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

===Part 1===

It was the dead of the night when, after riding their horses for a whole day, the party reached the entrance of the town.

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

But they won’t be able to relax just yet.

"This is our destination... It's like a ghost town."

Rinslet muttered calmly after dismounting from her horse.

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

"Humans— huh."

Claire squinted, staring deep into the darkness.

Bluish-white will-o'-wisps were wavering around the ruins.

They were low-ranking spirits that could only float about aimlessly. There were other, nastier kinds of creatures in this place.

This town was similar to the «Spirit Forest» at night.

On the other side of it was a huge mine. It contained countless tunnels that spread all other the surrounding area.
	
Once, the mine produced a large quantity of spirit crystals and was the Empire's main supplier.

During the war, the country was in great need of its resources, quickly exhausting the deposits of crystals. It was almost twenty years since the place was abandoned.

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

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

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

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

"It is indeed dangerous here. But then where is your contracted spirit? You should summon it immediately because that elementalist might have set up an ambush."

"That's—"

Fianna's answer was unusually hesitant.

She pressed her lips tightly together 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...!"

Suddenly, the ground the four were standing on shook greatly.

"An earthquake...!?"

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

Claire muttered softly before summoning magical fire in her hand.

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Without even searching for it, they quickly reached the place of their final destination.

It was a grand shrine which stood before the entrance of the mine and at the end of the main street that went right through the abandoned town.

It was a splendid piece of architecture that was surrounded by several gigantic stone pillars.

There existed only one other shrine of that size and it was in the capital of the Ordesia Empire.

However—

"How terrible, this..."

The sculptures, which once surrounded the colossal building, were now destroyed, the crystals, which, a long time, were inlaid into the stone pillars to entertain the spirits, were stolen and the shrine itself turned into a ruin that was painful to look at.

"How strange—"

Fianna, who was trained to be Queen, was the first to notice the unusual phenomenon.
	
"What is?"

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

"Ritual?"

Giving Claire, who was frowning, with a serious face, a nod, Fianna kneeled onto the ground.

It seemed that she was looking for footprints, scrape marks and other traces on the stone paving.

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

"..."<!—It was repeated two times. This way it should flow better.-->

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Kamito groaned in a low tone.

It was because he remembered the other male elementalist who assaulted the academy and stole the secret information concerning the seal specification.

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

It was impossible for a lone elementalist to control it.

But, if that was the case, what was his goal?

At any rate, if the spirit was released, all the towns in the vicinity would be destroyed.

"Should we be worried yet?"

"No, the seal is still strong. This place isn't the «true shrine»."

"What do you mean?"<!--The word ‘shrine’ was used three times in a row. -->

"This building is a deception and its only purpose was to draw attention from the real one, which is most likely in the mine itself. There are many shrines like this, giant, beautiful and easy to find, they are all fakes, but they help hide the original. It doesn't mean that they aren’t usable, though."<!--A building can’t be used to camouflage something.-->

"So, the real one is somewhere here?"	

"Yes, it was mostly likely hidden deep inside the mine."

Fianna raised her head, and at that moment.

"Be careful, there's something here!"

Rinslet, who was on a lookout suddenly shouted.

Kamito turned around—

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The shrine was being slowly surrounded by a crowd of people.

"Humans? No, they're—"

"Fire, illuminate!"

Claire recited the incantation, and magical flames lightened the area.

As the spell started working, the group could finally see who was surrounding them.

"Wh-What!?"

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

From the gaps between their bones black fog was leaking out.

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

"It seems that those who died and were left behind were possessed by low-rank spirits."

Kamito muttered before noticing something with a "hmm".

Claire was holding onto the sleeve of his uniform.

"...Could it be that you are afraid of these things?"

"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."

He had to admit, she looked a little cute with her face bowed down and biting nervously her lips.

"That aside, it's kind of strange—"

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

And even if they sometimes attack humans, they never gather in groups like this.

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

"What do you mean?"

Surprised, he turned around to look at Fianna.

"Their movements are pretty rough, but...they resemble the ones needed for the Ritual of Releasing."

"Don't tell me this low-rank spirits are able to perform it?"<!--The words were repeated again.-->

Kamito stared at the approaching figures. Now that she mentioned it, he could see that their movement followed some pattern.

"No, such a thing is impossible... Someone has to be manipulating these spirits."

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

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

The group of skeletons started slowly climbing the stairs of the shrine.

"Ice fang, pierce «Freezing Arrow»!"

Rinslet’s attack mowed down the group of gathered possessed.

She used the high-rank demon ice spirit «Fenrir's» elemental waffe.

For her, an enemy of this level was only small fry.

Suddenly, black fog emerged from the broken skeletons and vanished without a trace.

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"That's a darkness attribute spirit—"

Suddenly, a feeling of agony flashed through Kamito's body.

(Don't tell me—)

He cast his eyes to his left hand, covered by a black leather glove.

The piercing pain was coming from his spirit seal. Immediately after he noticed it—

"...!?"

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

"Don't tell me the battle has already begun!?"

"Let's go, Kamito!"

Claire swung her whip with a snap, and started running.<!--It’s impossible to sound your whip.-->