Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter5 Draft

Chapter 5: The One Who Will Succeed the Demon King

Part 1

"What on earth is this—"

Elis was speechless as she, clad in the devastating winds of her demon spirit, approached the unbelievable scene.

The Sylphid Knights, who maintained the public order at the academy, were lying on the ground in heaps.

Only academy students with excellent results could enter their ranks, so to see something like this happen—

(Don't tell me, they were defeated by just one intruder!?)

In the middle of darkness, under a drizzle, a small figure, wearing an overcoat with a hood, stood surrounded by unconscious girls.

"Was it you, bastard? The one that did this!"

Ellis asked, the elemental waffe —«Ray Hawk» already in her hand.

It was just about 30 minutes ago that she heard the report that an intruder had appeared in the academy and stole the classified materials about the seal specification from the library. Ellis immediately issued a pursuit order to a platoon of Knights, and while she used her wind spirit to give instructions to every group, she was pursuing him herself.

So, when she lost contact with some of her subordinates, she immediately headed to the place they were last seen at. And now that she found them in this state…

The elementalist before her eyes kept quiet, but she thought he gave her a scornful look.

"—I see, in that case, I'll make you talk whether you like it or not."

Ellis took a stance and the «Ray Hawk» was immediately surrounded by gusts of strong wind.

Despite looking at the surrounding area carefully, she still didn’t find sights of her opponent’s contracted spirit and it seemed that he wasn't holding an elemental waffe either.

However, the elementalist, before her eyes, had already defeated 5 girls from the Knights.

(Is she using a type of spirit that possesses the flesh?)

The opponent's identity was unknown. And because she didn’t see the contracted spirit, she started doubting whether there even was one. But then again, for a lone person, even with a surprise attack, defeating five Knights should be impossible unless he was an elementalist.

(In that case, I'll have to ascertain it with these eyes of mine—!)

Ellis took a stance with Ray Hawk and attacked like a gale.

The opponent finally reacted. A muffled voice was heard from under the hood—

"—Manifest, Wolf FangFanged Wolf Spirit."

At that moment, a pattern of lines appeared on the ground, and a spirit with the appearance of a ferocious wolf was summoned.

"That's your spirit, huh? However, it isn't a match for my own!"

As she ran, Ellis swung her lance in a perfect horizontal line.

The flow of violent winds she released mowed down the roadside trees on their way to Wolf Fang.

Ellis accelerated as if being sucked in by the self-made vortex and ignoring the stranded spirit aimed directly for its master.

Tan!—She kicked the ground. Her academy skirt waved about as she jumped.

She was about to do her special move, a nose-dive attack from the sky. It was a technique that had defeated all the upperclassmen during the practice matches.

With his contracted spirit unable to move, the defenseless elementalist looked up.

And then, the person faced Ellis and raised her palm.

"What!?"

"—Manifest, Blast GearRipping Thunder Spirit!"

At that moment, a bluish-white lightning enveloped her palm and was fired at Ellis.

The Knight was not expecting anything like that and because she was still in mid-air and was unable to dodge, was blown away after receiving a direct hit.

Without delay, Wolf Fang rushed in and attacked. It pushed Ellis, who was thrown onto the ground, down and tried to bite down on her throat. The spirit almost managed it, when—

Hyuu! She heard the sound of air being ripped apart and saw how the Wolf Fang's body was, in an instant, severed into four parts and burned to ashes.

"...!?"

The girl raised her head and traced the crimson trail, that still shone in the night sky, with her eyes—

"You owe me one, Ellis Fahrengart."

Raven Class's Claire Rouge descended with the Flame tongue in her hand.

From behind her—

"Ellis, are you alright?!"

Armed with a silver sword, Kazehaya Kamito came running.

Part 2

The male elementalist rushed to the fallen Knight’s side.

Armed with the elemental waffe—Terminus Est, he stood next to her and spread his arms as if trying to shield her.

Claire was a short distance away with Fianna following her. The princess was out of breath.

"Ellis, are you alright?"

"...I-It isn't a big deal."

Kamito lifted Ellis up by her shoulder and she turned red, facing away from him.

"What on earth happened? Who is that person?"

"It is nothing you guys should concern yourselves with. This has been entrusted to the Knights, so step back."

"That won't do. We are elementalists. And even if there weren't any Knights, we have the obligation to fight and protect the academy."

"That’s right. Besides—"

Staring directly at her face, Kamito asked.

"Do you think we could just stay silent when our precious comrade is being hurt?"

"Kamito..."

Ellis's face turned bright red and she brought a hand to her chest.

At that moment—

"Hey, I can't believe you came. Kazehaya Kamito."

