April 14th

Year 2120

Southern Mountain Range

Southern Wastes, Gartaena

“Hey, I found something!” Kayline exclaimed, running towards her father, trying to sound surprised. “I carefully went outside to refresh myself, and I saw what I think was a messenger heading towards the enemy camp! After killing him, I found this letter on it.”

“Huh?” her father said, looking at her. “What does it say?”

“Here, take it,” she said, handing the letter to him, hoping with all her heart he took the bait.

Her father, Garnent, examined it for a while, looking surprised, until he finally spoke, also addressing Juhen, the big bandit, who was also in the room with them. “It seems the Fergahnian army is getting reinforcements soon. If we keep waiting here, they’ll just break the siege and invade the tunnels. I doubt we’d be able to hold the lair against any more soldiers.”

“Then what are we going to do?” Juhen asked. “If we attack, we’ll get destroyed. They’ve got many, many more soldiers than we do.”

“Hmmm, that’s right,” Garnent agreed. “We can’t do anything rash. But still, we will be in an even worse situation if they actually get reinforcements.”

“Is that letter even real?” Juhen suddenly asked, squinting his eyes.

“I-I believe it has the signature of an enemy commander,” Kayline said quickly.

“That’s right,” her father agreed. “I have heard of this particular knight. It’s real. And he’s strong. We can’t afford to risk fighting the reinforcements too.”

“We have the high ground,” Kayline bluffed, trying to inspire confidence into the two bandits. “And we have you, father. If we fight them, taking them by surprise, we can certainly win. We have to do this. We must have a few days at most before the reinforcements arrive. If they get here and realize the main army has been destroyed, they’ll definitely back down.”

“That’s right,” her father said. “We’ll attack tomorrow at first light, during the guard change. They’ll have their guard down, as guards will be just taking up their shift and most soldiers will still be asleep, and that’s when we’ll strike.”

“I’ll go spread the word,” Juhen said.

Yes! Kayline thought. The second part of their plan had been victorious. Alvoren had already gotten her the letter, so even if he wasn’t able to convince their commanders to attack, they had already been successful. The battle would occur, and they would succeed.

Alvoren headed quickly towards Colonel Mandron’s tent, holding the letter in his hands. When he got to it, he knocked hard and quick, trying to show the importance of the matter.

“Come in,” Colonel Mandron’s voice called from inside.

Alvoren entered, trying to look alarmed, and quickly snapped a salute.

“What is it?” Colonel Mandron asked.

“Sir, I was going to refresh myself, when I saw an enemy messenger trying to sneak into the bandits’ lair! I found a letter on him when I defeated him. I think you should see it, sir.”

“Let’s see,” Colonel Mandron agreed, receiving the letter from Alvoren. “Oh, no,” he said after a while of inspecting it. “This could be bad. Come, soldier, let’s take it to Sir Grendar. He’s the one who calls the shots around here.”

Alvoren tensed, paling. Sir Grendar?! I… guess you just gotta make sure they don’t see you. Kayline’s voice echoed in his head. If the Anti-Transmutation Strike Team recognized him, he’d be done for. But, he didn’t seem to have much of a choice. What to do, what to do? Alvoren pondered, getting increasingly nervous.

“M-maybe you could take it to him alone. It might look strange if a mere foot soldier enters the tent of an army commander,” he bluffed in a desperate attempt to prevent the encounter.

Colonel Mandron raised an eyebrow. “That doesn’t make any sense. Are you scared of him or something? He won’t bite you,” he finally said sarcastically.

“I-I’m not, sir.”

“Then what’s the matter? Let’s just go. We have no time to waste.”

“S-sir, yes, sir.”

Maybe, just maybe, Alvoren could stand at the entrance of the tent while the two officers spoke. It’d be hard for Sir Grendar to recognize him from a distance. It would be risky, but he didn’t seem to have much of a choice.

