Intermission 2: The Teachings of Destruction

Intermission 2:
The Teachings of Destruction

 

“MORE… I NEED MORE…!” High in the sky, the blue-skinned man’s red mane seemed to defy gravity as it stood on end. He threw his hands up into the air and shook. “Heat, I need more heat! What the hell’s wrong with you all? I’m giving it my best, and it’s still way too chilly here!”

His voice boomed so loudly that Cyrill could feel it in her bones. She responded to his frantic yelling with a blast of heat of her own.

“Prometheus—Illegal Formula!!”

She summoned her magic, accumulating it in her fist, before letting it fly free. A number of fireballs shot from the ground directly beneath her airborne target and soared ten meters or so into the air, lighting up the night and giving their surroundings the look of a disturbing hellscape.

The more power a mage put into the Illegal Formula spell, the stronger its effect. Combining it with Prometheus could extend its effect tenfold. This made it nearly impossible to actually maintain any sort of control over the resulting magic, but fortunately, the area was completely empty except for Tsyon, the will-o’-the-wisp. The demons living nearby must have learned that the heroes were coming and left in advance of their arrival.

Jean lashed out in annoyance at Eterna, who was busy erecting a shield around the area with Maria. “Eterna, put the blaze out!”

“I know what I’m doing, Jean,” she replied coolly. She’d been working on it before Jean even opened his mouth.

Magical energy formed around her body as she concentrated on her assist spell. Two orbs appeared just above her shoulders, light sparking off of them like tiny fireworks.

“Water Meteorite!”

A massive ball of water appeared above Tsyon’s head before, moments later, giving away to gravity and nearly dragging him down to the ground with it. Eterna’s plan seemed to be to kill two birds with one stone: attack the enemy and put out the flames cloaking him while she was at it.

“Gotta try harder than that!”

Rather than make any attempt to avoid the attack, Tsyon sent his flame-covered body shooting up and through the water. He kicked the magical ball of water, sending it flying back toward the party.

Jean, Maria, and Eterna watched in shock. “It’s nothing more than a toy to him!”

“He’s a lot stronger than we expected.”

“Unexpected, indeed.”

Whether their shield would even be able to take the blow remained to be seen. Gadhio dove in front of the party and rammed his feet deep into the ground, leaving small craters in his wake with the weight of his massive armor and inhumanly large blade. It made for a pretty impressive sight. Despite all the weight he bore on his body, however, Gadhio still moved with impressive speed.

What was more, he could cast magic. His voice rang out under his helmet as barely more than a whisper. “Earth Glaive.”

Stone pillars erupted out of the ground in front of him with each step he took forward, forming a staircase that took Gadhio higher and higher into the air. As he climbed the magical stairs, he whipped his absurdly large blade off his back. The incoming ball of magic was still out of reach when he finally stopped and held his sword at the ready. Gadhio let out a slow breath and refocused his brute strength into other parts of his body.

This technique was known as “prana,” and utilized a different type of energy than normal magic. It allowed him to give up some of his physical strength for a short time and reallocate it into his other stats.

Gadhio felt the energy flow through his arms and into the tip of his sword.

“Raaaaaaaauh!!”

He swung the heavy sword so hard and fast that it unleashed an invisible sonic wave.

Prana Shaker was one of the so-called Cavalier Arts, a special type of swordplay studied by many knights throughout the kingdom. Though this was a relatively low-level skill, its effect depended upon the power of its user, and in Gadhio’s capable hands, it was more than enough to put a stop to the incoming attack. The sonic wave slashed the water meteorite in two before continuing straight on its course, even managing to break Tsyon’s skin upon impact.

“Heh, you’re next!”

Tsyon waved his hand through the air, leaving behind a black cloud of smoke as he transitioned from using fire to dark magic. His title, “will-o’-the-wisp” came from his rare affinity, which granted him the ability to control both fire and dark magic.

The expanding cloud of smoke allowed him to spot the Prana Shaker shock waves as they cut through the air. He reached out and grabbed one with his bare hand with a loud crack. The thin coat of flame running across his body grew slightly brighter.

“Heat, I still need more heat!”

He slapped his hands together, destroying the energy of Gadhio’s attack before letting out another powerful roar and clapping his knees. Despite his attack being so thoroughly defeated, Gadhio wasn’t done yet. He took another powerful step forward, a pillar of stone shooting out of the ground to meet his next footfall. He was now within striking distance of Tsyon.

Gadhio’s massive blade met Tsyon’s flaming fists with a bone-jarring crash, causing the very air around them to shudder in response.

“Nngraaaw!”

“I think it’s about time we put an end to this!”

Tsyon slammed straight into Gadhio, sending the armored man flying back earthward. Meanwhile, the two halves of the severed water sphere also crashed into the ground and put out the sea of fire, surrounding the battlefield in a thick white cloud of steam.

