Chapter 34:

A Hero Joins

NINO

The Primordial advanced.

Nino did the same, but the very first step was enough for him to realize that the strength Alicia had given him was already beginning to fade. Her Pulse still flowed alongside his own, but it was growing weaker, like a current reaching its end.

Across the battlefield, One raised his sword again. Leo remained a few yards behind him, surrounded by unstable gold that betrayed the struggle he was still fighting against the King's control.

Above them, the King remained atop the Primordial's body.

"You're getting slower," One said.

Nino gripped his sword with both hands despite the pain shooting through his left arm.

"And you still talk too much."

Their blades collided.

One pressed forward. Nino deflected the second strike and tried to counter from the right, but a golden manifestation wrapped around the Pulse of his sword before he could complete the movement. Leo closed his hand, pulling the blade off course.

Nino saw his fingers trembling.

"Leo!"

The gold flickered.

One slammed his shoulder into Nino and sent him crashing into the remains of the wall. Nino tried to get back up, but another explosion tore across the battlefield before he could regain his footing.

This time, it hadn't come from the Hero of Solvar.

One of the Colossi had broken through another section of the defenses.

Closer to the city, Three was running along the arm of another giant while the old Hero of Lumeris struck its leg. Pulse compressed around his gauntlets before exploding against the joint, tearing away a mass of stone and Noctrium. The Colossus lost its balance, but the second was already advancing toward them.

Three leaped from the first. A gigantic hand swept beneath her feet.

She spun through the air and landed on the creature's forearm, using its own movement to run toward its shoulder. The old Hero tried to follow from the ground, but he was forced to stop when Four and Five emerged once again from the rubble.

The war had split into dozens of battles, and Lumeris was losing all of them at once.

Nino felt something disappear.

Alicia's Pulse.

He turned his head.

Near the palace entrance, Alicia had fallen to her knees behind one of the pillars. One hand remained pressed against the stone as she struggled to catch her breath.

She had reached her limit. Nino turned back to One. He would have to finish this without her.

One advanced. Nino raised his sword, and the ground exploded between them.

A golden line tore across the battlefield.

One jumped back.

Before Nino could understand where the attack had come from, a second line cut through the air from the opposite direction.

Violet.

Both struck the Colossus advancing toward Three.

A cross-shaped wound opened across its chest. The giant staggered.

A woman landed between Nino and One.

Long red hair fell over armor marked by the journey. Tall and athletic, she carried a sword in each hand. Golden Pulse covered the blade in her right hand; violet burned around the one in her left. When she raised her head, green eyes found Nino among the rubble.

She studied him for a moment.

"I don't recognize the Hero who defeated me in that tournament all those years ago."

Nino spat blood onto the ground.

"I've had a rough week."

A small smile appeared on her face. The Hero of Orvain extended her hand.

“Then get up. You’re lucky I was on a mission nearby and not in Orvain.”

Nino looked at her. Then he took her hand, and she pulled him back to his feet.

Without hesitation, One charged at them.

The Hero of Orvain crossed her swords. Gold and violet exploded together.

One was forced back.

"Can you still fight?" she asked.

Nino raised the black sword.

"..."

The two advanced. Her arrival changed the battlefield within moments.

Three leaped from the Colossus's shoulder just as the Hero of Orvain passed beneath it. Both swords cut through the joint already damaged by the old Hero, first in gold, then in violet.

Nino came right behind her. His Pulse ran along the black sword.

The strike hit the same opening.

THUMP.

The leg gave way. The Colossus fell to its knees.

The old Hero compressed everything he could gather into his gauntlets and struck the giant just below the head.

The explosion tore through its body, and it collapsed.

Another Colossus tried to advance on them, but Three was already running along its side. Five threw a series of blades to stop her.

The Hero of Orvain stepped into their path. Her golden sword deflected two.

The violet blade struck Five before she could throw the third, knocking the weapon from her hand and sending her to the ground.

Four came from the left. Three vanished and reappeared behind him.

Both sai caught the segmented spear, and she twisted her body as the Hero of Orvain struck the weapon with both swords.

The spear broke.

Four fell as well.

For a few seconds, the entire battlefield had changed. The smaller Colossi had fallen.

Mezi, Solvar, Lumeris, Orvain.

The Heroes of the Four Nations were finally on the same battlefield. And the King noticed.

Nino raised his head. Up there, the King was no longer looking at him.

His gaze was fixed on One, who had climbed onto the Primordial Colossus.

"You've spent your entire life trying to surpass him."

One remained still.

"Shut up."

"You trained harder than anyone. Obeyed every order. Did everything I asked of you."

One tightened his grip on his sword.

"And still," the King continued, "he was always Zero."

One's eyes found Nino. The King extended his hand.

"I can give you enough power to finally surpass him."

One remained silent for several seconds.

"And the price?"

The King smiled.

