Chương 100: “Sir Ozy (1)”

The swordsman was strong and fast. Celestia did her utmost keeping the spear between them. He came in with quick, testing cuts: short arcs aimed at her forearms, probing for a gap in her reach. She blocked each one on the haft or deflected with the blade, the impacts jarring up her wrists. He was smart enough to continue pushing forward, not letting someone with a spear make use of its full advantage. Stats-wise, he was stronger than her. She could feel it in the weight behind every swing.

A whistle came from somewhere behind him.

"Wow." The man with the crossbow was leaning against the cavern wall, watching.

"Are you sure she's just Floor 16? She's nearly on par with Hans." The woman beside him crossed her arms.

"Must be great being a noble. Getting all that fancy training when they're still young." The crossbow man raised his voice.

"Hey! Hans! Need some help?" Hans did not answer. His eyes stayed on Celestia's spear tip. Every exchange was tight and fast, and the only sounds between them were the crack of steel on steel and the fluttering of the ashy ground beneath them. Once, Hans found a half-second gap and drove a cut into Celestia's side with aura behind it. The blade hit her armor and only skidded. The edge chipped, both the armor and his sword at the same time.

"Looks like it," the crossbow man said. He unslung the crossbow, loaded a bolt, and aimed. Celestia noticed it in her peripheral vision. The bolt released with a sharp snap, and she pivoted and managed to barely parry using the spear blade—the impact knocked the shaft aside. However… For some reason, a second bolt was already in the air. She twisted her body hard. The bolt clipped the edge of her armor and sparked off the metal, and the force of the twist pulled her off-center.

Hans took advantage of this opening; he drove aura into his sword, a visible white on his sword, and brought it down in a two-handed overhead swing. Celestia tried to bring the shaft up to defend, but she was too late in using aura to reinforce her weapon. The blade hit the spear dead center and sliced through it, breaking the spear in half. The follow-through carried into her chest plate. The aura-charged edge gouged a line across the surface of the armor but did not manage to completely get through.

The gouged line in the armor was deep enough that she could feel cool air against the padding beneath it. Celestia imbued aura into her right leg and kicked. The kick caught Hans in the center of his torso and launched him backward. He hit the ground, rolled once, and came up in a crouch with his sword still in hand. Behind him, the crossbow man was already reloading. Celestia dropped the broken halves of her spear and drew a dagger from her belt. She adjusted her grip on the dagger and set her feet.

"Guild Leader! What took you so long?" The voice came from the woman. The four from deeper in the cavern had caught up. They emerged with their weapons drawn and their formation spread wide. They stopped and looked at her. Eight against one. Paimon was still on the ground, unconscious. The large man at the head of the deeper group stepped forward. The four behind him fanned out along the walls, cutting off the last of the passage. The entrance party held their positions.

Hans was on his feet again, sword still drawn.

"She's a sharp one," the large man said.

"Ran away the moment she got near." He tilted his head.

"Hey, bitch. What tipped you off?" Celestia's breathing was uneven. Sweat ran down the sides of her face, but her voice came out flat.

"Only if you tell me what I want to know." The large man blinked. Then he laughed, one that bounced off the walls.

"Oh? Does this dead bitch walking want to know why she's going to die?"

"Seeing as I'm going to die," Celestia said, "you don't have anything to lose, do you?" He stopped laughing.

"Hah. You've already resigned yourself to death? But you're still this prideful? Oswald was right about you." The woman from the entrance party took a step forward.

"Guild Leader, we should just ki—" The large man's head turned toward her.

"Shut up." She stepped back. He looked at Celestia again. His voice dropped to a more serious tone.

"I'll give you a chance. If you can tell me who we are, then I'll answer your questions." Celestia did not hesitate.

"Sky Raiders. You're former guild leader Bastion."

"Good." Bastion's mouth curved.

"Now. How did you find out we were waiting for you?"

"Answers first," Celestia said. Bastion looked at her for a long moment. His eyes moved from the dagger in her hand to the gouged line on her armor. The cavern was quiet around them, the eight members of his group holding their positions in a loose ring. Then he nodded once. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Go on. Ask away."

"Who hired you?"

"Hm?"

"No matter your grievances against me, I doubt you would risk everything on this." Celestia kept her voice calm. The dagger stayed in her hand, pointed at him.

"If the empire or the guild caught even the slightest wind of your involvement in my death, it wouldn't end with you. Generations down your family line wouldn't be safe." Bastion tilted his head.

"Even if it was with the support from the imperial family?" Celestia's eyes widened. Her mind raced. Neither the Emperor nor the Imperial Prince had reason to move against her right now. The arrangement between House Reingarde and the throne was still intact, even with both of her parents' disappearance. The Emperor would not risk disrupting that without cause. The Imperial Prince was the same. If he had wanted her dead, the signs would have appeared long ago. That left only one person.

"... Imperial Princess Maribelle." Bastion shook his head.

"You're almost there. She received support from Imperial Princess Maribelle in order to hire us." Celestia stared at him.

"Have you made so many enemies," Bastion said, "that you don't even know who is willing to do everything to kill you?" Celestia had no answer for that. She didn't have the original Celestia's memories. Whoever this body had wronged before she arrived in it, the grudges and the debts left behind, were unknown.

