“My name is Daniel, Emperor of the small. I shall not fear you, Death, for I shall rob you blind. Do it, Lucy… I wish for us to be protected.”

“So it shall be… And, I’m sorry, Daniel…”

These words echo within the American’s mind as the very last second seems to extend beyond his human understanding.

Everything is frozen, though Daniel’s awareness feels free to move and think, as if he has suddenly started thinking at the speed of light, while everything else must wait for him to come to a decision.

A second version of Lucy has appeared, hovering directly behind the first, who is touching Daniel’s cheek as she starts to glow. The first Lucy seems to not be immune, while the second hovers freely, studying her counterpart for a moment as she asks a strange line of questions here at the moment, the very instant, that it must happen.

“Are you sure about this, Daniel? This time, it’s going to hurt. You may never be without pain again.”

Daniel’s ‘focus’ is able to center on her, though he can’t move his hands or even speak normally, so he’s not sure if his eyes are moving, or if he’s somehow just making sense of that specific spot of his field of view, like zooming in on a picture on a cell phone.

“Are you serious? Yes. Please just make the wish happen.”

“I only ask because there are many options open to someone like you.” The second Lucy hovers closer to Daniel, this time, looking at him. “Perhaps you could wish for time to be turned back, or for the mana fire to be erased without your terrible weapon, hmm?”

“Wh… What are you saying right now?” asks Daniel in utter disbelief.

His mind admittedly hears these suggestions, but can’t quite wrap his head around them as possibilities. For starters, he knows there’s about to be a cost to him using the wish he made. If the cost is proportional to the wish, then turning back time or erasing the mana fire aren’t within the power of Lucy. He knows he’ll be lucky for her power to be enough to shield them from the nuke itself, since a nuke has the power to negate magic. He doesn’t think Ryukana was affected by the one he used to destroy the Devourer, but he never objected to the nickname ‘God-smiter’ or ‘God-killer’ for a reason.

That reason is that, if anything made by man could harm a god, particularly the middle-managers like Ryukana, Amalaskae, and Kaeralegier, then it would be nuclear weapons because of their sheer destructive potential.

“I’m just saying, a wish is a powerful thing. It seems a pity to so readily waste one on something so narrow as protecting the people around you. Especially with the price you’re about to pay…”

Daniel is about to ask, but he holds his tongue. This version of Lucy is baiting him. However she’s doing it, if it’s a secondary personality, then it’s her cruelty in direct contrast to her normal kindness willing to offer the wish in the first place. This side of her is meant to trick Daniel into the worst possible outcome, or so he thinks.

“‘...meant to trick Daniel into the worst possible outcome, or so he thinks.’” states the second Lucy in a strange voice, as if she’s declaring something not meant to be known. “You’re not right or wrong, in case you’re wondering,” adds the floating pixie-like being. “It wouldn’t be quite right to say I’m interested in or have a vested stake in the outcome either way. This is merely an immortal challenge of your mortal ideals. Call it a… moment of doubt. The very thing you’re feeling right now.”

Daniel winces. She’s reading him like an open book, but he doesn’t really understand. Lucy is about to cast the ‘wish’, while the last moment possible is about to end before the nuke itself detonates.

However, something is strange. This Lucy doesn’t fit the typical personality. He’s pretty sure ‘Lucy’ is just one identity for the whole of the shape-shifting elemental that is bound to the scarf Daniel is currently wearing. She’s a powerful being in her own right, but tied to the wearer.

And, even so, she has always been a kind, affectionate soul. She likes to cuddle, likes to hug, likes to play.

This one seems more like…

“Chaos…” whispers Daniel.

‘Lucy’ smirks and puts a hand on her hips. “You would think that, wouldn’t you? Oh well. The point is, you have options. One of them is even for you to return to Earth, hmm? No consequences. Return to your comfortable, easy, modern life. No strings attached, no grievous maimings…”

“I accept my fate,” replies Daniel coldly, cutting her off. He doesn’t care if it’s the entropic primordial goddess toying with him. She has already proven that she’s not a vengeful being, nor does she take offense to mere words of a mortal insect that will vanish faster than a blink on her timescale.

It’s not boredom or cruelty that brought her here. Daniel senses a sort of cold calculation behind her words. Something akin to a math equation. She was merely testing variables to see how the equation would be solved. She doesn’t ‘care’ about the outcome, so much as continue to provide variables as if it’s part of her fundamental nature.

