Editing Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume10 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 2===

After listening to Fianna's explanation&mdash;

For a moment, Kamito and the rest kept exchanging glances in silence.

...This was hardly surprising. What Fianna revealed was completely shocking.

Rubia Elstein&mdash;Claire's elder sister by blood, the Calamity Queen who had betrayed the Elemental Lords.

She was the true identity of the fake Ren Ashbell.

Fianna had first discovered the truth back when she was imprisoned by Sjora Kahn. Back then, it was Rubia Elstein who rescued Fianna.

"I'm sorry for keeping this from everyone all this time. Even though I had wanted to tell you earlier."

"...No, if I were in your place, I would probably have done the same."

Kamito comforted Fianna who had her head bowed down.

Ren Ashbell&mdash;the greatest enemy she had to defeat was actually her very own elder sister, of course this sort of thing could not be told to Claire.

Despite appearances, Claire was a very delicate girl. Confronted with the cold hard truth which could completely subdue her heart, she could very well lose her power as an elementalist.

Fianna had kept things secret in her heart alone because Claire's keen senses might notice something if Kamito and the rest were told.

However, Claire had now discovered the truth.

(Claire...)

Kamito knew how much effort she had invested in order to see her older sister again.

The kind of thoughts, feelings and determination she embraced to participate in this current Blade Dance.

Surely, she must have suffered an unimaginably heavy blow.

(...In a critical time, I was not able to protect her.)

I will be your contracted spirit&mdash;That was what he had promised her clearly.

Kamito silently clenched his trembling fist.

"But why would Claire's older sister steal Ren Ashbell's identity to participate in this blade dance festival?"

"I don't know what her intentions are either."

Ellis inquired with puzzlement but Fianna could only shake her head.

"However, the reason why she took Claire away was obvious. In order to make her the Darkness Queen. &mdash;For making Kamito-kun awaken as the Demon King."

"...!?"

&mdash;Throb. Kamito's head began to hurt again.

The Demon King&mdash;the successor to the Darkness Elemental Lord whose existence had been purged from proper history.

Like Rubia, Restia also wanted Kamito awaken as the Demon King.

(...What on earth is the reason?)

What relation did this have with her Wish three years ago&mdash;?

Kamito looked at the demon sword Fianna handed over.

The Vorpal Sword was apparently entrusted to Fianna by Claire just before she was taken away.

As for why Claire was in possession of this sword&mdash;What had transpired was unclear.

(Could it be that she was protecting Restia?)

...The demon sword held in his hand gave no response.

Even when Kamito tried infusing a small amount of divine power into it, there was no reaction. Given this kind of state, even if Restia could return to human form, she could not be used as an elemental waffe.

Kamito had clearly been searching for her throughout these three years, but now that he finally retrieved her, there was no sense of reality. The current Vorpal Sword was merely a symbolic representation in the form of a sword.

"We must hurry to save Claire!"

Rinslet stood up and yelled vigorously.

Normally elegant in behavior, she was now quite anxious.

...She really did worry a lot about Claire. Although the pair of childhood friends quarreled often, Kamito knew that they were close friends dating back to their childhood.

"Indeed, although we have no idea what Claire's elder sister intends, we cannot stand back and ignore when our comrade has been abducted like this."

Ellis nodded seriously and declared. She and Claire were often in opposition in the past, but by now she had come to regard Claire as a precious comrade.

"But where is Claire actually?"

Suppressing his anxious emotions, Kamito asked calmly.

The abandoned city Megidoa was a very vast place. And covered by the sea of trees, the ruins were like a labyrinth. Searching randomly would only prove fruitless.

"Although this is only my speculation..."

Fianna nodded as she said.

"Rubia-sama will surely perform the ritual for making Claire the Darkness Queen here in this abandoned city. In order to conduct such a large scale ritual, naturally a place with powerful leylines would be selected. Thinking back, when I was captured by Sjora Kahn, she also chose an ancient shrine with powerful leylines, right?"

"But aren't the leylines in this abandoned city unusable?"

