Chapter 63: 62. Smoke and Fog

“Do you ever feel like the only one who knows what’s going on?” Luis asked. “I feel like it’s incredibly obvious when you really look at it.”

 

Luis and Roland sat on the massive fountain’s stone ledge as they watched the crowds form around the main square of the city. By Luis’s reckoning, it was easily the largest waterwork in the city, many metres wide and long. It’d been built right up against a guild headquarters directly across from the city’s cathedral, and it was an impressive sight to behold, even he had to admit.

 

Thousands of people flowed into the square under the morning light, though judging by the clouds a heavy fog and perhaps some rain was going to be moving in sometime soon. The ‘Lord Prince’ would probably be a little hard to see once he really got into it. Which wouldn’t be too important if this was happening in any other state.

 

If there was one thing Luis didn’t like about the northern duchies, it had to be their penchant for theatrics. Nothing was a small affair or a minor insult to these people, but instead a widespread conspiracy or death threat. Noble houses apparently fell in and out of favour like the wind, and rose and were wiped out with only slightly less frequency. It meant that one had to watch their shadow as if it were about to jump up and strike them.

 

Or that was true for the nobility, at least. Common people were the same varied group everywhere Luis had lived.

 

Roland didn’t respond, instead practising the magical shaping ritual the two of them had been taught last week.

 

“The prince is clearly angling for the throne, of course.” Luis continued. “Now that his brother is out of the way he’s made up something foolish against his father and decided to bring the whole of the country into it. Kind of a devilish move, making the rest of us die for his ambitions like that.”

 

“Uh-huh.”

 

“Why don’t you think no one’s publicly picked sides yet? Phoenix knights can carry messages, you know, snow or no snow. It’s obvious they’re waiting for the senate to choose a stance. Have to feel for them too, it can’t be easy to be meeting for matters so serious after that massacre, if it was truly as bad as they say…”

 

Luis sighed. It was just his luck that he started here just as everything kicked off. He’d thought he’d been sentenced to some years of fun and freedom away from the heavy atmosphere that’d been building up back in Coels, but he’d only gotten about a week of that in before the lordling here had decided to ruin it.

 

Luis peered through the coming mist towards the grandstand constructed in front of the cathedral. A black haired prince could just barely be seen talking to a reporting soldier, probably receiving the final checks before the speech could begin. 

 

The prince certainly didn’t look to be dressed in clothes of mourning, but instead silvery gauntlets and boots over a burgundy red coat and silver-white cloak, a getup Luis vaguely associated with the rangers who stalked the roads between duchies. The only thing that was missing was a mask and an enchanted bow on his back.

 

“He’s not even hiding it, too. A dozen pieces he’s declaring an offensive on first melting.”

 

“Deal.” Roland replied. 

 

“...You agreed to that a little too fast.” Luis raised an eyebrow. “You know you’re throwing away money, right?”

 

“A dozen pieces, right?”

 

“...”

 

Luis started looking through the crowd again, a peculiar omen falling against him. As he watched, a scaly figure stood out to him, one just a dozen itchia tall.

 

“Oh hey, that’s Silst, isn’t it? Saphry’s handler? And… Aero, right?”

 

Luis didn’t exactly think it strange for those two to be near each other, in fact he was starting to think it strange whenever he saw the small dragon with his actual companion instead. What was strange was watching the brown haired girl as she ranted about something to the armoured man standing next to the drake, her arms flailing wildly as if she were really giving it to him. It flew in total contrast to how she normally acted as far as he could tell.

 

“Auro.”

 

“I wonder what she’s so excited about.”

 

Luis watched for a few more moments as she kept going, the man he now recognized as the guard captain of the academy every once and a while frowning and waving her away. His curiosity steadily grew in his chest.

 

“It’s strange that her drake did not stay up with her if she felt so ill.” Roland said.

 

“Ill. Oh yeah, I’m sure.”

 

If there was one thing Luis knew for certain, it was that Saphry faln Astrian was not sick. Nor was she very bright, if she had thought that explanation had convinced him at all. 

 

Luis had just thought that she’d been playing hooky with the other girls because of sheer laziness, but something didn’t quite add up in his mind now that he saw Auro and Silst down here. Something in the back of his mind now told him that something slightly more interesting might be happening right before him.

 

“Actually, why don’t we go help her?” Luis climbed to his feet and beat the chill from his legs. “I’ve never been one to leave a damsel in distress.”

…

For the first time since I had gotten to this planet, I felt powerful.

 

Well, ‘powerful’ might be the wrong word to use. In fact, ‘fast as all hell’ might be a little better. Even the weight of Fredrick’s silvered sword couldn’t slow me as I dashed through the streets of the city.

 

My desire to enjoy the speed hadn’t lasted long however. The daemon had left little confusion towards which path it had taken through the city streets, and running through the burned husks of countless street carts, small animals, and storefronts as I raced after the thing was starting to get more and more distressing. It was only by the grace of God that I’d been spared the sight of any charred corpses thus far, but I couldn’t imagine my luck would hold up quite so well if I let the thing get much closer to the site of Andril’s speech.

 

Though, thankfully, I didn’t think it’d be too hard to track even if it didn’t carve burning flames into the very rock behind it. Though the oncoming mist rolling down off the mountain made it a little hard to make out against the sky, there was a clear smoke trail if you looked for it, as well as the muddled sound of wood and metal being smashed ahead of me. 

 

And the horribly loud screams and roars, of course.

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As I ran past the burning wrecks of a couple spinning wheels somebody had left out, I ran through my available plans again in my mind.