The mechanic finishes his thought as he does everything in his willpower to even twitch just one of his fingers. He’s not sure, but it feels like he’s getting a slight movement. Though, if it is Chaos, he knows he’s not stronger than…

“‘...stronger than a primordial goddess, one of the fundamental fabrics of the universe,’” states ‘Lucy’ definitively once more. She clarifies, “If I could see your future, and I told you you would die regardless, would you still accept? If I decided to ‘take the wheel’ for you, would you hand it over? I could even erase that nasty parasite constantly feasting on you from outside our realm. She is an anomaly in progress, of course. Her erasure, if she doesn’t change course, will be mandated.”

“Even so,” replies Daniel, and he can feel his left arm moving, slowly, and with great effort, but he uses every shred of his willpower to reach up.

He doesn’t brush her aside. He was only just thinking about begging the Abyssal Feldrok for her help, and if it’s Chaos, he did hope she or Order would be forgiving. Even if it’s an ‘evil’ side of the dual-toned elemental currently touching his cheek and building immense magical power, he knows it’s not about showing dominance to a god or god-like being. That would be childish hubris.

Instead, he holds his palm for her to stand on, and she cocks her head, landing on it while crossing her arms, awaiting his answer.

The mechanic smiles softly, finishing his thought. “Even so, I am human. I already accepted the possible cost being my life, and I chose what I knew in the hope it would work. Even the chance alone is more than I deserve. I… accepted the sin long ago. I may be evil, but I hope someday… it is recognized as ‘necessary evil’ at least.”

‘Lucy’ sighs and unfolds her arms, holding her hands up near her shoulder level in exasperation while shaking her head. “What more could I ask for, I suppose. Farewell, Daniel. Blink and you’ll miss it…”

The apparent false-copy of Daniel’s elemental companion fades away, and he sees the motion of the final second on the timer’s wheel start to move again.

He’s not sure how much is reality anymore and how much is a distortion from the mind-bending amounts of magic surrounding him. It’s not as simple as simply ‘erasing’ reality, but mana possesses a deep, uncanny tie to reality that Daniel may never fully understand.

Regardless, it feels like nearly forever that the timer sits on Zero, and he can feel the pain digging into his chest with Hekate bracing against him as firmly as she can, terrified and bracing for the end with him. Baeka’s forehead is pressed into his right shoulder, and her own finger claws are prodding into his skin.

Daniel can feel a heat building in Lucy’s palms just below his right eye, and he knows something very bad is about to happen.

How bad that is in truth will heavily depend on what it accomplishes in the face of the flash that has already started to split the casing of the bomb itself. It reminds Daniel a bit of a sci-fi game from Daniel’s youth, which included a recording function that saved the state of the entire mission. The player could go back through and explore from a free angle, not just their own first person character’s role. For explosions, particularly, looking at them in the instant they’re happening with fine-tooth precision was well-detailed, and the light bloom was beautifully illustrated.

This is more like looking at a welding torch flame that is already the width of a beach ball. It prickles at his eyes, and it casts a dark shadow across Lucy’s front as she gently holds a tranquil expression. She isn’t worried at all, and even with the anime-like darkening of her face, she looks truly gentle and peaceful. It makes Daniel feel the slightest bit at ease, considering he’s about arm’s length from a currently-detonating nuclear weapon.

As the flash grows, he experiences one last thing that he never really gave thought to.

Obviously, plenty of people have described the experience, and it is spoken in movies and stories all the time. But, all at once, Daniel is no longer facing only a camera-flash of the universe that will erase him; he is surrounded by everything and everyone he has ever encountered. He sees his parents and siblings, his bosses from various jobs, both the ones he respected and the ones he disliked working with. He sees his own bullies in school, and the other kids he lashed out at in his own repressed fits of anger. He feels the pain of those he bullied as a result, and he feels the insecurity of the bullies that picked on him as a weak target. He feels the love as Selena and Mike hugged him and wished him well on his next journey into the Navy. He feels the overwhelming feelings of turmoil from his mother as she wept. The soul-crushing news when he lost everything, and the horrible, horrible decision he couldn’t make, but eventually made itself regarding his family. The questions. The suffering. The anger. The sadness. The numbness.

But then, the light.

It’s not a slideshow. It’s all blended together like a soup of memories, both clear and muddled at the same time. He hears Ryuogriar’s voice as she cradles Samael and Fal, and one of the many acolytes gently brushes an egg. Doephluev, Treia, Vaergraes, Gwenesphia, Reignleif, Neith, Magnir, Roeta, Veiranoei, Aramellianna, Wenlianna, her sisters, Erimaya and Heralesse, Rikuto and Zuzia, Kera’tai, Aoloan, Shek, Skloe, Tekten, Jieka, Daugli, Pomiel, and even Geirahoel. All of them and more exist around him, and he feels a true sense of calm and peace he hasn’t known for any of the last week or so.

For a moment, he feels like everything is as it should be. Or rather, he feels like the luckiest man in the world.

He has everything a man could possibly want, and then some.

