The Burning Flowers

Chapter IV

Ryokumo Caeli had never been more enraged in his entire life than at the moment when he helplessly watched the destruction of the Fifth Ring all around him. He had not been present when Aeyir Malloway was murdered at his coming-of-age ball nor had he witnessed the violent fires that eliminated the Hiriech nobility. He had never even seen their corpses, nor had he been allowed to see the bodies of Nium Noctis and Clara Luz. Yet, even though he could only visualize that magic through the accounts of those who had seen it, he was still furious. He loathed it, and naturally, seeing it was not required for understanding the horrific nature of that power. To now finally witness it with his own eyes and at such a massive and devastating scale, Ryokumo couldn’t contain his rage. It had been building up inside of him ever since Keskivaara led them to that lounge where Vesh and Tali awaited them.

He hated that the People’s Mind played them like a fiddle.

He despised Vesh’s hypocritical and disgusting philosophy.

He couldn’t believe how bold they were to accuse Queen Toranei of adultery, and to try and claim that Ilirianna was a bastard daughter.

The only reason he kept himself in check was because Vesh had the Fifth Ring hostage, so when the magic was activated, Ryokumo finally snapped, lunging for the man’s throat with his sword, hoping to cut off his head and finally rid the world of such a terrible human being. Unfortunately, he waited too long. The second he sensed that overwhelming surge of magic, he should have struck. He allowed Vesh to talk, and a man as clever as him would have certainly known his leverage was gone. That was probably why Ryokumo’s blade met with stone rather than flesh as it grinded along the jagged armor.

In a last-second decision that was more instinctual than intentional, Ryokumo noted that his attack would not kill and sent as much power as he could into the swing, launching Rotana Vesh’s large form with a blast of wind through the back wall of the lounge and over the side. He cast Proto again, trusting Ilirianna to handle Keskivaara and Tali, as he flew through the newly made hole and soared down into the alleyway between the Jester’s Nirvana and the large building across from him.

They were four stories up, child’s play for a wind mage, and Ryokumo took great satisfaction in the sight of Vesh laying prone down on the ground. He had defended his neck, meaning Custou was already cast, leaving Ryokumo barely any time before rock armor would cover his entire body. Speed was an utter necessity, so in his descent, he spun his sword around into a double-handed icepick grip with the hope that he could jam the blade straight into Vesh’s stomach. Aiming for the heart would be more lethal, but if Vesh couldn’t armor himself fast enough, the heart would be one of the first things he protected. That was why Ryokumo had to aim for a severe wound rather than a kill. Wind magic propelling him, he viciously thrust the point of his blade straight for Vesh’s flesh, but unfortunately, armoring himself was not the cultist's counter. Instead, the ground surrounding him exploded upwards from both sides, the rock converging overtop his torso and acting as a shield.

Fuck!

Pivoting away at the last second, Ryokumo released one hand from his grip and aimed it for the shield, instead sending a quick pulse into it that launched him to the left. Twisting through the air, his feet made contact with the dirt as his momentum sent him stumbling backwards, but he didn’t have any time to think before more of the earth blasted up through the flagstones to wrap around his legs and bind him to the ground with stone. Ryokumo found the attempt to be a pathetic excuse at delaying him as he cast Proto again, shattering the half-formed stone bindings and leaping forward. He flew towards Vesh, his free hand coming back to his sword as he raised it above his head for a downward strike, but like before, the cultist leader countered with a shield of stone. However, this time, he completely encased himself, crouching with a palm to the ground to form a solid dome that concealed him from view. Ryokumo canceled his swing a second time as he released a hand, extended it towards the dome, and shouted “CORISKEI!”

The shockwave spell exploded into the dome, but to Ryokumo’s shock, it merely cracked, managing to hold itself together despite the power behind his attack. Instead, parts of the shockwave were reflected back at him, sending out a wave of dust and causing him to nearly lose his footing.

It was then that everything around him began to explode into flames. The illogical and hopeful part of him had hoped that maybe, just maybe, Vesh had been bluffing and the massive surge of mana was due to something else. If it wasn’t, then perhaps killing Rotana Vesh would stop the tragedy. But as he had known deep in his heart, what was done was done, and there was nothing he could do to prevent it. Patrons within each floor of the Jester’s Nirvana were bursting into flames, smashing the stone walls and sending debris plummeting down into the alleyway. The building beside the Nirvana was meeting the same fate, leaving Ryokumo staring up into the sky with horror as their foundations were shaken and their supports were torn down. Screaming could now be heard, but Ryokumo knew that if one of those chunks of stone hit him, he would die instantly. Bracing himself, the wind mage crouched down in the very center of the alley and cast Nex several times, forming his own dome of air around himself. He had no choice but to put as much strength into it as he could, or else the shields would shatter on impact.