The enemy elementalist raised his voice. For some reason, it sounded very irritating.

"...Who are you? Why do you know my name?"

"You are famous, you know. You're the same as me, a male elementalist."

"What!?"

Before his eyes, the guy started slowly taking off his overcoat and hood.

Kamito and the girls gulped nervously.

Coming to sight from under the overcoat was a boy.

He had dark, brown skin and tattoos applied all over his body, but his most notable feature was the pair of shining, red eyes.

"Such a thing... don't tell me, there are male elementalists other than Kamito!?"

Claire raised her voice in surprise.

It wasn't a girl disguised as a boy.

Not just his voice or face, but his physique too, no matter how one looked at it he was a male.

(This guy, who on earth... No, more importantly –)

Before Kamito's eyes, the injured Knight girls collapsed. <!—weren’t they already on the ground-->

"Was this done by you?"

"Yeah. However, I didn't kill them. That lot was raised in a safe miniature garden<!—maybe “greenhouse”--> and isn't worth the effort."

"What did you say!?"

"Calm down, Ellis, it's just a cheap provocation."

Ellis grinded her teeth and whispered in Kamito's ear.

"Be careful, Kazehaya Kamito. He has a double contract with spirits."

"…?"

In other words, he had contracts with two spirits at the same time.

By using several spirits, one could cover the weakness of his fighting style.

However, it also placed a lot of limitations on the elementalist.

The fellow contracted spirits interfered with each other, making it impossible for them to manifest their original powers.

Kamito was in the same situation right now. As the contract with the darkness spirit was not broken, it ended up shutting out Est's energy and allowing her to use only a fraction of her true strength.

“A male spirit contractor and with two spirits to boot?"

"Yeah, the Wolf Fang for close-combat, and the Blast Gear for attacking from a distance."

Ellis nodded.

"Hey, could you overlook this for today? I am not in the mood to fight you now."

"What was that?"

Kamito frowned at the boy, who waved his hand dismissively, as if making fun of him.

"As long as I obtain this, that's fine."

The boy took out a small black lithograph from his chest pocket to show them.

"What is that?"

"The classified materials of the seal specification that I stole from the academy library. By using a special spirit device, it is filled with high density information that can be deciphered."

Arming herself with her demon lance of wind, Ellis muttered.

"Why did you steal such –"

At that moment, a leather whip flew from behind her aimed at the boy's hand.

He easily dodged Claire's surprise attack. Had it been foreseen?

"—Kamito, Ellis!"

"Ahh!"

Even before Claire shouted, both of them were already moving.

"Tch, what a stupid lot—"

"You bastard—"

Hearing someone insult her comrades enraged Ellis

She lashed with her Ray Hawk in a perfect horizontal arc – the wind blades, dancing boisterously, severed the roadside trees.

"Huh, another charge? You have no finesse!"

After dodging the raging wind blades, the boy charged.

His strength and speed were definitely inhuman. He moved like a shadow passing through his opponents unhindered and drove a counter punch into Ellis's stomach.

"Guu—"

"Ellis!"

Kamito shouted.

The girl fainted after being hit and the guy used the opportunity to escape into the darkness.

(To knock her out with just one strike...)

"You won’t escape!"

Claire immediately lashed with the Flame Tongue. The beautiful arc that the whip drew left a red, hot trail that vividly stood out in the black night.

A sculpture, modeled after the appearance of the spirit lord, was severed in an instant and blasted with a loud sound.

Kamito took a stance with Terminus Est and jumped into the rising cloud of dust.

The attack just now shouldn't have connected. So he searched for the enemy by his presence—

At that moment, he felt bloodlust coming from behind.

Kamito immediately jumped sideways and a dagger flashed past the place his head was a moment ago.

The boy stepped in without a sound. He didn't give him a chance to get any distance between them.

There were no wasted movements. It looked like the art of Silent Killing.

(This guy – he's a professional assassin!?)

Kamito barely stopped the blow of the drawn sword, flashing in the darkness, with his blade.

At that moment, there was a strong impact to his stomach. The powerful punch made Kamito's stance crumble. An assassin's dagger swooped over – but he knocked it aside with the bottom of his fist and used the force to roll on the ground and get some distance.

"Hey, aren't you pretty good, as expected of the strongest blade dancer."

"What!?"

Kamito's eyes widened in surprise.

(This guy, does he know my true identity!?)

In that moment of surprise, when Kamito stopped paying the battle attention, the boy smiled and came at him once again.

There were no weapons in his enemy’s hands while Kamito was armed with Terminus Est—

"—Manifest, FalchionSword Spirit!"

"Wha!?"

There was a violent explosion and Terminus Est, which he swung horizontally, was repelled.

