~Lightning and Wind~ Chapter Six

Chapter Six

The moment the trio stepped into the camp, which was a dug out cavern that was illuminated by floating candles with green flames, the entrance was sealed by a cave-in that left Kamijou, Orsola, and Index separated from the forces Birdway loaned them. Those forces were then accosted by Kapua outside the entrance and were currently fighting.

With no choice, they stepped further inside, until they reached a ridiculously wide room with a ceiling so high they couldn’t see it beyond the darkness. After they all stepped through the entrance, it was sealed by a drop-down stone door, three inches thick. The exit on the other end of the room did the same. Since it was done using technology built into the walls–not magic—the Imagine Breaker and Index were powerless.

“Mister Kamijou, Miss Index,” called Orsola, who pointed at the ceiling of the room.  Several olivine and obsidian gemstones rained from above and hit the stone floors below. They melted into the ground like they were sinking in water. “It would appear we have more important matters.”

Mud exploded from the floor like geysers, solidifying and becoming Pokaku made of stone, with patches of black and green similar to a Dalmatian. Their numbers were about fifty, and each of them was over eight feet tall, with a strong build. They attacked in mass.

Kamijou wordlessly clenched his right fist and charged. He ducked under one’s massive arm and punched it, following up by back-fisting the other one on his right. The two turned into pebbles after the sound of shattering glass resonated through the air. Kamijou rolled to avoid a surprise attack from behind and continued his assault.

“Sebastian!” Orsola cried. “Possesso!”^Possession!

The owl’s eyes glowed ghostly blue, and a blue blaze emerged from his cross and coated the bird golem entirely. Sebastian flew from her shoulder towards one of the patchwork Pokaku—one at the center of the group. He flew headfirst into it and…entered it.

The hard body surface of the Pokaku looked like a ripple in water. It beat at its chest, as if trying to claw out its own heart. It writhed in pain, before a ghostly blue aura overtook it and the eyes were the same color. The overshadowed Pokaku quickly grabbed one of the others by its head, placed it in a head lock, and repeatedly rammed its free fist into the other’s torso, before twisting the head off. The head fell to the floor, where it was crushed by Sebastian’s foot, as he used the rest of the headless body as a bludgeoning tool against a few others.

A Pokaku was preparing to smash Kamijou from behind when Index and Orsola shot each other a look. “T T T L—Turn to the Left,” Index chanted; the Pokaku’s massive fist was redirected to its left and slammed into another, which went flying backwards. “M B F P A D C O G—Let both legs be positioned in parallel and lose balance!” Orsola followed up; it fell on what would be considered its butt.

Orsola wasn’t as proficient as Index, but her presence was a great help. Though she hated violence, she would do her best to help those in need. She wouldn’t raise her arms to harm another person—she wasn’t an aggressive person—but now she could be passive-aggressive, using their technique against them. Spell Intercept could only be used on magic that she comprehended, and after spending so much time under Sherry’s wings, she understood golems. They may have bore the name of various Kapua, but these were little more than improvised golems.

Sebastian was busy decimating several Pokaku at once. He had just gotten finished ripping the arms off of one—followed by beating it with its own arms until it was gravel—when another tried to attack him from behind. He back-elbowed it in the face, grabbed its arm and twisted it until the elbow was upright, and then slammed his own elbow into it, shattering the entire arm—Index winced at the scene—before finishing it by knocking it over and punching it until it was a pile of rocks—pebbles flew everywhere.

Kamijou slid between the legs of the Pokaku in front of him and touched it while passing. He didn’t watch it fall to pieces, as another had quickly moved to smash him with its fist while he was on the ground. He leaned up and his right fist met its right fist, leaving him covered in pebbles.

“B F T C O G—Cross both legs, lose your balance!” Index and Orsola chanted in tandem, forcing the Kupua charging them to smash into each other. For these two, who could only support others, front line fighting was out of the question. Defeating a powerful, enemy magician head-on was the same. But against these puppets, they took control over their strings and made them dance how they wanted to.

One Pokaku had tried to leap onto Sebastian from behind and hold him for another to beat on him. Sebastian kicked the one in front onto the ground and headbutted the one behind him, before grabbing the unfortunate golem’s face and tossing it onto the one on the ground. He then finished up by jumping in the air and pulling off an elbow drop that left a crater in the ground, which was filled by the pebbles that remained of the other two.

“NUOOOOH!” Kamijou roared, as he smashed his right fist into another one. It had been the twentieth one that met its end at the hands of the Imagine Breaker. He was getting tired.

“Touma!” Index called out to him, attempting to warn him of the one behind him. “C F A—Turn upwards,” she chanted in Notarikon code, diverting its fist upwards to avoid having it smash him. Kamijou turned and slammed his fist into it, the sound of shattering glass following it.

Sebastian threw one of the Pokaku towards the sealed exit and it broke through it—at the cost of being smashed apart. At this point, the rest of them—five to be exact—had grouped together. Sebastian made the “come get some” gesture with the overshadowed fingers, and they went into a full on charge at him. Sebastian let owl a high pitched hoot and performed a running charge, his arm chambered.

Kamijou looked over at the carnage—in progress—caused by the owl. He then looked at Index, who covered her eyes at the slaughter, and Orsola, who actually look like she pitied them—he didn’t blame her.  “That was a gift?”

“He’s normally so calm and friendly…” Orsola muttered. “Although, Sherry said he might be a little different in combat.”

The last enemy shattered, and Sebastian let out a victorious hoot. He marched over to Orsola, who patted the stone body. It seemed like everything was done when a huge peridot floated down from the ceiling, levitating about twenty feet in the air.