Even still, when a large chunk of the Nirvana slammed directly into the top of his dome, he just barely held it together and allowed the debris to roll to the ground. He was lucky the base of the buildings on either side of him weren’t exploding, leaving him wondering if there were storerooms or other unpopulated areas where nobody would have been to meet their fiery end. It was obvious, though, that the Jester’s Nirvana was too filled with people and would be completely crumbling to the ground at any second. The earth was trembling, telling Ryokumo he needed to flee before the entire club was dropped on him, but he couldn’t bring himself to leave Vesh’s position. If he did, the man was certain to get away again.

He would not allow that.

He could not allow that.

Rotana Vesh needed to die for what had just happened. If he escaped Stellareid then another incident like this was bound to happen again. These past few years, they had considered themselves lucky that damage on the level of Hiriech had not taken place again, but it was now clear that the Kosah-Rei had been biding their time. They had planned this meticulously, and he had yet to fully comprehend the extent of their plotting. Little was known, so it felt like it was his duty to execute Vesh once and for all. He could avenge every victim of the cult, and perhaps he could be the trigger that would lead to their demise. Vesh was the face of the movement, so if he was killed, perhaps they would begin to crumble.

Now that they have Keskivaara and his people, the destruction that they can do will be far worse than it ever was!

It was then that he glanced up to find that the entire top floor had come loose, tilting in his direction before sliding down towards him. Left with no choice but to pray it would smash Vesh’s dome and kill the man within, Ryokumo released Nex and Protoed toward the mouth of the alleyway, bursting out onto the street in a mere second.

The heat was even more intense out there as he found the whole marketplace meeting the same end as the club he had just escaped from. Burning and blackened corpses were littering the sidewalks and the road, chunks of street having been taken out with them. Some of the bodies were only half destroyed, indicating they had been in close proximity to someone who had been cursed. There were plenty of survivors, too, but even they weren’t safe. He watched a young woman’s head smashed by a falling rock. He saw a man twitching on the sidewalk with glass shards protruding from his body. There were people clutching the husks of their loved ones and screaming. Plenty were running for their lives, but with nowhere to run to. Groups were completely crushed underneath the collapsed walls and roofs, crying out for help. Smoke billowed up in the distance, and the only relief he was given was the lack of fires visibly raging in Saientia.

Ryokumo’s shoulders slumped. It was so overwhelming that his mind shut down. He couldn’t help them all. Some were even beyond helping. Vesh was still in that dome, but the Nirvana had completely covered it with debris. Should he pursue Vesh or should he try to help the civilians? What of Ilirianna? Where was she? Where did Tali Firrik and Rickori Keskivaara go? Should he pursue them? Or should he seek out the others? If he ran to Saientia, he could make contact with the Masters and the rest of the royal team in order to verify the claims about Lunara’s treachery. Then there was Rennigan and his group down in the Fourth Ring. They might have escaped the combustions but what of Omorossa? Was he a threat? Abi’s sense had indicated he could be, but they didn’t know if he was Kosah-Rei or merely a conman. It was too much, leaving Ryokumo standing still as a statue amidst the flaming destruction, unable to do anything but watch Stellareid burn.

He sensed the attack before it landed, and based purely on instinct, he magiclessly dodged to the left, watching as a fist encased in rock passed where his head had just been. Ryokumo didn’t understand how Vesh had escaped the dome, for there hadn’t been any movement from that direction, but the sight of the fully armored rock mage looming above him made it clear that somehow, Rotana Vesh was free.

Now that his armor was formed, flight was the smartest option. It was well known that a wind mage didn’t often have the strength to break rock magic. Wind was all about flexibility and mobility, trading strength for speed. His attacks were not durable, but they were fast and numerous. A rock mage was the opposite. They were slow and cumbersome, but breaching that armor required force that the weak wind magic could not create. Fighting Vesh was foolish, but there in that hellish street, Ryokumo Caeli had no interest in logic. Vesh answered his dilemma for him.

I can’t breach him, but he won’t be fast enough to hit me! If I stall long enough, perhaps somebody will find me—someone who can bring him down! I’ll fight with everything I have! Somehow, I will kill him for this!

“Proto!” he spat, launching down the road and putting a few dozen yards between them, a vicious smile twisting his face. “I honestly thought you’d run like the coward you are! You think you can beat me, you stupid son of a bitch?!”

Vesh straightened up, and in the dull orange glow of the fire, Ryokumo bore witness to the large figure that was a rock mage, his eyes two glowing yellow orbs embedded in the stone. As Ryokumo snarled at him, he had created a makeshift war hammer out of the rock on his body that he now gripped in his right hand. It was a terrifying sight, but Ryokumo did not back down.

