Red Heat Sword (2)
Agni.
The Spirit King of Fire.
If the original Yuria had Dark, then the original Rania had Agni. Rania, of course, was a knight — not a spirit mage.
"Agni. Lend me your power."
"...And the price?"
The contract, forced through against the very grain of the world, compressed what remained of Rania's life to its utter limit.
"Everything I have."
"You are too hasty."
Agni was no villain in this.
"Listen, child. You could become a hero even without making this choice."
He tried, in earnest, to talk her out of it.
"This will only hasten the hour. That is all it does — and even for so paltry a gain, it will steal away most of the life you have left."
Compression, in the most literal sense. A child who should have burned slowly into a great blaze would instead flare once, brilliantly, and go out.
"I know."
"If you know, then why?!"
"...Because I..."
Even so, Rania chose Agni.
"I'd rather you burn me to ash than lose anything else. Not anymore."
And so Rania became a hero.
"Your growth was already absurd, and now you grow even faster."
"...I'll keep going."
She grew several times faster than before.
"How did you even stop that?!"
"Who knows."
Trials she never should have been able to overcome, she vaulted straight over.
"Ra...nia..."
"Please, Kaiden, please snap out of it!!"
"You... have to... live..."
Even as she lost her companions, even as the trials grew harder still, she pressed steadily forward.
"Second Apostle. Any last words?"
"...So this is the ending at last."
"...Go."
The ending she barely reached was the same one I had seen just before possessing this body. The lifespan remaining to Rania at that point:
A single year. That was all.
The price of compressing decades of growth into twelve months.
Be that as it may, Agni was a benefactor. Without him, Rania would have lost to the Evil God and died.
Granted, she had lost her entire family down to their graves, watched her companions shatter before her eyes, and been left with less than a year to live —
"...Because I saved the world."
The tragic hero who lost everything and still saved the world: Rania Vulcanus.
I was looking at Agni — one of the fateful encounters that had made her who she was — with decidedly mixed feelings, when —
"Y-YOU INSANE BASTARD!!!"
Agni burst into flame without warning. Fwoosh!
If Dark of Darkness was a still, deep night, Agni was a roaring blaze.
"You DARE strike a Spirit King upon the head!?"
The heat-haze that flared with his emotions was, I had to admit, pretty striking.
"I'll burn you to a crisp!!!"
Before talking to Agni, I grabbed the trembling spirit of evil and asked,
"What's your name?"
"Ah! It's Ryang!"
"Pretty name."
Shamelessly pretty, even. The Spirit King was Dark of Darkness, and his contractor was Death of Death, after all.
I turned with a smile.
"If you're asking why I hit you, the decent thing to do is give you an answer."
"Speak!"
The instant Agni paused, I seized the opening and pointed at Ryang.
"He told me to."
"...Excuse me?"
"He told me to."
"W-wait wait wait wait!!"
Ryang flailed in midair. Agni burned with murderous intensity.
"...Even if our elements differ, a mere high spirit dares set its sights on a king?"
"Come here, Ryang."
"W-wait, Lord Agni!! This is a complete misunderstanding!!"
"Oh? If you will not come, then I shall catch you myself!!"
Agni, who had been darting about like a will-o'-the-wisp, ballooned in size all at once.
Spirit King of Flame — Agni
reveals his complete form.
At first he was nothing but a colossal flame. It held heat enough to melt stone, and yet it burned not a single thing.
"Have you already forgotten, Ryang?"
"F-forgotten?! Forgotten what, exactly!?"
"What else."
The fire that had filled the sealed chamber gathered toward its hottest core.
Crrrk!
A form took shape, as though superheated steel were being forged into a human figure.
"The filthy nature of flame, of course."
Hissss!
He vented the heat he had been holding in a plume of pale steam, and revealed himself.
"Come here."
If you were to personify the sun, I suspected this was the process — and the visage — that would result.
"W-wait! This is a genuine misunderstanding, I swear!!"
"You and I have had dealings since ancient times, Ryang. I shall boil you for a mere hundred years and then let you go."
"GYAAAAH!! P-please spare me!!"
"I won't kill you, at least."
Hair that wavered like a heat haze. Skin sheathed in living flame. Eyes that burned a vivid red. He was, in every sense of the word, the King of Flame.
I nearly lost myself staring into that fire, but —
"YOU CRAZY BASTARD!!! This is NOT okay!! Say something!! Explain yourself!!!"
Ryang's shriek snapped me back to my senses.
Right. Focus.
I needed to find the Red Heat Sword, and if I could manage it, pull off that as well.
I gathered myself as best I could, approached the manifested Agni, and opened my mouth.
"Damn. Fire spirits are so fucking cool."
Hell, if I'd known it was gonna be like this, I'd have gone with a fire spirit from the start.
Meanwhile, in the drawing room of the Vulcanus estate.
