Editing Sorcery Hacker:Volume4 Phase04 (section)

===Part 3===

She awoke to a solid sensation.

Feeling a gentle tug on her long elf ear, Hemylina Luxshine slowly lifted her eyelids.

“Quit it. Who are you anyway?”

“Me?

The voice was the high-pitched soprano of a child.

But standing over her was a bird with a 500 esoule<ref>Approximately 600 meters.</ref> body. Its fat body and long skinny neck felt mismatched. This member of the Four Lords had followed an odd path of evolution, like the ostrich that had given up on flying and instead chose to race across the ground.

“Earth Lord…Terracockatrio Gargoy Rocksky?”

“Believe it or not, I really am one of the Four Lords. Heh heh!”

Even after seeing and hearing it for herself, it really was hard to believe. She had expected the Four Lords to be more dignified.

The Lord tilted his head.

“Do I look that weird to you?”

“Well…”

“It’s fine. I am a selfish and spoiled crybaby, after all. Only Guardeleo ever accepted me for who I am. He never told me to stop crying and he never got mad at me. He also never told anyone that I’m a selfish and spoiled crybaby.”

…Did that mean aged Guardeleo had kept that secret to the grave? That showed just how seriously he had taken a verbal promise with a nonhuman being. That was likely the side of him that led the Four Lords to reach an agreement with him as an individual instead of with the kingdom or the world.

Hemylina bit her lip again.

She had definitely chosen the wrong target for baring her fangs.

“By the way, what is going on? How am I still alive?”

“I think ''that devil'' didn’t notice you because you weren’t moving. Just like me! That’s what saved you.”

Did that count as good fortune?

Probably so. It had kept her alive.

But after a more careful observation of her surroundings, she realized low tremors were continuing intermittently. The battle had moved up above.

Her emperor’s life had been saved, but he was up in the palace now.

Along with the people who had saved him.

Her emperor was alive, but Guardeleo was not. Even as the grief threatened to crush them all, they hadn’t lost control like Hemylina had and they were even now fighting from a belief that they could bring about peaceful days.

“Gh…”

Hemylina Luxshine tried to get up, but her body refused to obey. Had it been the force of a physical blow, or those venom needles? Regardless, she reached out a trembling hand to collect her fallen glasses, grabbed Wall Staff Ablatia, and tried to reach the stairs even if she had to crawl the entire way.

The spiral staircase had collapsed.

The walls and ceiling were slashed by huge cracks. Queen Astaroth Revolver had sent her transparent tentacles down into the ground to try and bring down the palace’s foundation.

There was no way up.

But Hemylina still had to get there.

To the front line where the fighting continued.

The round Lord looked down at her and tilted his head.

“You aren’t going to stay down here? You will be safe here underground.”

“I can’t do that… I didn’t come this far to take the easy way out.”

“Stay with me. I know it’s safe here, but it’s still scary hiding all alone.”

“I will not spoil you the way Guardeleo did!!”

She couldn’t even get up on her feet, but she still shouted from deep in her throat.

It was enough to intimidate one of the Four Lords.

“The people who saved me are up there. They are fighting even now. To ensure the things their king sacrificed his life to protect will not be destroyed! And you want me to stay down here? You want me to stay put because it’s safe? To hell with that, Lord. Their king may not have died if it weren’t for my actions. Maybe he didn’t have long regardless, but he may have survived today at least! It is my emperor who I serve from the bottom of my heart, but that doesn’t mean I will insult that king’s memory any further!!”

Another tremor.

Followed by silence.

Finally, Terracockatrio swayed his enormous body side to side and a pillar-like boulder flew out. More and more came from the crumbled walls and floor.

They formed a stairway leading up and up through that collapsed world. Although these stairs were sized for a giant.

The Lord grabbed Hemylina’s torso in his beak and swung his skinny neck to point his face upwards. He tossed her and gently caught the bespectacled dark elf on his ostrich-like back.

Buried in soft feathers, Hemylina still gripped Wall Staff Ablatia in both hands.

“Why are you helping me?”

“Because I also want to protect the things Guardeleo cares about,” said Terracockatrio Gargoy Rocksky. While looking up from the depths. “I don’t want to be a selfish and spoiled crybaby. I want to be someone who won’t worry him.”

The flightless bird set his sights on the heavens.

He had decided he would be a proper bird regardless.