Vesh’s armored head concealed his expression, but his voice made his own hatred clear as day, having been turned deep and monstrous by his magic. “Perhaps your rather victorious life has made you think you’re untouchable, and truly, while a commoner you may be, you are mentally one of the elite. Your cockiness will be the death of you. I owe Mallicent justice, and given that Tali has never seen you in the future, your death is permitted by the Goddess! Killing you will not change Ilirianna’s future, so kill you, I shall!”

“You’re delusional!” Ryokumo laughed mirthlessly, sensing the eyes of the few survivors left turned towards them. Gripping his blade tightly in his hands, the wind mage bent his legs and sent magic surging into the sword. “I suppose then I owe Aeyir justice, as I do every victim dying around me right now! PROTO!”

Vesh made it clear that he was prioritizing Ryokumo’s death over his own flight, so keeping him there would be easier than he had previously thought. Speed was essential. One hit from the cultist might be enough to kill him, so Ryokumo could not afford for even a single attack to land. That was why he refrained from charging the man directly, rather he aimed for one of the few buildings still standing and planted his feet against its cracked wall, rebounding back down to the road. Ricocheting across every sturdy surface was a tactic wind mages often used, and he himself had overcome Album during their sparring matches with such a technique multiple times. There was no reason to directly strike when you were as mobile as a wind mage, and since offensive rock magic could only come from the earth, remaining in the sky was even smarter. Even with the minimal surfaces left to him, Ryokumo kept casting Proto the second his feet made contact with anything, meanwhile Vesh just observed.

He knows I can’t actually harm him, so he’s waiting to see what I do! My best bet is Corsikei, but that didn’t work earlier. Shit… Think of something! Bait him, if you have to!

“Condite,” he breathed mid-flight, releasing his left hand from his weapon and sending more magic into that spell than he typically would.

One could not strengthen the ropes of wind formed by Condite, but the more mana sent into it, the more ropes that would form. In order to break Vesh’s armor, he would need to leave him prone like he had been before and then send a rapid fire of Corsikei castings into him, pounding him into the ground until the rock fractured and exposed his flesh. Centering in on Vesh’s legs, Ryokumo turned the air around them into ropes and tried to bind his ankles together, but his opponent kicked out and snapped them before they were fully formed. Even so, Ryokumo persisted, mixing Proto and Condite in an effort to remain mobile and overwhelm him.

Damn it all! Something needs to work!

It was as Ryokumo’s frustration was reaching its peak that Vesh suddenly dropped to the ground and placed his hand against the road. Given that Ryokumo was still in the sky, he wasn’t sure why the man would opt for such a thing now, but the answer left him furious at himself for not considering this possibility sooner.

Their battle had an audience.

There were those who were simply too wounded and frightened to run and there were others that remained because of the battle taking place. Naturally, not everybody was staying as plenty had already taken off while Ryokumo and Vesh fought, but a quick estimate of their spectators left him with the conclusion that at least a few dozen were still on that street as a rumbling shook through the road that originated from Vesh’s palm seconds before jagged spikes of stone burst through the ground, tearing into anybody unfortunate enough to be within his range.

Ryokumo could only watch as the attack he thought was meant for him ripped the onlookers apart in a shower of gore. Some people were hit so directly that nothing was left of them, and others who were lucky enough to avoid them were then killed when Vesh’s spell smashed through the bases of the few remaining buildings, sending even more debris falling from the sky.

“STOP!” he shrieked desperately, logic abandoning him as he allowed emotion to take control.

The second Ryokumo’s feet found a stable surface on the road, he protoed straight for Vesh with his blade held across his body, knowing now that he couldn’t afford to let this become a battle of attrition. He had been so focused on survival that he hadn't considered the fact that Vesh might simply turn his sights on those the combustions failed to kill.

Ryokumo Caeli was a fool, and that didn’t change.

Vesh was baiting him by killing those civilians, and perhaps deep inside, Ryokumo knew this. He was just too caught up in the moment to think about it and he paid the price for it when Vesh immediately turned to meet his attack. The cultist sprung to his feet, warhammer swinging upwards in a diagonal strike to try and kill Ryokumo on impact. His brain retook control at the last minute, but given the powerful speed at which he was flying, he was not able to change his trajectory and was left with the sole option of hoping the wind shield he erected would protect him from the hammer. That hope was only half met, for the hammer did not reach Ryokumo’s body, but the impact against Nex at such a close range destroyed the spell and blasted the wind mage backwards, sending him soaring down the street like a ragdoll before he struck the ground and bounced a few times, his sword flying from his grasp. He could feel bones snapping from the force with which his body hit the road, and the friction of his slide tore through his clothes and ripped the skin of his right arm.

He allowed himself to lay stunned for only a second before he used his good arm to push himself back to his feet, knowing that another rock attack would surely be coming. He turned his eyes back to Vesh seconds before his opponent slid downwards and out of sight, as if he melted into the earth itself.

It was then that he internally thanked Fayela Rio, for her words had saved his life.

