33 – 33. Blood Rose

“Uh…?”

Flustered, Sharen looked towards Isaac, her expression a question mark.

But the situation wasn’t allowing such leisure.

Black smoke pulsed out of the corpse heap, morphing into something strange.

Shadows, for lack of a better word.

Shadows, now without masters, started to rise one by one, letting out screams.

*Keeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!*

A cacophony of their voices poured forth like a harmonized chant.

And amongst them, a figure with the largest shadow.

Even in shadow form, his head lolled. He alone had eyes and fingers.

The moment his finger pointed directly at Isaac.

The shadows began to rush forward like a crashing wave.

“Everyone!”

Anna, readying to flee, having sensed the unsettling shift, came galloping on horseback.

Mounting their own horses, they bolted out of the village.

“What the hell are those things!”

Silberna asked, but even Isaac didn’t have an answer.

Though he’d witnessed much in his past life, a Transcendental’s sorcery was a rare sight indeed.

Following the large, head-lolling shadow, its shadowy underlings flooded out of the village.

“They’re…not as fast as I thought?”

Meladic, who kept glancing anxiously behind, spoke true.

The shadows were not particularly fast, merely lumbering along behind them.

The imposing advance, polluting the surroundings like a swamp, delivered a dreadful pressure.

“Escaping seems simple, but…”

Isaac trailed off.

If they returned to the Malidian Wall like this, nearby villages would be swallowed by the shadows’ thralls.

A single misstep, and they could multiply to even greater numbers.

“We stop them.”

Sylverna finally halted her steed.

“We have to stop them. I can’t lose any more people.”

“I agree with that… but…”

She understood the sentiment.

But she needed to think coldly.

“Jonathan’s not in good shape either.”

“I, I’m… fine!”

Jonathan was sweating profusely.

The color of his eyes was returning to normal, and the black markings on his skin were fading, but he still didn’t look well.

Sylverna had already nearly been burned when she lost her reason during the last Polu incident.

Even in the midst of the Andes Village massacre, a situation that made her blood boil, she gave her orders with cold precision.

“Meladdik, go back to the Malidian Wall with Jonathan and request reinforcements.”

“Understood.”

“I…!”

“Jonathan, that’s an order. There’s no time.”

Sylverna’s firm words cut him short, and Jonathan could only shut his mouth.

“Anna, go to the nearby villages and evacuate the people. You’re well known, so they’ll follow you quickly.”

“Yes, Miss.”

Anna immediately spurred her horse toward the village. Urgency was etched into her movements.

“Isaac and Sharen, let’s lure them away together. We’ll buy as much time as we can.”

Following her orders, everyone left except the three who remained.

“Hoo… hoo!”

Sharen, tense, exhaled heavily and gripped her greatsword tightly.

“Isaac, any thoughts?”

Silberna, honest, sought advice from Isaac.

Seeing the shadow thralls clinging, Isaac nodded, recalling what happened earlier.

“Sorcery, it’s akin to magic. There’s a kind of cause and effect, see?”

Mages use mana.

Through circles and chants, you can roughly guess what kind of magic they’ll use.

Sorcery is much the same.

“The shadows, they’re probably the villagers. The biggest one, that’d be Nortemus.”

“The way they’re heads are lolling, that means the sorcery kicked in right before death, yeah?”

Isaac nodded, adding,

“The corpses, their eyes and fingers were ruined.”

Still are.

Only Nortemus’s shadow gleams its eyes and points at Isaac with its finger, no?

No eyes to see.

No fingers to point.

They were just a damaged cohort, forced to follow.

“So, solving Nortemus is it?”

“They won’t be able to attack with their own will, not like this.”

Isaac’s words had weight.

But they also planted a question in Silberna’s mind.

“You seem to know more than you let on about the Transcendents last time.”

Last time, during the White Plague attack, Isaac had just given Caldias a basic explanation of the Transcendents.

But now, realizing his knowledge was beyond that, Silberna asked with a touch of displeasure,

“…I’ll explain later.”

Isaac gave a bitter smile.

There was no time to explain right now, was there?

Sharen, eyes wide, looked back and forth between the two, then cautiously pointed at the shadow thralls.

“But…can you cut those things?”

She understood they were following because they were being pointed at.

But you couldn’t just herd them around like sheep, could you?

“……”

“……”

That, Isaac couldn’t answer either, and Sylverna wore an ambiguous look.

“Wait.”

Sylverna raised her spear again.

Being mounted, she couldn’t get a good purchase, yet the spear flew fiercely towards Nortemus’s shadow.