Colonel Mandron and Alvoren then left the room, Alvoren getting increasingly nervous with each step they took towards Sir Grendar’s tent. They got to it alarmingly quick, and Colonel Mandron knocked on the wooden pillar supporting it. After a few tense seconds, a grave voice invited them in. Colonel Mandron pulled open the door of the tent, revealing the insides. Standing behind a desk Alvoren had already seen before was a big and thick figure, almost square in its shape, made of pure muscle and dressed in a military outfit. It was Sir Grendar himself.

Uh oh.

Colonel Mandron entered, with Alvoren staying behind, standing next to the doorpost. Fortunately, Colonel Mandron had taken the letter while they walked, so Alvoren wouldn’t have to approach the big knight. Sir Grendar received the letter from Colonel Mandron and started to inspect it. After a short while of reading, he spoke.

“...This is bad. Quite bad. Where did you say you got this from?” he asked Colonel Mandron.

“Soldier Axerhos here said that he found it on an enemy messenger,” Colonel Mandron answered. Isn’t that right?”

“Y-yes, sir,” Alvoren answered, his voice trembling slightly.

“The man deserves a reward. Step forward,” Sir Grendar called to him.

Alvoren hesitated, but finding no other way out of his dire situation, did as requested. Sir Grendar looked at him with an inspecting eye, examining him.

“You look familiar,” he finally said. “Have I seen you before?”

“I-I don’t think so, sir,” Alvoren replied, his voice trembling, his heart beating hard in his chest.

“Oh, I do think so, soldier,” Sir Grendar then said, squinting his eyes. He addressed Colonel Mandron, saying, “This man right here is a traitor to the kingdom of Fergahn and to mankind itself. This man… is an ally of the Transmutator.”

Alvoren tensed. He had lost.

Colonel Mandron’s eyes widened in shock. “A-are you sure about that, sir?”

“Absolutely. He even fought the Anti-Transmutation Strike Team, several days ago, when we tried to kill the Transmutator. If he wants to ally with the Transmutator, then he’ll suffer his same fate. He… deserves a death sentence.”

Alvoren paled. A death sentence?! Isn’t that too much?!

“I understand,” Colonel Mandron answered. “Is dawn tomorrow a good time?”

“That’s perfect,” Sir Grendar said. “Keep him shackled and under guard during the night.”

“Right away, sir.”

With that, Colonel Mandron called in some other soldiers who pulled the stunned Alvoren away, shackled him, and locked him up in an empty tent.

What… is going to happen to me now? Alvoren asked himself. What is going to happen to the plan? Can Kayline rescue Merdilen alone? Even if she could, he couldn’t die here. He wasn’t ready to die yet. But, there seemed to be nothing he could do now. He had failed. Would he now have to pay the price for his gamble?

Full of those depressing thoughts, he spent the night cold, alone, and sad.

“Get ready, you slackers!!” Juhen exclaimed towards the bandits, walking around the lair. “We’re attacking now!”

Kayline got up from her bed, strapping her twin longswords to her back. Fortunately, she had been able to get her original ones back, as she had found them lying in a corner of the bandits’ lair the day before. They were way better than the ones they had gotten at the village of Hedron, and she felt more confident with them.

Still, she was extremely nervous. The time had come. The time had come for the battle between the bandits and the Fergahnian army. She just wanted it to last long enough so Alvoren and herself could save Merdilen. As both factions were enemies of themselves, she didn’t really care about who won. Still, it’d be... interesting.

“We won’t allow this damn siege to last any more!” Juhen was saying. “Today, we’ll fight, and we’ll kill those Fergahnian bastards once and for all! We have the power of Manipulation with us. They won’t be taking neither these caves nor the Transmutator, and we’ll get infinitely rich!”

The bandits started to cheer and shout, full of energy and thirst for battle.

“Let’s go!” Juhen finally exclaimed, and all bandits rushed out from their lair, towards the unsuspecting Fergahnian army, ready to kill.