“Like dark magic, rock mages can become one with their element,” she had told him and Abi once. “We can fuse with the earth itself, both for defense and to hide our location from our opponents. The problem is that it's stupid difficult. Not only is it hard to use in the first place, but then you have to learn how to move down there and refine your magic enough to be able sense what’s happening on the surface. Apparently, some rock mages have gone into the earth and never come back—most likely having just plummeted straight to the core. I’m kinda scared to learn it, but it’s not something we’ll do until Fourth Year.”

Without Faye having talked of that spell a few times in the recent semester, Ryokumo would have assumed Vesh used a distortion or had attempted to run, so he told himself to treat her to something nice once this chaos was over and sent Proto through his aching legs. He was propelled up into the sky seconds before Vesh exploded from the ground where he’d been standing. The warhammer was one of the first things to emerge along with the arm carrying it, the massive rectangular head barely missing Ryokumo’s feet.

Pain was viciously assaulting the wind mage, but he grit his teeth to bear it. His wounds during his encounter with the red knight were far worse and he survived that, so all he had to do was keep pressing on.

“Corsikei!” he snarled, extending his good arm to send a shockwave tearing towards Vesh.

The cultist took it head-on as he fully manifested from the ground, and as Ryokumo had expected, his armor didn’t break apart, rather a spider web of cracks spread around him. The one benefit to that spell was that it formed more momentum to push Ryokumo through the air and away from him.

“Correio!” the young man then said, using magic to summon his sword back to his hand.

The thin weapon lurched from its spot a few feet in front of Vesh, the handle moving towards his open palm like a magnet to metal. Ryokumo caught it, landing a couple dozen yards away from where his opponent had risen. He was breathing heavily, and his right arm still wouldn’t move, so he frantically sent a meager casting of Benedio into it. Despite his rage and his determination, he was struggling.

He was losing this fight.

***

Ilirianna’s right sword erupted into flames as she brought it slicing downwards and towards Keskivaara’s neck from behind, hoping to either sever his head or, should he erect another shield of wind, use the explosive nature of fire magic to crush his body into the street. He could certainly sense her if she could sense him, so it wasn’t her plan to take him by surprise, rather she hoped he would underestimate her speed and fail to react in time. To her frustration, not only did he react, but he did so flawlessly. As if knowing she was using a fire spell, instead of trying to shield himself, wind magic surged into his legs as he ducked down and somersaulted forward, her blade finding nothing but empty air. Keskivaara rolled across the ground, planted his palm against it, and with impressive flexibility, leaned into his momentum to launch himself back to his feet.

Ilirianna prided herself on her quick thinking, so even if she hadn’t expected such a quick dodge, she hardly hesitated and was already in pursuit. The second her feet touched solid ground, she rushed him, swapping out the fire magic in her swords for wind as she brought the right back and the left forward to guard. Her opponent was now facing her, so overwhelming him with attacks was the best strategy. She needed to be faster than him, and from her position, she could clearly see in his distraught expression and pained eyes that he was not as determined and focused as she was.

Despite that and the wind magic enhancing the speed at which she advanced, Keskivaara reacted as if he could follow her with ease. She began by twisting her body and slashing up with her right sword toward his neck, but Keskivaara again leaned just out of reach, his right hand snapping down to the pommel of his shortsword. Persisting, Ilirianna followed up with a horizontal strike from her left blade aimed at his stomach, but Keskivaara continued to avoid with careful footwork, and by the time her third attack was oncoming, he ripped his weapon from its sheath and moved to counter. Metal scraped along metal as she thrust her right sword straight for his heart, only for him to deflect it past his left side in the act of drawing his blade. With her other sword held close to her body, she swung it out at him but he dodged just outside his own range.

His blade was held up to guard his torso, so she continued with the momentum and aimed her right sword for his open thigh, though Keskivaara proved his skill once again as he simultaneously moved the leg back and snapped his blade down to deflect hers with surprising reflexes. Growing frustrated at her failure to keep up with him, Ilirianna made a split second decision to remove the mana from the right sword and put it all into one decisive strike with the left. Letting out a howl of rage, she made another wild swing for his head, but instead of dodging this one, Keskivaara blocked it, letting a clang of metal echo out.

Suddenly, and without any sort of warning, the wind mana in her blade was reflected back at her, as if Keskivaara had somehow managed to turn her own power against her. Having been wholly unprepared for such a counter, Ilirianna was jerked around and blasted into the air before her back slammed into the concrete a dozen yards behind her with such force that she couldn’t help crying out. Knowing full well how dangerous her opponent was, she choked back her pain and rolled to her feet as fast as she could, her body turning to the side as she pulled both swords up in a defensive position, her eyes wide and her brain frantically trying to deduce what he had just done.

