“Do you think I should have killed him?”

Christoph glanced around at Emilia’s face from his position behind her, but she remained unreadable. Her attitude hadn’t been anything worth noting when they set out, but as the hills passed underneath them the beast-woman had grown increasingly silent.

“I mean, I get that there’s no love lost between the beast clans and the pirate crews,” Christoph said, “but I’d already spared him once, wouldn’t it be wrong to just turn around and kill him now?”

Hunching over, Emilia pressed the knuckles of her right hand into her mouth and ignored his words. Was she deep in thought or actually upset this time?

“Diana would have killed him, I’m sure, but we can’t all be as indifferent as she is.” Turning the craft, Christoph steered it through the ever-growing foliage. Although the trees had been densely packed around the small town, those in the leash were larger still, and with their size came space.

“Hey.” Emilia turned around at Christoph’s words, face wrinkled up in displeasure. “Did that elf really turn into a good person after she ran off with you?”

“Huh?” Christoph shrugged his shoulders. Had she moved on from whatever she was thinking about? “I don’t know if I’d call her a good person, but she was definitely different. She said that Liam showed her the lives of other people, so I’m guessing the empathy did her good.”

“What about you?” Emilia asked, facing the front once more. “What did he show to you?”

“The things he showed me were… shallower than that.” Christoph had been wondering when this conversation would appear. “Instead of memories, I was given knowledge without the experience of learning it. About plants, animals, people and places. Common knowledge, really. Nothing that would change me as a person.”

“You have changed, though.” Leaning back, the cat-girl rested her head against his chest. “Isn’t that because of him?”

“I suppose so,” Christoph said. “He did take my fear of death and turn it into a fear of you, so I guess you could blame him for what happened. No, it is his fault in the end, but it wasn’t him that changed me. That’s just life.”

“Life?” Emilia’s ears twitched as she looked up at him. “You mean the time you spent on the plains?”

“That’s right.” Leaning down, Christoph rested his chin against her shoulder. “I’m more surprised you’re still the same after everything that happened. Ah, you were part of this world from the beginning, though. What did Liam do to you anyway?”

“He made me forget you,” Emilia said, averting her gaze. “I went back to being the person I used to be.”

“What do you mean?” Rocking the skimmer to avoid an approaching tree trunk, Christoph slowed the craft and took in the beast-woman’s troubled expression. “The person you used to be?”

“I’ve changed since meeting you.” Emilia’s words almost slipped past him, as if somehow whipped away by the wind that couldn’t penetrate the skimmer’s wards. Shaking her head, she raised her voice again. “You might not have realized it, but I haven’t always been this carefree.”

Silence fell over the pair as Christoph tried to make sense of her words. The Emilia he’d known was lazy to a fault, always following her whims and living as easily as she could. Now she’s saying that was because of him?

“Leila almost didn’t even try to help me,” the beast-woman continued. “In the end, she must have decided I was better off being like this than that though, because here we are.”

“Here we are, huh?” Slowing the skimmer and reaching a hand off the steering bars, Christoph petted his partner on the head. “You went through a lot to get back to me, didn’t you?”

“That’s right!” Shaking off his hand, Emilia wriggled about in the seat and wrapped her arms around him. “It wasn’t easy, you know! Even Bastias, don’t the gods know how to be gentle with their people?”

“Know your place.”

Jerking at the sudden intrusion, Christoph was able to slam the craft to one side, the tip of a straight sword grazing past to open a shallow cut in his cheek. Where had his attacker gone? There! Stepping out from the trees around them, Claude readied his swords once more.

“We meet again, demon.” A second voice rang out, and Dane leveled his own damaged longsword at the pair. “This time, I hope you’re prepared to die.”

…

“Are you ready, brother?”

Lifting his sword an inch from its scabbard, Claude didn’t spare a glance back to check Dane’s reaction. The Paladin gathered his mana and split his body in four, each form darting away behind a nearby tree as the skimmer approached. Behind him, his plate armor lay bundled within his blue-clothed caped. In this next fight, it would only serve to slow him down.

“I’m ready.” Lowering the visor on his helm, Dane pre-emptively drew his blade and watched Claude tighten the grip on his own weapon, half-sliding it from the sheath and coiling his muscles for the sudden strike. The elven craft drew closer, close enough for them to hear the occupants’ conversation as the skimmer slowed its speed. The use of a surprise attack didn’t sit well with Dane, but perhaps this was a sign that the lord thought differently. Conditions for the attack could hardly be better.

“We have to finish this fast,” Claude said, “or else the pirate will catch us, and that would be troublesome. Truthfully, I would have liked to silence him, but this is our fight. We must not drag the church into a conflict with the guild.”

“Of course,” Dane replied, lowering his voice. Denying the adventurer his offer, the two had made use of an ancient summoning stone to position themselves ahead of their prey along the leash. “Henry would not have liked to see the church in a conflict with the guild, and I am glad we did not have to kill the half-elf.”

“You shouldn’t compare Henry to trash such as that.” Turning back, Claude narrowed his eyes at Dane, his shoulder length hair whipping around in the forest air. The young certainly had simplistic ways of seeing the world. Cliff as well should have known better than to seek vengeance on the demon alone. “The majority of elves are enemies to the church, and you would do well to remember that.”

Crouching slightly, Claude muffled his mana as he prepared to activate his teleportation. His right hand clenched the hilt of his sword, his left pushing out on the scabbard it held. Appearing from nowhere to strike out with the unsheathing motion of his sword before the enemy could react – in the ranks of the Paladins, this was known as a ‘draw’.

“…don’t the gods know how to be gentle with their people?”