"You already know."

One looked across the battlefield. Six and Seven were down. Four and Five had been subdued.

Then he looked at Nino again.

Sacrifice requires choice.

One closed his eyes. When he opened them, his decision had been made.

"Do it."

The King's smile widened. He spread his arms. Nino felt it before he saw it.

Something changed across the entire battlefield.

Solvar's soldiers stopped at once. Men from Mezi brought their hands to their chests. Manifestations of Pulse vanished one after another as hundreds of bodies fell to the ground.

"What are you doing?!" Nino shouted.

Threads of energy began leaving the soldiers. Gold and violet.

Hundreds of them.

All of them flowed toward One.

Leo raised his head.

His entire body trembled. The gold surrounding him was ripped away all at once. His eyes lost focus.

Leo fell.

"Leo..." Nino whispered.

The Pulse crossed the battlefield and joined the rest.

One screamed.

The energy entered his body.

Violet veins began appearing beneath his skin. Gold ran along one of his arms while other shades mixed around his chest and neck. The sword in his hand disappeared beneath such a dense layer of Pulse that the metal itself was barely visible.

The ground around his feet began to crack. The Hero of Orvain raised both swords.

"What did he do?"

Nino already knew.

"Run."

One disappeared.

The sound came afterward.

He attacked the Hero of Orvain first. The shockwave swept across the ground.

Both swords came at him from opposite directions, gold and violet converging on One. He blocked them both with his single blade.

One turned.

His strike caught the Hero before she could retreat. She crashed through a ruined wall and disappeared beneath the rubble.

The old Hero came next. His gauntlets collided with the sword. A crack appeared across the metal.

One struck again. One of the gauntlets shattered.

The third blow caught the old man in the chest and sent him flying across the battlefield.

"Three!" Nino shouted.

She was already moving.

Three vanished from sight. One turned his head and simply followed her. For the first time, her speed wasn't enough.

He caught her arm the instant Three appeared beside him and slammed her into the ground. Before she could rise, a blast of Pulse hurled her into the rubble.

She didn't come back.

Nino looked around.

The Hero of Orvain was down. The old Hero wasn't moving. Three remained among the broken stones. Leo was unconscious, or perhaps even dead.

One spread his arms.

"Now it's just us."

Nino tightened his grip on the sword.

"This is what you wanted, isn't it?"

One charged.

Their blades met. The impact opened a crater beneath them.

Nino turned his sword and struck One's shoulder, but the Pulse surrounding his body absorbed part of the blow. One answered with a thrust. Nino dodged by inches and drove his elbow into One's face.

One smiled.

His knee struck the wound along Nino's ribs. Pain tore through his body.

Nino retreated, but One gave him no room.

A barrage of strikes followed.

Nino blocked the first, avoided the second, and took the third on his already wounded arm. The sword nearly slipped from his hand.

Even so, he attacked.

Violet exploded around them. For a few moments, neither gave way.

Zero against One. Everything One had ever wanted.

And even carrying the Pulse of hundreds of people, he still needed all of it just to keep Nino in front of him.

Then the Primordial moved.

Nino noticed too late. The giant had approached the palace. Its only hand slowly descended, carrying the King above it.

"Alicia..."

She was hidden behind one of the broken pillars at the entrance, too exhausted to continue sharing her Pulse. Her eye remained open, but her breathing was heavy.

At that moment, stones shifted behind her, at the entrance to the underground passage that had been buried beneath the rubble. Tenshi emerged first.

"Alicia!"

Raysa came right behind him. Alicia turned her head.

"Mom..."

A shadow covered all three of them. The Primordial's enormous finger stopped before the pillars. The King stood above them, wearing a grin from ear to ear.

Nino tried to run.

One grabbed his arm.

"Let go!"

Nino struck him with his elbow. One took the blow and pulled him backward. His arm wrapped around Nino's neck, and his other hand locked the hold in place.

Nino tried to break free, but his left arm no longer had enough strength. One's Pulse tightened along with his body.

"No!" Nino drove his feet against the ground. "ALICIA!"

One brought his mouth close to Nino's ear.

"You're going to watch..."

Nino looked around desperately. Leo remained on the ground. The old Hero had fallen. The Hero of Orvain hadn't gotten back up. Three remained motionless among the rubble.

Alicia stood before the King.

Nino tried to gather his Pulse. One tightened his hold even further. The edges of his remaining vision began to darken.

"STOP!"

The voice cut across the battlefield.

The King turned.

The Queen of Lumeris emerged from the palace rubble. Blood ran down her forehead, and her clothes were covered in dust.

She looked at Alicia first. Then at the King.

"You want the Stones."

The King remained atop the Primordial's hand.

"Then negotiate with me."

For a moment, he simply watched her. Then he smiled.

"Good to know there's more than one here... I already suspected as much. But... I don't need to."