What the hell was that?! I mean, that must have been Quitala, the Korrei-Tarr reflection spell, but I never heard him cast the incantation! I was right in front of him, and not only did I not hear him speak, but I’m certain his lips didn’t move! So how could he have done that unless… Ilirianna swallowed back the sudden dread rising in her throat at the only possible answer that came to mind. Unless he knows how to use magic without incantations…

That horrible thought was followed by yet another realization as she recalled the moment back in the Jester’s Nirvana when he blocked her attack just before the ground fell out from under them. She hadn’t noticed at the time due to her adrenaline, but he certainly hadn’t spoken then either. He defended himself wordlessly.

You’ve gotta be kidding me… she thought with a mix of anger and a bit of fear. Even I’ve always struggled to do that, so if Keskivaara is pulling this off then…he’s even more dangerous than I thought. If I don’t know what spell he’s going to cast, then countering him becomes ridiculously hard. I might actually be outmatched…

In all her life, Ilirianna Iiji had never once faced an opponent like him, but even knowing that she didn’t have a guaranteed victory, she refused to back down. In fact, it only further proved just how important killing Rickori Keskivaara was, for if a warrior like him were to come into contact with any of her friends, they would almost certainly die. Not to mention, the damage he could do to the empire if he escaped was something she couldn’t bring herself to ponder, so the princess hardened her resolve to do everything she could to cut him down then and there.

And yet…despite holding such a significant advantage over me, he’s not charging… He’s just…standing there…

Destruction raged around them, the air thick with nearly unbearable heat, and now that Ilirianna had a second to breathe, she found herself fully cognizant of the civilians dying in the rubble around her. People were screaming, corpses both burned and crushed were littering the sidewalks, and within that thick, heated air was the growing scent of cooked flesh stinging her nose in a way nothing ever had before. She could feel eyes watching them, though she did not dare to try and see what was within those gazes for fear of giving her opponent even a millisecond of an opening. Her blue eyes remained fixated on Keskivaara, her legs and arms prepared to react at the slightest hint of an attack.

She would have expected a powerful mage like him to do the same, but to her surprise, Keskivaara turned away from her to stare at something off to her right, his bearded features deathly pale in the firelight. Ilirianna considered the possibility that he was trying to bait her into looking as well, so she remained vigilant and refused to follow his line of sight. She knew that he was sure to do something, but defying her expectations once again, Keskivaara weakly lowered his shortsword, turning the point towards the street, and slumped his shoulders in defeat.

What the hell is he—?!

She was cut off midthought by a sudden surge of wind mana into Keskivaara’s legs, a wordless casting of Proto taking place that she was fully prepared to meet head-on. Fire surged back into her swords, wind went into her own legs, and Ilirianna opened her mouth to cast Infernatio once more, but instead of charging, Keskivaara spun on his heel and protoed away from her, as if having decided to flee. Ilirianna was dumbstruck for only a second before her earlier rage flowed through her like power, her only thought being that she could not let him escape her.

“PROTO!” she snarled, letting off one of the strongest castings of that spell possible.

The road cracked beneath her with the intense force of her propulsion as Ilirianna flew through the air at a speed rivaled only by light magic. The princess raised her right sword, the orange flames burning brightly around the emerald blade as she closed the couple dozen yards between herself and Keskivaara in a near blink of an eye. She moved to swing the sword down with as much strength as she could physically muster, but Keskivaara must have sensed the power with which she cast Proto since his head snapped backwards to see what had happened, and infuriating her again, the People’s Mind successfully avoided the attack. Since he already had Proto cast, he was able to alter the movement of his feet, pushing himself to her left as Ilirianna’s weapon glided right through his previous position.

However, Ilirianna decided to continue with the spell anyway, and instead of the flames extinguishing in response to a missed attack, they exploded off of the blade, the force of the pillar of flame that slammed into the ground staggering them both. The princess had intended for this and thus had prepared for it, leaning into the backwards momentum of the blast while using her other arm to shield her face and gracefully landing on her feet. Keskivaara was finally taken by surprise, but even so, he kept his footing as his back slammed into a light post on the other side of the street. All that escaped his lips was a soft grunt, but it was a sign of pain nonetheless, indicating that he wasn’t as flawless as he was appearing.

“Where the hell do you think you’re running to, huh?!” she shrieked, viciously swinging her right blade towards his neck but instead slamming into the post when he ducked to his left. When the sword struck the black metal, the fire magic tore it from the earth and sent it flying down the block. “You’re trying to run?!” Ilirianna violently pivoted and once again rushed him, thrusting her left sword for his chest. When that was deflected by a rising slash, she frantically canceled the spell to prevent her magic from being reflected a second time. “You’re going to pretend to be remorseful?! You’re going to gaze at these people with pity as if you didn’t participate in their suffering?!” Keskivaara dodged away from another swing for his neck, then backpedaled to avoid a second thrust. “Who the hell do you think you are?! You have no right to run away from this! You’re supposed to be a proponent of peace! IS THIS PEACE TO YOU, KESKIVAARA?!”

