A Journey Unwanted

[Realm: Álfheimr]

[Location: Heart Kingdom]

[Pulchritudo]

[Banquet]

Paimon’s immense confusion lasted for only another heartbeat before it gave way to shock.

Mikoto’s gauntleted hand was still outstretched toward the Royal Guard, he was unnervingly casual considering what had just happened. There was no visible spell forming around his hand, and no warning that Paimon could perceive.

But the world shook.

It began beneath their feet with a violent tremor that immediately ran through the entire structure. The floor lurched hard enough to throw loose debris into the air. Cracks raced across the stone in branching lines, spreading outward from the direction of Mikoto’s attack. The walls groaned under the sudden pressure, fractures splitting through the masonry as an invisible force traveled forward.

Paimon could not see it, she could only see what it did.

The floor buckled and stone shattered as the invisible pressure tore through the corridor and struck Trismegistus with enough force to send him backward.

His body left the ground.

He was hurled through the wall with a deafening bang, the impact punching a new opening through the thick structure and sending broken masonry outward. For an instant, his form disappeared into the darkness beyond.

Then the night air rushed into the ruined corridor.

Mikoto did not spare the destruction another glance.

"Don’t waste too much time," he said, his voice remaining as flat as ever. "Try shaking her off and get back to the oni and ginger. Don’t let yourself get bogged down here."

His knees bent slightly.

Gretel barely had time to register the movement as Mikoto shot forward. His petite armored frame became a blur, the heavy black plate somehow producing remarkably little resistance as he accelerated. In the next instant he had already passed through the hole Trismegistus had been thrown through and disappeared into the night.

Paimon’s eyes followed him in disbelief.

Outside, Mikoto’s form continued forward through the open air.

The enormous estate stretched beneath him, its extravagant buildings illuminated by countless lights. Towers and courtyards passed below in rapid succession, the sprawling grounds reduced to a shifting pattern of stone, glass and gold.

The wind rushed past him.

His snow-white hair barely had time to shift before the speed carried him onward.

But Mikoto’s attention remained fixed on one thing, Trismegistus. The Royal Guard was still flying backward, but he had recovered far faster than the force should have allowed.

One arm had already been raised.

A thin violet glow outlined his body, spreading around him in a layer.

Mikoto’s red eyes narrowed slightly.

("He reacted immediately.") His mind worked through what he was seeing even as he continued forward. ("A shockwave-absorbing spell. Something from the Revolutio branch, probably. Kinetomancy, by the look of it.")

The deduction came easily.

Trismegistus had identified the nature of the force almost immediately and responded with the appropriate magic before the attack could do serious damage.

That, more than the spell itself, interested Mikoto.

The ground rushed toward them.

Mikoto adjusted his body in midair, he descended without any visible struggle, his heavy sabatons meeting the stone pathway with a controlled impact. His body lowered naturally with the landing, absorbing the remaining momentum before he straightened.

Several paces away, Trismegistus landed as well.

He slid backward only slightly before coming to a stop, the stone pathway beneath them had cracked from the force of their arrival.

The buildings of the estate surrounded them on all sides, enormous structures of extravagant architecture rising into the night. Their illuminated windows cast long patches of light across the grounds, while the damage to the nearby walls remained visible behind them.

Neither paid the scenery any attention, their focus had narrowed entirely to each other.

Trismegistus calmly brushed the dust from his clothing.

"How impressive," he said.

His voice remained composed, but there was genuine interest beneath it.

"You made use of no spell at all. That attack was simply raw mana, yet you manipulated it with remarkable precision." He examined Mikoto carefully. "Thinning your mana particles, concentrating them, and then forcing all of that energy forward through a single direction... and you managed to do so without producing a quantity of mana that would normally make such an attack obvious." He paused for a moment. "I can scarcely detect your mana at all."

Mikoto stared back at him.

"I hope you’re not thinking that a little praise is going to save you from this ass-beating." He wore no boastful expression despite his words, his beautiful features remained completely neutral as he raised one arm out to the side.

A circular red glow appeared on the ground beside him.

It was roughly the size of a large plate at first, its light spreading across the stone in a ring.

Something was beneath it.

A dark hilt slowly began to rise from the ground. Trismegistus watched, the hilt emerged first, then more of the weapon followed. Slowly the blade rose from the red light until its distinctive red surface became visible.

Sabre.

Mikoto’s hand closed around the hilt, the instant his fingers settled around it, the red glow beneath the weapon vanished but the weapon remained.

Mikoto brought Sabre up into his right hand, his armored fingers closing firmly around the grip. He then moved the weapon behind himself, keeping the blade out of the immediate line between them.

His left hand extended forward.

"But feel honored," Mikoto said. "I don’t usually bother bringing Sabre out for just anyone. If I’m wasting time using it on you, you should understand that I’m taking you seriously."

Trismegistus remained still, his attention had shifted almost entirely to the weapon.

("That blade...") Even behind his golden mask, his interest was difficult to conceal. ("Odd. It radiates a kind of holy energy. I’ve only encountered something comparable from certain spirits within the spiritual world.")

His gaze lingered on Sabre.

("Yet the energy is thoroughly tainted.")

There was something fundamentally contradictory about it. Holy, but corrupted and familiar, yet wrong.

Trismegistus found himself wanting to understand it.

("I should very much like to study that weapon.") His attention returned to Mikoto. ("But I suppose that shall have to wait.")

He slowly extended one hand, his posture changed only slightly. The relaxed Royal Guard was gone, what remained was someone preparing himself properly for the fight.

Trismegistus was the first to move.

One glyph appeared.

Then another and another.