"Yeah. Indeed the leylines in this abandoned city have become broken and fragmented due to the past Spirit War. But exactly because of that, it is difficult to find areas where the leylines remain intact."

"...I see."

If a piece of land contained many leylines, there would be too many choices for performing rituals and very hard to narrow down. However, within this abandoned city, eligible locations were very rare.

In other words, all they need to find was a place where leylines gathered and very likely it would be the place where the ritual for making Claire the Darkness Queen would be held&mdash;Essentially that.

"Although I can't use Clairvoyance at Princess Linfa's high level, I can still use it to find leylines."

Fianna turned towards Rinslet.

"Can you give me a water basin for ritual use? Also, please prepare a few jewels."

"Understood. Fenrir!"

Hearing Rinslet's command, Fenrir widened its huge jaws and spat out the luggage from the alternate dimension.

Appearing before Kamito and the girls' eyes was a massive water basin for rituals.

"&mdash;''Create water''!"

Rinslet placed her hand on the basin and used magic to fill it with purified water.

Fianna knelt down before the basin and placed several jewels into the water.

"O Jewels, display for me where the power of the world is distributed&mdash;"

Reacting to the solemn spell, the jewels floating on the water surface began to spin rapidly.

Treating this much smaller water basin as the abandoned city, the jewels began to seek out locations where leylines flowed.

"How is it?"

"Please wait a moment... The spirit seals' interference makes things hard to read."

Sweat appeared on Fianna's forehead.

(...The spirit seals are interfering with each other huh.)

Kamito glanced at Fianna's right hand.

The fire spirit seal Claire had entrusted her was carved right there.

Using the Covenant exchanged between royalty and nobility, Claire had transferred Scarlet's spirit contract to Fianna. Hence, Fianna was currently in a very unstable state for an elementalist, that of dual contracts.

"There are no active leylines nearby... Probably, much farther away..."

Widening her dusk-colored eyes, Fianna stared unerringly at the water basin.

"Places where leylines are gathered... There... are a number of them... Yah!?"

Suddenly, Fianna screamed as her hands left the basin as if they were repelled.

A tiny flame burst out from her right hand and started dancing violently in the air.

"Fianna, are you okay!?"

"Yeah... Just a bit surprised&mdash;"

"Your Highness, there's fire!"

Rinslet pointed at the water basin.

The flame suddenly crossed over to the water basin, finally focusing into a point.

"...What is going on?"

"Could it be Scarlet telling us where Claire is located?"

Hearing Kamito's suggestion, everyone stared at the water basin.

...The fire remained in one position without moving.

Soon after&mdash;

"...No doubt about it, this is Scarlet's will."

Fianna explained as she looked at the glowing spirit seal on her right hand.

"Even after the spirit seal has been transferred, Scarlet still seems to maintain some connection to Claire, the original master."

Despite being unable to manifest in the form of the hell cat, Scarlet was still trying to help out her master.

"As expected of Scarlet!"

Rinslet exclaimed in admiration as she watched the flame on the water basin.

"Well then, Your Highness, do you know where this is located?"

Ellis asked.

"This is the most eastern end of the abandoned city. Uh, the distance from here is&mdash;"

Fianna swiftly calculated the relative distance between the flame and the jewels.

"Based on our speed, two or three hours traveling directly in a straight line."

"Two or three hours traveling directly in a straight line..."

Kamito muttered with a solemn expression.

Fianna's conclusion was ultimately just a theoretical shortest distance in a straight line. But in actual fact, the abandoned city was a labyrinth with a sea of trees growing all over the ruins. Along the way, they could be attacked by Forsaken Spirits and might even come into conflict with other teams.

Although Ellis could use wind magic to fly in the air, flying continuously for hours was not possible. And alone, she could not get Claire back from Rubia's clutches.

"We must get Claire back before the Darkness Queen ritual is completed..."

Just as the entire atmosphere within the shrine was weighed down by a gloomy solemnity&mdash;

"All we need is a way that guarantees that we reach the destination without encountering enemies along the way, right?"

Hearing Rinslet's question, everyone turned to look at her in puzzlement.