For the first time since their battle began, Keskivaara went on the offensive, though his features remained calm and his mouth closed despite Ilirianna’s feral screaming. Dodging three wind-powered strikes from her swords, the People’s Mind took advantage of an opening as fire erupted around his own weapon, his blade poised to strike her left side. Ilirianna just barely managed to kill her momentum and retract her extended left blade, turning her body to meet his swing with a backhanded block. As fire met fire, the two combatants were repulsed in opposite directions from each other, the exploding flames burning parts of their clothes and exposed skin. The princess felt herself slam into a still-standing three story building while Keskivaara lost his footing and fell prone to the ground, his sword flying from his grip. The man instantly rolled back to his feet, and this time, he shouted at her, telling her that his composure had finally been shattered.

“You think this is what I wanted?!” he shrieked desperately, his tone tinged with frustrated anger. “You think I wanted these people to die?! Give me a break! I’ve been working for years and years, wanting nothing more than to help the people of my city, and Lord Cartigan couldn’t spare me even a second of his damn time! Over and over again, I made requests to have a civil discussion, but he just couldn’t bring himself to piss off his precious Company Lords! Instead, he slandered my name and my reputation to cripple my movement, and when that didn’t work, he sent assassins to try and have me silently eliminated! Meanwhile, more and more innocent people lost their lives!”

His words spilled out of his mouth like poison, and the more he spoke, the more it appeared he needed to let everything out. She could tell that he had been bottling his frustrations up, and now that he had let them loose, he would confess everything.

“I wanted peace more than anything! Death was a last resort! I believed with all of my heart that, despite our differences, my people and Cartigan’s people were all humans deep inside! I believed that a dialogue could be reached with enough effort! When the Kosah-Rei slaughtered the Malloways, I was truly and utterly disgusted! I, too, thought the same things that Caeli said back in the lounge: That it was hypocritical to vie for peace with bloodshed! Killing the Malloways would only turn us into the savages that the elites thought us to be!”

Ilirianna clenched her teeth and straightened up from where she leaned against the wall, tightening her grip around her swords. She could feel Keskivaara’s mana roiling unstably within him, as if threatening to break out at any moment. Yet, the princess still listened and could easily empathize with him. She knew better than almost anybody just how stubborn and ruthless the government of Ijiria could be. This was why she had sympathized with Keskivaara ever since she first heard of his movement there in Stellareid. But even with the genuine emotion she could hear in his words, they felt nothing but hollow there on that burning street filled with the corpses of the innocent, only emphasized by the burning of ash in her throat. She found herself speaking before she could even ponder the words she should say.

“You would say all of this here and now?!” she shouted back. “What changed, Keskivaara?!”

“NOTHING!” His eyes narrowed with utter disgust, though she was thrown off to find that it was directed not at her, rather at himself. “Nothing changed and that was the problem! Months and months went by, and we failed to make even a tiny step towards our goals while outside of Stellareid, the Kosah-Rei overthrew the government of Hiriech in a single night! Their influence grew, they spread to the northern towns and villages, and they managed to wage a war against Erika that they didn’t instantly lose! My followers started urging me to do the same, to return Cartigan’s attempts on my life with attempts on his! They said we could only make progress by killing him, and I refused to believe that! For the last year, I’ve been fighting tooth and nail to convince my people that the Kosah-Rei are going about everything wrong while they get results and I continue to fail! Eventually, Vesh himself reached out to us and…” Keskivaara scoffed with a sharp shake of his head. “And I was left outnumbered… I took his alliance, and in one mere week, Noctalus was dealt an effective blow and Stellareid’s Fifth Ring has fallen. The Kosah-Rei did for me in one night what I couldn’t do in years…” Raising his head to gaze firmly at Ilirianna once more, he brought his shortsword back up and declared, “So hate me all you like! Curse my name, for I deserve it! But what’s done is done, Ilirianna, and I must live with these consequences!”

Facing down this truly broken man, Ilirianna wished she could have reached him sooner than she did, for if she had, she could have taken his hand before Vesh. Even now, she was confident in the ideals she had tried to force Cartigan to follow. The Lord of Stellareid had pushed Keskivaara into a corner, and the carnage around her was the result.

She had never been wrong.

She was simply late.

So as much as I can understand the struggles you faced, I am still left with no path but my duty as the princess of this country to eliminate you—to execute you for the vile crimes you have committed tonight!

“Very well,” she stated bitterly, raising her own weapons once more. “If you have chosen to become what Cartigan accused you of being, then I shall do what he wanted to do from the very start. I will be your executioner, Rickori Keskivaara.”

“We shall see…Princess.”