"You killed her father a few months ago." Bastion gave her a final hint. Celestia's stomach turned. She immediately knew which one he meant. A victim of her own decisions, a man who was only guilty of trying to provide for his family. Celestia's free hand curled into a fist at her side. Something cold and heavy settled behind Celestia's ribs. Her throat tightened. The taste of bile sat at the back of her tongue, and she swallowed against it.

"She is even willing to take the blame for your death. With a scapegoat prepared—""Guild Leader." The woman from the entrance party stepped forward. Her voice was sharp.

"I think you're saying too much." Bastion stopped mid-sentence. He let out a breath through his nose.

"... Are you satisfied now?" he said.

"Tell me what I want to know." Celestia steadied herself. Her grip on the dagger had not loosened through any of it. Whatever was churning behind her ribs would have to wait.

"... equipment," she said. Bastion frowned at her.

"What?"

"The equipment you and your people are wearing." Her voice was flat again.

"Reinforced plating and treated leather and chainmail. That's Floor 25 gear at minimum. Nobody climbing Floor 16 wears equipment like that, and especially those who are on these floors." The cavern went quiet around them. Behind Celestia, she heard the sound of ruffling and metal clinking, everyone was basically checking out their own and each others' equipment and gears.

"It doesn't matter." Bastion rolled his neck.

"We still caught you."

"Yeah!" The crossbow man pumped his fist from the back. The woman crossed her arms.

"Guild Leader, can't we just finish this so we can go home?"

"Mhm." Bastion started walking toward Celestia. His footsteps were heavy despite the ashen ground. He stopped a few paces directly in front of her.

"Any last words?" Celestia said nothing. Her eyes had moved past Bastion to the cavern floor near the entrance. Paimon was still down, but her fingers had moved. One chance. The black door… If they could break through—"Paimon!" Paimon moved. She rolled onto her stomach and hurled the contents of her bag across the cavern floor. Small cylinders, a dozen of them, scattering in every direction—-the mining explosives Celestia had bought in bulk months ago.

Paimon had always kept some in case of emergencies, and now they bounced and clattered across the cavern. Hans reacted first. He swung his blade at the nearest cylinder. The blade struck the casing and it detonated. The first blast triggered the second, and the chain reaction tore through the rest in a breath. The cavern filled with light and concussive force, the blasts bouncing off the walls and multiplying in the enclosed space. Nearly everyone staggered, breaking the ring.

This was an opening for both Celestia and Paimon, who both ran deeper into the cavern, towards the black door.

"Hah…" The woman's voice cut through the smoke after the explosions stopped.

"What would all of you do without me?" Barriers appeared. They materialized in stacked rows in front of Celestia and Paimon, translucent, faintly glowing, filling the passage from wall to wall. Paimon hit the first one at full speed. Her fist went through it and it shattered. But another appeared behind it, and another behind that. Every barrier broke easily. The problem was that they kept coming. Paimon kept punching. The replacements came faster than she could clear them.

They were losing distance to the door with every second. Celestia turned, intending to fight again. However, Bastion was already there. She activated Noblesse Oblitère and swung the dagger in a hard descending arc. Bastion caught her forearm. His hand closed and stopped the swing dead. The aura in the blade died the instant his grip locked. Before she could wrench free, his other hand came up and wrapped around her throat. His fingers tightened and her feet left the ground. She kicked.

Her boot connected with his thigh and he did not move.

"Lady Cele—" The shieldbearer stepped into Paimon's path. His tower shield caught her square in the chest and drove her into the cavern wall. Stone cracked behind her back and she slid to the floor. She tried to stand. Her legs buckled and she pitched forward onto her hands. Blood ran from a cut above her eye as her arms shook beneath her weight. She looked toward Celestia, hanging from Bastion's hand by the throat, and her vision blurred. Her mistress…

Paimon wanted to scream, to look for anyone to save Celestia, just like how Celestia saved her. Something warm and solid pressed against Paimon's hand. Sir Ozy had made his way across the cavern floor from wherever the broken cage had dumped him. He sat beside Paimon now, his flat face turned toward Bastion and Celestia. Celestia saw him. Her hands clawed at Bastion's grip, her vision darkening at the edges, her lungs burning. Her mouth opened but no sound came out. She had one thing left.

[Knighthood] The skill activated. Sir Ozy spoke, his voice filled the cavern.

"I would prefer it if thou wouldst take thy hands from my contractor." Every person in the cavern stopped moving. Bastion's grip did not loosen, but his head turned. He stared at the weird-looking beast.

"Did it just speak?" someone who had caught up. The woman, who was a few meters behind Bastion, lowered her hands. The barriers flickered and dissolved. Her eyes went wide, and then her mouth split into a grin.

"How cute!" Sir Ozy looked at her but his eyes did not blink."'Twould seem I have regained a measure of my former capabilities. Very well." He tried to step forward. However, the woman scooped him up before he could take a second step, pressing him against her chest.

"Guild Leader, can we keep him? Look at his little face—" Sir Ozy slowly, oh so very slowly, set one paw forward in the air. The First Step. The worm that crawls through the earth seeks not the sun's permission to rise. The stone cast on the river's bed does not beg the water to endure. What lives, lives. And what is denied the right to live shall claim it regardless. Before anyone noticed what happened, the woman's body slammed into the ground.

Her entire body was pressed flat into the ashen ground with a force that nearly cracked the floor beneath her.