“Came...to assist...” Manato was so overwhelmed he just stopped and stood there. He didn’t know what was going on, but she was apparently here to help.
Haru had stopped too. “Did you just say Arabakia?!” he asked.
“That’s my father’s name!” The woman who had introduced herself as Yori got angry for some reason.
“Lumiaris!” The divine soldier that had lost both its arms tried to lunge at Yori.
“Huh?!” Yori was shocked for a moment. But only for a moment. Then she quickly swung her sword, decapitating the divine soldier with ease.
“That one sure was spirited, huh?” she said. “It got a bit chilly while we were crossing the mountains. Time to warm up!”
The decapitated divine soldier was still down, but the captain and the other ones that had been kicked by her dragon were already getting back up. And there were probably about a dozen that hadn’t gotten kicked. No, there might have been even more than that.
“O light! Come to the light! O Lumiaris, bless us with your light!”
The priest turned its banner spear toward Yori, and the divine soldier captain and its underlings moved to attack her. The priest’s appearance made it stand out from the rest. Was it more important, and in a position to give orders to the others?
“Hey—” Haru tried to warn Yori.
“Fifth Ember!”
Yori wasn’t listening. She turned to face the captain and soldiers coming at her. But was that really the move to be making? It was brave but also reckless. Manato’s hair stood on end. Yori. Who was she? He had no idea what she was about to do, but he had a feeling that it was going to be incredible. She’d come riding in on a dragon, after all. It had been flying. Yori had come flying in out of the blue. That was already incredible.
“Arvearn!” Yori lifted her sword up. Its blade turned red. Well, it had been red to begin with. But it got even more red. As if it was burning. The sword was burning red.
“Wha?!”
Haru was speechless. Manato couldn’t speak either.
“Detonera!”
Did Yori slam her burning sword into the ground? Manato couldn’t tell. He didn’t know if it had made contact or not. But he felt like what happened next occurred before her sword made contact with anything.
There was an incredible noise, and Manato was knocked over.
“Eagh?!”
One time, in Tsunomiya, he’d watched the yakuza demolish an old building, and one of the other onlookers had explained to him what bombs were. If you set them on fire, they blew up, and could do things like this. The yakuza of Tsunomiya had been in possession of bombs that could demolish buildings. Maybe Yori was too? Had she used a bomb just now? But all she’d done was shout something and then swing her sword. Was that enough to cause an explosion?
The dozen or so divine soldiers and the captain that had tried to attack Yori were blasted away from her. Some of them tripped, fell over, or landed on their backsides, and a few were even torn to bits.
“Was that...magic?” Haru was in a crouching position too.
“It’s not magic,” Yori said as she turned, adjusting the position of the glasses-like thing she was wearing. “It’s the Fifth Ember from the Six Embers. The detonation of the scorching sword.”
“Yoriii!” A shout came from up above them.
There was a dragon. Again. Was it a different one from before? It was flying in the air over their heads, not that high up. It was beating its wings, but not going anywhere, instead simply hovering in place. It seemed as though someone was riding it. No, someone definitely was. The person had long hair. Was it another woman?
“It’s not over yet! Don’t let your guard down!”
“Well, of course!” Yori shouted back at her. “Who do you think you’re talking to, Riyo?!”
As Yori was speaking, the long-haired woman jumped down from her dragon’s back. Was she seriously doing that? Sure, it wasn’t that high up, but it was still higher than the walls of Alterna. At that height, even Manato would’ve hesitated. He didn’t think he could’ve brought himself to take that leap.
Was Riyo her name? The woman who’d been riding the dragon rolled forward so that her front was facing the ground, spreading her arms and legs as she fell.
It gave Manato the chills and he smiled.
“Whoa!”
That was scary, scary stuff. What was she gonna do? What would happen to her if she hit the ground like that? Wouldn’t she get hurt? There was no way she wouldn’t, right? And it’d be more than just a scratch.
And yet, Riyo landed without any trouble. How in the world had she done that? It looked to Manato like Riyo had curled into a ball right before she’d hit the ground. Then she’d rolled. No way. No way. It wasn’t possible. There was no way she could’ve done that. Just one well-timed roll, and she was able to get up like it was nothing? That was impossible, right?
But as soon as Riyo was on her feet, she took off running. Running? Was that running?
It didn’t look like walking. And it was super fast, so she must’ve been running. He’d never seen anyone run like that. Riyo was tall. Taller than even Haru or Manato. And not by a little; by a lot. But as she was running, Riyo kept her head low. She ran like she was crawling across the ground. She must’ve been really flexible. Maybe too flexible. Did human joints really bend like that? Could human muscles support that posture? If it were Manato, he would have fallen over.
