From the circle, ashen wedge-like objects emerged, pulling out chains they were attached to, jangling and rattling.
âLock him down.â
The chained wedges started coiling around the man, just like snakes.
They wrapped all around the manâs body, rattling and grinding, emitting painful sounds.
ââŚha, haha. I see, I seeâŚâ
The man, however, rather than trapped appeared to be observing: he continued grinning and chuckling, while looking at âPhaeresiaâ.
For Welles, however, such a reaction was very welcome. He didnât know if the man was looking down on them or was arrogantly drunk on his own power, but he couldnât hope for a better opportunity.
Thus, he did it again.
While looking at his target with spite, Welles called his engraving technique one more time.
âCaptureâ âPhaeresiaâ!â
Over the manâs head, one more golden circle appeared.
ââŚâŚ..â
At that moment, for the first time, the manâs eyes showed a sort of restlessness.
His confident expression cracked, ever so slightlyâ then twisted.
âHnâŚ.gh..!!â
The man started concentrating his strength to break out of âPhaeresiaââs hold, but Welles wouldnât just stand there and let him.
From the newly appeared golden magic circle other chained wedges appeared, which too wrapped around the manâs body.
Two, three, four, fiveâ
Countless chains bound the man, gradually hiding him completely.
âThat was quicker than expected.â
Welles drew the blade at his waist.
A simple sword, without decorations. Its blade, however, had a bright luster that suggested it had to be a product of a talented smith.
Welles had drawn his sword to be ready in case anything happened, but nothing could be heard from the amassed chains. Welles then concluded it wasnât necessary and was about to return his sword to the scabbard.
âIt isnât over yet!! Prince Welles!!!â
At the same time as Rowle shouted, the âPhaeresiaâ chains cracked.
The cracks then spread more and moreâ
ââŚ.This isnât funnyâŚâ
âPhaeresiaâ was a secret rite of the Rinchelle royal family.
The man had received the full brunt of its power and yetâ
âNot bad, not bad at all! You need more power to restrain me, though!!â
The man acted like Wellesâ attack wasnât even a minor setback. His fighting ability was truly unfathomable.
The manâs eyes, however, appeared a shade darker than before.
âSorry man, but youâre getting off the stage now.â
As soon as the man finished speaking, his silhouette blurred and vanished.
New chains started coming out of the magic circles, but they couldnât wrap around a target they couldnât locate. With their target lost, the chains moved around aimlessly.
Then, preceded by a gust of wind, a sword slash approached at extremely high speed.
ââŚâŚâŚ.ah?â
Welles dodged the attack at the last second.
The attack had properly come from behind him, but Welles avoided it completely.
A dumbfounded voice could then be heard.
The man, frowning after unexpectedly cutting through the air, looked at his sword. There was no trace of blood on the blade, naturally. He then decided to strike with his kicks and raised a leg in order to attack, butâ
âWho are you trying to hit, you braindead fool.â
Every single blow was effortlessly avoided.
Welles dodged each and every attack, almost as if he could see the future. Maybe, because he witnessed the manâs absurdly powerful attacks from very close, sweat started trickling from his forehead.
âHahaâŚhahaha.â
A feral grin on his lips, the man continued his relentless offensive, using his sword, legs, and knees, with no signs of stopping. Welles, however, managed to dodge them all.
.
âThatâsâŚincredibleâŚâ
Someone spoke.
âThatâs what you call a genius.â
Grerial continued, happy as if he had been praised himself.
âHe has a sort of animal instinct that lets him avoid attacks like that. Iâve known him for a long time, but I can count the times I actually hit him on the fingers of one hand.â
Rowle then joined the battle, making it two against one.
In terms of numbers, Rowle and Welles definitely had the advantage.
One might think that the situation would soon turn in their favorâŚ
But that balance was shattered very soon.
.
âHaahâŚ.haahâŚ.haahâŚ.â
Wellesâ dodging required him to hold his breath and focus on the nerves throughout his body.
Even with such a âgodlyâ ability, he would eventually run out of energy.
One single mistake would be fatal in battle: his mental fatigue was surely reaching its limits as well. A glare of spite in his eyes, Welles moved away from the man.
After mere minutes from the start of the battle, Welles was already breathing heavily.
For Welles and the others, defeating the man did not mean victory: buying time was their goal. There was no need to defeat their opponents at all. Welles thus used his magic again, ideal for buying more time.
âCaptureâ â
However, the man seemed to have been waiting just for that. He quickly closed in on Welles, probably aiming to take him down once for all, as he completely ignored Rowle in the process.
âToo bad for youâ â
The man focused more power in his transparent blade, whispered some sort of chant and-
ââIâm sick of seeing that spell!â
The man swung his sword at full power.
The sword carved through the ground, followed by a roaring blast of wind.
But Welles avoided it effortlessly.
âHahaâŚhahaha!! Hahahaha!!!â
Welles was unscathed, but the man still cackled loudly, a euphoric smile on his face. Welles couldnât help but be doubtful.
These doubts affected his thinking; he instinctively turned around and noticed that there was something where the slash was headed, and his legs moved before his mind.
âDodge it, Greriaaaaallll!!!â
A shout, a scream, roared in the surroundings.
Welles had a flash of the possible future and shouted as loudly as he could.
Welles and Rowleâs bodies moved instinctively, butâ they couldnât make it in time.
Death.
Such a word spontaneously appeared in their minds.
âE-excuse meâŚ!!â
Feli realized the danger, quickly interrupted her healing and tried to carry Grerial away, but even her quick thinking was a moment too late.
Half of Grerialâs body would be slashedâŚor so everyone feared.
