by making his power my own and using it to help the Joukai. But I never made the mistake again of letting friendship stand in the way of completing the mission…’

The flames from the scorching blaze slowly fade away as Kunai breathes heavily. He lowers his sword, having used it as a shield against the furious blast of fire from Fayvard’s sword.

“I…didn’t know you could do that,” pants Kunai, his face screwed up with concentration.

“Of course I could,” Fayvard growls. “I don’t really like to use my fire magic, though. It’s never really been my style. It always was something Ryuu preferred. After all, where do you think he got his Fire Mage abilities?!”

“What…?!” Kunai stutters, taken aback for a moment. “Ryuu got his powers from you?”

“Of course he did!” Fayvard returns. “Where else do you think he got them?! You’re open!”

Surprising Kunai, Fayvard thrusts his sword forward. Still, Kunai evades the attack at the last moment and parries it with his sword. Their swords intertwined, Kunai glares savagely at Fayvard.

“That still doesn’t change anything!” Kunai shouts viciously. “You still killed Ryuu!”

“Yeah, and we’re all alive thanks to that!” Fayvard roars back. “Sometimes the mission takes precedence over a life! And now we have the Fatalists’ Anti-Paradox as well!”

“It isn’t worth nearly as much as Ryuu’s life!” Their two swords unlock again, as Kunai flies straight at Fayvard, gunning for his throat.

Fayvard leaps back, his eyes widening at Kunai’s superior speed. He sidesteps Kunai with amazement. ‘What has gotten into this kid…?’ He starts with surprise at Kunai’s eyes, which are now glowing with a bright blue light.

Approaching Fayvard, Kunai grinds to a halt on a dime. He swings back his sword, slamming it into Fayvard. The latter blocks the attack but widens his eyes as a burst of flame follows the attack from Kunai’s sword.

‘A flaming sword?!’ Fayvard’s blade splinters slightly from the ferocious attack, a chink of metal flying into the air. Retreating, Fayvard comes to a stop several feet away from Kunai, his breathing heavy.

Kunai pulls back his black sword, which is no longer flaming, though his eyes continue to glow with an eerie blue light.

‘What’s going on…? He can use fire attacks now too?’ Fayvard wonders to himself. ‘He used Dispel, so it can’t be a copycat ability…it’s not a hybrid power, either… So what is this power he’s using?!’

Kunai swings his sword back once more, charging it up with fire. “Here I come, Fayvard.”

Better prepared this time, Fayvard nods. “Yeah!” He draws a seal in the air just as Kunai’s attack reaches him. “Joukai Guardian Seal!”

The fire and the seal crash with fervor, the flames from the attack spreading all throughout the forest clearing. Birds fly into the air in the uproar caused by the blast, while clods of dirt and rock leap into the air after them.
—END SEVENTY-SIX—
Don’t be surprised if the posting times for next week’s chapters are a bit wonky. I’ll explain why soon.