6.17.
Leanne made her way to the training field at the plaza which overlooked the mansion. There were tents set up all around, the knights were working a sweat under harsh training.
A garden of flowers sprawled across a field that reached the end of the estate, a small pond near a gazebo a distant away. There was even a small jungle trail. A wall surrounded the perimeter of it all.
“Of all places.. here?” Sequencee couldn’t help but be at odds with the location. The gazes he was receiving from the knights were discomforting. All of them looked like excellent fighters in their own rights.
“S-Sire, he’s here..” Leanne spoke from outside the tent.
There was the sound of chains.
Leanne turned to him, eyes glistening in tears.”I.. I’m sorry for everything..”
Her figure began to crumble into smoke, Sequencee’s eyes widened.
“P-Please.. save me..”
Were her last words just as the last bits of her copy disappeared.
Sequencee pushed the curtains apart. The inside of the tent was dim and humid. He felt like he was being baked inside this heat.
There was another black cloth beyond, Sean stood before him with a grin.
“Welcome.”
“What do you want?”
“You’re finally being honest. Care to guess who is behind this?”
The sound of chains rattled loudly.
“Someone who isn’t Schwii. What the hell are you doing to her?” Sequencee was preparing trap spells.
“Dear me. Can’t you be honest for once,” Sean shook his head. He pulled the cloth down.. and what revealed itself was Leanne.. chained to a board naked. With lacerations seen all over her body and blood seeping from the wounds, she was struggling to protect herself..
“Beautiful isn’t she?” Sean picked up a whip from the table.
Crack–
BOOOM!!!
The entire tent exploded.
“Not bad.”
A heavy sword intent came crashing down. From the center, a glacier of ice exploded forth like a chrysanthemum flower.
Sequencee tried to erase the cuffs that held her in place but.. it didn’t work. It was some kind of special alloy enchanted with dense antimagic.
He either had to cut it clean with a physically sharp object, or chop off her limbs in order to escape.
‘Fucking asshole.’
The Leanne he saw outside was a fake.. just like how the Sean he saw at the engagement party was fake. Sequencee didn’t know how exactly they could have the same gifts.
“Can you afford to save her?” Standing on top of one of the ice spires, Sean asked as if taunting.
Sequencee reached his hands out and a black mass extended to become a spear.
‘I really should’ve practiced swinging it more.’
With four swipes, he broke the cuffs which restrained her hands and feet. However, his lack of accuracy had caused some part of her wrist to bleed.
She fell to the ground, Sequencee covered her with his mantle and then created a field of gentle healing– something he learnt from Evelyn. It was an AOE effect healing for general light wounds.
He turned to face Sean.. no, the whole knight’s order.
“I thought you would bring Leticia with you. I suppose you’ve made the wise decision not to.. though, that just makes my life much easier.”
“You think I came unprepared?”
“Who knows. Could that girl actually protect herself?”
‘Well, Reese can..’
Sequencee glanced at Leanne.
‘.. but how about me? What if she’s actually on his side?’
What was priority? Did Sequencee really need to save this girl? Could she be faking her desperation? Was she really in danger?
Considerations like these create a dilemma.
“Is this how you always treat women?”
“Women? What a nice word to use. She has quite the charming body doesn’t she?”
‘Stall time until Reese gets here. She could use her shadow to take her away..’
Finding a hostage here was the last thing Sequencee expected.
Sequencee prepared a couple of trigger traps.
[Universal Magic: Break Magic]
But just as he completed the encirclement, he found his magic snuffed out.
It was also at this moment when Sean acted.
His sword tore through the air, Sequencee swung his spear to counter.
The clash forced Sean spiraling into the air. He was impaled by one of the icicles.. and dispersed into smoke.
‘That’s a dud..? What the..’
[Unique Magic: Xerox]
“Hey, let’s fight some more,” another Sean said, climbing the ice.
“This is going to be fun. Let’s see how long you can last,” one more Sean smashed a path through and charged forward.
‘Fuck.’
[Illusion Magic: Universal Haze]
The sounds of unified chanting resounded across the plaza. Sights blurred and distorted. Day turned as dark as night, the sounds of the deep black oceans.
“Close your eyes.”
Sequencee put Leanne onto his back and blew a path to escape. Hundreds of knights surrounded him on all sides, all of which swung at each other in complete disorientation. It was chaos.
[Unique Skill: Invalidate Gift]
Sequencee gift broke apart as he was pushing through the team of knights. As they regained clarity, Sequencee accelerated his pace with wind magic.
He was just about to escape the encirclement when something tugged at him from behind. Like a leash holding him back, it caused him to accidentally dropped Leanne on the ground.
He turned around and found himself before a swinging halberd. Time seemed to slow as he processed the situation around himself.
‘I can’t save them all.’
He tapped the ground with his feet; an earth obelisk exploded forth. The knight who was just about to hit Sequencee’s head was thrown into the air, his chestplate severely dented.
Sequencee extended his hand to contrived his dragon spear. With one sweep of his hand, sent forth a spatial fissure.
All the knights who came into contact with it were severed into two from the torso.
Blood splattered, souls sublimated into the sky.
With another swipe, another fissure was torn. Magic circles spun around Sequencee and began firing repeated rounds of Starfall.
A long wall of ice rose from the ground, breaking the field into two.
‘They don’t have mages.’
Sequencee turned to Leanne, about to pick her up when she staggered backwards, trying to avoid him.