“You’re a hero, aren’t you? Get up off the ground and face me like a man! You’re the only ones who can really get us Demon Chiefs going!”

There was some truth to his challenge—as long as the heroes continued to fight them, the Demon Chiefs could have all the combat their hearts desired. But Cyrill had had a harder and harder time putting her heart into battle, and using her magic to its fullest extent, since Flum had left.

“And now, it’s your turn.” Tsyon turned to unleash his fury upon Cyrill when an arrow came shooting at him from far off in the distance. Sensing that his target’s attention was fully focused on Cyrill, Linus had let off a single, well-timed shot.

“Got ’em.”

The arrow maintained its speed and stayed true to its course despite the vast distance, closing in fast on Tsyon’s forehead. The clouds of steam obscured its movement until right before it struck its mark.

FWIP!

The arrow sliced through the air, leaving a trail of white behind it. Tsyon finally took notice of the foreign object when it was mere inches from striking in the middle of his brow.

“Hya!” He moved instinctively, swiping the arrow right out of the air. “Not so fast, I’m not going down that easy, you little runt!”

The arrow caught fire immediately and began to burn in his grip until it was little more than ash. Tsyon enjoyed the excitement of battle, so an underhanded, sneaky attack like this felt like a personal insult to him. His sense of indignation rose as he raised his arms high up into the air and prepared his most powerful spell yet.

The fireball he summoned forth made Eterna’s Water Meteorite look like a mere plaything.

“Fine! If you aren’t going to give me what I need, I’ll show you what real heat feels like! Flare Meteorite!!”

It was the same spell Eterna had cast previously, though with a different affinity. That meant there was only one explanation as for why it was so much bigger and more powerful:

“Illegal Formula!”

He, too, was using the Illegal Formula in a bid to kill Cyrill and the rest of the party in one fell swoop.

The fireball loomed larger and larger as it bore down on the heroes, giving off the impression that the sun itself had come down to earth, burning away the residual steam in the process.

“If that hits us, we’re doomed.”

“We’re done for.”

“How are you okay with this, Eterna? Can’t you use your powerful water magic to do something to protect us?!”

“Oh, so now it’s my fault?”

“Well, if the boot fits…!”

Maria could take Eterna and Jean’s sniping no longer and shouted at the two of them, uncharacteristic as it was of her to lose her temper like this. “This is no time to bicker, you two! We need to reinforce our defenses. Gadhio, get back over here! If we can all crowd in close together, the combined Shield effect just might
save us.”

“There’s no way that’ll be enough! We need Cyrill to cast Brave before using the Shield spell!”

“Well, that’s not an option right now. That’s why we’re trying this!”

“Nngh…gah! Why the hell can’t Cyrill use Brave right now? That’s the strongest asset a hero has available! Dammit Cyrill, can’t you do something? You’re a hero, aren’t you?! This isn’t the time to let your feelings get you down! Just do it!”

Cyrill averted her gaze and grit her teeth. He was right: she was a pretty sad excuse for a hero right now. But at her core, she wasn’t just a “hero,” she was still a young woman, and one with many conflicting emotions. It wasn’t like she could just erase the pain in her heart and her feelings of regret at a moment’s notice.

“What good will it do you to fixate on Flum, that piece of trash?!” Jean raged on. “You are one of the chosen! There’s no reason for you to worry yourself over that slavish idiot. What you need to do now is to do your duty to protect the great ones, the chosen ones!”

“I… But I…”

“If you’re a hero, then start acting like one and stop fixating on these what ifs and your pathetic emotions!”

“This is hardly the time for this, Jean! We need to prepare ourselves!”

“Dammit! Why, why won’t you understand?! Everything I speak is the truth!”

Jean was so fixated on just how right he was that he was utterly oblivious to the effect his words were having on Cyrill. He, Eterna, and Maria formed up around the party and began to cast Shield. Up above them, the Flare Meteorite continued to grow as Tsyon put even more of his magic into it.

“It’s a shame, I really thought you would have made for a more energizing battle.”

The fireball was already more than big enough to incinerate the entire party. All Tsyon had to do was release it, and they’d be done for. But at the last possible moment, another figure appeared behind Tsyon and slapped him hard in the back of the head.

“What’s all this talk about getting energized? This is war, you idiot!”

“Wha??” Tsyon tumbled forward in the air and furrowed his brow in annoyance. Behind him was a blue-skinned woman decked out in a costume that left little to the imagination. She shook her mane of dark blue hair in annoyance and glared at Tsyon.

“Gah! Can’t you just leave me alone, Neigass?” Tsyon demanded. Neigass was a hematophage and also one of the Demon Chiefs like Tsyon.

