The kunai was dyed red.

‘The number of Zenists guarding the ship is by no means enough,’ protested Gale, the person in charge of guarding the Stormpiercer. ‘I get it, that the sanctum is lacking numbers and that the Stormpiercer is concealed, but you must be joking if you think six Zenists, myself included, is enough to guard the ship! I’ll tell you this: Monster worshippers could take one of the guards, slip past undetected, and steal the Stormpiercer! That easy!’

To Vod, his protest was sound. However, the Stormpiercer was not the sanctum’s top priority. For the sanctum, they had to deal with the monster worshipper’s activities first; then the defense of the sanctum; and guarding the Stormpiercer would be the last.

The Stormpiercer was merely a ship. Defending the sanctum and figuring out the monster worshipper’s activities—especially with the presence of unknown Magic Formulae—dealt with lives.

There’s lesser need to protect the Stormpiercer now, Vod knew it to be true, considering that Freya had become the new sword saint.

‘You will have to defend it for one or two more days,’ Vod said. ‘The new sword saint will deploy the ship in near time.’

‘The violet hair?’ Gale tilted his head toward the ship’s direction.

‘Her.’

‘How in the world did she steal the title?’

Rightfully from Ignes. ‘She’s more capable than she looks.’

‘… If you say so.’ He shrugged.

A droplet fell into Gale’s hair. Vod had thought that the enclosed dock had a leak that let the rain in, but as Gale touched his hair—his fingers were smeared with crimson. Blood.

Vod looked up.

There, leaning on the railing of the ship, he spotted the immortal Kokuri.

Then came the sound of shifting gears. Vod spotted someone near the mechanism to open the entrance, an unknown man who wore a black coat—who carried with him a spear. A monster worshipper.

‘I knew it!’ Gale voiced.

The enclosed dock’s entrance began to open and the Stormpiercer started moving onward. Vod dashed toward the ship’s ladder and began climbing as fast as he could.

‘Get onto the ship!’ Gale shouted to the Zenists within the vicinity. He followed Vod’s lead and chased him toward the deck through the ladder. ‘We have to gain control of the ship!’

Looking to the side as he climbed, through the gap of the entrance, Vod could see the skystorm approaching Lune.

They’re planning to throw the Stormpiercer into the skystorm.

***

It was a pained, writhing shout: They’re here.

Considering the complexity of the alleyway, even if he knew the way around it, Dunnford couldn’t pinpoint Gol’s exact location from the sound alone. To get to him as fast as possible, Dunnford would have to split up with Brig and Wald. Without him giving any orders, Brig and Wald did exactly that, splitting up, as they each took a different pathway toward the voice’s source.

Disorganized, but quick to react, Dunnford praised them in his mind.aH

Dunnford shifted his glance toward Elaine, who was confused by the suddenness of what had happened. She was inexperienced on the field; and the lack of sleep must had added to her confusion.

‘Stay here, Miss Elaine,’ Dunnford said briskly. ‘Figure the Magic Formulae; run away if anything happens.’

Elaine nodded.

Knowing that he could leave Elaine now, Dunnford gathered wind Elemental Magic on his feet and jumped toward the rooftops. This should be the most efficient way to search.

As he jumped from rooftop to rooftop, Dunnford could see down below that the alleyway wasn’t as desolate as he thought. There were many Zenists scrambling around now, most were the Hawk squad, heading toward the source of the sound vaguely.

Dunnford couldn’t feel the rain, but he could see the rain pouring on the rooftops: seawater carried by the skystorm.

***

Drip…

Blood dripped into the wood of the Stormpiercer’s deck.

Pain.

Freya’s arm was bleeding. A kunai remained stabbed on her upper right arm.

This wasn’t the first time she had sustained damage, but the pain on this one felt different. Of all the damages which she had received before, all of them had been because she had to receive the attacks. This one, however, she received because she had failed to predict her opponent.

I was careless, she thought, looking at her opponent.

Leaning on the railing, her opponent had received a large slash that almost slit her upper and lower body apart on the waist. Blood gushed out from the slash; more than what was humanly possible to lose without dying. Though slow—Freya didn’t fail to observe—her opponent’s wound was regenerating.

She has darkness Elemental Magic and Special Magic.

No matter how good Freya was at predicting, she couldn’t have possibly predicted that her opponent would be an immortal.

‘That gesture…’ the kimonoed lady coughed blood, her voice a mutter. ‘That style… and that… Ha… Ha-ha…’ She coughed blood again in between her soft laughter. A grin twisted her face. ‘You can’t kill me.’

Her foothold shook. On the helm, manning the steering wheel, was an unknown man with a black coat. Freya could hear the enclosed dock’s entrance opening and felt the ship sailing onward.

Entering her sight, Freya could see men in black coats, each with a spear on their belongings. While the rest of them were occupied in preventing the sword worshippers from getting onto the ship through the ladder—Vod was at the front, leading the climb—one of the black coats had begun pointing his spear toward Freya.

The immortal was regenerating, the ship was heading toward the skystorm, a kunai remained stabbed at Freya’s upper right arm, and she had a spear pointed at her. However—

The spear wielder thrusted his spear toward Freya. She dodged by ducking, dashing forward to her opponent while at it. She swung Celeste, the motion of the ship ruined her counter, but she at least managed to nick the side of the spear wielder’s torso with the blade and gave him a shallow cut.

The cut wasn’t as deep as she had hoped, but a smile traced her lips.

—she could still fight.