Riyo didn’t fall over. She was tilting pretty heavily, though. Not just forward, but to the sides as well. She ran in an arcing path rather than straight as she closed in on a divine soldier that was attacking Yori.
Did Riyo put her hands around the divine soldier’s head when she reached it? That was how it looked to Manato. Riyo’s hands weren’t bare. She wore long gloves that protected her up to her elbows. Were those gloves hard? But that wouldn’t explain what happened to the divine soldier’s head, which exploded with a loud pop. Skulls were supposed to be pretty hard, though.
Then, with a couple unnaturally long strides, she closed in on another divine soldier, kicking it. No, that wasn’t a kick. She’d caught the divine soldier between her legs. The long boots Riyo was wearing were probably pretty solid, but again, that didn’t explain how she was able to make the divine soldier’s head fly off with another loud pop. It was clear something out of the ordinary was going on. Sure, nothing that had happened since he’d woken up in Grimgar had been normal, but that didn’t mean he could help feeling surprised by it.
“Riyo! I didn’t ask for your help!” Yori shouted.
But Riyo didn’t turn to look at her. And she didn’t stop.
“They’re strong. We might be able to do this after all,” Haru murmured. His mask turned toward Manato. “You get back, Manato! I’ll take out the priest!”
“Oh! Okay!” Manato replied, then immediately thought, I don’t want to run away. But at the same time, he felt as though he ought to do as he was told. He didn’t have a sword. And he’d been cut. He had other wounds as well. Manato could handle the pain, sure, but even if he was still kicking, was he of any use? That was doubtful.
Yori took the shortest route to her enemies, swinging sharply with her red sword. It seemed like that Sixth Ember, or Fifth Ember, or whatever she had called it was something she kept in reserve. She didn’t use it again, probably because in single combat she didn’t need it. A single swing of her sword was enough. It was probably also due to Riyo being nearby.
Riyo was constantly running around, catching the enemies that were trying to attack Yori between her arms or legs and taking them out. She was always circling around to get ahead of them. Unlike Yori, Riyo didn’t run in straight lines. She took circuitous routes that curved. And her attacks were the same. When she swung out with her arms and legs to sandwich her opponents, her movements weren’t straight then either. Some part of Riyo’s body, or the whole thing, was forming circles, either big or small, at all times. And she was giving Yori the support she needed. Yori seemed to not be paying any attention to Riyo, but Riyo was constantly watching Yori and predicting what she’d do next.
Haru was going after the priest that was entirely covered in that shiny stuff and carrying the banner spear, leaving the other enemies to Riyo and Yori.
Manato found his sword and picked it up, then crouched in some bushes that would let him watch Haru and the priest.
The priest was holding the spear that was half again as long as the priest was tall using both its hands, while Haru had the stretching dagger in his right hand, and the nonstretchy dagger in his left. Even when Haru pressed the attack with his stretching dagger, the priest skillfully parried with its spear, and occasionally struck back. It didn’t seem like it was going to be able to skewer Haru, but Haru’s reach was an issue. There was a lot of distance between the two. While one of his daggers could stretch, it could only extend a little farther than Manato’s sword. Haru would have to close the distance in order to get his attacks to hit the priest, which was moving around skillfully to stop Haru from doing that.
Whenever Haru showed signs of circling around to either side, the priest would turn its spear that way to keep him in check. The priest may have looked weird—downright bizarre, really—but it was a really tough opponent.
“Lumi, Betectos, Edem’os, Tem’os desiz.”
The priest had once been a person. It spoke a human language, so maybe it had once looked like Manato. Until it had converted and had become a follower of the god called Lumiaris. But Haru had said it wasn’t a person anymore. It was something inhuman.
“Tem’os redez, Lumi eua shen qu’aix.”
The priest was murmuring something as it fended off Haru’s attacks.
Suddenly, it thrust the pommel of its banner spear into the ground.
“Fraw’ou qu’betecra’jis lumi.”
“Huh?”
Manato’s eyes widened. Though the priest’s head and body weren’t bumpy, exactly, they weren’t completely smooth either. Some kind of patterns were visible on them, which were now turning blue and becoming more distinct.
Haru was probably not as surprised as Manato, but he did jump back. He was acting wary.
“Lumi addecza qu’devain.”
The priest started chanting again.
“Ahhh!” Manato shouted without meaning to.
The priest was shining so brightly it was almost blinding. Manato wasn’t the only one to recoil. Haru did too. But of course he would. Haru was much closer to the priest. He’d been bathed directly in that intense light.
“Lumi trough’es duec eskalys.”