And, in that moment, as the flash is reaching him, he knows everything will be alright.

Lucy opens her eyes and looks at him. Her pupils have taken on a complex shape, but it’s not the same as the Abyssal Feldrok’s. They glow intensely with a sort of overflowing power in them, such that it escapes the typical ‘round’ pupils and has formed a chaotic little star in each of her eyes, colorful, powerful, and beautiful.

Daniel manages to smile at her in return, whether time allows it or not, and he lets go of all of his fears.

His instincts are speaking to him, and he decides to trust them completely, guiding the energy Lucy is pouring into him to his palms. The power already feels like it’s starting to scorch Daniel’s cheek, and he sees a seizure-like flash of colorful light in his right eye for the final time, as if he just gazed through a tiny peek-hole into the heart of a critical reactor at peak power. The pain is immense and growing, and yet, an absolute pittance to pay if it means what he hopes.

The far-flung mechanic trusts his instincts to compress the immense, unbridled power coursing through Lucy’s contact with his cheek into a sphere between his palms, capturing the whole group in a bubble of darkness moments before Calamity.

Daniel Alexander Lawson, a wayward blue-collar mechanic from Earth flung into another world of sword and sorcery, has protected the future for one more day.

He has protected the people he cares about, and the country he is building.

No pain a mortal can experience will make him regret that.

***

Everything goes silent.

It’s not because the world has suddenly lost all sound. It’s because the world has suddenly been swallowed.

At least, that’s how it feels for Hekate, who is clinging to her only safety rock in the great, turbulent sea of the world. Her magical power has made her a strong swimmer, but only one thing –only one person– has ever made her feel truly safe. She understands why Zuzia questioned her. But, she doesn’t care.

Even if Hekate were to become a slave to Daniel’s will, simply through her own zealous dependency on him, she would have no regrets in her life. She trusts and loves him completely.

But, that’s not what it is.

Hekate knows she could do whatever she wants. She’s probably the most powerful being in the entire world. If she wanted to be pregnant tomorrow, she would be. Daniel could do nothing to actually stop her. If she wanted to kill the whole world, or even Daniel, he could do nothing to stop her. But, she wants his guidance. She wants the friends he picks up along the way. She wants to know what is right and wrong from the one person who has never looked at her as inferior or disgusting. He is everything she never had; affection when she is genuinely sad or upset, stern guidance when she is making mistakes, and love that is unshakable and can withstand even the wrath of the gods.

Even with her eyes closed, the light that all but pierces through them is nearly blinding, hurting her eyes and making her feel instantly weak.

It’s not silent because the sound has been driven away.

It is silent because her hearing was instantly destroyed, yet she somehow lived and feels very little pain.

Daniel is still in her arms, unmoving and unshaken. He was trembling a little, but now he’s not. She can even feel his left hand gently touch her right, holding it. Squeezing it.

She quickly realizes he’s in pain, but she’s too afraid to look. The flash of Daniel’s first two bombs, even from hundreds of miles away, was enough to light up the sky in the distance, and the sound easily reached them.

Hekate could easily kill Daniel with her power. He is a weak, normal human.

But, Daniel is likely the only person in the world that can definitively kill anything else, including Hekate, if the need were to ever arise.

Yet, she felt him stop trembling and take her hand, and at once, she knew, everything would be alright. They are only trapped in a thunderstorm, and they just need to wait for it to pass.

Together.

The feldrok girl in her true form can easily feel magic being used, and Lucy surged with energy not long ago, discharging it at the same instant as the sudden erasure of sound. Daniel’s body is surging with power, but it’s different than the stifling, sickeningly ‘sweet’ mana that is coming from the mana fire or the sinister, cold mana that comes from the Lurker. It has a pleasant ‘music’ to it, but it’s not exactly comfortable.

Either way, since the blinding flash, Hekate hasn’t been able to feel any mana, which she knows is the intended effect of Daniel’s god-smiter, or as he and the other two Earthlings call them, ‘nukes’. Even Hekate, with all of her current power, feels nauseous and weak. She was shielded by the Citadel’s barrier the first time, but she has felt the effects of Nemaisol and anti-magic materials.

Suddenly, Daniel’s voice growls out from gritting his teeth, and Hekate realizes she’s not already deaf. “Hekate… One chance… Don’t… fail… T-Tele…” Daniel suddenly drops to his knees, and Hekate screams, “Daniel!”

Baeka gasps, and Hekate can hear Weya sobbing behind her as the goblins complain.

Teleport! That’s what he’s trying to say! But… But I don’t have…

Just as she’s thinking this, Hekate can feel her own mana returning, though it’s only a little. That said, it’s far fewer people that are around her, and without giving it any thought, since it was Daniel’s request as he goes rigid, trying not to fall, but unable to answer her.