The scattered pebbles flew towards the massive crystal, clumping together into a menacing shape. A Pokaku three times larger than the rest had formed, with a body made of the gems and stones. The torso and head were made of solid stone, its arms and legs were peridots, its eyes were olivine, and it was wielding a spear made of obsidian.

It roared and shook the entire cavern. Stone spires emerged from the ground in a line, racing towards the trio. Sebastian grabbed Orsola and Index, jumping away and sprinting towards the exit, where they would be safe. Kamijou jumped up—at a slight angle—and landed on the slope of the rising spire, which carried him into the air. He leapt towards the massive creation and slammed his fist into it.

Or at least he intended to. The Pokaku swung the spear diagonally—at a speed that should have been impossible to see for a normal person—and tried to bisect Kamijou, who changed the direction of his right hand after sensing a flash of danger from its direction. The obsidian spear shattered, but Kamijou was still thrown to the ground.

The giant moved to crush him with its foot.

“Sebastian!” Orsola called for her faithful owl, which put its entire borrowed body into a jumping tackle, slamming into it. The creation was bigger, but with one leg up, its balance was shaken and it missed him by a reasonable margin. Kamijou shook his head and stood up, his right fist clenched.

The giant roared, slamming its massive fist into the overshadowed Pokaku, before lifting it. It threw Sebastian in Kamijou’s direction—Index and Orsola both tried Spell Intercept, but no changes occurred—and he ran forward and slipped into a slide, surfing under the airborne obstacle.

“Mister Kamijou! It’s moving under autonomous control! We can’t intercept it, and Sebastian can only possess something once every few hours!” Orsola told him.

“It can control the stone in this cavern as well! The signal from the magician has disappeared—he’s probably fled!” Index followed up.

“Then we end this NOW!” Kamijou roared as he charged the monster. It stomped on the ground and shook the floor, costing Kamijou his balance and left him on the floor again. A sharp prick from inside his head told him that danger was coming and he looked up. Its arm was raised back and ready to hurl a fistful of stones at him, bludgeoning the Imagine Breaker to death.

Sebastian, apparently having gained a second wind, jumped with his overshadowed body. Soaring above Kamijou, the body clung to the arm. He twisted and pulled, until the arm was severed and crumbled to pieces. Sebastian then backed up, next to Kamijou.

Kamijou leaped in the air, and Sebastian positioned his overshadowed hand underneath him. The owl’s hoot could be heard, as he threw Kamijou—right fist first—at the giant. Before it impacted, the head of the giant detached itself and fell to the ground, as the sound of shattering glass left its body in a pile of green, gray, and black pebbles.

Kamijou tried to walk back to the girls, but he stumbled midway and fell to the ground. “It’s over,” he said, unaware that the head was still functioning, until a stone cuff appeared from the ground and trapped him.

“Crap!” Kamijou said, tugging at his arm. The stone cuff bound his right arm, well above the reach of his right hand. The head levitated and began to glow red, letting out a menacing roar that shook the cavern. A number of boulders fell from the ceiling onto Sebastian, pinning him.

“It’s self-destructing! Move, Touma!” Index cried, foolishly rushing towards him. A bright light was followed by an enormous force, as the explosion knocked the nun backwards into a wall, knocking her habit off her head. She began crying, as blood began to drip, dying her light-blue, wildly tossed hair with red. She cried, not from the pain, but because Kamijou was at the center, with the Imagine Breaker sealed away.

Orsola ran over and began pulling out spiritual items to use her healing magic. “It is fine, Miss Index.” The dust lingering in the air concealed the location, but outlined a black silhouette over where Kamijou should have been. When it settled, Sebastian was positioned in front of Kamijou like a stone wall.

“Sebastian, please free him,” Orsola asked politely. Sebastian hooted and complied, using the overshadowed hand to the break the stone cuff. Kamijou thanked Sebastian, who released his control over the Pokaku—signaled by its eyes ceasing their glow and the aura vanishing—and flew away. The Pokaku crumbled, and the owl landed on Orsola’s shoulders.

***

The trio made it into the deepest portions of the cavern.

Numerous corpses were placed in a methodical pattern over an elaborate ritual circle, which was a seven-pointed star, surrounded by concentric circles that were divided by eight lines radiating from the inner-most circle to the outer-most circle.

As expected, the magician commanding the Pokaku had fled once the giant was released.

Despite all of them feeling nauseous and horrified at the sight, they proceeded to gather whatever information that they could. Kamijou took photos with his phone, Index analyzed the ritual circle and pattern of the bodies, and Orsola said an extensive prayer for the dead.

It was all they could do.

Notes:

• See, I told you Orsola would be helpful! Those lessons with Sherry really paid off! I might even write an Omake about it.
• As you may have noticed, Sebastian’s fighting style is…well, BRUTAL! The fanon canon reason is because Sherry had crafted Sebastian in order to protect Orsola, so that she wouldn’t lose another friend like she lost Ellis. So on autonomous control in battle, it becomes aggressive. And It. Was. AWESOME.
• Kamijou has precognition to a limited extent, and I’ve tried to manifest it without him being too aware, sort of like an Sixth Sense.
• Peridot is a gem native to Hawaii, considered by locals to be the Tears of Pele, Obsidian is also native to Hawaii, along with Olivine, which is called Peridot when gemstone quality.
• I’m going to try—keyword try—to finish this up before the next volume of NT comes out next month. We also now have a Tvtropes page: Here
• Next up, a battle between Birdway’s forces and GREMLIN’s Kapua and magicians. It will be bloody, as are all wars.

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