Alvoren had had a bad night. He had barely been able to sleep, and he had been full of depressing thoughts. Would he really die at dawn? He wasn’t like Merdilen. He couldn’t escape using the Transmutation. There wasn’t really anything he could do. He just had his hands tied up, not his feet, so he had tried to sneak out, but had been quickly caught. Now, he had his arms tied up to a stake, so there really wasn’t anything he could try to do anymore. Still, he felt like he should do something. He couldn’t just let his journey end here. But there wasn’t anything he could do.

The moon started to slowly lower, and the sun started to rise. It was dawn. Soon, a group of five soldiers entered the tent, untying him and pulling him up.

“Time to die, traitor,” one of them told him, spitting at him.

Alvoren thought about retorting something, but fear kept him from doing it. He was carried out of the tent, out towards the rim of the camp. And there, he saw where he was being taken to. A gallow.

Oh, no!

He started to twist and move, trying to free himself, but the soldiers just grabbed him harder. They brought him against his struggling towards the gallow, and when they got to it, they pushed him atop a simple bucket, pulling his head through the rope.

A soldier prepared to kick his bucket from under his feet.

The moment he did, Alvoren would start to hang, and he would soon die. Not as a hero, but as a monster. He kept struggling, trying to get out, but the firm hands of soldiers kept him in place.

“Any last words, traitor?” one of the soldiers asked, his voice full of venom.

Alvoren looked upwards, towards the mountain in which Merdilen and Kayline were… and he couldn’t believe what he saw.

“Bandits!” a soldier called out, his shout being repeated by the rest.

Soon, the whole camp was getting up from their bedrolls, getting ready to fight.

“W-what?!” one of the soldiers exclaimed furiously, right before his expression turned to surprise as he saw the incoming group of attacking bandits.

“Defend the camp!” Colonel Mandron exclaimed from somewhere Alvoren couldn’t see. “Don’t let them win!”

At that moment, most soldiers in Alvoren’s presence left him, leaving him with just two guards. Alvoren, not missing a beat, struck the soldier closest to him with his elbow, trying to escape. He fell backward, and Alvoren kicked him on the head, knocking him unconscious. But then the second guard attacked him, grabbing him. As Alvoren had his hands tied up behind his back, he couldn’t resist the grapple, and the soldier started to choke him.

“Die, you scum!” he bellowed at Alvoren.

Alvoren was unable to breathe, and he slowly started to pass out.

I can’t pass out now, he thought, panicking. If I pass out, they’ll kill me. But he just couldn’t resist the strong grapple with his tied hands. I can’t… pass… out. But mere moments before he lost consciousness completely, he heard a punch, then a scream, and the soldier choking him fell to the ground, releasing him.

Alvoren breathed once more and started massaging his neck, desperate for air. He looked up to see… Hogrel, looking down at him with determination.

“It was the right thing to do,” Hogrel told Alvoren, giving him a curt nod. “I owed you one.”

“...Thank you very much,” Alvoren genuinely said. “You saved my life.”

“Now we’re even,” Hogrel then said, cutting through Alvoren’s bindings. “But I can’t do much more than this, lest I be charged for treason too. Now run. Don’t stop running until you’re free, and… never stop doing the right thing to do.”

Alvoren thanked him once more, to which Hogrel nodded once again, and Alvoren ran away. He ran towards his weapons, and when he got them, he started dashing towards the chaotic battlefield, towards his and Kayline’s meetup point. He might have just barely evaded death, but he still had a job to do.

Kayline dashed out of the lair with the rest of the bandits, but instead of running towards the Fergahnian army with the rest of them, he headed towards the right, towards the rock that was her and Alvoren’s meeting point. The battlefield was chaotic, with men screaming, falling, and attacking each other, but Kayline tried to evade it as much as possible, sprinting to her objective. Soon, she saw Alvoren coming from the opposite direction, also headed towards the rock, now wielding a longsword in a hand and a big shield in the other.

“Everything okay?” Kayline checked when they met up.

They started to spar, trying to make it seem as if they were in the middle of a fight to not look suspicious.