"Ah... Lady Vivian?"
"Yeah."
"It's been a while, and I hate to say this, but I have a great deal of work to attend to."
"Sounds rough."
"Ah..."
An awkward atmosphere hung between Vulkan and Vivian, seated across from each other. Which was only natural. Vulkan had been in the middle of cleaning up after the recent attack and catching up on a backlog of work.
"It's been a while, Vulkan."
"Lady Vivian...?"
"Talk with me a bit."
"Ah — I'll show you to the drawing room."
Vivian had shown up out of nowhere and asked to talk. It had seemed important, so he had agreed, but —
"Living as a blacksmith. It's fun."
"...Is that so?"
"...Honey candy is made from honey, apparently."
"...I would imagine so, yes."
For some reason, Vivian was dumping a pile of completely useless conversation on him.
What on earth is she doing?
Catching up with an old comrade was fine, but this was not the time.
I'll invite her again later.
Having made up his mind, Vulkan stood.
"I'm sorry, but today —"
"Rania. I've decided to teach her."
"I beg your pardon?!"
Vulkan sat back down.
"What do you mean by that!?"
"Exactly what I said. Rania. She's talented."
"Aigoo, what a blessing!!!"
Just as Rania sometimes dropped her formal speech, Vulkan let his true feelings slip before he could stop himself.
"Ah. Ahem. Hem. Forgive me."
He composed his appearance at once, but the excitement in his heart was not so easily settled. It couldn't be helped.
To receive Vivian's recognition!!
She had acknowledged only four people in that way, and those four had become heroes alongside her. And now his own daughter — Rania, the apple of his eye — had earned Vivian's recognition and become her disciple!
He wanted nothing more than to scoop Rania into his arms and run the length of the entire Empire.
Hold it in. Cleaning up comes first. Even if we throw a grand party once everything is over, for now, just hold it in.
Still...
There's time enough to ask a few questions, at least.
Vulkan directed various questions at Vivian, who for some reason looked rather relieved.
"What sort of talent does she possess?"
"This and that. She'll be stronger than Evan."
"Th-the Hero Evan?!"
"Yeah."
"Aigoo... Rania, my girl..."
By now, Vulkan was very nearly in tears. He laid both enormous hands over his heart and blinked back tears of joy.
Then he snapped his head up.
"H-how! How did you come to meet our daughter and take her as your disciple?!"
Vivian hesitated, then answered.
"Eugene asked me to."
"Eugene...?"
Wasn't that the Second Apostle of the Six Apostles of the Evil God — the one who had claimed to be Rania's friend?
Vulkan's brow furrowed of its own accord, and Vivian let out a short laugh.
"Don't worry."
"Worry?"
"He's a decent guy."
Tyrant Vivian.
A monster of slaughter whom no one but Ariel had ever managed to so much as hold a conversation with, let alone control. The tyrant who had made even her own allies tremble in fear —
"Trust me. He's a really decent guy."
— was smiling as she vouched for someone else.
"Ah..."
It was something he had believed could never happen — a shock even greater than the news that she had taken Rania as a disciple.
Come to think of it, that guy...
If Eugene hadn't brought Vivian and Rania here...
...what would have become of the family?
From within, Haviel. From without, two of the Six Apostles.
Rania, who would have been staying at Academy Zion, might have survived...
The rest would have been slaughtered. The family line, extinguished.
Vulkan pictured their faces in turn: Hestia, Rania, Rafael, and Raniel.
Only now does it sink in.
If he had followed Ariel's words and remained in seclusion. If Eugene had never come.
"...We nearly lost everything."
Vulkan bit down on his lip.
Why would Ariel...?
Had the former Saintess known this tragedy was possible, or had she given the order because she hadn't known?
Questions crowded in, but none of them mattered right now.
"Thank you."
"For what."
"You, Lady Vivian, and Eugene as well. I nearly became a beast who couldn't even recognize his own benefactors."
Vulkan made a vow.
This is a life-debt. A grace of salvation.
And not his life alone — he owed the lives of the entire Vulcanus family and every soul in their territory.
So whatever that boy Eugene wants, whatever path he walks —
Iron and fire would walk with him.
Having settled his resolve, Vulkan murmured a deep sigh without meaning to.
"A tremendous grace. We must have honored our ancestors so devotedly that they have repaid us thus..."
Vulkan had muttered it like a sob, and Vivian averted her eyes before she could help it.
...Those ancestors.
Eugene had pretty much smashed them all to pieces.
Come to think of it, is he still not done?
She was running out of excuses to keep Vulkan occupied. The moment Vivian turned her head toward the window —
FWOOOOOOM!!!
A deep crimson flame erupted from the ground where the family heads' tombs lay sleeping.
The others might not have understood, but Vivian grasped the situation perfectly.
"GYAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!"
One spirit of evil.
One spirit of flame.
And —
One lunatic.