Editing Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume13 Chapter7 (section)

===Part 2===

"&mdash;Found you, darkness spirit!"

The voice of Luminaris resounded through the forest.

Her gaze was directed straight towards the girl standing in front of the temple.

Despite a change in attire, the girl before her eyes was undoubtedly that darkness spirit.

In her surroundings, Elfim princess maidens could be seen trapped in blocks of black ice.

(...An internal struggle? Or did the darkness spirit do it?)

While drawing her sacred sword and starting to charge, Luminaris was struck by doubt regarding the incomprehensible situation.

(No, now is not the time to care about such matters&mdash;)

The prey she had been chasing after was finally before her eyes.

(&mdash;With this, I can redeem my subordinates' honor.)

Kicking the ground to take a leap, she closed in on the darkness spirit all at once. In that very instant...

(...!?)

A chill down her spine forced her to halt.

Correction&mdash;She ''was halted''.

The source of that presence&mdash;A girl standing before the temple.

Her platinum blonde hair was illuminated by the bonfire.

Empty eyes of emerald were staring at Luminaris as though observing her.

"...What business do you have?"

Shocked by the bizarre atmosphere exuded by the girl, Luminaris put on a stance with her sword.

(...A human princess maiden?)

The Elfim race was proud and xenophobic. It was hard to imagine them accepting a human girl as a princess maiden.

Za, zaza, zazazaza, za, zazaza&mdash;

Strange noises leaked out of the girl's mouth.

"...!?"

Instinctively, Luminaris jumped backwards.

Black cursed ice instantly spread, freezing the surrounding ground.

(...Spirit magic? No, this is&mdash;!)

Failing to dodge, her left foot was frozen, immobilizing her position.

"...!?"

Instantly, her entire body was struck by a powerful sense of fatigue.

(...No way, it is absorbing... my divine power...!)

Luminaris could not help but tremble. This cursed ice apparently had the ability to steal divine power.

Then that meant the princess maidens trapped in ice were also having their divine power stolen?

The black cursed ice attacked Luminaris whose foot was caught&mdash;

"&mdash;Luminaris-sama!"

At the very last moment, one of her subordinate knights blocked in front of her.

Stabbing her sword elemental waffe into the ground, she used her entire body to block the cursed ice.

"...Aisha!?"

"...Please hurry and escape...!"

Along with her elemental waffe, the knight was instantly imprisoned in cursed ice.

"...Damn it!"

Using the sacred sword to shatter the cursed ice, Luminaris made a thrust at the girl.

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhh!"

Swish&mdash;!

Readying her sword while in the process of running, Luminaris swung Murgleis sideways without the slightest hesitation.

But there was no feeling of striking anything. The girl vanished from sight like a mirage.

"...!"

"Luminaris-sama, the darkness spirit!"

She heard her subordinates call out from behind.

Swiftly turning her gaze, she found the darkness spirit running towards the depths of the forest.

"Don't let her escape, chase her!"

But before her orders could reach them&mdash;

"Uwaaaaah!" "W-What is this!?" "Kyahhhh!"

Suddenly, a powerful blizzard blew in the forest.

The view was instantly blocked. She could hear her subordinates screaming on the other side of the blizzard.

A group of ice dragons was flying above the forest.

Flying freely in the blizzard, they attacked.

"Luminaris-sama... Uwahhhhhh!"

"...Regroup! Don't lose sight of the darkness spirit!"

While chopping down the attacking ice dragons, Luminaris hollered.

But her voice was drowned out by the blizzard's rumbling winds.

"Damn it, I cannot believe this would happen, by this point..."

Luminaris's voice trembled.

(...I will not let you escape!)

Luminaris raised her drawn sacred sword overhead.

Her beautiful blonde hair stood up amidst the howling gales.

"Ancient guardian of the Holy Kingdom&mdash;Thou art Murgleis, the sacred sword defending the country!"

She spoke the words of releasing.

Pouring in divine power beyond the limit, this was a waffe release with the intention of causing the elemental waffe to go out of control. Giving off powerful light, Murgleis instantly exploded.

Accompanied by a blinding flash of light, sacred flames melted the randomly flying pieces of ice, instantly clearing up the field of view&mdash;!

The burning sacred flames instantly incinerated the surrounding trees. Circling above, the ice dragons also fell one after another with painful roars.

"Huff, huff, huff..."

The sacred sword lost its light. Stabbing it into the ground, Luminaris observed the surroundings. There were no signs of that princess maiden. Luminaris decided she must settle the score with that girl assuming she was still in the area.

Her subordinates, the Sacred Spirit Knights, were safe and sound because Murgleis's sacred flames would absolutely not burn anyone protected by spirits with the holy attribute.

Also&mdash;

(&mdash;The darkness spirit?)

The sacred flames of Murgleis were supposed to cause astounding pain for darkness spirits. Even if she evaded burns from the sacred flames, the secondary effect of sacred light should be enough to stop her from moving.

But Luminaris's hopes were soon dashed.

"Luminaris-sama, look over there&mdash;!"

Hearing her subordinate's voice, she shifted her gaze to see the figure of the darkness spirit running through the forest.

"...What!?"

Luminaris could not help but exclaim.

