"So can you tell me exactly what happened here?" Morian asked Zelinski.
"It's a long story. You might want to sit down. You too, Wafer."
"Thanks, old man, but I think I'll pass. Listening to all of that will just make me very uncomfortable."
"Understood. No problem there."
"Morian, I'll be around in case you need anything."
"Knock yourself out," he replied.
Zelinski invited Morian into his house with a simple gesture.
Morian followed him inside.
"Wow, it's pretty dark. I don't remember you being the type of guy to live in perpetual darkness."
"Well, I suppose it makes no difference whether the lights are turned on or not. This village has been dark for a long time. Take a seat."
Morian sat down.
Morian looked at the picture of his daughter hanging on the wall before facing Zelinski.
"I'll get you something to drink."
"Please don't sweat the small stuff. Could you tell me what exactly happened here?"
"It all started with an official notice from the allied forces to this region. It was a three-day evacuation notice. We didn't think we would be able to do that in such limited time and were not aware of the severity of the events at hand. Unknown to us, there'd been a forceful invasion of Elvia, and some elves who made it across the border were rioting in anger. The entire region was in danger of being indiscriminately attacked in retaliation.
Not until later did the survivors come to realize that this was all a setup by those in power. They'd stolen resources from them in an attempt to aggravate them and cause them to attack humans. I don't know why, but they needed some excuse to wage war with the elves. Using the village as bait, they moved some of the resources here, causing this region to become a target for their attacks.
They'd placed knights here who were instructed to retaliate only after complete damage had been done. This place became a battlefield. The elves retreated before the soldiers, and the soldiers themselves used the excuse of taking care of elf invasions elsewhere and left us to our plight."
"Now then, why is an elf conspiring with humans against its own kind, I wonder?"
"What are you...?"
A thin flash of light pierced through the roof and traveled towards Morian's head. It was so fast that Zelinski's eyes didn't notice what had just moved through his roof.
However, nothing had happened.
A hole had appeared in his roof. That was all Zelinski knew. As for what had become of the attack, only Morian would know.
"Forgive me, old man. I'll fix your roof when I get back."
Zelinski fell to the floor, filled with mixed feelings of guilt and relief.
After apologizing, Morian jumped out of his house by breaking through the roof. His momentum carried him high up into the air. However, there was no one in his field of vision. His attacker was nowhere to be seen.
A thin flash of light pierced through the air, heading straight for Morian. He had just leaped from the ground, and this should have left him unable to maneuver himself in midair, leaving him vulnerable to any linear attack.
Morian turned his body in midair, and the thin ray of light narrowly breezed past him. He had an idea where his attacker was now.
"He can fly?"
The name of his attacker was Veneziam. He was a traitor to the elves and had colluded with Eden's soldiers to set up the events that followed two months ago.
He adjusted the aim of his weapon.
"He just has an insanely fast reaction time. Twice should do."
He prepared a double pincer attack that targeted Morian and the closest possible location he could move to avoid the first one. It was guaranteed to hit.
Indeed, it might have, if it was someone else, but it was one of them. His target was a former member of the Schuztsafel, and not just any member.
He was the man who was once their leader.
Morian pretended to still be scanning for his attacker's location while he internally plotted his next course of action.
"Well, I guess sometimes you just go for power."
After a half-hearted self-declaration, he plowed through the air, directly tracing the direction of the previous projectiles that were fired at him.
The next two shots had been fired, but before they reached their target, Morian moved past them first. He drove himself vertically into the tree Veneziam stood on, destroying it with relative ease.
Meanwhile, Veneziam's eyes widened in horror. He was beaten with the use of pure speed. His target had outrun the bullet itself. It was unthinkable.
"No, I need to—"
He felt a leg push into his chest. It threatened to crush his ribs, heart, and chest muscles if he dared defy the owner.
"How did you figure out where I was? You couldn't have..."
"Be quiet. I'd like to know the location of Zelinski's daughter. You've taken her hostage, right? Geez, do you not take at least a second to ponder the orders your slave masters give you?"
"Me, a slave? Arghhhh... ghhh!"
He began coughing out blood. Morian's foot was slowly crushing his chest.
"Let's think for a second. You were asked to assassinate me... no, that doesn't sound right. You were asked to try to assassinate me. So obviously, whoever asked you to do this knew I'd be coming here, which means someone was clearly keeping watch on me.
If your superiors had been keeping an eye on me, did you really think they thought you could get rid of me? I mean, they didn't try to do it themselves. Didn't you wonder why?
I'll tell you this for free. You were supposed to keep me busy, and you kinda basically failed, and quite miserably at that. I mean, a sniper who can turn invisible is the ultimate time-waster. You kidnapped Zelinski's daughter and made him invite me into his house to let my guard down. You'd promised to let his daughter go if he did that, correct?
There's so many things wrong with this plan. It's just so... you know what? Maybe there's nothing wrong with it. I mean, it's not like even the best your employers have to offer could beat me anyway."
He increased the pressure on his chest.
"So then..."
Morian bent his face downward towards Veneziam.
"Where is she?"
Veneziam managed to mutter with his last breath.
"You were wrong about one thing. I don't have the girl."
He fell unconscious immediately after.
"Strange."
A strange light began glowing on Morian's wrist.
The people of Unterdorf prostrated themselves before Elisa Genesia. Before them was the true heir to the throne of Eden. A symbol of hope. What she had done here was the beginning—the beginning of the end of their suffering.
An image flashed in Elisa's mind. Her sense of danger skyrocketed. She managed to conjure forth a very strained smile.
"They're here!" she immediately thought.
"Nogartha, we're leaving now!"
Nogartha had already noticed suspicious movement within the crowd. She was about to call it out before Elisa screamed at her.
