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“We will accept you. If you accept us... If you accept the invitation of the sanctuary.”
The Celestial’s voice entered her ears and filled her head to bursting with warm emotions. Warm, peaceful, sleepy...
“...sh! Tish!”
She heard a voice. Someone’s voice, frantic, in her ear. It was grating. She was trying to relax and it was interrupting her. This voice was always disturbing her peace—it had for a long time. Didn’t that mean it was this voice that had taken things she needed from her? This was the woman who had destroyed her family... This woman who was a part of that family.
She turned and saw that woman beside her. She was shouting something, distress in her eyes.
This was the woman Krylancelo had left the Tower five years ago to find. He was still searching for her now. If this woman was gone, there was a good chance her family—at least two of them—could go back to the way they were.
Leticia raised her voice and thrust her hand out. She took the large knife Azalie was holding out to her and turned, leaping forward.
She ran forward at full speed, headed for the Celestial at the podium. She had just barely been able to escape the mental dominion attack, but she still felt pain like there was a foreign object lodged in her head. She ran, fighting against the dizziness assaulting her, and cursed. How underhanded... This is the sanctuary!
The Celestial woman raised something like a scream. All the legends agreed that there were only female Celestials. It seemed impossible, yet there was no record of anyone ever meeting a male Celestial. That was the reason Celestials had mixed with humans, giving birth to human sorcerers.
She was far away. Leticia kicked against the ground, each step an effort. She raised the dagger, a ferocious impulse rising up inside her. And...
She leaped to the side, sensing bloodlust. Her body twisted painfully when she stopped herself so quickly. No, that wasn’t the only thing causing her pain. An enormous figure had appeared at her side and thrust out a fist at her, grazing her.
She didn’t think the fist had even touched her, but the shock wave it produced was abnormal. She stumbled to the floor and couldn’t get back up again. What would have happened if the blow had actually connected? Leticia shuddered against the cold floor, imagining it. The dagger had flown from her hand and she couldn’t find it anymore. It must have fallen somewhere outside her field of view. While she was lying prone on the floor, the huge dark shadow slowly walked before her.
“I see why you’re considered the equal of that sorcerer Yuis... You’re truly fierce.”
“What do you expect me to do when you try to brainwash me out of nowhere?!” Leticia snapped. She was still in pain, but she didn’t seem to have taken any actual damage. She’d recovered enough to stand back up, so she did so, backing away from the figure.
The huge man wasn’t carrying any weapons, and if her senses weren’t deceiving her, that attack hadn’t been a sorcerous one. Still, she felt something dangerous about him. His presence alone almost paralyzed her.
The man wore black robes. He wasn’t even in a fighting stance anymore. He was looking down at her with his arms hanging limp at his sides. Leticia was tall, so there wasn’t actually that big a difference in the height of their eyes, but something about the man made her want to make herself smaller.
“This man is Jack Frisbee. He’s a Doppel X.” Azalie’s whispered voice came from behind her. “If I lent you my strength, you could beat him, no question. But you’ll lose if you try to fight him on your own. It’s not your role to defeat him. Don’t fight him here.”
You were the one who riled me up. Leticia growled in the back of her throat even as she agreed with Azalie’s assessment. She looked up to the podium, but the Celestial was already gone. Even if they fought and she won, it wouldn’t mean anything anymore.
“...I don’t know how you brought this in here,” Jack muttered, holding the large knife Leticia had dropped. “But I’ll have to ask you to stop. Nobody knows what would happen to the sanctuary if you somehow managed to injure one of the priestesses.”
“Is that why Colgon’s working with you too?”
“He at least got close to killing one of them. But you’ve lost your chance. Don’t try it again.”
“That’s my line. That was self-defense, and a warning. Mental dominion won’t work on me... Don’t try it again.” Leticia straightened her back. “I’m here to negotiate.”
“With a blade on you?”
“I told you it was self-defense and a warning. If it comes to it, I’m prepared to destroy the entire sanctuary!” Leticia spat at the man playing with her knife and mocking her.
The threat was so exaggerated that even she found it ridiculous, and she could see in the man’s face that he didn’t buy it for a minute. She ignored that and took a deep breath to calm herself. Her next bluff, she needed to be convincing.
“I’m here to negotiate with the sanctuary as humanity’s representative.”
“You? What authority do you have as a mere teacher?”
“The negotiation is to place someone with that authority in my position. The lord of the Imminent Domain, who’s been entrusted matters related to the sanctuary by the Union of Lords.”
“He’s—”
Leticia stopped Jack and continued, “Yes. He’s gotten caught up in the fighting right now. But he’s headed here. A colleague of mine is bringing him. You could say I’m the advance party. In any case, you’ll need this. There are no Deep Dragons protecting you anymore, and Almagest has a Deep Dragon on his side, which you no longer possess the power to stop. On the other hand, we don’t have time to wipe the lot of you out first. But we can’t wage war without a negotiation. Do you understand?”
“You know the situation in the sanctuary right now?”
“Yes, I do. So bring out the priestesses once more. But I won’t let you try to control me like that again,” she told him plainly, and waited for his response.
She felt herself breaking out into a sweat from just the conversation they’d had thus far. Now her combat gear was feeling uncomfortable for a different reason than it had before.
“I’m not a politician.” The man smiled wryly. “But even I can tell that you don’t have the authority you claim—”
“May I suggest another ambassador, then?”
It wasn’t Leticia who had spoken this time. She turned around with a gasp. Jack’s expression changed as well as the two of them both looked at this new participant in the conversation.
Azalie had shown herself. She must have made herself visible to Jack too. She stepped forward intimidatingly, but not toward him. She was showing that it wasn’t him she wanted to negotiate with. Instead, she was staring up at the podium.
“Doppel X.”
“...Hmm?” Jack frowned.
“The name has many meanings, does it not?” Azalie asked. “I wonder if anyone who remembers this is listening. The first lord of the Imminent Domain was later called Doppel X as well. He had no name of his own. And officially, there was never an ambassador for the sanctuary. The last name he went by was Childman Powderfield. He died, but his oath lives on, doesn’t it? We’ve come here to fulfill that oath as his successors. Show yourselves. Priestesses of the founding sorcerer Aureole! I’ve brought Aureole’s will with me as well.”
She put her hand to her chest and raised her voice to the empty air above her—it almost seemed like a real voice coming from a real throat. “I am the Chaos Witch. I’ve seen the world’s destruction outside of the barrier and returned!”