Coin roared as his spear pierced the golem’s chest, hands shifting around the shaft with the impact. Pulling the weapon free as the shorter creature disintegrated back into dust, he was left with only a leaf on the tip of his blade. Shaking his head, he turned towards the dozens of enemies remaining and lunged back into the fray. The little statues returned his attacks in groups, heavy fists blocking his thrusts and striking in waves.

“Regal!” Lily voice cut through the crackling rumble of moving rocks, one of her sprites clinging to her target until the rock had been encased in a shell of ice. “Any moment would be good!”

Unlike the larger Elemental, most golems were formed from smooth flowing stone and therefore had no joints to speak of. If you wanted to incapacitate them, you’d have to smother them with inches of solid ice. Such a feat would be easy enough with a singular opponent, but here they had precious few seconds before the horde simply beat their compatriot free again.

“Not yet,” Quester replied to his sister, dodging a nearby golem’s attacks. The unconventional adventurer had no means of damaging the beasts, and had been reduced to a mere distraction in this chaotic brawl. “Give her time.”

“Soon,” Ruth said. It would be a different matter if they could be certain that Christoph was taking the Elemental core away, but as it was they had no choice but to stall for now. “We can’t keep this up forever.

Beating the golems back, he caught the attention of any that moved towards the party’s mage, holding them off with his dented shield until Coin could claim the kills. The party was working in perfect harmony, but they were slowly being worn down. Swarm type enemies were always more difficult than most people would expect, and their affinity with the targets this time was simply poor. The Sacrilegious Shield might be Gold ranked, but they had labored harder than anyone else to get there.

Squeezing her eyes shut, Regal tried to ignore the sounds of the battlefield as she focused on gathering her mana. Let alone one wide-area spell, the situation this time called for two successive casts to be effective. A flash-flood type spell with enough water to envelop the golems up to the arms, followed by an instant freezing spell before the water could flow away. A delay of even just a fraction of a second would mean a dozen creatures left to free the others, and she knew that they couldn’t afford to guard both their captives and the Elemental’s heart at the same time.

…

“You done yet?” Leaning back against the skimmer, Christoph tossed a small stone in the palm of his hand. “If you are, then-”

Emilia’s retching interrupted his suggestion, although her stomach seemed to have been emptied some time ago. Glancing towards the rock he was holding, Christoph squinted down at its rough surface. He’d picked it from the top of the massive pile while the cat-girl was busy being sick below, but from what he could tell it seemed to be nothing but an ordinary piece of earth.

“Hey,” Christoph said. “Do you think this is edible?”

Up until now, there hadn’t been a single piece of a crystal beast which he couldn’t eat. Even the crystalline frame of the elven landships had shined enticingly, although he’d been left with nothing but a mouthful of wood pulp after the good parts had dissolved in his mouth. Placing the stone on his tongue, he bit down tentatively.

“Nope,” he said. “Not even close.”

Spitting the distasteful lump into the dirt, he raised an eyebrow at Emilia’s wilted ears. Retrieving one of their waterskins from the skimmer, he crouched down and offered it to the nauseous cat-girl, patting her on the back as she shot him a look of disgust.

“I hate you,” she said, pausing to take a gulp of water. “I can’t believe you just left me behind.”

“Don’t be like that!” Scratching roughly at her furred ears, Christoph pulled the beast-woman to her feet. “Here, I’ll let you drive.”

“Screw you.” Flopping down on the half-unrolled blanket which he’d left lying nearby, Emilia curling up on the soft lump of fabric. “I’m going to sleep.”

“Alright,” Christoph said, lifting her bodily form the ground. Tossing her up into the skimmer’s saddle, he retrieved the blanket before swinging up in front of her. “Let’s go.”

“To the inn?” Emilia’s hands slid under his shirt as she spoke, and he frowned at her seemingly instant recovery. Hugging up to him, she nuzzled his neck excitedly. “Let’s go, then!”

“Not the inn,” Christoph replied, turning the skimmer back towards the top of the slope. “I wanted to wait until you’d recovered, but someone’s fighting up ahead. We’re going to take a little look.”

…

“Lily!” Retreating under the barrage of blows, Coin realized even as he spoke that the sorcerer was too busy to come to his aid. The mass of creatures had long since locked onto their targets, and as time passed the party found itself concentrated more and more around their little mage. The golems pushed forwards with no regard for their own life, regenerating their wounds from the rocks below. How many had he slain by now? A sudden crash sounded at the rear of the horde, and the cluster of statues slowly began to turn away from the group of adventurers in response.

“She’s nearly ready,” Quester said, slipping out of the monsters’ reach. “Just a while longer.”

“He’s brought the heart!” Coin replied, moving forward with the retreating wave of stone men. “Keep their attention!”

Rushing past the closest ranks of enemies, the spearman struck out at any golems he could reach, collecting three leafy cores in their moment of distraction. His arms ached with each thrust, but he was thankful that he’d chosen a bone handle for his weapon. A wooden shaft would have splintered under the force of his attacks long ago, but the bodies of the crystal beasts were sturdier than that. Drawing the monsters in towards himself, he tried to avoid their frenzied strikes, weathering the small amount of blows that passed his guard.