The young feldrok shouts, “Hang on!”

She uses every shred of mana she can make use of, and she casts the teleportation spell as fast as possible. Daniel’s words aren’t a joke, nor are they a suggestion. Even if Daniel is only guessing, it’s the best chance they have at escaping and surviving, since the world around them is a dark hellscape shielded only by a small, strange bubble and lit by a fiery blue and orange glow above them, and which flickers and swirls like the foreboding depths of Alkus Gristak, as the goblins would call it.

Hekate’s spell illuminates the area around them, encompassing all of her allies as Baeka hugs Daniel’s arm and cries.

As if existing in a bubble that is suddenly collapsing under deep water, Hekate can feel the anti-magic suddenly pressing in. She’s not sure how she knows it, but it feels like the pressure is closing in, and she finishes chanting her spell as quickly as she can, sniffling on her own as Daniel’s breath hitches, and his hands and arms tense in front of his face.

She knows something is wrong, but the young feldrok doesn’t even consider failing this one chance to escape.

The spell flashes just as the last bits of mana are being swallowed, and the light of the world seems to shift. Hekate cries out as her own mana feels depleted once more, though she manages to cling to consciousness.

The return spell would have been slightly more efficient and faster, but Hekate heard ‘teleport’ and immediately did a teleportation spell without thinking. As she was crafting the spell with her chant, she chose the first location she could think of…

… The last location she teleported to.

The goblins cry out and Baeka gasps as gravity shifts around all of them. Weya, in a last ditch effort and quick reflexes, screams out a spell that catches the group and barely softens their landing. Everyone cries out in pain or coughs from the impact, assuming they’re still conscious in the first place.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on novelbuddy. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

The feldrok teen used the height to be safe enough to most likely survive the fall without major injuries, but to ensure she doesn’t need to account for everyone else’s relative heights in the teleport. If she teleports herself to ground level, the others might end up inside of the dirt. Or, so Xyreko emphasized when she was first learning her most useful spell so far.

That said, the most terrible sound possible reaches Hekate now that they are seemingly ‘safe’. It fills the air and brings everyone else to a halt, in spite of their own injuries.

Daniel is screaming, trying to protect his right eye. He was gritting his teeth, biting his tongue, and powering through while he still had any semblance of control. But, now that it has shattered, he has lost all control over his voice and his body.

Through all of the things he has suffered, Daniel sometimes curses, shouts, or cries out in pain, but that’s usually where it ends, once he does his best to alleviate the pain or gain control of his own willpower.

This time, he tenses and flops on the ground as he screams, his voice quickly going hoarse while he can do nothing for himself. Hekate flopped to the ground near Daniel after Weya’s narrow ‘catch’ with wind magic. Hearing Daniel suddenly start screaming has startled her, since she has never seen him in such pain.

But, it only lasts a moment, and she scrambles to Daniel’s side. Hekate cries out, “Daniel!? Daniel, what can I do!? What do you need!?”

He either can’t hear her or can’t do anything but scream, because he arches his back and kicks against the dirt, trying not to claw at his own flesh. Lucy is floating directly over his head, her hands folded together. She’s no longer in the yellow and purple form, but instead, she’s in her ‘fire’ element. Seeing her bright orange-red coloring makes Hekate realize how hot it is, and she looks over her shoulder at the direction of the heat source.

From hundreds of miles away, Daniel’s nukes are terrifying. They illuminated the sky for a long time, and they negated magic with a thunder that could be heard even that far away.

From three miles away, the terrifying column of fire, dirt, smoke, and ash visibly ‘crackles’ and swirls as it rises higher and higher into the sky, way above what even the airship and shuttles can go to. It feels like the moons themselves will catch fire because of these weapons, and it truly sinks in why Daniel is so hesitant to admit their existence to anyone, including Hekate or Ryuogriar, who he claims to trust the most with such matters.

The feldrok girl’s eyes water, and she whirls to address Daniel, who is still screaming in agony, now surrounded by several of the goblins, Baeka, and Hekate herself.

The feldrok teen reaches to try to hold him, but she hesitates. Daniel wore a disguise to slip away from everyone and probably to avoid being detected by Xyreko when he returned to the Citadel for a short time to launch his suicidal mission. It is nowhere near as robust as his normal armor, and on his chest, there are points of blood drawn from very sharp claws.

Sharp claws that were just being reached towards him once more.

Even with Hekate making things worse in her terrible monster form, Daniel never complained. Only now has the pain proven to be completely unbearable to him, and it sickens the feldrok girl that she can’t help him.

Weya asks over Daniel’s screaming, “C-Can’t you use healing magic on him!?”