The shadow sword hanging at Feliâs waist slipped and fell on the ground. It was such an unnatural movement that it looked like it fell on purpose.
ââŚ.ahâ
Feli knew she couldnât reach it, but stretched her hand towards the sword nonetheless.
The next instant, something shook her eardrums.
The sword changed shape.
First it turned into a sort of slime-like liquid, then grew larger like a blazing flame, finally turning into a crescent-shaped shadow.
She had seen that silhouette somewhere before.
It was all too clear who was responsible.
.
<<spada>></spada>
.
The crescent shadow clashed against the approaching slash: after a few seconds of attrition, they both dissipated in thin air.
ââŚâŚ..â
Everyone present stared wide-eyed at the unexpected event.
No matter how much they thought about it, they couldnât figure out what happened. Eventually, the man spoke first.
ââŚ.what the hell did you do?â
No one could provide the answer to that question.
However, two people had reached a conclusion very close to the truth.
âHaha, hahaha!!â
One of them, Rowle, started laughing merrily.
His voice jumped in joy, the joy of seeing one of his expectations fulfilled.
âI knew itâŚâ
Rowle looked at the ground carved by the âSpadaâ.
âIt really wasâŚthe real one.â
He then recalled that night.
The question Rowle asked âhimâ.
The âSpadaâ Feli carried was probably given to her as insurance to protect her.
A sword possessing such power was surely given to her after learning what circumstances she was likely going to be in. If a single sword was that powerful, another theory also gained more credibility.
The identity of the person who managed to defeat Idies Farizard the âGame of Illusions,â said to be one of the most troublesome âHeroes,â during the conclusion of the war in Afillis, shrouded in mystery. Rowle felt he could picture the âHeroâ who led Afillis to victory despite their overwhelming disadvantage in terms of troops.
âKahaha, is that soâŚif you arenât going to answer thenâ â
The man was also surprised by the unexpected event, but it passed soon. His expression turned into a feral smile again.
âI just have to do it again!!â
âPrince Welles!!!â
âI know!!â
Rowle realized before anyone else what the man was about to do and shouted. In response, Welles focused his power, in order to activate âPhaeresiaâ.
The golden magic circle appeared again.
Chains equipped with wedges emerged from it, clanking and rattling, and wrapped around their target.
Howeverâ
âI told youââ
The man drew his glass-like transparent sword andâ
ââIâm sick of this already!!â
âcut through the approaching chains and the magic circle that created them.
âThis guy is just insaneâŚ!!â
With a sour expression on his face, Welles took in the reality he was facing and raised his voice with a tinge of distress. Even so, he looked behind the man. There was no despair in his expression as if he knew what was going to happen.
âBut if you look away just a second, itâs our winâŚ!â
The manâs attention had focused on âPhaeresiaâ for a moment.
Taking advantage of that time, Rowle had approached him from behind, without being noticed.
He pulled back his right arm and, without any hesitation, delivered a powerful blow, butâ
âI said!! Youâre!! Too slow!!â
The man spun around with good momentum and countered Rowleâs punch with a roundhouse kick, as if he had seen it coming all along.
âGhahâŚahâŚ!?â
The manâs kick dug deep in Rowleâs abdomen, before the latterâs fist could even reach. Rowle felt something breaking with jolts of pain running through his body. The kickâs impact pushed the liquids in Rowleâs body upwards, reaching his throat and making him cough as he was blown away.
Seconds later, the sound of his crashing impact could be heard.
A sound that clearly stated how their attack sequence had been unsuccessful.
Welles still tried activating âPhaeresiaâ once more. At the same time, another unexpected event occurred.
ââŚ.hnn?â
The first one to notice was the man.
A feeling of pressure impossible to put into words.
Gradually, something changed in his field of view.
âWhat theâ â
Something made of shadows.
Countless objects were flying closer, filling the manâs field of view more and more.
ââŚâŚ.â
It happened in the blink of an eye.
In the short time it took for the man to recognize the incoming objects, they had already come very close. The man swallowed his breath. No words would come out.
The speed at which they were approaching was absurdly fast. Their quantity and density was akin to a flood.
As the shadow-colored things approached, their actual nature was revealed.
They were long, thin objects.
Objects that all seemed to share a certain shape.
They looked just likeâ
ââŚswords?â
Their numbers easily exceeded 100.
The man looked left and right, looking for their creator. But could not find anyone.
Just one thing.
He could only see a sort of misty mass, approaching at inhuman speed.
The first possibility that crossed his mind was that of a monster.
But the man could not think of any monster capable of moving at such high speed.
âââââ
The distance grew smaller and smaller.
At first, he could only see a black mass, but moment by moment, that information changed.
Little by little, more details became visible. A silhouette he could recognize.
Hands holding a shadow-colored sword.
He could tell it was the same as the swords approaching like a raging wave.
âThatâsâ
A human.
There was no time to utter even those two words.
Fragments of information gathered in his mind, pushing his comprehension to its limits.
Eyes burning like flames.
Striking blonde hair.
The man recalled tossing away someone like that. Thus he concluded that there had to be another member of Rowleâs party.
At the same time, sword tip-like objects rose from the ground, all around the man.
âDamn youâŚ!â
The manâs voice betrayed his restlessness.
He bit down his lower lip, growling escaping from his teeth.
He probably realized that even he was at a disadvantage against the overwhelming approaching quantity.
The man stepped back, to put more distance between himself and the swords, but a voice reached him before he could. A cold, dry, yet powerful voice.
âKillâ Spada.â
Words spoken without mercy, which commanded the black wave of violence to rain down on the man.