Editing Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter7 (section)

===Part 1===

It was the dead of the night when, after riding their horses throughout the day, the party reached the entrance of Mine Town.

Since all the members rode here practically without rest, they were totally exhausted.

However, it wasn't possible to have a carefree rest.

"This is Mine Town Gado... It's like a ghost town."

Rinslet, who dismounted from the horse, calmly muttered.

"It's because several decades have passed since it became an abandoned mine. There should be no humans living here."

"Humans— huh."

Claire squinted her eyes staring deep into the darkness.

Bluish-white will-o'-wisps were wavering here and there near a ruin.

They were low-rank spirits that were floating about. For this sort of ruin, there were many nasty spirits gathered.

It was just like how the Spirit Forest was at night.

On the other side of the abandoned town, still containing countless abandoned tunnels, huge mines stood towering over the surroundings.

Gado Mine— It once produced a large quantity of spirit crystals, it was the Empire's largest mine.

During the war, the spirit crystals were dug up and exhausted, and it hadn't even been twenty years since it became an abandoned mine.

Below that mine, {{Furigana|the strategic-class militarized spirit|Jormungandr|margin=13}} was sleeping; sealed by the Ordesia Knights of that time.

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"—By the way, you better get away from him."

Claire glared at Fianna, who was tightly clinging onto Kamito's arm.

"I don't want to, after all, Kamito-kun will protect me."

"You may be in a position to be protected. However, to begin with, what's the matter with your contracted spirit? As that elementalist might be hiding in ambush, have it in a state where you can use it immediately."

"That's—"

Fianna's words were unusually hesitant.

She tightly closed her lips and abruptly turned away.

"I-It still isn't the time. The contracted spirit of the Ordesia royal family must not be summoned so indiscreetly. It's clearly different from your cat."

"Wh-What was that...!"

The ground where the four were standing on suddenly shook greatly.

"An earthquake...!?"

"It seems like we had better hurry. I have a bad premonition."

Claire softly muttered, and in her palm, a spirit magic fire was lighted.

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The place of their objective was found instantly without even searching.

At the deepest part of the main street going through the abandoned town— before the entrance of the mine, there was a gigantic grand shrine.

It was a splendid shrine that made use of several gigantic stone pillars.

A grand shrine of this scale existed only in the capital even in the Ordesia Empire.

However—

"How terrible, this..."

The grand shrine —which had its sculptures destroyed, had the spirit crystals inlaid in its stone pillar robbed and had once entertained the spirits— had transformed into a ruin that was even tragic to look at.

"How strange—"

The one, who noticed the unusual phenomenon, was Fianna, who had received training as Queen.

"What's strange?"

"This shrine, despite being in such ruins, shows traces of someone taking the trouble to perform a ritual. Furthermore, many times over the period of these several months."

"Ritual?"

Nodding at Claire, who was frowning, with a serious face, Fianna kneeled onto the ground.

It seemed that she was looking for footprints and traces of scrape marks and so forth that were on the stone paving.

"This dance— is probably the Ritual of Releasing. It seems that it was more or less arranged, though."

"The Ritual of Releasing..."

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Kamito groaned in a low tone.

It was because he remembered how the elementalist, who was also a male elementalist just like Kamito, assailed the academy and took away the highly classified material concerning the seal specification.

(Is that brat really planning on releasing the sealed {{Furigana| strategic-class militarized spirit|Jormungandr|margin=13}}?)

It was impossible for any kind of elementalist to control Jormungandr individually.

If that was the case, what was his goal?

At any rate, if the spirit's seal was undone, it was certain that the towns in the vicinity would be turned into scorched earth.

"Is the seal almost undone?"

"No, it's still alright. This shrine isn't the superior ''true shrine''."

"The ''true shrine''...? What do you mean?"

"The grand shrine here, at most, it's purpose was to camouflage the original shrine— Which should be at an important place like the mine. There were many splendid grand shrines built needlessly above ground to hide the existence of the original shrine. Of course, it doesn't mean that this shrine isn't usable, though."

"That means there's a real shrine somewhere?"

"Yes, it's most likely being hidden deep in the mine."

Fianna raised her head, and at that moment.

"Be careful, there's something here!"

Rinslet, who was on a lookout of their surroundings, suddenly shouted.

Kamito turned around—

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In the surroundings of the shrine that the four of them were in, there was a wriggling crowd of figures of people.

"Humans? No, they're—"

"Fire, illuminate!"

Claire recited the incantation, and a spirit magic fire lit in an empty space.

The figures that were shone by the flame's light were—

"Wh-What!?"

It was a crowd of skeletons holding rusty swords and clubs in their hands.

From the gap of their bones, something like a black fog was being emitted out.

"What, are these... spirits!?"

"The skeletons that were left behind seem to be possessed by low-rank spirits."

While muttering— Kamito noticed something with a "hmm".

Claire was slightly holding onto Kamito's uniform sleeve.

"...You, by any chance, are you weak against horror-ish things like these?"

"Th-That's not it— Who do you think I am?!"

"You don't have to push yourself, look out, hold on."

"...I-It's not anything scary."

Claire, who was hiding her face while biting her lips, was a little cute.

"At any rate, it's strange—"

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Normally, the so-called low-rank spirits don't possess a distinct self.

Even if there were rare times when they attacked humans, there shouldn't be a time when they formed a group like this.

"Kamito-kun, these guys, you know. They are the ones doing the ritual here."

"What was that?"

Kamito was surprised and turned around. Fianna nodded.

"The movements of those skeletons are pretty rough, but...it's just like the Ritual of Releasing."

"Don't tell me, the low-rank spirits were doing an advanced Ritual of Releasing?"

Kamito stared at the approaching figures. Now that she mentioned it, he could see that the skeletons possessed by the spirits were moving with a fixed regularity.

"No, such a thing is impossible... There has to be some practitioner manipulating the spirits."

"Well, does it mean that these guys won't come to attack us?"

Claire tightly griped Kamito's sleeve as she said that.

The group of skeletons went up the stairs of the shrine, walking in a slow manner.

"Freezing ice fang, pierce Freezing Arrow!"

The ice arrow, released by Rinslet, collected and mowed down the group of wriggling skeletons.

It was the high-rank demon ice spirit Fenrir's elemental waffe.

To an elementalist, an enemy of this level was only small fry.

From the broken skeletons, a black fog spouted out and vanished into an empty space.

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"That's a darkness attribute spirit—"

Suddenly, a flash occurred in Kamito's mind.

(Don't tell me—)

He cast his sight to his left hand covered by his black leather glove.

A piercing-like pain was running in his engraved spirit seal, at that moment—

"...!?"

The sound of a terrible explosion came from the direction of the mine.

"Don't tell me the battle is beginning!?"

"Let's go, Kamito!"

Claire sounded her whip with a snap, and began running.