(&mdash;To think the sacred light of Murgleis had no effect on a minion of darkness?)

&mdash;At this kind of distance, it was supposed to cause critical injuries to the darkness spirit.

Luminaris gripped the sacred sword's hilt tightly.

"&mdash;Chase her down. Everyone still able to move, follow me. The rest should focus on healing your wounds."

Saying that, she chased after the darkness spirit that was disappearing into the forest.

The darkness spirit ran through the forest with stumbling steps.

Compared to during the Blade Dance, she seemed much weaker than before.

(...Is she really that darkness spirit?)

At the very least, that darkness spirit was a high-level spirit capable of fighting Luminaris on equal terms.

She was able to use powerful spirit magic of the darkness attribute. During the Blade Dance, she had paired up with Nepenthes Lore to  defeat numerous teams.

(But her current self? No different from a weak prey&mdash;)

&mdash;Suddenly.

"...!?"

Feeling a strong presence, Luminaris stopped.

On the ground was a giant shadow from something covering the night sky.

Looking up&mdash;

She saw a super large ice dragon, formed from blue ice, flying the air, looking down at the world below.

"...A spirit...is it!?"

Luminaris murmured in surprise. The knights under her command all stood rooted to the spot, speechless.

An elementalist of her level would be able to deduce a spirit's level by presence alone.

That thing was undoubtedly a spirit of the highest rank, archdemon class.

A monster that required the decisive deployment of a major power's knights in order to vanquish.

ROAR, ROOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAR&mdash;!

The super large spirit's roars caused the forest's trees to shake intensely.

As though responding to its sound, the ice dragons circling nearby all roared, summoning fierce blizzards.

"Is that something like the king of ice dragons&mdash;?"

Just as she was murmuring to herself, acute murderous intent appeared behind her back.

"&mdash;Accursed humans!"

An arrow flew past her neck with the sound of slicing wind.

Then immediately, several more arrows were shot from the trees.

"&mdash;O Sacred Shield of protection!"

Luminaris instantly chanted spirit magic to deploy a defensive barrier of light.

"Stay out of my way, Elfim. Do you wish to seek death?"

The archer was an Elfim living in the forest. Although he was of no consequence, getting in the way of the darkness spirit's pursuit was annoying.

"Foolish human, Zirnitra will destroy you!"

Readying his bow and arrow, the youth yelled.

As though responding to his voice, which was of course, actually impossible&mdash;

The ice dragon king dominating the sky blew towards the forest on the ground.

The powerful cold air, covering a large area, instantly swallowed the Forest Dweller's settlement.

"...Th-The village!" "Zirnitra-sama!?"

Elfim screams were heard one after another.

Zirnitra flapped its wings and slowly descended towards the ground.

The ground shook as a result. The giant tail of ice swept mercilessly through the forest, felling trees.

"Zirnitra-sama, please calm your wrath!" "This forest is your domain&mdash;" "Your enemies are the humans, not the forest!"

Tragic screams came one after another.

&mdash;However, their pleas were easily drowned out by the sounds of trees breaking.

"...Naturally."

Luminaris murmured with agitation.

"How could the likes of you possibly control a spirit of that level?"

The reason why a large number of strategic-class militarized spirits were sealed and scrapped was because even the military of major powers could not guarantee 100% stability of control.

Suddenly feeling a sense of dissonance, she frowned.

(...These people, ''are they actually completely ignorant of this''?)

No, impossible.

The Elfim was a race far closer to spirits than to humans. It was hard to imagine them summoning an archdemon-class spirit without preparing control methods beforehand.

Then that meant&mdash;

(&mdash;Powerful mind control, huh.)

Feeling an astounding presence, Luminaris turned around.

The human princess maiden who had disappeared earlier was there.

Behind the girl were Elfim boys and girls following her.

All of them staring lifelessly at Luminaris.

(...All of the Elfim inhabiting this settlement are under mind control?)

However, human elementalists could not possibly cast mind control on the Elfim who had magic resistance to begin with, and on so many people simultaneously.

"...Who are you? Are you the one who summoned that spirit?"

Pointing the sacred sword at her, Luminaris asked.

She was no mere princess maiden.

But she did not seem to be a humanoid high-level spirit like that darkness spirit.

...It was ''something'' even more terrifying.

Za, zazaza, za, zazazazaza, za&mdash;

Strange noises were coming from the princess maiden's mouth.

Instantly, the children behind her were instantly trapped in black cursed ice.

The girl's hair gave off faint light as the divine power within her expanded all at once.

"Luminaris-sama, this is..."

A knight subordinate gasped.

"&mdash;Indeed, a veritable monster."

This was what intuition told Luminaris.

This thing before her eyes was far more dangerous than the archdemon-class spirit in the air above.

The girl reached towards space and made noises as though summoning the giant spirit.

Za, zazaza, za, zazazazaza&mdash;la, lalala, la, dolulululu&mdash;

Suddenly, the girl's body hovered lightly to approach the spirit.

Her fingers touched the spirit's chest&mdash;

(What...!?)

With that, the girl's body was sucked in, buried inside the blue ice.

"...Unbelievable, she merged with the spirit!?"

Witnessing an incredible sight, Luminaris could hardly conceal her surprise.