“I don’t have any mana remaining!” exclaims Hekate. She would use the last little embers she has and fall unconscious, but she knows in her heart it’s not enough to help Daniel, even if the curse wasn’t affecting him.

Baeka tries to fumble through her equipment to find a potation, but a sudden hit of weakness washes over all of them, and Hekate flops down onto her foreclaws, gasping. Weya is trying to nurse Paet, who is still unconscious and now wounded from the fall, while the goblins are dragging their own incapacitated towards the center of the group. They are the only ones noticeably unfazed by the wave of weakness that just hit everyone.

“Was that an attack!?” asks Weya frantically.

Hearing ‘attack’, the goblins capable of it, including a few of the wounded, instantly stop what they’re doing and draw their pistols each from the small of their backs, snapping into an outward facing formation and ready to fight. A couple of the wounded try to sit up, but Hap, the youngest goblin of Grendel Six, calls out wearily, “Negative contact!”

Hekate replies to the dattakorien, “No! At least, not a new one. It’s from Daniel’s God-smiter…”

Daniel loses his breath and strength, panting and huffing. It may even be fair to call it sobbing, from how agonized his moans and panting are. It’s painful for Hekate, but she’s thankful that they’re all still alive. The weakness never really goes away, but the wave is gone already.

If anything, the next complaint is the heat, and Baeka shields her face, saying, “We need to get out of here! It’s too hot! It could be what’s hurting him!”

Hekate looks around them. The camp was close to this location, but what remains is a wasteland. There aren’t any bodies, but all of the tents have been destroyed and scattered all over the landscape, while the stacked crates have been toppled and their contents scattered as well. The strange thing is that many things seem to have moved towards the crater. It’s a mystery Hekate doesn’t care to solve right now, and she focuses on Daniel, trying to determine what to do and how to move him and the others.

For his part, the human seems to have finally calmed down, but his breathing is weak, and he keeps moaning and whimpering out from the pain.

Baeka, trying to check on him, uses her own body to shade Daniel’s face from the heat coming from the bomb. She says tenderly, “Daniel, let me see…”

He doesn’t have the strength or apparent presence of mind to resist, so she gently pulls his hand away to look, instantly gasping once it’s revealed.

Hekate’s eyes don’t move from the spot either. She can’t think. She can’t make decisions. When she can finally pull her gaze away, it is only to snap her line of sight to Lucy with a hateful glare on her face; the cause of it all.

Lucy looks apologetic, but she doesn’t say anything. She can only avoid meeting Hekate’s glare.

“Y-You… How could you?”

Lucy winces, and she shrinks her posture a bit.

“How could you!?” screams Hekate. She springs up to her full height, which is only as tall as Baeka sitting down because of her big ears. Regardless, she is ready to pounce Lucy out of the air and kill her. “How could you!?” shrieks Hekate. The tears are flowing, and she adds at the top of her lungs, “Look at his eye! You did that! You! I’ll kill you!”

Just before the feldrok girl can spring forward, a hand lands on her fuzzy chest, and she freezes.

It’s the back of his hand, but she instantly sees it in her peripherals, whipping her gaze to Daniel.

His left eye is turned towards her, looking at her with a silent plea buried behind his own tears and the redness of his left cheek.

The other side of his face, the side closest to Hekate and Baeka, can only be described as death.

His right eyelids are clamped closed and swollen, but the flesh on both his eyelids and his cheek and brow are chalky white with black scorching outlining a wide ring that almost claimed his left eye as well, by the looks of it. His eyelashes and eyebrow on the right side are long gone, and sticky transparent, yellowish fluid is draining around what little flesh has survived in the immediate area of the wound.

Under his eye, inside the puffy part of Daniel’s cheek, there are two small handprints about the size of a human pinky nail side by side. It looks like Daniel’s eye took a direct shot from a fire elemental blaster.

Or worse, as if his eye was the only thing not shielded from the nuke.

Hekate, halted by Daniel’s hand, immediately clutches it tightly, feeling the dirtied bandages in her own foreclaw paws and feeling all the more agonized by her beloved partner’s state. “D-Daniel…!”

“Best *huff* case *huff*... *huff*... scenario…” whispers Daniel, his voice unable to go any higher.

“No it’s not!” screams Hekate. “She didn’t have to-...!”

“Wrong…” whispers Daniel, and he starts coughing.

Hekate squeezes his hand and closes her eyes, begginning to sob as Daniel drifts into unconsciousness. She can feel him lose the last shreds of his strength, as if dying in her hands.

“D-Daniel?” whimpers Hekate at first. She quickly screams, “Daniel!?”

Mosko, who has since limped closer, places his ear on Daniel’s chest. He states in his gruff, elder goblin voice, “Emperor live. Tall-cat Baeka correct. Must move out of heat.”