It was then that Ilirianna Iiji found herself once again facing the raw power that was the People’s Mind, who charged her with far more ferocity than he had yet displayed that night. Rather than retrieve his weapon, Keskivaara shifted from the Korrei-Tarr fighting style to the typical magic of a mage. Without the sword limiting his options, his ability to fight without incantations became even more of a threat.

Rock armor suddenly erupted from his fists, spreading up his arms and to just below his shoulders, meanwhile wind surged around that armor to increase the speed of his attacks. The People’s Mind was so close now that trying to pull her swords up for defense was a challenge, forcing her to resort to mere dodges as he lunged for her head and torso. Rock magic and wind magic rarely ever mixed, so even though she knew what he was doing, the punches came faster than she could process them.

Ilirianna managed to move her head to the right, allowing his right jab to pass over her shoulder, but his opposite hand was ready and she felt her nose break as his fist made contact. Her head snapped backwards with the force, stars flickering through her eyes as pain erupted through her skull and one of her teeth came loose. She considered herself ridiculously lucky that she hadn’t instantly died, and in a fit of desperation, she sputtered out “Proto” and felt herself launched backwards, towards the building she had been previously up against.

She planted a foot against the wall, ready to proto away, but she was forced to hastily put up a defense as, through the smoke, she saw the light of three fire bolts hovering before Keskivaara. Channeling her mana into the melting snow beneath her feet, Illiriana simultaneously cast a spell and dodged to her right.

“Nikirin!”

A wall of ice shot up and the bolts slammed into it, the first two shattering the ice while the third brought down the building she’d been against in a shower of dust and fragments. As she sprinted right, she channeled wind mana into her left hand, throwing her sword at Keskivaara. His head snapped in her direction and a shield of wind easily deflected the hastily projectile. Her short swords were not meant to be thrown, but it did the job as Keskivaara was momentarily focused on the immediate threat. The wind magic in her hand had made him think the thrown weapon was a danger, but she kept condensing her mana further. Wind compressed before her outstretched fingers, aimed directly at his head.

“Perkari,” she hissed.

The singular blade of wind would have been too powerful and too fast for most mages to defend against, but Keskivaara once again proved his superiority as he shifted the wind shield and protected his face with the gauntlets of rock. Her blade of wind cleaved through the shield but was stopped by the armor. Even so, she was not done.

“Correio.”

The short sword that had yet to land came soaring toward her, its blade approaching Keskivaara’s exposed back. She saw realization flash through his eyes but he knew that would not be a threat either, simply erecting yet another shield behind him.

“Infernus!”

Before the blade had returned to her, the wind magic within Ilirianna’s open left hand shifted to fire and let off a powerful blast of flames that engulfed Keksivaara completely. Unfortunately, she sensed him erect a second shield of wind at the last minute, and while a secondary Nex normally wouldn’t have been enough to defend from a casting as powerful as hers, she had a nasty feeling he was fine. Blood was running down her face and filling her mouth as she watched her fires dissipate to reveal a perfectly defended Keskivaara right where he had been before, the deflected blade clattering to the ground several yards away. Ilirianna scoffed with irritation but knew she wasn’t out of options yet. In fact, something had occurred to her during the battle that had now turned into the ace she was waiting to use.

“As you know, Liri, magic has two types, those being internal and external,” Nakoma had once told her when she was at the very start of her mage training. “Internal magic is when you make the elements from the mana in your own body. External is when you take control of the elements already in the environment around you. This is the more efficient type since it requires less mana. Unfortunately, fire magic is almost never used in this way simply because of the rarity of having an adequate amount of fire in your vicinity. In all my years of studying fire magic, I’ve only ever used environmental fire in true combat a handful of times.”

Ilirianna internally smiled with growing confidence as she noted the burning buildings that surrounded her battlefield. Well, there’s certainly plenty to go around, now isn’t there!

The People’s Mind neutralized every one of her attacks, and because of this, she was hoping that he wouldn’t see her abilities as a threat. Her hand was already extended towards them, and she could feel her mana reaching out to merge with fires of the buildings behind her, bending them to her will. Given her opponent’s strength, she was certain he could sense the sudden wave of power surging into the environment, but he had nowhere to run. For a half a second, she could see the sudden look of horror spread across his face as every flame in the vicinity exploded from the buildings and rushed towards where he stood helpless.

Eat shit, Keskivaara!

Yet, that horror was momentarily replaced by relief, as if he was happy to see his death come soaring towards him. It caused a slight fracture in Ilirianna’s determination, but that hesitation was minimal as she reminded herself of the dead littering this Ring, so she cast her spell anyway.

“Caeruinfernus…”

The fires turned blue as a wave of one of the most powerful spells known to Ijiria slammed into Rickori Keskivaara, and even though she had wanted to keep the violence in check, Ilirianna was unable to prevent her attack from tearing through the remnants of the building across the street, destroying everything in her path.