“Leave you alone and let you kill them? Did anything the Demon Lord said get through your thick skull?”

“…Refresh my memory.”

“Don’t! Kill! The! Humans! He was pretty clear about that! Did you forget already??”

“Now that you mention it, yeah, that completely slipped my mind.”

The ball of fire quickly dissipated as Tsyon let the spell drop. The heroes looked up at the two Demon Chiefs talking among themselves, feeling their blood run cold in terror.

Tsyon seemed abruptly bored with them. “Looks like we’re gonna have to cut the fight short here, okay? But next time, I want you to try a little harder!”

With a dismissive wave of his hand, he flew off. Cyrill and the rest of the party could only watch in confusion as their enemy backed down just as they’d been moments from annihilation, unable to understand what was happening.

Neigass looked back down at the party, taking note of the sheer hatred in Maria’s eyes. “I’d love to try and talk you guys out of what you’re doing, but somehow, I don’t think that’d work. Anyway, see ya next time, destroyers of peace!”

With a nonchalant shrug and a wink, she flew off after Tsyon, leaving behind a very confused party of heroes and a holy woman of the cloth who glared after the shrinking figures with unrestrained hatred.

 

***

 

The battle now over, Linus regrouped with the party to check on the damage they’d taken. Fortunately, Maria’s magic was more than enough to cure all of their injuries, though their supplies were another story entirely. They’d all been incinerated in the firestorm, and making any further progress without them would be quite a challenge.

“I mean, we don’t want to use a teleportation stone here, but damn… What a waste this whole battle was!”

“We were making pretty good time, I’d say, so why are we still behind schedule?? I even got rid of all our dead weight!”

Maria looked over from where she was treating Gadhio’s wounds to chastise Jean. “Just calm down, will you, Jean?”

The incensed sage didn’t seem interested in listening. “Calm down? You expect me to calm down?? And what about you, Cyrill? Just what in the hell has gotten into you, huh? Huh??”

“…I’m sorry.”

“Oh, you’re sorry? And what good does that do me?!”

Linus put a hand on Jean’s shoulder. “Cool it, Jean!”

Jean yanked away.

“Damn, damn, damn it all! Can’t you all see how right I am? I can’t believe I’m surrounded by such complete imbeciles!”

With that, Jean stormed off across the scorched landscape away from the party.

“He just can’t it let go…” Linus knew that Jean fancied Cyrill, which made the whole situation all the more complicated. Jean was probably jealous of Flum, in his own way. He’d figured that getting rid of her would leave an opening in Cyrill’s heart, and yet all it did was make things worse. What’s more, Flum wasn’t even around for him to vent his anger on. With nowhere for his emotions to go, he was probably having a rough time of it, and there was nothing that Linus could do for him as a friend.

“All right, I think you’re good.”

“Thanks, Maria.”

“No worries, this is my job.”

The healing done, Gadhio pulled himself back up to his feet and rotated his arm a few times to check his shoulder. It still stung a bit, but most of the damage dealt by Tsyon’s blow was undone.

Eterna had been watching the healing closely from a distance, but as soon as Gadhio got up, she began to walk away from the party, though in a different direction from Jean. This wasn’t exactly unusual for her, so no one paid much attention except for Gadhio, her closest friend and confidant. He felt as if she were asking him to follow.

“I’ll be back shortly.”

Gadhio left Cyrill, Linus, and Maria behind to hurry after Eterna. An uncomfortable silence fell over the three remaining party members. Cyrill knew all too well that she was the source of the dark mood that hung over them.

Linus tried to break the tension. “Don’t worry too much about it, huh? It can happen to anyone, hero or otherwise.”

“That’s right. We’ve got a ways to go before we reach the Demon Lord. I’m sure you’ll be back to your old self by then.”

Her friends’ attempts to make her feel better only made Cyrill feel worse. “Yeah…thanks.”

Maria and Linus exchanged worried looks. Maybe it was best to just change the subject.

“What the hell was that all about, anyway? He had us right where he wanted, and then…nothing. And then there was all that talk about orders and not killing humans…”

Though Linus had been quite some distance away from the two Demon Chiefs, he’d gotten the gist of their conversation by reading their lips. He had hoped that turning the subject back to something mission-related would bring the two back into the conversation, but it only seemed to annoy Maria, who started clacking her fingernails together.

“That is strange, I suppose. They’d been pretty ruthless about murdering anyone and everyone they could so far.”

“Gah, who cares? They’re plotting something, I just know it.”

“Agreed. We’ll all be better off once the demons have been wiped off the planet, once and for all.”

Maria made no effort to conceal the hatred in her voice. She may not be sure what they were up to, but she knew what needed to be done. Of all of the party members, she bore the greatest sense of animosity toward their enemy, and Linus knew why.