The third wave of weakness washes over the group, but it’s hardly noticeable because of how weak it is now, and Hekate can feel her teeth rattling together as she trembles in absolutely chaotic feelings.

Baeka says softly, “I can’t reach my summons…”

“I… I can try a flare,” offers Weya.

“Allow me,” states Hap. He draws a handgun from his left thigh, and he checks its contents. It’s loaded with what looks to be a huge shell, if it were a rifled slug meant to slay dragons. However, these ones are very different. He aims it up into the air, covers his ear with his free right hand while turning his head to the right, and he fires. The shot is startling, but nothing compared to the earth-shattering blast that just occurred, and from which the group was only narrowly spared the sound, let alone the more deadly effects.

Including the ones they know nothing about, which Daniel was desperate to escape from using Hekate’s teleportation, enough so that he fought through all of the pain to give out the last utterances he could manage before collapsing into agony.

From the flare gun, a bright star even more vibrant than the magic ones used for effective, simple communication rises into the sky. It is a bright white that clashes with the other sources of light, but because of how close they are and how bright the bomb’s cloud is, it’s unclear if anyone will be able to see it.

Hekate says urgently, “Stay with me, Daniel… You have to stay with me… I-I’ll fix it. I’ll fix your eye, and your face. And… I’ll fix… I’ll fix everything. Y-You don’t have to do anything anymore. Just… Just stay with me. I’ll do everything… Everything from now on.” Her true form is admittedly more convenient for one thing, even if she is the most hideous creature in the world.

Hekate curls up against Daniel’s arm, watching his face. His muscles are tight, mostly on the left side of his face, indicating even in his unconscious state, he is feeling immense pain.

Hekate lays her big ear against Daniel’s chest, and she can hear his heartbeat. It’s quieter and more unstable than normal. He feels so weak and fragile, and Mosko studies him for a moment.

Hap approaches, saying urgently, “Your Greatness, I’m no expert, but Floria insists if patient can’t be moved or stored, we should elevate legs. Monitor heart. Ensure breathing.”

“Do it,” replies Baeka for the young Empress. Everyone knows that Floria’s combat medic training, which is among the most advanced medicine on Zenkon simply because of its source and tediousness, all came from Daniel, who professes to only have an extremely ‘surface level of ‘first aid’’ as he calls it. He has mentioned a desire to pursue precision surgeries, organ transplants, and even the copying of body parts so a person could be ‘healed even after the window for magic has closed’.

Either way, Hekate doesn’t object. She nods in agreement, though her gaze is locked onto Daniel’s destroyed eye and the two tiny handprints upon them.

Baeka pants uneasily, and the Mikadresselle strips her outer cloth robe, but she holds it up behind her back like a large hood, creating more shade, but removing a layer of insulation in the heat.

“How do humans create something so… powerful?” whispers Weya from nearby, similarly shielding herself and Paet with her own unbound robes. “Especially on a world with no monsters?”

Even now, the sky is being swallowed by the underside of the cloud spreading away from the impossible trunk of a colossal tree or mushroom.

“This is why Daniel never wanted to make them,” grumbles Hekate, her ears folded back. Her fur has mostly returned to its original shade of black, with faint streaks of blue, white, or even a greyish shade visible here and there. “And, why we must protect him and his secrets for the rest of time.”

The dattakoriens are silent, and Mosko is the one to speak up bluntly and with decent humor, in spite of the situation surrounding him, “The Emperor breaks the chains of Alkus Gristak. No true goblin would let him fall into enemy hands while alive, Greatness.”

This manages to make a small flicker of satisfaction pass through her heart, though she can’t yet bring herself to smile while Daniel lies at Death’s door, agonizing in a pain she can’t help relieve.

The light has started to fade, finally, and Hekate finds herself in awe once more. When Baeka lowers her robe for them to look, the last glows of the fires are starting to fade, and the heat has already noticeably reduced in intensity.

An eerie darkness seems to fall over the whole world, and only a few points of glowing light appear at the base of the rising pillar of ash and dust.

It could be regular fire, claiming what grass, trees, and flammable structures were in its path, it could be the last shreds of the mana fire, miraculously clinging to life, or it could be the lingering flames of the God-smiter itself, continuing to purge mana from the world for a little longer.

“It’s… so quiet…” remarks Baeka softly as she looks around.

Hekate can hear a dull roar in the ground through Daniel’s body, like rain falling, as well as deep echoes of the quake from the blast. But, she focuses on listening to Daniel’s heartbeat and breathing. It seems like it’s a little better, but she has no real way of knowing.

Suddenly, the drumming of a very distinct noise causes Hekate to sit up and look towards the north.

The new sound was distant at first, and it was blended in and drowned out by the echoes, but Hekate has heard it many times before.