“Know your place.” Shifting his position to the skimmer’s left wing, Claude drew on the pilot, narrowly missing his kill strike as the craft turned away. In the end, a surprise attack was something he simply couldn’t stomach. The sinners should know their mistake before they die. Stepping his many bodies out from behind the trees, he was pleased to see Dane approaching as well.

“We meet again, demon,” Dane said. “This time, I hope you’re prepared to die.”

…

Parrying a longsword with his right hand blade, Christoph ducked under a second, letting a third crash harmlessly into the shield he’d formed on his left arm. The translucent wedge of crystal wasn’t able to absorb the impact, but it did shelter his vulnerable flesh from the shimmering blades. It was a truly efficient defensive measure and in a way, Christoph was thankful that Plume had tried to shoot him to death earlier that morning. In another way, he wasn’t thankful at all.

“Is is national revenge day or something?” Lashing out with his sword, Christoph forced the three knights back and regained his footing. “Emilia honey? Are you okay over there?”

“These knights!” A blurred mass of fur, Emilia’s arms flickered out to strike at her foes with both daggers. “Just leave us alone already!”

Dismounting the skimmer, Christoph had taken the initiative by rushing the group of knights before they could decide on their targets. The worst case scenario would be if they had split four and one or even three and two with a majority attacking Emilia. As it was he was barely holding back two of Claude’s bodies and Dane as well, and he could see Emilia wasn’t faring any better. He might be leaps and bounds stronger than he was the first time they fought, but the teamwork between Claude’s clones was something to be reckoned with.

“You know wh-”

Christoph stepped back as the knights made their attack, jumping back again as Claude tried to move into a flanking position. Metallic clashes rang out as Emilia began a series of remarkably acrobatic maneuvers between Claude’s twin forms.

“You know what?” Readjusting the shape of his shield, Christoph shortened his sword to allow for a little more freedom of movement against his three opponents. “First, a half-elf tries to kill me and then people come for revenge after I kill him back.”

“Watch your mouth.” Claude’s forms barked in unison, the blonde knight scowling daggers back at Christoph’s crooked smile.

“And then another half-elf comes to kill me, and people come for revenge after I don’t kill him back.” Christoph’s smile widened as he danced past Dane’s fervent barrage of attacks. “Not revenge for him, but I really just can’t catch a break, can I? And I mean, that’s not even counting the entire summo-”

“Christoph!” Emilia’s voice cut past Christoph’s taunt, but the three knights gave him no room to even spare a glance in her direction. “There’s something weird about these knights, Christoph!”

“It’s okay!” Christoph’s reply was accompanied by a grin. The surface of his sword rippled for a moment, runes appeared in the shimmering crystal as a wave of mana burst out to take Claude in the chest. “I’ve fought someone like this before.”

“You..” Flinching at the destruction of one of his clones, Claude took a moment to re-form his fourth body with a look of disgust. “Remember Dane, you can never tell how much mana a demon has. Don’t be fooled by the negative pressure, don’t let your guard down and whatever you do don’t let them get their hands on your soul.”

“Understood,” Dane replied.

“Understood?” Christoph drew his head back in doubt. “You guys do know I’m not actually a demon, right? Right?”

“You can use magic?” Emilia’ question was followed by a frantic exchange of blows, her battered ears flattening against her skull as best they could. “I didn’t know you could use magic!”

“I’ll explain later,” Christoph replied, weaving blasts of mana in between his strikes to catch the trio off guard. “Actually, isn’t it stranger that none of you can do this? Not even Henry used magic against me, and he had enough mana to-”

“Dane.” Claude hissed at the younger knight, two of his forms momentarily forcing Emilia backwards before turning towards Christoph instead. “Plan B.”

“Understood.” Retreating from his lopsided duel with Christoph, the former adventurer moved to intercept the beast woman instead, leaving the four Claudes to deal with the more troublesome opponent.

“Oh boy,” Christoph said, breathing between his teeth. He hadn’t taken any flesh wounds yet, but the pit of his stomach was already welling with hunger. “You did hear me say I had experience facing someone like you, right?”

“You can stop talking,” Claude replied, readying his four swords as Dane and Emilia faced off. Seeing the beast-woman’s daggers bounce from Dane’s breastplate, he gave a smile of his own. There was a reason he had the younger man keep his plate armor on, after all. “Your bluffs and jeers won’t save you now.”

“Well…” Raising an eyebrow, Christoph prepared to receive the Paladin’s attacks. There might be no way to avoid taking damage this time, but he would return just as much as he was dealt. Would his mana run out first, or Claude’s? “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“Don’t worry,”Claude said, his four bodies each taking a step towards their prey. “I won’t.”

“You say that n-” Christoph’s reply was cut off as four swords flashed out as one, wildly jerking arms and legs to knock aside the weapons and avoid the blows. The knight’s follow up sliced across his calf, and he stumbled back with a grunt of pain. “You say that now, and could you give me a break when I’m talking!?”

“Quiet.”

Closing in on the cornered demon, Claude confirmed that Dane was holding off the beast-woman before beginning his attacks. She actually had quite the impressive fighting spirit. If it weren’t for Dane’s armor, he would have been bested many times already. No, even now dents had begun to appear in his polished steel plate. He could waste no time with his own duties.

“No?” Christoph followed Claude’s glance towards their partners, taking in the situation as it stood. Although he had been holding his own against the three knights before, this would be a very different battle, and it didn’t seem like Emilia would be done with her part any time soon. Taking a deep breath, he willed his leg to heal and shook the tension from his arms. “Okay then, let’s do this.”