It was at this point that Sequencee realized that his gift had been deactivated yet again. He heaved a sigh.
“Fine. If you’re playing it that way..”
‘Why did I even decide to save her..’
If she didn’t want him to help, then so be it. Sequencee turned around, planning to leave alone.
If he had left her to die, the number of deaths would’ve only been one, not the dozens he had just ended.
“N-No! I’m sorry, please..” Leanne pleaded.
“Then get the hell out–”
BOOM!!
A hole was blown through the wall of ice.
[Celestial Magic: Solar Beam]
A giant laser blew straight towards Sequencee. He pulled up a magic barrier to intercept.
[Universal Magic: Break Magic]
His magic barrier disappeared.
It was a point blank hit.
“Ah..” Leanne who had her hand still outstretched watched in horror.
The laser died down, blood dripped..
Standing there.. his vision turned dim as a hole was opened in his flank.
‘Ugh..’
===
Knock. Knock.
Someone was at the door.
Sequencee who had been sitting in meditation opened his eyes. The hundred of beads which surrounded him faded, a black-purple mist which enveloped his right arm returned within himself.
Leticia and Schwii were already asleep in their respective beds, Reese was nowhere to be found. Judging from the reaction of spatial magic, the person beyond the door wasn’t her.
Sequencee made his way over and opened the door.
It was Lancet.
The two man stood before each other in a moment of silence.
“Run away, now.”
“What?”
“I’m telling you to take Leticia and that other girl away before Sir Sean finds out,” Lancet said in haste.
“Then the documents..”
“Who cares about the documents! If you don’t get out of here alive, it won’t do anything!”
“How about you?”
“Me?”
“The fact that you’re telling me this, aren’t you in danger yourself?”
Lancet clenched his jaws. “So what? As a bitch brother, I don’t mind dying for my sister’s sake. I’ve made too many mistakes.. if I can make up for her this one time.. just this one time, I can protect her.. so please, go.”
Sequencee contemplated his words.
‘I get that this is a trap but..’
Does the effect of the contract remain in effect? That Estia has been handed over to Leticia’s management?
In the duel Sequencee had with Lancet last time, both parties had a copy of the contract. In this situation however, the copy of the contract was still not with them. The count had mentioned that he would hand them the copy of the contract alongside the necessary documents tomorrow.
“Reese, are you here?”
“Who..?”
“Looks like she’s not here yet.”
Reese had earlier left saying that she had something she needed to attend to. If Sequencee needed her, he would have to wait for a little while.
“Lancet, come in.”
“What?”
“If you die, Leticia will be pretty sad I imagine.”
“As if she would,” his face turned into a scowl.
“Tell me what you know.”
“Sequencee. I can’t stay here for long– they’ll suspect that I..”
“I’m sure they already know. There’s no difference if you went back now or later.”
A figure emerged from the shadow. Lancet staggered in shock.
“Here master.. oh, it’s him.”
Staring straight at Lancet, her eerie golden eyes were like two jewels in the dark.
“Can you take Schwii and Lancet away from here for now?”
“Sure thing.”
“W-What?”
“There’s a possibility that they might chase us even in the city, so we need a place to regroup. ”
“Of course. The sewers.”
“...”
“It’s truly the safest place of any city by far. I heard their plans, doesn’t seem like they’ll be checking there anytime soon.”
“Nevermind.. right, there’s still something I need to take before I leave. Instead of going to the sewers, just focus on taking them out of the city, and maybe getting help. We’ll head straight to Estia after this, so if you can book a ride for us.. also, we have our items at the inn we need to deal with.”
“I will try my best. There’s no guarantee I can find a solution to all these problems, not especially at this sort of time.”
“Do your best, thanks.”
Black shadows extend towards Lancet and Schwii.
“W-Wait.. what in the..” he began sinking into black quicksand.
“If not for master’s benevolence I’d have killed you by now, so be thankful!”
“Reese, don't say useless things..”
“It’s not useless muu..”
Schwii was asleep, so she wasn’t even aware that she had entered Reese’s shadow domain. Lancet soon disappeared entirely.
“Then, Sequencee, be careful. I’ll come back as soon as I can to assist you.”
“Got it.”
“See you.”
Then silence.
“I should’ve expected this.. now what.”
Sequencee heaved a sigh. He raised his hands, a black fog clad with intermittent purple flames swirled around his arms..
‘Looks just like the black knight.. is that why I stopped using it? Because it reminded me of that?’
He pushed his hand forth, and like a trigger, the fog coalesced into a long shaft– then shaped itself into a spear. An ominous design. If the area of the blade were longer, it could’ve become a scythe.
Sequencee dropped onto his bed with his legs dangling on the edge. He studied the spear–
‘Ah, here is where the tuner goes..’
Sequencee extended his other hand, the tuner came into existence from a black fog, just like the black dragon spear.
‘I wonder what it does..’
Limitations had been placed on the spear in order to protect his thirteen year old body. But now that he was seventeen..
The two pieces interlocked.. the tuner sank in.
Sequencee expected something to happen.. but to his disappointment, nothing changed. No flashy lights, no obvious boost in power. He swung the spear around, careful not to break anything in the room.
“Seriously.. is there supposed to be some other thing I’m forgetting?” he scratched his head.
The black dragon spear dissipated into smoke and returned within him, but this time..
“Hm?”
A faint crest could be seen on top of his right palm.
