Never give up.
He must never allow his will to falter. Even in the face of despair, even if everyone else had given up hope, he had to keep reaching past the darkness for the victory that lay beyond.
“Dark Ray!”
The dark spear began its flight. It lanced through the air and disappeared into the woods like a shooting star, leaving a black trail in its wake. For a second, time itself seemed to freeze. Then...
“Gyaaaaaaaaaah!”
An ear-piercing scream echoed through the forest. The black trail of the spear led from Sain’s hand into the Beast’s throat, out the other end, and straight through Iblis’s torso.
“H-Holy... knight...?! H-How... dark... magic?!” gasped Iblis as he crumpled to his knees, one hand pressed to his side.
White flame shattered the darkness.
“Looks like the tides have turned,” said Alicia.
Melia made a wry face.
“I’m sorry it took so long.”
The reptilian Chaos that were Iblis’s aces in the hole lay defeated at their feet.
“Ahh... Ahhhhhh!”
Iblis paled at the sight of the two girls, both having freed themselves from their captors. In his confusion, he turned to the woman he’d personally harmed mere moments ago.
“H-Harti! Do something! Help me!” he screamed with panicked, bloodshot eyes. “I-I’m the one who brought you into the clan! You owe me! You have to pay me back, so help me!”
Harti, still wincing at her wound, slowly got to her feet. She looked at her little sister.
“Marni. You’re staying here, right?”
“...Yes.”
After hearing Marni’s answer, Harti turned to Iblis. Her expression darkened.
“Writhing needles of festering doom, be the thorns in the cursed one’s flesh!”
A strange incantation escaped her lips. Immediately, Iblis vomited a mouthful of blood.
“Urrggh!”
He stared at the crimson blotch on the ground in shock as black dots appeared all over his body. They began to grow in size, as if trying to consume him whole.
“S-Stop it! Harti! Please! Don’t!”
His pleading was met with a gleeful grin.
“Too bad.”
As soon as Harti said the words, even more blood was ejected from his mouth. Marni watched in shock as he collapsed onto the ground.
“No way. Is that... a curse?” she said, bewildered.
“It is. Once you have the power of Chaos, you can do stuff like this too... but I guess you’d have no use for it.”
Curses were a terrible power that the dark elves used to possess. They were the only ones who could use them, and the sheer cruelty of their effects struck fear into people’s hearts. The dreadful power was, in fact, the very reason dark elves came to be a hated race. Nowadays, their blood had become so mixed that dark elves could no longer use curses, but with Chaos enhancing every aspect of her power, it was no surprise that Harti had reclaimed the ability to use them.
“Did you... kill him?”
“No, he’s still alive. Just barely. We’re not exactly seeing eye to eye right now, but I still have some use for this man.”
Closer examination proved her right; Iblis was indeed breathing, albeit weakly. He had lost a lot of blood, though, and he wasn’t going to survive without immediate treatment.
“Well, then. I guess this is where we part ways,” said Harti as she walked over to Iblis.
However, Alicia and Melia brandished their weapons at her.
“Do you really think we’re going to let you go?”
“Seems sort of like wishful thinking to me.”
Harti calmly gave them a questioning look.
“Look around you.”
They heard a rumble in the distance. A cacophony of strange cries and violent thrashing rose in all directions. It was the noise of Beasts of Chaos rampaging through the forest.
“Iblis was using his power to keep a lot of Beasts on standby. Now, without their master controlling them, they’ll just follow their destructive instincts. Pretty soon, there’ll be a bloodbath.”
“Damn it! Melia! Alicia! Get to work! We need to hunt down every last one of those Beasts, or they’ll start killing the students!”
Neither of his attendants voiced any complaints about his decision — the safety of innocents took precedence over capturing Harti.
“Goodbye, holy knight... Take care of Marni for me.”
While Sain rushed to direct his friends, Harti began to sling her incapacitated partner over her shoulder. All of a sudden, three spears of light shot through the air and buried themselves in Iblis’s body.
“Wha—”
Blood splattered on her face as her jaw dropped in surprise. Almost simultaneously, the same spears of light fell upon all the Beasts in the area, nailing them to the ground. They let out short shrieks of agony before falling dead. Everyone was frozen in shock as they watched a young man descend from the sky. His blond hair fluttered gently, and his fierce blue eyes shone with the majesty of a lion. He wore clothes resembling those of Sain — of the holy knight — but he was definitely a different person.