“I was almost executed right now, but yeah,” Alvoren replied, and then exclaimed with a raised fist, “The great hero Axerhos would never be defeated by a mere gallow!”

“...Oh. Good that you survived, though.”

“Yeah,” Alvoren agreed. “But we have no time to lose. You know how to get to where Merdilen is being kept, right?”

“Yeah,” Kayline said, nodding. “Let’s go.”

With that, they left the battlefield stealthily, trying to look as casual as possible, and quickly entered the mountain. There were almost no bandits in there, as all of them were fighting on the battlefield outside. It was as labyrinthine as ever, but Kayline guided them with expertness through the maze, heading directly towards Garnent’s office.

“Garnent, my father, stayed behind to guard Merdilen,” Kayline told Alvoren as they walked.

“Uh oh,” Alvoren muttered at the prospect of fighting him in his own territory. Sure, he had thrown him to the ground, but that had been as he had surprised him. Still, he hadn’t been able to deal the killing blow, as Garnent had pushed him away with ease. Had the battle continued, Alvoren was sure Garnent would have won.

“But don’t worry. I… think I have a way to beat him,” Kayline added. “Leave him to me.”

“...You sure?” Alvoren asked, and after a curt nod from Kayline, added, “Okay, it is better to fight others one-on-one to not hit your ally, but I’ll obviously still be there, just in case.”

“Seems correct to me,” Kayline agreed.

With that, they kept heading through the dark corridors, until they encountered a big and strong man, wielding a greatsword and guarding the passage. He was clad in strong, splint steel armor.

“What are you doing here with an enemy soldier, little girl?” Juhen asked, cracking his knuckles. “Or, should I say, traitor girl?”

“Uh oh,” Kayline muttered.

“Leave him to me,” Alvoren told her in a low voice. “You run forward. I’ll catch up.”

“Are you sure?” Kayline asked. “Believe me, he’s strong.”

“Still…” Alvoren said, and then turned to face Juhen. “You’re no match for… the great hero Axerhos!”

“Ha, ha! The great hero Axerhos, huh?” Juhen mockingly said, then grinned, preparing his greatsword. “Let’s see how great you really are.”

“Go!” Alvoren exclaimed towards Kayline, to which Kayline gave some hesitant steps forward, then ran past Juhen and towards the end of the corridor.

“She won’t get past the boss anyway,” Juhen commented, his voice full of confidence. “Me letting her go doesn’t change anything. Now, to deal with you. This should be some fun.”

Alvoren got ready to fight, breathing in. He might not be as versatile as Merdilen, nor as fast as Kayline, but he was clever. He had some quick thinking. And, throughout his several years as a swordsman, he’d learned that knowing was half the battle.

“Yeah,” he answered, grinning as well, adrenaline pumping him up. “This should be some fun.”

Juhen raised his greatsword, smashing it downwards towards Alvoren. The greatsword was going with too much force as for Alvoren to block it, so he raised his shield, deflecting the attack, and dashed forward. He slashed at Juhen’s side, his sword cutting through his skin in a certain spot with no steel strips, but although Juhen grunted in pain, it had clearly just been a superficial strike.

Juhen attacked once again, diagonally upwards from the bottom right. Alvoren sidestepped with ease, dodging the slash. He had realized something: the underground corridors were too tight for Juhen to swing his massive greatsword horizontally—all his attacks would be either vertical or diagonal. That gave Alvoren a massive advantage, as he would have an extremely easy time in figuring out where his opponent would attack next.

Alvoren slashed twice at his opponent, testing him, and even though he was able to break his guard with the second attack, the cut was, once more, just superficial. His armor was too strong. Alvoren looked around, looking for something he could use. Soon enough, he found it. A rock pillar stood in the middle of an adjacent room, holding the roof.

He remembered how Kayline had gotten her letter, which she had briefed him on during their walk through the lair. She had brought down a pillar, creating a distraction. Maybe he could do a bit more than that.