Within seconds, twelve circular glyphs had formed around him, each one rotating at a slightly different angle. Their surfaces were white, filled with geometric patterns. Diamonds nested inside circles, lines intersecting at intervals with each symbol connected to the next through strands of light.

Mikoto’s red eyes followed them without any visible surprise.

("Luxomancy.") He recognized the structure almost immediately. ("Light magic.")

The twelve glyphs rotated.

For a fraction of a second, nothing happened, then every one of them discharged at once.

Light exploded across the estate.

Twelve beams erupted from the glyphs with such speed that there was barely enough time for the sound to catch up. They tore through the air as concentrated streaks of white, converging toward Mikoto from different angles.

Mikoto moved forward, his entire body suddenly accelerated, his sabatons tearing against the stone as he launched himself directly into the storm of light.

The first beam came from his left but Mikoto’s head shifted a fraction, his body followed.

Sabre came around in the same instant. The red blade struck the beam at an angle. Mikoto’s wrists turned with the impact, guiding the blade through the stream of concentrated light.

The beam split, its two halves scattered past him and vanished into the darkness.

Mikoto continued forward as another beam crossed his path. He lowered his shoulders and twisted his torso, letting the attack pass above his head by what appeared to be mere centimeters.

His right arm immediately followed as Sabre flashed upward. Another beam was cleaved apart, and then another.

He continued watching the trajectory of each projectile before it reached him, reading the angle of the glyphs, the direction of their rotation and the slight changes in their orientation before each discharge. It would be rather easy to dispel it all but he was getting rusty with a sword. So rather than the easy way he preferred this.

As one approached from his blind side, he shifted his footing before the beam even entered his peripheral vision. When another crossed toward his chest, he rotated his body and allowed it to pass along the side of his armor before cutting through the trailing edge.

But the beams he avoided had nowhere to go, one struck the stone pathway behind him. The explosion tore the paving apart and threw chunks of rock high into the air.

Another slammed into the side of an estate building, the wall disappeared beneath the impact, stone bursting outward as the concentrated light continued through several layers before finally dissipating.

A third struck one of the extravagant towers, the upper section buckled. Stone and decorative material collapsed into the courtyard below. The devastation spread outward with every missed shot.

Yet Mikoto continued advancing.

He was getting closer and Trismegistus saw it.

The Royal Guard’s twelve glyphs continued firing, but Mikoto had already crossed more than half the distance between them.

Another beam erupted but Mikoto ducked beneath it. Another followed immediately and he stepped sideways as Sabre rose. Another cut followed as the beam separated cleanly.

Trismegistus’s attention sharpened.

("Again.") His gaze followed the blade. ("He’s cutting through the spell itself.")

Mikoto was almost upon him now.

Trismegistus stepped backward, then another.

The glyphs surrounding him vanished as he leapt away just as Mikoto reached the space where he had been standing.

Mikoto’s sabatons struck the stone, his red eyes lifted.

Trismegistus landed several meters away.

For the first time, the Royal Guard’s calm seemed to contain something closer to genuine uncertainty.

("How is that possible?") His gaze remained fixed on Sabre. ("A magical construct should not simply be severable like physical matter. Light magic is still mana given form. The blade should have passed through the spell’s manifestation, or at most disrupted its structure.")

His lenses narrowed.

("Yet he cut through it.") That was more than unusual, it was fundamentally wrong. ("That shouldn’t be possible.")

Mikoto saw the hesitation, his expression barely changed.

"What’s wrong?" He questioned almost mockingly.

Trismegistus did not answer.

Instead, his hand moved.

His fingers traced symbols through the air and runes appeared. They were not like the clean circular glyphs of his Luxomancy. These were stranger as in angular and irregular. Their shapes seemed to bend the space around them, as though the symbols were refusing to remain fixed in three dimensions.

Mikoto’s eyes narrowed.

("Runecraft?")

The runes distorted as the air warped, then something invisible detonated outward. There was no beam or visible projectile, the force simply appeared. The stone beneath Mikoto’s feet erupted as the invisible pressure expanded toward him, tearing apart the pathway and crushing everything caught within its reach.

Mikoto reacted instantly, he jumped. The force swept beneath him as the ground exploded. Stone fragments shot upward as the invisible pressure continued forward, ripping through the courtyard and smashing into another structure.

A section of the building’s exterior collapsed, Mikoto remained airborne for a moment, his tail coat and armor shifting from the displaced air.

He looked down toward Trismegistus.

"Seriously?" His voice was flat. "You’re using Runecraft of all things?"

The Royal Guard looked upward.

Mikoto’s expression remained almost insultingly calm.

"I expected something more interesting from someone like you."

The next instant he vanished.

Trismegistus’s lenses widened slightly.

Mikoto had ceased to occupy the space where he had been.

"Behind you."

Trismegistus turned.

Mikoto was already there, the petite armored figure stood directly behind him, Sabre still held in his right hand, his beautiful face completely devoid of excitement.

His red eyes met the Royal Guard’s golden mask.

"You ought to get serious."

Trismegistus barely had time to react as Mikoto shifted his weight. His left leg drove forward, the kick struck Trismegistus squarely and the impact was immediate. The Royal Guard’s body was launched through the air, his clothing snapping violently from the force as he crossed the courtyard.

He crashed into the wall of another estate structure.

BOOM!!!

The masonry buckled around him.

A deep crater formed where his body struck, cracks spreading rapidly through the surrounding wall.

Dust poured from the damaged structure.

Mikoto remained where he was, lowering his leg and settling his stance, his expression hadn’t changed.

"If you’re not going to make me bother using magic," he said, looking toward the crater, "then at least make yourself worth the effort."

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