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 same place.
「Your friend, you said?」
Saying that, Mira noticed something at the very end of the shrine.
There was something 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 me to rescue her, but from the look of things, isn’t it a bit too late for that? Or did you mean in the sense of letting her soul rest or something like that.」
Rescuing usually meant keeping someone alive, but now that she had become 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 sometimes 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 something similar to a Spirit Sword, but there was something 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 name is Sanctia, and that’s the Holy Sword Sanctia.」
He seemed to deeply regret the fact he was unable to do anything to help his friend Sanctia, mentioning her name 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 became 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 time 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 meant 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 excitement she felt despite the discouraged look of her spirit companions.
「And so, I guess you want me to somehow 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 something familiar to Mira.
While the area around the podium seemed brighter than the rest of the shrine, there was something 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 somehow 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 time 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 moment, 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 me here, yes?」
Meanwhile Mira seemed 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 seemed largely relieved, but his earlier melancholy returned to his face as well.
「Hmm… sounds like a rather powerful foe. But if the worst comes 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 seemed 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 seemed saddened as he said that, before stopping one step away from the black mist covering the floor.
In the game, there was always a certain perimeter before a boss fight before the fight would start, called the activation area. The boss would only awaken when someone 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 come 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 measuring 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 time to investigate her opponent, but she quickly gasped instead while knitting her brow. Trying to look at its stats… gave her nothing that could measure its strength.
During the game, players could see common stats of anything by focusing their gaze for long enough. Now, that was still possible except when investigating another former player.
But for some reason, Mira could see nothing about the skeleton in front of her.
(I hope this isn’t some bad joke like that being the end of a former 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 someone with immeasurable strength, so I better don’t hold back either.)
All she knew came from the spirit, who mentioned it was someone who took thousands of lives.
Mira stretched again before finally stepping inside the black mist.
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