Editing Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume10 Chapter4 (section)

===Part 4===

&mdash;After that, Kamito and his group followed along the dark passage.

...Drip. Drip.

"...Wah!"

Providing lighting and walking in front, Ellis suddenly shuddered. She seemed like she was frightened by the water droplets dripping from the ceiling.

At some point along the way, the walls of the passageway switched to uneven rock.

The girl spirit&mdash;Iseria was holding hands with Rinslet with great affection between them.

"...Kamito-kun."

Fianna whispered from behind at this time.

"Hmm?"

"...Say, are you really okay?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Stop pretending. Just now, you looked a bit strange, Kamito-kun."

"..."

As expected of the former Queen candidate princess maiden. Her senses were truly keen.

"...Well, it's much better now."

Kamito stopped playing dumb and admitted honestly.

"&mdash;I heard a voice. ''Her voice''."

"Kamito-kun's past contracted spirit?"

Fianna looked at the Vorpal Sword at Kamito's waist.

"No, that voice... Was not Restia's. Although it was very similar."

&mdash;The beckoning voice, tempting him to awaken as the Demon King.

Although Restia also hoped for Kamito's awakening, Kamito was certain it was not her voice.

"Somehow there's an ominous feeling to it. Restia's voice is supposed to be more soothing..."

"...Hmph, how envious."

The princess pouted for a moment then resumed a serious expression.

"The Kamito-kun who rescued me was not the usual Kamito-kun."

"...Yeah, I know."

Fianna was referring to back then when Kamito pointed his sword at the girl from the Sacred Spirit Knights.

(...At the time, I was swinging my sword purely on destructive impulses.)

But without losing his consciousness. After all, he was still swinging his sword by his own volition.

(If Est hadn't stopped me, if I continued&mdash;)

A terrible chill ran down his back.

That ''something'' lying dormant within Kamito would surely awaken.

Whether or not it was the existence known as the Demon King, who knew&mdash;

"..."

Restia did not answer.

His beloved sword, so familiar three years ago, was now nothing but a heavy piece of iron.

"Is the Darkness Elemental Lord's power really lying dormant in my body?"

Kamito whispered softly to himself.

...Anyone. He wanted someone, anyone, to refute him.

However&mdash;

"Regarding that, I don't know for sure."

Fianna shook her head.

"However, I do have some ideas."

"...?"

"Kamito-kun, your body deflects virtually all of my holy magic. Perhaps the reason is&mdash;"

Fianna stopped... What she was going to say was obvious.

The darkness attribute was opposite to the holy attribute&mdash;That was what she meant.

(I am the Demon King who will bring ruin and destruction to the continent?)

&mdash;In the past, that was what the old men at the Instructional School called him.

"D-Don't worry."

Fianna spoke swiftly to cheer up Kamito from his depression.

"Umm... O-On further thought, Kamito-kun, you're already the Demon King of the Night!"

"...Uh, that doesn't really count as cheering up."

Kamito shrugged wryly.

"...Ooh. What are you two whispering about?"

Walking in front, Ellis glared back with displeasure.

"W-We're not whispering, okay... By the way, has your knight spirit recovered, Fianna?"

Kamito frantically changed the subject.

...He did not want Ellis and the rest to worry over him as well.

Fianna realized his intentions.

"Yeah, recovered to a certain extent. However, the two spirit seals of Scarlet and Georgios are mutually interfering. Let alone highly systematic ritual magic, I fear I can't even release my elemental waffe."

"That's really quite problematic, Fianna. Your elemental waffe is quite important."

Kamito commented with arms folded.

The elemental waffe Save the Queen was a trump card that was capable of greatly raising the team's power.

Without it, new tactics would need to be devised.

(Come to think of it, Claire has always been the one who came up with the team's tactics...)

Just at this moment&mdash;

"...Did you hear that?"

Kamito heard faint sounds of water.

Still holding Rinslet's hand, Iseria turned around at this time.

"There is an underground hot spring up ahead. One of my favorite places."

"Hot spring?"

Kamito and the girls asked at the same time.

"Well, the abandoned city isn't located in a volcanic zone, right?"

"Of course it is no ordinary hot spring. The fires of war left over from the millennia-old Spirit War continue to burn underground to this day."

"Fires, several thousand years old... How amazing."

Kamito was astonished by the grand scale of things.

After walking a little while longer&mdash;

As described by Iseria, there was a massive underground lake covered with white steam.

"I never expected the abandoned city to have an underground lake like this..."

Ellis exclaimed emphatically.

Intense pillars of fire gushed from the surroundings of the underground lake.

Just as Kamito and the group neared the lake surface...

"...Wah!?"

Fianna suddenly screamed.

The spirit seal carved on her right hand began to emit dazzling light, illuminating the surroundings.

"Fianna, what happened!?"

"I-I don't know either... Wah!"

Crimson flames burst out from the spirit seal and landed on the ground.

From the flames appeared&mdash;

"Meow!"

"...Scarlet!?"

It was the hell cat spirit, lit on fire.

Scarlet ran around nimbly in the cave, rushing towards the fires burning around the underground lake.

"...Scarlet has already recovered huh."

Fianna commented as she breathed a sigh of relief.

The hell cat spirit had appeared on its own will rather than being summoned by her.

"...Probably attracted by the power of flames that fills this place."

Kamito turned to everyone.

"...Well then, what are we doing next?"

Scarlet most probably wanted to store up the power of the fire here.

&mdash;In that case, it was going to take quite some time.

"As it so happens, we might as well perform purification here."

"Good idea."

"Seconded."

Ellis and Rinslet expressed support for Fianna's suggestion.

Elementalists needed to cleanse and purify their bodies in order to tap into their full power. Naturally, even as a male elementalist, Kamito was no exception. Before sneaking into the Lost Cathedral, undergoing purification was necessary.

"However, time is of the essence. We'll have to do the brief version."

"Right."

The princess smiled mischievously.

"So, in order to save time, how about you join us together, Kamito-kun?"

"N-No way I'm doing that!"

Kamito yelled with his face all red.