He had a serious expression as he looked further into the depths of the shrine. Anlutine who was standing close by also had a rather bitter face as she looked towards the sa place.
「Your friend, you said?」
Saying that, Mira noticed sothing at the very end of the shrine.
There was sothing akin to a black mist floating there, and reclined against the main feature of the place, a podium, lay a skeleton gripping a sword.
「There, that’s her.」
Worthramble spoke with a pained expression as he looked at that.
「You asked to rescue her, but from the look of things, isn’t it a bit too late for that? Or did you an in the sense of letting her soul rest or sothing like that.」
Rescuing usually ant keeping soone alive, but now that she had beco a skeleton that was impossible to accomplish. But seeing how bizarre everything had been so far, Mira decided to ask for clarification with a questioning tone.
「Not at all, she’s in perfect shape. Our friend is that sword.」
「The… sword?」
As she had thought, the problem was more intricate. The sword held in the skeleton’s arms had many small details etched into it, and while it was unsheathed there was not a single speck of rust on it. Anyone could tell it was a special sword from a glance.
「So your friend is imbued into a Spirit Sword?」
Weapons that remained in use for many years could sotis house a spirit, which for instance gave a sword a sharper and lasting edge.
「Technically it’s a bit different, but thinking of it that way isn’t too far off the mark.」
「What a roundabout way of explaining things.」
It was sothing similar to a Spirit Sword, but there was sothing odd about it. Mira decided to think about it that way, though her eyes were still filled with curiosity as she looked at Worthramble.
「Her na is Sanctia, and that’s the Holy Sword Sanctia.」
He seed to deeply regret the fact he was unable to do anything to help his friend Sanctia, ntioning her na while gritting his teeth.
「Holy Sword Sanctia? Hmmm, I’ve never heard of that one before.」
Many things had changed in the world since it beca reality, most of which were still unknown to Mira. This was probably one of those as well, so thinking that Mira returned an even more interested look to the sword.
「It’s been quite a long ti since we started hiding this place, and she was only brandished once, so that might be why she’s not spoken about more.」
「That makes sense.」
That gave more context as to why Mira never heard of her, so she nodded understandingly.
Any form of special sword, be it a holy or demonic sword always had a tale attached to them. Be it that it slain hundreds of thousands of monsters without rusting or breaking, or that it was used to gouge a dragon’s heart, or that it had been bathed in the blood of multiple generations from a royal family, or even more humorous stories. Everyone knew that certain swords had stories like that.
It did not matter how powerful a sword was, if those stories were forgotten, there was no way of awakening their true power again. But that also ant that there might be countless swords like this one scattered throughout the world without anyone knowing of their existence.
Mira stared at the sword that proved that very point, feeling guilty about the excitent she felt despite the discouraged look of her spirit companions.
「And so, I guess you want to sohow get rid of that black stuff to rescue her?」
Mira pointed at the black mist wriggling in unnatural patterns as she asked.
The podium was bathed in a light without a source, which washed away any shadows on it. That was a light made through a spirit’s power, and was sothing familiar to Mira.
While the area around the podium seed brighter than the rest of the shrine, there was sothing darker there as well. The black mist surrounding the area where the skeleton hugging the sword lay.
「Yes, precisely. That’s a curse that eats away at spirits, that’s why we can’t get close to her. Sanctia managed to bury herself deep inside the sword, which sohow manages to keep her safe, but I don’t know how much longer she can last…」
Worthramble looked earnestly disappointed in how useless he was, his face clouding over as ti passed. Watching him through the corner of her eye, Mira took a deep breath and stretched her back.
「So how do I rescue her? Should I just destroy that skeleton?」
When Mira asked that, Worthramble was left speechless for a mont, before sharply turning his head and asking 「You’re okay fighting it?」 with a hurried tone. He thought they were still explaining the situation to her, but Mira was already preparing to fight, which took him by surprise.
「That’s why you brought here, yes?」
anwhile Mira seed completely free of worry as she replied in that way.
「That’s true. But when alive, that skeleton was a cruel fiend that ended more than thousand lives. I was convinced you’d refuse once you knew all the details, so sorry for acting so surprised.」
Seeing Mira’s unfazed stance, he seed largely relieved, but his earlier lancholy returned to his face as well.
「Hmm… sounds like a rather powerful foe. But if the worst cos to happen, at least I guess I won’t feel a thing before I’m gone.」
Even though her words were grim, Mira smiled defiantly as she began walking towards the skeleton. When she was halfway through the lit area around the podium, she felt a clear change in the air around her. The squirming mist traveled along the floor, blackening it while it seed to search for prey.
The two spirits quickly flew off to escape it, moving to the beams along the ceiling where the mist could not reach.
「We can’t really support you in battle so we’ll watch from here, but in case you decide to retreat, give us a signal and we’ll do everything we can to take you away.」
「Got it!」
Worthramble seed saddened as he said that, before stopping one step away from the black mist covering the floor.
In the ga, there was always a certain periter before a boss fight before the fight would start, called the activation area. The boss would only awaken when soone crossed it, and it was usually very easy to spot by sight. Mira stopped just before what she believed was the activation area, testing if such a thing still existed now that everything was real.
Looking at the podium again, she saw the skeleton erect itself with an ominous air around it, but it did not co to attack her, remaining still with its weapon ready.
(Hmm… I guess it’s fair to say it still works.)
The skeleton stood still, but its empty eyes appeared to be pointed directly at Mira. It looked like it was asuring the distance, ready to lunge at her once she took a single step forward, as if the fight had already started..
「Huh?」
Seeing that it did not attack her straight away, Mira took that ti to investigate her opponent, but she quickly gasped instead while knitting her brow. Trying to look at its stats… gave her nothing that could asure its strength.
During the ga, players could see common stats of anything by focusing their gaze for long enough. Now, that was still possible except when investigating another forr player.
But for so reason, Mira could see nothing about the skeleton in front of her.
(I hope this isn’t so bad joke like that being the end of a forr player. Either way, my goal here doesn’t change, I’ll just have to ask the two for more details afterwards.)
With those thoughts in her mind, Mira summoned a Dark Knight and two Holy Knights, and glared back at her opponent with unidentifiable strength.
(It might be soone with imasurable strength, so I better don’t hold back either.)
All she knew ca from the spirit, who ntioned it was soone who took thousands of lives.
Mira stretched again before finally stepping inside the black mist.
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