He took several steps backward, dodging several swings from Juhen’s greatsword, and then sprang into that adjacent room. Juhen stepped in too, grinning as he realized he’d be able to swing horizontally now too, as there was plenty of extra space in the room. They exchanged a few more blows, neither of the two being really able to hurt the other. Alvoren stopped trying to attack entirely, restraining himself to just dodging and blocking attacks. He had to get Juhen as angry and frustrated as he could. And, after several more failed swings, Juhen got as Alvoren wanted.

Frustration made people stop thinking clearly. It made them act merely on instinct. And that was what Juhen was doing now. He started to swing his greatsword with incredible strength, getting angrier and angrier. All according to Alvoren’s plan.

“I will kill you!” he roared.

“No,” Alvoren said, grinning. “You lost the moment you entered this room.”

“What?!” Juhen bellowed, furious.

But Alvoren didn’t answer, and instead, jumped towards the center pillar, the one that held the whole room. Juhen slashed once more towards him, full of rage, and Alvoren dodged. His massive greatsword bit deep into the pillar, cleaving through it and getting stuck there. Alvoren took the chance, running out of the room.

“Stop running, you coward!” Juhen exclaimed at him.

“Maybe you’re the one who should run,” Alvoren answered.

“Huh?!”

As if on queue, Juhen pulled his greatsword out, and with the pillar cleaved through and nothing to support it anymore, the whole roof came down, rocks falling down towards the room and burying Juhen underneath it.

“You were no match for the great hero Axerhos,” Alvoren muttered, still grinning.

Kayline arrived at her father’s office. She breathed in, then stepped into it, unsheathing her swords as she entered. Her father was standing in the middle of the room, walking around with his dagger unsheathed, ready to ‘defend’ Merdilen.

“Huh?” her father asked as he saw her, raising an eyebrow. “What are you doing here?”

Kayline answered nothing, approaching him with her swords.

“H-hey, get away! Go fight!” he exclaimed. When she kept approaching him, he added, “It’s an order! I’m not just your boss, I’m your father too. I own you.”

“No, you don’t,” Kayline said, looking at him angrily. “You have no power over me. Not anymore. I… am my own person. Now give me Merdilen.”

“Oh, you want Merdilen?” he asked, his voice suddenly turning dangerous. “Come get him.”

With that, Kayline rushed him, her swords ready to her sides. She wouldn’t be able to win by power. But she had something else. She wasn’t even able to reach him before a wind current pushed her backward, and she skittered in the ground, coming to a stop in almost the entrance. She got up once more, rushing him again. Kayline got now pushed towards a pillar, and she hit her back hard, falling to the ground in pain. Garnent grinned slightly. Garnent was too careful, Kayline would be able to do nothing he couldn’t stop. But there was an easy way of making someone let their guard down. Overconfidence. And Garnent was full of it.

Kayline kept charging, unsuccessfully trying to attack him, getting pushed backward time after time. The wind pushes pushed her against pillars, walls, and rocks, hurting, bruising, and cutting her. Garnent’s grin widened with each failed attempt. Kayline made herself look weak and damaged, for Garnent to become even more overconfident. It wasn’t hard. And finally, after almost ten failed attempts, she realized the time had come.

Sheathing her right longsword, she pulled out a dagger and charged once more. Analyzing him, the day before, she had realized the strength of the wind he Manipulated was directly proportional to the amount of wind needed. Therefore, to push her backward each time, he had to Manipulate all the wind in the room and push it forward. And she was going to exploit that weakness.

As soon as she started running, she threw the dagger towards him, its tip aimed directly at Garnent’s head. Manipulating the wind, he deflected it with ease, and chuckled.

“I know a distraction when I see one, girl,” he said.

He then pushed Kayline away, feeling like he had already won. But at that very moment, he lost.

When pushing Kayline away with the wind, he pushed using the wind from the whole room, Manipulating it all forward, towards Kayline. The dagger hadn’t fallen to the ground yet, it was still in the air. And as it had flown right past his head, Garnent was directly in the way between Kayline, the objective, and the dagger, which was in the air. The dagger was pushed alongside the wind forward, and as the wind pushed Kayline backward, it pushed the dagger towards her. But there was something standing in its way.