“Shit!” Christoph’s exclamation could be heard even above the golems’ excited pounding, the skimmer slowing to a near halt as they formed a living wall around the spherical shield. Pumping the engines, he rammed the statues as they tried to smother the wards. If an opportunity appeared, he was prepared to drop the shields in order to break free from their primitive encirclement.

“Ready!” Holding her staff high, Regal fought to contain the energies she’d amassed as Coin struggled within the swarm. If she flooded the battlefield now, it would be nothing but droplets by the time he had worked his way free. “Get out of there, Coin!”

“Just cast!” Quester and Ruth spoke as one, their roar punctuated by the dull thump of stones on Ruth’s deteriorating shield. Pushing their opponents back, the adventurers retreated to the mage’s side.

Following their command, Regal began to release her mana, rain pouring down over the hillside. As the water rose up over the golems, she caught sight of Coin’s spear swinging wildly deep within the horde. There was no way he would escape unharmed if she froze the area now. Hardening her heart, she lifted her staff higher yet, the remainder of her energy flashing out in a single instant of magic.

The battlefield went silent all at once, a neat circle of ice encompassing every golem on the mountain without exception. Hovering over the translucent disk, Christoph felt his clothes crack as he twisted in his seat, guiding the craft up away from the captured monsters and onto the dirt nearby.

“Emilia?” Turning around as he dismounted the ship, he caught the cat-girl as she began to fall. From her head to her feet, every inch of her fur had been covered in a layer of solid ice. “Jesus, Emilia!”

“Christoph?” Emilia asked, blue lips quivering as she shivered. “I can’t feel my ears.”

Drawing his swords, he manipulated the crystals into a pair of basic gauntlets, quickly engraving the required runes into the surface. Converter, spellform, focusing, images. His own hair was a similar lump of ice, but the cat-girl had been almost entirely immobilized by the downpour. Holding his hands over Emilia’s body, he urged the mana from his body into the gauntlets, waves of heat radiating towards her frozen body. What had they been thinking? Turning back, he searched for the person responsible.

“Coin!” Lily slipped as she vaulted up onto the meter-high circle of ice, scrambling around the half-buried shapes of the golems as she rushed towards her partner. “Coin?”

In the centre of the disk, a spear could be seen protruding from the surface of the ice, its bone handle descending towards the ground below.

…

Cliff felt the air rush from his lungs with the blow, muscles seizing as the armored knee lifted him into the air. Gripping his sword, he pushed back at his attacker, but was slammed to the side by a heavy fist in return. Sliding across the dirt, he felt a booted foot bring his momentum to a halt, a familiar face looking down on him from above.

“Get up,” Claude said, pulling the Templar to his feet before shoving him away. Deflecting the youth’s sword with another of his forms, two more armored figures beat at the boy with their fists. “First you have the guts to try to kill him, and then you fail? You disgust me.”

“I understand your feelings,” Lucius said, tilting his head to the side, “but Cliff is not to blame here.”

“I don’t want to hear that from someone who let the demon walk free,” the Paladin replied, tapping his dagger against the Saint’s pale throat. “The Willful will not brook such interference, and I will not allow you to deprive me of my revenge.”

“Please stop.” Sierra’s plea was ignored by all five of Claude’s forms, and Dane watched blankly as his former comrade was beaten bloody before him.

“I can see why the Archbishop sent you on this mission,” Claude said, parrying Cliff’s attack with his armored forearm. “You might actually be better than me with a sword. Still, I won’t forgive you for this.”

“Henry was my friend, too.” Cliff felt his broken ribs shift as he spoke, and his vision blurred with the swaying of his sword. “That man does not deserve to live.”

“Nor does he deserve to die,” Claude replied, fist smashing Cliff back down into the dirt. “I’m going to drag him all the way to the Gate and watch as his soul is torn into nothing.”

“The Pope will not stand for this,” Lucius said, tilting his head once more. “Ah… I see.”

“That’s correct,” Claude replied as the high schooler read his mind. Glancing back, his gaze shifted between the twin siblings. “It is your father that has made this possible.”

“What are you implying?” Sierra asked, confronting the version of the Paladin holding the living Saint hostage.

“The Pope has been removed from his position,” Dane said. “Father is our current candidate for the seat, and of course Archbishop Kale stands for the Blessed, although given father’s current condition, there’s almost no competition at all.”

“You’re doing all this even knowing that Cliff’s father will soon be the most powerful man in the Kingdom?” Lucius asked. “How-”

“How can you just watch this?” Sierra turned towards Dane as she spoke, knuckles whitening where she clutched at her staff. “Is this okay with you?”

“Henry is dead,” Dane replied, staring back at her. Looking down at where Cliff was struggling to stand, he let out a small sigh. “I didn’t even get to join the pursuit. The funeral was a failure, of course. We tried to contact him through the altars as well, but there was no response. He’s gone forever, and he’s never coming back. Father’s locked himself in the bell tower, and I’m not sure if anything is okay any more.”