The tides of battle shifted once again. Out of the Seven Generals of Krios, two—Achtida and Diros—had just died, and Nefritis, the boy hero, had fallen off the face of the battlefield. The side of Krios, who had overwhelmed their opponents with the quality of their warriors, now found that they were unable to stand up against the difference in quantity. Prodotis, the enemy commander, had not only met Dill in battle, but the young Orestes, the Reincarnator girl Rei, and now the Reincarnator Blusterer. He had no strength left in reserve.
One man did not miss this opportunity. He headed toward a burning tower of iron, the many-layered prison of armor constructed by Prodotis’s Skill. On his way, he passed in front of the group of enormous girls who instilled in him an ominous feeling. Ever since they had suddenly appeared out of the blue smoke, they had not moved—but they were still, without a doubt, something sinister that should not exist in this world.
The same could, however, be said of the Titan girl he was about to free—Nue Kirisaki, the Chimera. Hathaway, the mail-cloak, slipped his fingers between a gap in the burning metal and wrenched it apart with all his might.
“Dill...?!” The girl, who had raised her head upon seeing the light stream in, looked up at him as her expression changed from relief to fear. “Have you come...to kill me?”
“No. I’ve come to save you.” Very recently, back on the streets of Vulcan, Hathaway had indeed cornered Nue and tried to kill her on Halberd’s orders. Therefore, he had expected this reaction.
Paying this no mind, Hathaway thrust his arm through the gap to tear away the next piece of armor. Glowing red from the heat of Prodotis’s Skill, the metal burned him, and the brigade’s adjutant grimaced in pain.
“Why... What are you doing? Weren’t you supposed to kill me, to stop me getting in Dill’s way?”
“That’s right. You are dangerous. Your power is to be feared, as is your lineage. But...” Unable to stand the pain, Hathaway withdrew his hand once—but then he immediately resumed his work. “With your power, there’s a chance that you could stand against a hero in battle. Unfortunately, I am just an ordinary man. I once fought Steel-Link for the position of Lord Halberd’s adjutant, and he wiped the floor with me. However, in the end, with a word from Apollonius I was made adjutant. At the time, he quipped that a man like Steel-Link would be wasted in such a position. That it was no job for a man who would be a hero...! And in the end, he was completely right.” After casting aside a particularly hefty piece of armor, Hathaway moved onto the next. His own gauntlets started to melt and warp from the heat, and the palms of his hands were burned red. That Nue had not been roasted to death inside the prison was probably the result of some fine-tuning of Prodotis’s Skill.
“Move over. I’ll use a lever.” After having Nue move away from the opening, Hathaway plunged in his slender sword, still in its sheath, and put his weight on it. Sweat ran in beads off his brow from the heat. His beard, which he had carefully combed with oil, was a total mess. “Are you listening? Let me just say that I hate Steel-Link. Enough that I once thought of killing him. However!”
The part of his sword that had acted as its fulcrum was overcome by the heat and bent in half. Hathaway threw away his rapier and continued his work with the other sword he wore at his waist.
“I am only Lord Halberd’s dog... Ultimately, everything I do ought to be on his behalf. If Steel-Link is useful to Lord Halberd, I must help him. Right now, your strength is needed. By me, by Lord Halberd...and by Steel-Link.”
“If I escape from here, I might kill both of you, you know.” Red eyes peered out of the depths of the darkness, looking up at Hathaway as if to test him. He simply shook his head.
“You won’t. In the battle of Vulcan, you saved the civilians. If you hadn’t blanketed the sky in feathers, the lightning of the Reincarnator Shiden would have claimed a great many more casualties... Ah, so this sword is no good either. In that case...” Hathaway’s auxiliary blade snapped, leaving him no choice but to try prying apart the gap in the armor with his hands once again.
“That’s enough already. I can get out now. I’m a monster, after all.” The interior of the armored tower then flooded with black feathers. As Hathaway backed away, he saw the feathers seep out of the gap in the armor, and the surroundings turned a shade darker.
The feathers stuck to the outside of the iron prison, dampening the heat. A slender arm crawled out of the tiny opening. Then Nue’s upper body. Then the rest of her emerged, and without touching the ground she rose into the air. The feathers that were stuck to the prison peeled away, floated up, and gathered around the girl’s arms. Blink. Blink, blink, blink. Each black feather parted somewhere around the middle. A crimson eye emerged and started blinking.
“Am I scary? Do I creep you out?” asked Nue, her face expressionless. Hathaway answered calmly.
“Yeah. You’re scary, and you creep me out. What about it? Now go. Save Steel-Link.”
“Okay.” Chimera beat her eldritch wings and flew.