It is the beating of large hooves from buckrokhs, and it only takes a little longer before her natural night vision picks up movement.

The goblins cock their heads as well, and one of the others calls out at a controlled volume, “Contacts north.”

“Aye,” agrees Mosko. “Guns relaxed ready, Grendel Six.”

Hekate grips Daniel’s shirt just a little longer, readying to stand up.

However, Baeka says gently, “Stay hidden, Hekate. I’ll handle it.” The dattakorien lays a blanket over Daniel, helping hide Hekate.

The feldrok girl looks at her dattakorien friend, and the Mikadresselle smiles. “I know you don’t want to be seen like that… Though, I think you’re adorable.”

The ravenette averts her eyes.

I know she’s just being kind. But, it does sound nice…

The fox-eared Empress looks at her beloved human Emperor. Daniel would likely say the same things. But, as soon as she has enough mana, she’s going back to normal. It’s less dangerous for everyone that way.

Baeka stands up and steps towards the approaching riders, who are only just starting to be visible.

Four banners are present, with three of them being carried high; the Strylak and globe of the Grand Zenkon Empire, the reared-back buckrokhs and sun-kissed castle of the Kingdom of Mornistae, and the Vanguard Empress with fox-like ears and a big black tail holding a shield high and a sword back, but ready. The last sigil, which appears on a few of the caparisons adorning a couple of the buckrokhs, is the emblematic feldrok wielding all six elements; the mark of the Stalvaltan Grand Duchy, first and fiercest allies of the Fievegal.

The head of the brigade is a surprising individual, though. It is none other than Heralesse, the elder sister to Hekate’s best friend outside of the Fievegal, and a rather unwelcoming acquaintance to the Fievegal itself, but far from an enemy. Heralesse was their prisoner for a time, and Hekate made sure she was treated well, since Erimaya is important to her.

That’s it! We need Eri! Eri has to remember how Daniel saved her, right?

Heralesse is noticeably covered in dirt, and she asks, “Is everyone alright!?”

“We have wounded,” replies Baeka sternly. “We’ll need a truck or a carriage.”

“They’re having issues after the Alamogordo special,” replies Heralesse as she hops down off of her buckrokh. She jogs close to the group around Daniel, with the goblins remaining calm. “We were the first that could respond to the flare.” The young queen turns to one of the Stalvaltan battle mages, and she says, “Sir, the Stalvaltan Guardsmen carry non-magic flares as well, correct?”

“Yes, your Majesty,” replies Captain Muindis from his buckrokh.

“Please send up three new flares. I told Rikuto to send carriages if we do. Aramellianna is aware as well.”

“Agreed, your Majesty,” replies the Stalvaltan knight. He relays the instructions and then hops off of his own buckrokh, jogging to the group as Heralesse kneels down. “Is that… Daniel? Spirits…”

Muindis crouches next to Daniel’s head as well, and he studies Daniel’s injuries. “It’s bad, but it looks like he has a chance to survive. We need to evacuate him. What’s the status of the others?”

Weya replies, “Fall injuries, and our shuttle crashed.”

The pops of flares being fired into the sky sound out, and Muindis calls out, “Bring me a void bag. The third wave passed already. Have we estimated a fourth wave?”

“Confirmed passed, Captain. We should be safe.”

Void bags don’t seem to dump or lose their contents when exposed to anti-magic, thankfully. They simply lose the ability to be opened for a time. The concern would be if one was disabled at the moment an object, or more importantly, a person, were being transferred in or out.

For now, though, the Stalvaltan soldiers move quickly and gather up the fallen, including Paet, and carefully transfer them in groups across several different void bags.

“How did Daniel get burned?” asks Heralesse.

“We’re not entirely sure,” replies Baeka. This irritates Hekate a little, but it’s probably just a deflection to avoid bogging down the evacuation.

Suddenly, the blanket hiding Hekate against Daniel’s side lifts up, and she flinches slightly. Muindis is looking down at her, and his eyes momentarily open in surprise. He glances at someone else nearby, and then back at the fox eared girl, whose eyes start to water.

The human Captain gives some thought, and he calls out, “Anyone got a spare set of clothes?”

“Clothes?” asks Heralesse with surprise.

“Yes, your Majesty. Her Greatness needs a change of clothes.”

“H-Hekate!?” asks Heralesse. She starts to move to be able to see, but Muindis stops her.

“I’m sorry, your Majesty. I can’t allow you to see her Greatness in such a vulnerable state. Sieulaede! You’ll help her get dressed!”

Muindis keeps his gaze off of Hekate as he pretends she’s not to be looked at right now. However, she notices him gesturing with his hand, subtly forming a magic circle, and Hekate recognizes it with ease.

