Fremy, Adlet, and Dozzu continued their fierce battle. They were up against the fiends of the fake command center, about a hundred in close formation. There were also several free-roaming units of fiends coming to attack them.
“Adlet, back me up, please!” Dozzu cried as it fired lightning at the fake command center, while Adlet joined in with all the tools at his disposal. Fremy guarded their backs as she shot down the aerial fiends overhead.
“Damn it, we can’t maintain the offensive! Run!” Adlet yelled. Before they became entirely surrounded, Fremy ran for a spot where enemy forces were thin. Adlet blinded the enemies with a smoke grenade, and Fremy held them back with her bombs as they ran.
“Ha-ha! Do you understand now that it’s no use? What can just the three of you accomplish?” The wolf-fiend desperately clung to its long-exposed ruse.
Three against two hundred, they charged in and then retreated, over and over. It was no easy task. But the lush treetops hid them from any eyes in the sky, and the darkness of night and complex terrain prevented fiends on the ground from discovering them. Without these advantages, they would have been cornered and slaughtered in a flash.
“…We must finish this before daybreak,” said Dozzu. They probably had about two hours. Carrying out the strategy would become difficult under morning light. The super-flammable leaves Nashetania had spread were likely to be found, too.
“No problem. We’ll finish this up before then,” said Adlet. But the most important step of their plan was yet to be accomplished: attaching the mud-covered light gem to the leopard-fiend. This had to be done if they were going to pursue their target when it was dispatched as a messenger.
“Are things going all right with you?” Fremy asked.
“Relax, we’re still at the setup stage. You’ll see results soon enough,” Adlet replied.
Fremy nodded. If Adlet said so, then it would be fast. She had her job to do, too: shooting down the aerial messengers to cut off contact between Tgurneu and the wolf.
A fiend in the sky shrieked, and Fremy instantly fired at it, her hands moving too fast for the eye to see. With nothing but sound as her guide, Fremy struck true and brought down Tgurneu’s aide, specialist number two. Now there were just seven fiends left.
“They’re coming from the left. We have to run,” said Fremy.
They fled right, tramping through the woods as loudly as they could. Then, in the shadows of the ruins, they stopped and waited for the group of fiends that came chasing after them to go past and ran back the way they’d come.
Setup was going well. At this rate, they could win.
✦ ✦ ✦
“If the fight continues like this, I’m certain they’ll find me,” Tgurneu murmured. It was clear the Braves were not simply attacking the wolf-fiend or scampering about in an attempt to save Mora. Though it may have looked that way superficially, they were, in fact, preparing to kill Tgurneu.
“Wh-why? The Braves have cöme nowhere close to you, Cómmander. And the one who réquires the most caution, Mora, is pïnned. They could nëver find you,” said number eleven.
“Indeed. I believe it’s impossible for the Braves to find me, too, but that will pose no problem for them. They’re sure to turn that impossibility into a possibility. I can tell, you know,” Tgurneu said, glaring at number eleven. “Why? Because I believe in the power of love.”
Number eleven stared back blankly.
As if to say You could never understand , Tgurneu sighed.
Love was the strongest force in the world, the only one that could generate miracles, and only love would bring about victory—so Tgurneu believed. It was precisely because Tgurneu could not know love that it knew the extent of its power.
Mora loved her husband and her daughter. Goldof loved Nashetania. Rolonia—Adlet and her Saint allies. Chamo loved her parents.
And most of all, Fremy loved Adlet, and he, her. They were trying to kill Tgurneu to protect one another. So no matter how Tgurneu bolstered its defenses, the power of love was sure to break through.
The greatness of love was what gave value to its demise. Destroying the strongest and most wonderful thing in the world was where Tgurneu founds its pleasure.
“…Yes, love is sure to conjure a miracle.”