Nogartha struck her palm on the ground, and a circle similar to the one at the Desteavo delegation site appeared on the ground.
"Our destination is—"
"Yeah, I know."
They both shouted at the same time.
"The Forest of Silence!"
Elisa quickly moved on top of the circle. She stood side by side with Nogartha, who was coated with a light white aura.
The light around the circle steadily increased before flashing brightly and disappearing completely.
Nogartha and Elisa had both vanished from the spot.
A man masked in a hoodie whispered to himself.
"They can't run for long."
Two women were running through a forest. They were Elisa and Nogartha.
"You can leave. From here on, it's going to be dangerous."
Elisa didn't want her caught up in something that didn't remotely concern her.
"Not a chance. I didn't come this far to run back with my tail between my legs. Besides, teleportation is being blocked here, though I don't know who's doing it."
"It can be blocked?"
"You didn't know that?"
"I'm pretty sure not everyone does."
"Now that we're here, what exactly did you need a tour guide for?"
"Oh, that? I wanted to go sightseeing. I didn't exactly know my way around the surrounding places, especially the villages. It's kind of complicated. I can navigate this forest perfectly, but I'm still at a loss on how to get here."
"That's why you needed a guide?"
"Precisely."
"Let me guess. Did someone describe the forest for you? Perhaps there's something you're here to retrieve?"
"Close."
"Close?"
"There's no time to explain. We're here."
They both arrived at a huge cave. The opening looked like it had been broken through rather than carefully carved open. Elisa threw a photeina stone into it, and the inside was quickly illuminated.
Elisa ran towards the circle at the center, with Nogartha following beside her. She crouched down at the center circle and began making a symbol in the air with her hands.
A small box appeared out of thin air, and Elisa immediately poured out its contents onto the circle on the floor.
Nogartha was confused. There were two circles on the ground, and they were drawn quite close to each other. One was clearly a teleportation circle; as for the other one, she had no idea what it was.
Magical energy from Elisa's arm flowed into the center circle, and it soon began to glow with a purple-colored light around it.
Elisa began chanting:
"The sun sets in the west."
"But in a new beginning, it differs from the rest."
"For every happy ever after, there is despair."
"For every world filled with despair, in another one exists an eternity of happiness."
"For this world of light, there exists darkness."
"Come forth, bringer of darkness."
"Come forth—"
"This is quite wonderful."
A voice spoke from above.
"Who's there?!"
Nogartha was visibly shaken. There had clearly been no one in this cave aside from both of them.
So when?
When did this person come here?
The glowing purple light from the circle had disappeared. It had returned to its stale, unbrightened state.
"May I ask who you are?"
"I should be asking you that."
A man fully covered in armor came down from above.
"Who are you?" he asked.
Elisa smiled.
"You should know the answer to that. My name is Elisa Genesia."
"Wrong!" he blurted out.
"Why is it wrong, Reopold?"
He began stammering.
"R-Reopold? You know my name?"
"I saw your men calling you that. Sir Reopold, if memory serves."
"I see. Ahhhh, it really is you. The power to see into the past. The Aletheia. No, no, no, no, no. I can't kill you now. Not until we peel out those eyes of yours. Yes, we need you alive. They need you alive. I need you alive."
His composure returned to him.
"I'm interested in how exactly you survived, but I'm sure we can extract that out of you. Come along now. I promise that not one hair on your head will be harmed."
"And if I don't?"
"I will kill the woman standing beside you."
"Go right ahead."
"Huh?"
Nogartha's hairs stood on end after hearing what she had initially thought was a bluff.
"I wonder, will you cut her down, or will your arm be removed first?"
"It would seem you have some plan up your sleeve. Haaah."
He heaved an exasperated sigh.
"What a drag. She's seen some things she's not supposed to see. This place, the otherworldly insignia on the ground, and the nightmare blood you poured. She was never making it out of here alive. But that was a good one, since I was always going to kill her anyway."
"Go right ahead."
Nogartha slowly moved backward in fear. If there was a chance to escape, she would definitely take it. If there wasn't, she would accept her fate.
"I've been meaning to ask you, Princess. Did your father inscribe the otherworldly insignia on your arm as well?"
Reopold drew his sword.
She raised her right arm and waved the back of her hand toward him.
"You mean this? You don't recognize this, holy knight?"
"I'm afraid I don't."
He took a fighting stance.
"It's a seal. It's called the King's Order. I suppose your kind should have heard of it. I'm sure this is your first time seeing it."
"Yes, and what exactly is this King's Order used for?"
He coated his sword in sharp magical energy.
The symbol on her hand began glowing.
...and then Morian's wrist began glowing as well.
Reopold charged forward, intending to cut Nogartha down in one strike.
But at that moment, he felt the arm he used to hold up his sword being ripped off from his shoulder. He wasn't even given time to scream. Feet akin to that of a teenager landed on his chest, sending him flying into the walls of the cave.
The second symbol on the ground began glowing. The teleportation circle had been activated.
Nogartha joined Elisa and Morian on it.
"I'll tell you the use of the King's Order. It represents an eternal contract between a ruler and his knight, an oath to become a sword and a vow to become a shield. It is the bond between a cavalryman and his horse, a master and his servant, an archer and his bow. It is an eternal combination to carry out the will of the bearer of the seal. That is the King's Order, and that is the contract my father had with the Schuztsafel."
Reopold was screaming in agony, but he managed to look up and reply to her.
"The S-Schuztsafel... it couldn't be... that boy is... there's no way..."
Blood poured continuously from his arm.
"One last thing..."
The light around the teleportation circle slowly became brighter.
"As a representative of the former King, I send this message to Eden's rulers and the allied forces."
Reopold watched on in horror.
"Consider this... a declaration of war."
The circle on the ground flashed brightly, and Nogartha, Morian, and Elisa all vanished immediately after.