The boy was holding in his hand a large blue shining sword.

It wasn't an ordinary blade, but an elemental waffe of a sword spirit.

"Another one!?"

Several times he had crossed swords with elementalists that used two spirits simultaneously.

However he never heard of anyone using more than that.

"This isn't something to be that surprised about. The Demon King Solomon was said to have used seventy-two spirits, you know."

"Don't mess around... that's just a legend—"

"What if the proof of that legend was now right before your eyes?"

The boy warped his lips into a smile.

"I am Jio Inzagi – The one who will succeed the Demon King."

"Kamito, get away!"

At that moment, countless fireballs were released from behind. It was Claire's spirit magic.

His reaction was instantaneous as he jumped aside.

It was a barrage of fireballs. However, the boy –Jio Inzagi held out his hand with a calm composure…

"—Manifest, AerialWind Spirit!"

And released a gust of compressed air.

The violent whirling wind erased the fireballs and blew away the surrounding rubble together with Kamito.

(Aerial...His fourth spirit!?)

Jio's shadow appeared right above Kamito, who was extremely surprised by the recent turn of events.

It seemed that the intruder used the force of the release for a jump.

The edge of the sword spirit in his hand shone silver.

"Die—Ren AshbellStrongest Blade Dancer."

"...!?"

The tip of the shining sword approached Kamito’s heart.

At that moment, a pebble flew from the side.

"Tch—"

Jio repelled it reflexively, and at that moment—

A flash of light filled his vision.

Blinded and disoriented he dropped his sword. Falling, the blade pierced the ground.

Kamito quickly regained his stance—

Katsun! –There was a dry sound. A broken transparent stone fell at Kamito's feet.

(...Is it a spirit crystal?)

Taken aback, Kamito turned around.

Over there—

"Hey, I wonder, could you please not forget about me?"

Fianna was standing with her hands at her waist.

Part 3

He might have noticed that her voice was trembling.

And yet, she stoutheartedly glared at the enemy before her – Jio Inzagi.

There were 3 spirit crystals held in her hand. Every piece had a flash spirit sealed inside.

It definitely looked flashy, but its attack power was almost nonexistent; it was only usable as a distraction at best. This time Jio was taken by surprise, but he was probably not an opponent who would fall for such a childish trick again.

Inzagi slowly turned towards Fianna.

As he glared at her with those shining red eyes, Fianna's shoulders trembled.

"Hey, were you the one who hindered me?"

"He is mine. Get your hands off him."

"I see—"

Jio faced her directly and held out his arm.

"—Manifest, Shining RayDemon Light Spirit"

A spear of ominous light appeared in that hand and he aimed it at Fianna’s heart.

"Ah—"

The princess couldn't even move.

Like prey in front of a predator.

The spirit crystals fell from her hands. Her fingers were trembling because of the fear.

"No, it's the same as that time—"

She had a flashback.

The day four years ago, when she stood before her.

That day she tasted the fear of hopelessness and her heart was broken.

She had planned on firmly opposing him and drew every bit of courage she had, but her body's trembling wouldn't stop.

"Then, die—"

Jio threw the light spear.

"Fianna!"

Claire launched her Flame Tongue, but it wouldn't make it in time with that distance.

Fianna closed her eyes. A moment later, she resigned herself to her death.

However—

"...Eh?"

The pain of her heart being pierced never came.

When she opened her eyes—

"Kamito-kun?"

Kamito was before her eyes with his arms opened and the light spear in his left hand.

Red blood trickled down from his pierced palm.

"Whoa, I've misjudged you. You covered for such a useless person."

"Shut up... Fianna is our comrade."

Kamito gritted his teeth to suppress the pain, and slumped on that spot.

"That's fine, if you want to die so much, then I'll immediately kill—"

"I won't let you, that guy is my slave!"

At that moment, the Flame Tongue released by Claire attacked Jio.

The crimson flames licked the ground. The intruder clicked his tongue as he dodged it.

Then, the sound of clattering armors and helmets could be heard in the distance.

It seemed that reinforcements were approaching the scene of the battle.

"Tch, in this situation, I'll spare you. I've already obtained the target materials."

"You won't escape!"

"Claire, don't chase him too far!"

Kamito stopped Claire, who was about to pursue the thief.

"...Kamito, is your injury alright?"

"Ahh, it isn't a big ... Ouch!"

"Id-Idiot, don't overdo it!"

Claire supported the boy, who was struggling with the pain, by his back.

"A male elementalist, just like you... that guy, who on earth is he?"

"Yeah...Fianna?"

Kamito noticed something and turned around.

It seemed that after tension left her body, Fianna collapsed on the ground as if the threads that were holding her snapped.