Editing Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume10 Chapter6 (section)

===Part 4===

After the door shut behind them, the howling sounds of the ice storm stopped. Instantly, there was silence.

Appearing before Kamito and Fianna was a massive spiral staircase extending upwards. However, the spiral was distorted in several places in the air, producing a structure that resembled an infinite loop.

"Claire should be imprisoned on the top floor, right?"

"Yeah. In order to carry out the ritual, it can only be there."

Fianna nodded.

(...Right now, I can only keep going, trusting Ellis and Rinslet.)

Even though he still worried about what was happening outside the door, Kamito started to climb the spiral staircase.

Because the staircase made sharp turns in the air in several places, it muddled the sense of gravity. However, there was no confusion as to which way was up. In any case, they should not get lost.

As Kamito worried about Fianna's lack of stamina, he rushed ahead in front.

After running like this for a while&mdash;

"Huff, huff... Kamito-kun, say, is your body okay?"

"Yeah. I still have plenty of strength."

Kamito nodded as he ran. In actual fact, all the fatigue from his battle against Valaraukar had already been swept away. The underground lake where ancient fires burned was a purification site of extremely high spiritual quality.

"You really do have extraordinary recovery powers as usual. However, that wasn't what I meant."

"..."

Kamito reduced his running speed.

Looking back, he found Fianna gazing at him with worried eyes.

(...Looks like I can't dodge the issue.)

"...That voice, can you still hear it?"

"Yeah, right now... There's no problem."

"Kamito-kun, perhaps it would be better if you handed the demon sword over for me to safekeep for now."

Fianna glared coldly at the Vorpal Sword hanging at Kamito's waist.

"This is simply intuition, but that sword... Somehow I get a dangerous feeling."

"..."

The intuition of the princess maiden and former Queen candidate  could not be ignored.

Kamito understood that, however&mdash;

"...I've said it already. The voice tempting me to awaken is not Restia's."

Wearing the leather glove, his left hand clutched the hilt of the Vorpal Sword.

His past partner still offered no response. The spirit seal remained silent.

&mdash;Even so, Kamito still believed in her.

"I never want to let go of Restia ever again."

"I know that darkness spirit is a very important existence to you, Kamito-kun, but&mdash;"

Kamito placed his hand on the head of the worried princess.

"Let's make a promise. I won't become that Demon King or whatever."

"Kamito-kun."

Fianna bit her lip hard.

"...Understood. I believe in you, Kamito-kun."

Finally, she sighed and nodded.

"Sorry, I said something stubborn."

&mdash;Next, they continued running up the stairs without saying a word.

Soon after, the path stopped as they reached a massive floor with a ceiling.

"It's the second floor..."

"From here onwards, it looks like we can't just rush ahead recklessly."

Kamito raised a spirit crystal for illumination and surveyed the depths of the dimly lit floor.

On the far wall were six decorated doors, equally spaced apart.

"Which door leads to the top floor?"

The Lost Cathedral was a historic site dating back to the Spirit War. Based on the wondrous structure of the staircase just now, this place was constructed for spirits to reside rather than in consideration for humans. This was related to the design principles of spirit engineering that Areishia Spirit Academy had imported.

(...In other words, this is a building highly unsuited for humans.)

Kamito sighed in his mind. Trying to seriously tour the entire place would take forever.

"Let's simply break all the walls?"

"I think that would take forever instead."

Fianna shook her head and took out a metal lock from her bosom.

"Let me check each door for the flow of the leylines."

"This would also take some time... But that's all we could do."

Just as Kamito nodded&mdash;

"Yah... Hot!"

Suddenly, intense flames gushed out from Fianna's spirit seal on her right hand.

The flames spun in midair and transformed into a flaming hell cat.

"...Scarlet?"

Fianna murmured with a shocked expression.

...Apparently, Scarlet had manifested by her own will rather than being summoned.

Landing on the ground, Scarlet nimbly ran towards the depths of this floor. Kamito expected her to linger and circle in front of the six doors, but Scarlet raised her tail in front of the door carved with patterns of flames.

"Maybe that leads to Claire's location?"

"Meow&mdash;!"

Scarlet raised a front limb lightly.

"How could this be possible? To track down Claire's divine power even when the contract had been nullified."

"As expected of Scarlet."

Exclaiming at the same time, Kamito recalled the red-haired cat girl.

The Scarlet Valkyrie&mdash;Ortlinde. Even though she did not retain her memories from her hell cat form, Kamito could feel how she misses her master Claire based on Scarlet's current movements.

"We're relying on you to lead the way, Scarlet."

Kamito and Fianna were making their way across the floor when&mdash;

Accompanied by an astounding noise, suddenly, ''the ceiling collapsed''&mdash;!

"...Est!"

Kamito instantly drew the Demon Slayer and chopped apart the massive falling stones.

Standing upright to protect Fianna, he chopped away at the scattered debris.

Rumble. Massive stones shattered into pieces. Instantly, a dust cloud filled the air.

"Cough, cough cough... Fianna, you okay?"

"Ah, yeah..."

Exhausted, Fianna sat on the ground, resting against Scarlet.

"...What happened?"

Kamito looked up&mdash;

A huge hole had suddenly opened up on the ceiling.

And down below, a massive object was writhing restlessly.

As the flying dust cleared, Kamito finally saw its figure.

"That is..."

With numerous roots squirming around, a tree monster in pain.

"...Lily Flame's Titania?"

The spirit that had caused Ellis much suffering through the numerous poisons it produced in its body.

However, the demon tree spirit's life was currently like a dying candle in the wind.

(Who could have done this...?)

The answer to the question descended from above.

As if delivering a final blow to the suffering demon tree spirit, a massive black body landed on it.

"...Dragon!?"

A massive demon dragon with teeth of steel and jet black scales had appeared.

The demon dragon's sharp claws swiped at the tree, completely preventing it from moving.

ROOOOOOAAAAAAR!

With a fearsome roar, the dragon released a heat beam from super close range.

The demon tree spirit instantly caught on fire and dissipated into particles of light.

(What astounding power...)

Just as Kamito trembled in his heart&mdash;

"...Hmm, this is the end, is it..."

From the demon tree spirit's massive flower bud, a girl crawled out.

Red eyes and beautiful jade-green hair. She was Team Inferno's Lily Flame.

Having lost her contracted spirit, she collapsed on the floor without seeming to offer any intention to resist.

And towards her&mdash;

"...Jeez. How troublesome to handle."

A girl's voice, very familiar to Kamito, reverberated throughout the entire floor.


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