Like piercing a cloud, it passed through without any impact.

“……”

“……”

“……”

The three fell silent at the same time.

An enemy that can’t be cut pollutes the surroundings and encroaches.

Even if it’s not fast, if you can’t stop it, the only outcome is defeat.

“Should we call a mage?”

Sylverna raised her aura to retrieve the spear when—

*Kwaddeudeuk!*

The spear, imbued with aura and recoiling, pierced through the shadow’s appendages, making them lose their form and vanish.

“Huh?!”

Sylverna’s mouth dropped open as she caught the spear.

Aura lets her cut them.

Then there’s certainly a chance to win.

Just as she was about to shout that—

“…But, Isaac.”

Sharen, glancing at Isaac’s expression, asked.

“Can you use *jeokgang*?”

Unintentionally, Sylverna also turned to look at Isaac.

“Sniff.”

There was nothing he could properly say.

And, for no good reason, a cold wind blew, making him sniff once, but for some reason, he felt strangely pathetic.

“Shall I teach you *jeokgang* later?”

“Aura isn’t everything.”

A strange feeling settled over Isaac, a mix of odd comfort from the two, and he fell silent.

[Aura?]

Suddenly, the exchange with the Grand Master came to mind.

[You don’t need such things, it hinders nothing.]

‘But wouldn’t there be times when I need it?’

[There never was.]

‘Perhaps… perhaps you simply can’t use it?’

[If I asked you if you couldn’t use your legs, would you feel good?]

‘…’

[…Begone.]

Aura was important.

Most knights could wield an aura, and specific families possessed unique, hereditary auras.

Like the Crimson Descent of Helmont.

“Should’ve sent Isaac with Jonathan, huh?”

It was unjust, but not untrue.

Meladic could use aura, after all.

“But hey, you know…”

Sharen, once again, cracked open her mouth, pointing at the shadow of Northemus.

“Isn’t that… pointing at Isaac?”

A question; the tip of her finger was indeed aimed where Isaac stood.

Thinking it unlikely, Isaac urged his horse to the side, and the hand of Northemus subtly followed him.

“….”

Isaac had become a lure totem.

* * *

“My Lady?”

The Maliduan Barrier.

Kelsie, Sharen’s maid, called to Rianna with caution, the latter gazing up at the sky.

“You don’t look well.”

“Can you even *see* my expression?”

Masked, and with a headband, her face was practically swaddled shut.

Kelsi smiles, a soft curve of her lips, at Rianna’s question, asked not with sarcasm but a genuine curiosity.

“I’ve seen you, Miss Rianna, as much as I’ve seen Miss Sharen.”

“…Right.”

She didn’t feel much of anything in particular.

Rianna simply looked up at the stark white sky and murmured,

“There’s something murky riding the wind.”

“Huh? It just feels refreshing to me?”

Kelsi inhaled deeply through her nose.

But Rianna answered, flatly,

“Something… ominous.”

Kelsi, knowing everything about Helmuth’s body, began to feel uneasy herself at Rianna’s words.

“Miss Sharen’s mission today is just a simple rear guard, so it shouldn’t be dangerous, right?”

“It better not be.”

She spoke the words, but Rianna’s gaze was fixed on the rear wall.

Because the wind was coming from that direction.

Then.

A murmur, a rising commotion, came from the rear wall.

Soldiers were moving urgently, their footsteps jarring and echoing from all sides.

“S-something… feels off.”

Perhaps it was because of Rianna’s remark just moments ago, but Kelsi was becoming increasingly anxious.

Worry gnawing at her, that maybe something had happened to Sharen.

Rianna, meanwhile, seized the wrist of a soldier who was hurrying towards the inner fortress to report.

“Agh!”

The soldier, taken aback by the incredible grip, looked at Rianna in shock.

“W-what is it?!”

“What’s going on? Why is it so chaotic?”

Even though she was dressed as a lady’s maid, the soldier was overwhelmed by her presence.

The grip on his wrist, the sharp air around her, made him blurt out,

“The recon team… they’ve engaged with an unknown beast. A village was annihilated, and some of the team returned badly injured.”

“……!”

Rianna’s gaze snaps to the barrier.

Her crimson eyes catch sight of Jonathan, being urgently escorted away.

“L-let go of me!”

At the soldier’s shout, Rianna listlessly releases him. Just after he flees to report.

Rianna rips off her mask and hair tie.

A rose scent gathers on the northern wind.

The moment her red hair scatters, everyone around her stares, as if bewitched.

The Blood Rose of Helmont.

It was the moment Rianna Helmont descended upon the Malidian Barrier.