 

My ability to actually kill the beast was… well it wasn’t quite zero by any means, but they weren’t amazingly high in my mind either. The thing was fast as hell, and I couldn’t get close enough to physically touch it without burning my hand to a crisp, which was a fundamental requirement to cast the only banishment spell I knew. Still, there were still things I could do to limit the beast’s rampage before the soldiers got over to kill it. If I could distract it away from the speech, maybe into the alleys where there wasn’t anyone for it to fry… Then I wouldn’t have to worry about that massive steam explosion that'd probably happen when I hit it with ice-aspected spells. 

 

And speaking of ice-aspected abilities…

 

I ran my free hand down the blade of Fredrick’s sword as I ran, feeling the strange formlessness that emanated from it. It still rippled with that strange enchantment I’d seen before, the one that allowed it to cut anything it came across. 

 

It was disappointing, really. The one time I got the thing all powered up in my hands was the one time the enchantment wasn’t actually useful to me. I’d be burned to a crisp if I attempted to use it as is, which really wasn’t an ending I envisioned for myself. After all, I was a mage. If I died to anything other than another spell I’d consider it a grave disappointment.

 

“Puli.” I whispered.

 

A different enchantment spread out from my hand and over the blade, this one tinged white and blue. The metal cooled to the touch, and rough crystals of ice formed at the point of contact. It didn’t stop at the sword either, my arm getting deathly cold all the way to the elbow.  

 

I cringed at the feeling. My resistance was enough that it wasn’t exactly painful, but it certainly felt more than a little strange to have half my arm suddenly freeze like that. Casted enchantments didn’t really confine themselves to an object like video games had made me believe, but continued up to the confines set by the spell and how much rin you put in it. It was a tricky balance to guess right the first time you used it on an item, and obviously I’d overshot a little. 

 

Ah well. It wasn’t worth the magical backlash to recast it for comfort. ‘Encourage’ wasn’t even supposed to work too well on objects anyway, if you listened to the books.

 

I heard shouts up ahead as I finished, as well as screams of terror. The roar of superheated air blasted through the city, and I could see a narrow flash of light ahead.

 

I redoubled my pace.

…

I slowed only a little as I ran past the carnage this time. Burned bones and the scent of charred flesh had slowly become ever more common as I’d gotten closer, but I didn’t allow myself to inspect any of them too closely at all. Nobody so far had survived, leaving no screams but those it fell upon or passed. Even those were getting hard to hear over the periodic crack of thunder that split the air, making me ever more concerned that the city wasn’t fully awake to the threat rampaging through its corridors. The thick fog didn’t help either, though it did obscure the worst of the gore from my eyes.

 

Surely they knew by now, right? But where was the garrison? The phoenix knights? Had the storm truly blinded them that well? Or was it just happening too fast?

 

I sprinted around another corner, finally catching sight of my quarry.

 

It looked just as terrible as it had back in the tunnels, billowing with rage and smoke in equal measure. The flames upon its body snaked out like angry daggers in the fog as it galloped down the lane, its massive wings dragged behind it like a skewered parachute. It was headed straight east towards the speech, as if it knew exactly the route to take to maximise how many people it could murder. It would be inspirational in its dedication, if it wasn’t so horrific.

 

It roared as it ran, the shaking of the buildings second onto the great bursts of thunder cracking on clouds far off.

 

I faltered for a moment as I gazed upon it again.

 

[Christ], this thing was even bigger than I thought! It's the size of a goddamned bus! How could I possibly slay something that huge?

 

I shook my head.

 

I didn’t need to kill it, of course. I just needed to distract it, to hold the entirety of its murderous intentions solely on me… eh, that sounded just as bad, didn’t it?

 

“I really hope I just wake up in a federal mage prison when I die.” I muttered, pointing my sword towards the retreating demon. “Spatal.”

 

A ball of snow arched off towards the beast, a cloud of steam and a small roar of pain accompanying its landing. It came to a stop with a laborious turn, its bulky wings smashing through a small stall as it did so. Plumes of dust met mist and smoke as it directed its hateful eyeless snout towards me, its flaming outline only barely visible in the fog.

 

“Come on! Fight someone who can actually hurt you!” I shouted, trying to ignore my shaking legs. “Or are you actually a giant [chicken]?”

 

Regardless of whenever he understood me, the demon charged. Stones cracked under each explosive landing, and its wings rose up above it like a strutting [peacock] to make it look twice as tall as it normally did.

 

“Relicin! Relicin! Relicin!”

 

Feeling panic spike through my body, I aimed my sword and sent off a trio of spells. The demon’s wings glowed with a yellow glow as it saw me cast, and I could see a faint shimmering appear in front of it much like the shield masks put up. Within ten seconds of it starting its charge it had almost made it to me.

 

Fortunately, I was not aiming for the beast itself.

Each of the spells get the ground in front of me, a circle of thin ice covering the road. It was just enough for about ten metres of coverage, but I didn’t stop to watch its effect. Instead, I leaped away to the nearest alley as soon as the last icy circle appeared, trying to create as much distance between me and the living hellfire as possible.

 

I heard a huge crash of flesh and stone behind me, the demon evidently having slipped on the ice and careened into the store behind. The rumble of a falling rock came quickly after, and then it was replaced by the deafening roar of the building collapsing upon it. For a brief few seconds I allowed myself to hope that it might’ve been crushed under the stones, and I stopped to gaze at the billowing dust in the road behind me..

 

It didn’t last. Almost immediately the rubble shifted and moved, and the demon emerged once again and locked onto me. It charged again, huge new holes in its wings and dents scales the only sign that anything had happened to it at all.

 

I tsked as I turned and started running.

 

Nothing was ever easy, was it?

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