“...Cain Theresia,” Harti said, her voice slow and trance-like as if the words were escaping her not of her own volition.
Cain reached for a sword at his waist and drew it from its sheath. Then, without any flourish or flair, he swung it at Harti.
“Hngh?!”
She lurched back to evade the strike, letting go of Iblis in the process. His lifeless body fell to the ground.
“Velle Darku!” she shouted as she continued to back away. Omitting the incantation reduced the spell’s power, but it was still more than strong enough to wreak havoc on any humans in its way.
As the black tide rolled toward Cain, he swiped his sword sideways. A blinding arc of light shot out of his blade, crashed into the oncoming wave, and neutralized it completely.
“Darku Shot!”
She followed up with a barrage of projectiles. He dodged them all with precise, deliberate steps. Then, for the first time since his sudden appearance, she heard his voice.
“Ray Javelin!”
Pure, blinding luminescence exploded out of Cain, its intensity causing Harti to reel. Only after it flew past her did she realize it was a massive spear of light. The air in its wake seemed to sizzle, and it had disintegrated everything unfortunate enough to have been in its path — an errant leaf; an airborne insect; a left arm.
Harti screamed, grasping at what was left of her limb. A second later, Cain was already upon her.
“N-No, don’t...”
Marni’s trembling protest did little to slow Cain’s blade. It flashed, and the golden trail it drew was soon followed by a crimson arc. Fresh blood colored the nearby trees.
“Auuugh!”
Harti’s leg — hampered by the gaping cleft in her thigh — failed to clear a protruding root. Her foot caught as she tried to step back, and she went tumbling to the ground. She landed hard and could no longer push herself back up. Cain stood over her and raised his sword.
“Stop!”
Marni’s desperate scream filled the air. It entered Sain’s ears and, without passing through his head, went straight to his legs. The next thing he knew, he was staring Cain in the face, the metal of their swords grinding harshly against one another.
“Holy knight...” Cain said, spitting out the words like bile. His eyes flared with leonine ferocity.
Sain grimaced against the intense pressure emanating from his opponent. It wasn’t just the physical force of the blade. There was something else, something invisible — an intrinsic understanding that the slightest lapse in focus would result in both him and Harti being cut in two. He’d heard more than enough rumors around the school about the extraordinary strength of the student council president. What he was witnessing right now, however, was something else entirely. To describe the student council president as “strong” was true, but improper. A horse was indeed stronger than a mouse, but the very act of comparing their strengths was in and of itself farcical. The Eldis twins and Marni — both contenders for first place in the field exercises — were certainly strong in their own right, but it would be ludicrous to compare them to Cain. From the light magic he’d used to the way he moved, everything the student council president did was clearly far beyond the realm of ordinary students. Their swords interlocked, they both continued to hold their ground. For a moment, a strange thought flashed in Sain’s mind. It almost felt like Cain was standing in opposition against him. Against the holy knight.
“Why do you stand in my way? Is that woman not one of Chaos?” Cain said in a harsh voice. “Has emotion clouded your judgment?”
Sain bit his lip. Was he doing the right thing? He wasn’t sure. His body had acted before his mind. Perhaps Cain was right. Maybe he had let his emotions get the better of him.
“...Go.”
He directed the command at the wounded woman behind him. Emotions or not, the one thing he didn’t want was for Marni’s sister to be killed. Cain, however, posed a threat of unknown proportions. Sain couldn’t be sure that he could fight him and protect Harti at the same time, so he needed her to escape on her own.
Harti clutched at the remains of her left arm and, breathing raggedly, forced herself to her feet. She quickly began to run off. Sain waited until her presence had disappeared into the distance before breaking off their clash and leaping backward.
“A holy knight who lets Chaos go free...” said Cain said with a wry, derisive smile. “You’re ill-suited for the mantle... You’d be better off trading roles with me.”
Their eyes met, and what Sain saw in Cain’s left him at a loss for words. There was hatred in those eyes — a bitter, rage-filled enmity that ran far deeper than the events of today. They both remained still for a while, gazes locked in silent stares.
Eventually, the teachers waiting outside the forest signaled the suspension of the field exercises.