It’s difficult to use transformation magic on another person if they even remotely try to resist. Yaulwembor was able to forcibly transform Neith during their battle, but she’s probably one of the few that can do it with such ease.

By the time a shenwulf woman arrives, dressed in the Stalvaltan clothing, Hekate, who has no reason to resist, is back in her humanoid form. Muindis then says, “My sincerest apologies, your Greatness. Please allow Sieulaede here to help you get dressed again.”

Hekate nods in agreement, sniffling as she feels immensely happy. Of course, Muindis doesn’t see it, since he retreats for the moment. The clothes are oversized, but the shenwulf’s clothing already accounts for a larger tail than the typical gatonine appendage, so they fit with ease.

Hekate feels immensely thankful, and she vows to remember Muindis’s loyalty on this and other occasions. She will have to ask him why he knows the spell he just used, but otherwise, she’ll have to request Aramellianna give him a big raise. Or, maybe she can simply name him as a noble.

That’s one more thing I’ll have to ask Daniel. Though, I guess he’ll just ask Aramellianna anyways…

Hekate looks down at Daniel, who is resting silently as Muindis checks his pulse at the mechanic’s neck.

“His pulse is weak. We’ll need to find our combat medics.”

“I want Eri,” replies Hekate bluntly, finally allowed to appear before everyone else in her new outfit. It looks a lot like the clothes Daniel was wearing when they met, but with the feminine tailoring for a woman, which is relatively meaningless with as oversized as they are on Hekate’s build.

“Pardon?” asks Heralesse with surprise. Other than Muindis and a few of the other familiar Stalvaltan’s, Hekate only recognizes any of the other knights present in passing, especially the Imperials, who are searching the immediate area for other survivors.

“Eri knows best what Daniel did to save her,” replies Hekate. “He has offered classes, but I don’t know who else learned it here. But, I know Eri has talked about it.”

Heralesse is quiet. She whispers, “I won’t bring her to this hellscape.”

She looks to their relative south, where lightning occasionally flashes in the intense heat and friction of the rising smoke and ash.

Some of the glows have already faded, so at least the mana fire hasn’t restarted itself. But, they’ll also need to check it.

“To the Citadel,” replies Hekate. “Give me permission, and she can be brought to the Citadel safely. We’ll also use that…” Hekate points to the backpack that Baeka is wearing. “It works for small groups of people and will take us to the Citadel. You, me, Daniel, and Baeka will go.”

“Your Majesty…” cautions one of her knights, but Heralesse holds up her hand. “I was this girl’s prisoner for months, and I was never mistreated.” Heralesse scoffs. “In fact, I was hardly treated as a prisoner.” She looks at Hekate seriously, saying sternly, “Eri is the most precious person in the world to me. Even if she can help, what can you offer Mornistae in return?”

Hekate thinks for a moment. Her ears twitch, and she matches her slight elder’s gaze once more with somewhat of a smirk.

“You may not like it, but I will ensure the kingdom of Mornistae receives a dowry for the best political match Eri will ever have… An Emperor.”

She gestures at Daniel, and Heralesse winces.

Long ago, Erimaya made the same suggestion in regards to her own ‘tainted’ status, simply because Daniel exposed a royal in the process of saving her life. Heralesse was never under any illusion counter to the fact that Daniel saved her precious younger sister’s life. Her only anger comes from how he did it, even though her heart knows he didn’t have the time to think about anything like that.

And, both she and Hekate likely know for certain.

Daniel would have done it if it meant the difference between life and death, even if he knew he could be killed for it.

“You would make this offer while he’s on Death’s threshold, and the betrothal to the Empire is still pending?”

“Sundenelle already accepted the situation. Since you and I know no one will treat her as fairly or preciously as we will, there is no one better for Eri. And, I can and will protect her forever.” Hekate clutches her shirt, saying, “So… please let me use her to save Daniel, or at least… make sure he is safe.”

Heralesse looks at Daniel. He has visibly suffered for this endeavor, and it makes any and all anger Heralesse could have felt fade away.

“I’ll… consider your offer… P-... Perhaps someone else within the Fievegal… When it’s appropriate. And… you may borrow her for now… Captain, return to the main group and update them. Get the wounded into triage as quickly as we can make space for them.”

“Yes, your Majesty. But, I must insist…”

“I trust Hekate not to disappoint my sister,” replies Heralesse with a smirk. “After all, her beloved is in my hands now. At least a little.”

Hekate smiles and nods. She places a hand on her chest, saying confidently and sincerely, “I vow on my name, Hekate fell Lawson, that I shall return Queen Heralesse and Princess Erimaya safe and sound.”

They’re through the absolute worst of things, but only time will tell what the fate of Urflasdat and the mana fire truly are.

***