The dagger impaled itself in Garnent’s back with a sickening noise. Garnent’s eyes widened in shock, and his own dagger slipped from his hands, falling to the ground. He fell on his knees a few seconds later, collapsing completely in a pool of blood.

Kayline got back up with effort, heading towards Merdilen’s cell. She broke the lock with her longsword, opening the door.

“Hey,” she told Merdilen, smiling.

Merdilen looked up at her with surprised and hopeful eyes. He was noticeably thinner than before, his clothes were ragged, and his hair was dirty. He looked like he hadn’t eaten anything in several days.

“K-Kayline…? I-I thought you had become evil…” he muttered. He was clearly under some kind of drugged effect.

“What? No, of course not!” she exclaimed. “It was an act, an act to save you. And it worked.”

“Then, is Alvoren alive?” he asked with hopeful eyes.

“Of course!” she answered, to which Merdilen breathed out in relief.

Alvoren arrived at the entrance to the cell a few moments later, having emerged victorious from his battle against Juhen.

“Hey, Merdilen!” he called out, grinning. “Long time no see!”

“Yeah,” he answered, chuckling slightly.

“Let’s go,” Kayline said. “We haven’t got much time. And… I know you were just freed, but there’s something I need you to do.”

Kayline had considered just letting her father die, for all the evil he had caused his family, but then, she realized something. If she killed him, she’d be as evil as he was. If she killed him, she would never be able to move on. She had to demonstrate she was her own person, free from the evil that bound her father. And that… they were still family, after all.

“S-sure… What is it?” Merdilen asked, getting up with help from Alvoren.

“You see…” Kayline started, unsure of what to say. “My father was evil, but… he was still my father. I don’t want to be as evil as he is. Could you… please… heal him?”

“Damn that man,” Merdilen muttered. “But… okay. Only because you want to.”

“Thank you.”

Then, Merdilen headed with Merdilen’s help towards the fallen Garnent, and after almost a minute of effort, he finally managed to heal the man’s stab wound.

“I guess I can officially heal others’ small wounds now,” he mentioned, smiling weakly.

“But, won’t he come back after us once he wakes up?” Alvoren asked.

“Yeah,” Kayline said. “But I think there’s something we can do about it. Merdilen, do you think you could extract the Manipulation serum from his body?”

“Not if I don’t know what I’m looking for,” he replied.

“Does this work?” Kayline then asked, heading towards a safe in the wall and extracting a serum with white liquid. “He said this was a Manipulation serum, same as the one he had.”

“...I can try.”

With that, Merdilen crouched once more beside Garnent, with one hand in the Manipulation serum and another one in Garnent’s chest.

That probably wouldn’t work with a Transmutator, he thought, as a full-powered Transmutator would be able to block his body from being Transmutated by someone else, but as this was a gaseous matter Manipulator, he wouldn’t have those kinds of defenses.

Merdilen focused, trying to feel his power through his drugged body, and fortunately, he was able to. It seemed like his cell was the drugged one, not his body, fortunately. He slowly searched in Garnent’s body for anything resembling the Manipulation serum, and soon enough, he found it. It was some kind of liquid in his blood, and after several minutes, he was able to turn it all into fine dust. The dust was extremely thin, so it shouldn’t damage his body in any way. Still, he wouldn’t be able to Manipulate anymore.

Merdilen considered killing him, for all the damage he had done, but after looking at Kayline, decided against it.

“We can’t leave this serum here,” Merdilen finally mentioned. “Kayline, would you take it? It was your father’s, after all.”

“Sure,” Kayline said, taking it and putting it into a belt pocket, where she’d be able to protect it. “Just in case.”

With that, Merdilen Transmutated a tunnel out of the bandits’ lair, and Kayline, Alvoren, and himself left it behind, along with the battle between soldiers and bandits raging outside. They had, once more, succeeded.