***

Ryokumo had no clue how long he had been fighting Vesh in that burning street, but he was out of breath and had yet to make any headway in breaking through his defenses. His magic simply wasn’t made to take on a rock mage, and he cursed himself for not spending more time learning the other affinities like Abigail had. Blood was running down his left arm, and his grip around his blade was weakened. His body was drenched in sweat both from exertion and from the terrible and oppressive heat overwhelming that street. At some point, most of the onlookers had run, and anybody left behind was laying dead, torn apart either from the initial combustions or by Vesh's own merciless hand. The man himself stood tall and proud roughly twenty yards away, holding his warhammer menacingly in his hands as he mocked Ryokumo.

“Are you already done, Caeli?!” he roared with a mirthless laugh. “Is this all you have for me?! I’ve heard so many tales of your magnificent talent, yet you’ve been unable to so much as scratch me! It’s disappointing! It’s pathetic! Were you not going to avenge poor little Aeyir?! Well?! What’s taking you so damn long?!”

Ryokumo clenched his teeth with frustration, knowing that Vesh was trying to taunt him into making another mistake. Even knowing didn’t make it easy to hold back, and every bone in his body screamed at him to keep fighting—to find the hole in Vesh’s defenses and kill him.

He may truly have fallen prey to the taunting if the entire row of buildings to his right hadn’t suddenly exploded in a raging blue inferno that tore into the street and sent even more rubble scattering across the Fifth Ring. Vesh was wholly consumed by those flames, and knowing he could not escape them, Ryokumo had tossed up as strong of a casting of Nex as he could the second he felt the oncoming surge of mana. Under other circumstances, he would have panicked at the sight of blue fire magic, but recognizing the mana signature within it, he could only grin with relief, knowing Ilirianna was nearby.

Ryokumo was proud of himself for holding his shield just long enough to let the blue fire dissipate, though he knew that had he been closer to the initial casting, he wouldn’t have been so lucky. Only once the attack had ended did he drop Nex and scan the area, praying with all his heart that Rotana Vesh had been incinerated. His disappointment at seeing Vesh climbing to his feet from where he had been launched to the base of the crumbled Jester’s Nirvana lasted only a second before his attention was stolen by Rickori Keskivaara, laying in the middle of the road and covered in horrific burns—burns that were rapidly healing.

What the hell?! Did he take that attack head-on and survive?!

Concluding that Ilirianna had been fighting Keskivaara, Ryokumo made a swift decision, protoing from his spot and closing the distance between himself and the People’s Mind, intending to open his throat before he could finish healing. Unfortunately, Vesh reacted just as quickly, and since he was closer to Keskivaara, he managed to place himself between his ally and Ryokumo just in time.

“Corsikei!” Ryokumo snarled, extending his free hand to send another shockwave at the self-declared saint, and to his utter glee, the second it made contact, Vesh stumbled, parts of the armor finally breaking off. One more spell should do it, but Vesh had his hammer soaring upwards and had Ryokumo not altered his trajectory midair, it would have made contact with his chest and crushed his ribcage.

The wind mage landed a few yards away from Vesh and Keskivaara, only to watch as his opportunity was lost, for the People’s Mind was weakly climbing back to his feet, his skin mostly healed.

Fucking hell! Why are they all so damn unkillable?!

It was then that Ilirianna arrived, her body propelling through the rubble her fires had created before she landed right in between Ryokumo and the Kosah-Rei. Her swords were grasped in her hands, and she had a look on her face so vicious and determined that she appeared almost like a different person.

Though…I’m sure I look quite similar. I’m thankful she’s alive…

“Liri—!”

“Kumo, retreat!”

She spat the order back over her shoulder, and though it was tinged with rage, the expression she turned back his way was filled only with concern for him, indicating that he must appear far worse than he thought.

Even so, he was shocked by that order. “What?! Liri, we can take them together! I—”

“No! Please, Kumo, get out of here and find the others! I can handle these two alone, but the others aren’t as powerful! We don’t know where the rest of the Kosah-Rei are, so you’re going to be needed elsewhere! Please, go!”

Ilirianna sounded desperate, and though he loathed the idea of running not only from her, but from his fight with Vesh, he also couldn’t deny how ineffective he had been. Ilirianna just displayed the power she held with those blue flames and he was certain that it was her attack that weakened Vesh’s armor. He needed to trust in his princess’s words, so swallowing the self-loathing at how little he had accomplished, Ryokumo gave a meek nod of affirmation.

“Don’t die, Liri,” he replied. “Please…”

“I won’t! I promise!”

Ryokumo cast Proto, leaving the flaming street behind as he choked back his anger. He needed to know what happened to everybody else, and he needed to learn who had become victim to these combustions. As he flew, he spared one last look down at Vesh, and though the man’s face was still covered in rock, Ryokumo could see the pompousness in his posture.

You might have beaten me now, but if Liri doesn’t kill you tonight… I will be ready to do so myself next time!