The last time they were back in the capital, he’d made use of his information-gathering skills to do a little research on Maria. Sure, he felt a little guilty about it, but there was something about her that had piqued his interest.

Maria Affenjenz, age 17, was a world-renowned mage who had dedicated her life to being a member of the clergy and serving Origin. However, this was not always the case. When she was a child, she had grown up in an outlying village was raised as a follower of a folk religion. According to what Linus heard, she still had a tattoo on her back marking her childhood faith in that god.

Around ten years ago, when Maria was just seven years old, her village was attacked by demons and completely wiped out. Her family, her friends, and everyone she knew…just gone. Maria was taken in by the church, which was when she converted to being a follower of Origin. As she grew older, she learned that she carried a light affinity and later became a nun before being called upon by Origin to serve in the party that would take down the Demon Lord.

She certainly had more than enough reason to hate the demons. However, as Linus continued to watch her, he sensed something else deep beneath the surface.

Maria cocked her head to the side and looked inquisitively at Linus. “What is it?”

She really was beautiful. So beautiful that he wanted to dismiss the idea that darkness might lurk in her heart. But even if there were, that was okay with him. Someday, somehow, he hoped that he could support her. Maybe, just maybe, then she’d open up to him.

“Ah, uh, it’s nothing.”

Alas, it still wasn’t time for him to put himself on the line like that. He wasn’t ready.

Annoyed by his own uncertainty, Linus turned his attention back to Cyrill and tried complimenting her on their recent fight, but there was no change in her forlorn expression. Until she had a chance to reunite with Flum and apologize to her, it seemed unlikely that Cyrill would be able to pull herself out of this slump.

 

***

 

Eterna walked for about five minutes before finally coming to a stop. Upon turning around, she found Gadhio standing dutifully behind her. She ran her finger along a fish-shaped item—an accessory that boosted her magical ability—that hung at her side as she spoke to her companion.

“Why did you follow me?”

“You called me.”

“Oh? I suppose I did, then…”

She’d forgotten about it or was joking. Gadhio always had a hard time reading her.

“Well, since we’re here, I might as well ask you something. What do you think of our party, Gadhio?”

“I’m not sure I understand.”

“Is it a good fit for you? Are you bored?”

This wasn’t the first time Gadhio had gotten the impression that Eterna wasn’t particularly interested in the idea of slaying the Demon Lord. Prior to this journey, she had lived a relatively simple life in the mountains, responsible to no one but herself. She hadn’t even known that she had the strength of an S-Rank adventurer. She didn’t look much different from Flum, though she never spoke of her age or motivations, leaving many questions about her unanswered.

“Honestly, I’d expected this whole Demon-Lord slaying thing to be a lot more exhilarating.”

“Aaah, I see. It does tend to fall short there.”

“I only noticed how much Flum added to the journey when she was gone. There’s nothing fun about what we’re doing now. The food’s awful, and it seems like we’re always arguing.”

“That…is certainly true.”

Even Gadhio had picked up on the dark cloud that hung over the party. Much of it was Jean’s fault, but Cyrill’s despondent mood and Maria’s highly calculated actions had turned every conversation into a figurative minefield. Who could have imagined that without Flum, the whole party would break down like this? Even he had simply taken for granted the heavy burdens she’d carried.

“I’ve decided to leave the party.”

“What??”

“I mean, if Flum could leave, why can’t I? I guess it doesn’t really matter, though. Even if they tell me not to, I’m still doing it.”

Jean had clearly overlooked this possibility. They had believed that they were the chosen few, that it was their solemn duty to defeat the Demon Lord and that quitting wasn’t an option. But now that Flum had left—or rather, been kicked out of—the party, that left the door open for the rest of them, as well.

“According to Jean, I’m of little use to the party anyway, and I’ll just hold you guys back.”

“Sounds like you’ve already made up your mind.”

“Of course I have! That little jerk’s magic ability is a mere 8,800 compared to my 10,000. Any self-respecting mage would be annoyed to have someone so much weaker constantly belittling you.”

“So there’s nothing I can do to stop you.”

“Honestly, with how by the book you are, I kind of expected you to try.”

“This isn’t really about rules.”

“Are you sad?”

“Losing my protégé Flum didn’t bother me, so having a brat like you leave isn’t much of a loss.”

“We really are quite alike, then.” Eterna chuckled to herself, slowly bringing a smile to Gadhio’s face as well.

 

***

 

Once the party finally reassembled, Cyrill cast the Return spell to bring them back to the capital, after which Eterna declared that she would be leaving the party. Jean lashed out angrily, and Cyrill was taken completely by surprise, but this did little to change her mind.

“See ya!”

Eterna waved casually over her shoulder as she left the teleportation room behind. That was the last time they would ever see her again.