Prologue: The Killing
Adlet had been running across the dry, craggy earth, with rocks spread all over it. In fact, he was devoting all of his energy into the run as he trampled over the wilting weeds that were sparsely sticking out of the ground.
He was on the peninsula jutting out of the western edge of the continent called The Wailing Demon Territory. It was where The Majin and the Kyoma resided. And at the moment Adlet was in the eastern section, in a land called The Valley of the Bleeding Lung.
Though it was night, Adlet continued under the moonlight. The only thing he had to illuminate the way was the light given off by the jewel mounted into his armor’s chest plate.
“Hurry!” Adlet shouted as he ran.
There were three lights behind him, belonging to Fremy, Chamo, and Goldof, who were all following him. He was out of breath, his heart was throbbing violently, his lips were trembling, and he wasn’t able to control his legs properly. But putting all his energy into the run wasn’t the cause. It was the fact that they were on the verge of confronting a nightmare.
“Hans! Rolonia! Where are you?!” Adlet called out, but no response came back from the deep darkness.
“Are you dead?! Hans! Rolonia! Answer me!” As Adlet shouted he jumped onto a cliff in front of him. Both his hands and feet found their way into the indentations of the cliff and in the blink of an eye he started to scale up the rock.
As he climbed, he unintentionally looked at the back of his hand. On it laid the proof he was one of the heroes fated to save the world, the crest of the Six Flowers, which always gave off a faint light.
However, one of the petals was missing on the crest. And that meant one of the heroes had lost their life.
“Hans!”
Adlet kicked up the cliffside and leaped through the air. As he flew he drew his sword, then landed atop the cliff and assumed a battle stance. But the sight he saw the instant his jewel’s light illuminated the cliff top put him at a loss for words.
Hans Humpty. The unusual assassin who fought while imitating a cat. A man possessing the crest of the Six Flowers was on the ground, his face looking up to the sky. One of the arteries in his neck had been ripped open and his blood was spilled all over the parched earth creating a repulsive sight. And as for his face, all the blood had completely drained from it.
“…Hans.” Adlet dropped his sword. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He had placed absolute trust in Hans’ overwhelming strength and quick wit.
“…You were too late Adlet,” a woman standing slightly apart from Hans said quietly. She was standing with her back facing Adlet; the woman went by the name of Mora Chester.
“Hans, it can’t be….”
Fremy followed Adlet up the cliff, with Goldof appearing after. Upon seeing the situation, they immediately pointed their weapons towards Mora.
“This situation probably doesn’t even need an explanation. I just killed Hans,” Mora confessed as she turned around.
Her face, chest, and both of her unarmored hands were all covered in blood. Even her armor was broken all over. It seemed like an ordinary person would have died a long time ago from the same injuries.
“Mora, it was you…”
“That’s right…I’m the seventh.” Her voice was dispirited, as if she were exhausted. She then raised her hands, quietly kneeled down, and hung her head powerlessly.
No one could make a sound after that. There was only silence.
#
Adlet stared at the kneeling Mora, completely at a loss for words. It was a state shared by Fremy, Chamo, and Goldof behind him.But there was another person there bearing the crest of the Six Flowers, and she was sitting at Hans’ side.
“…Rolonia,” Adlet called out.
Her name was Rolonia Manchetta. With the ability to manipulate blood, she was the Saint of Fresh Blood. And she was also the eighth person to appear with the crest of the Six Flowers.
She had a round face, glasses, and often wore a timid expression. On top of that she was short and small and in no way could she be seen as an excellent warrior. In fact, if she wasn’t clad in heavy armor, or didn’t have a long whip attached to her hip, she would look just like a village girl.
At the moment her hands were touching Hans’ chest and throat, her palms glowing slightly.
“How did Hans lose?” Adlet asked her, but Rolonia didn’t answer. She just stared at Hans’ body.
“Rolonia answer! Why is Hans dead?! What happened?!”
Adlet then noticed that Rolonia was muttering something. He drew close to her face and listened to both her breathing and the words spilling out from her mouth.
“Please don’t die…please don’t die…I will definitely help…you…“
Rolonia was the Saint of Fresh Blood so she could control a person’s blood to heal wounds. So, not wanting to disturb her, Adlet touched Hans’ wrist. He had no pulse and he was cold.
It’s impossible, Rolonia, Adlet thought. There was almost no blood left in Hans’ body, plus his heart had stopped. Hans was already dead.
“What’s the meaning of this? Why is Hans dead, but you’re unharmed?” Adlet asked.
He wanted to know why Rolonia didn’t fight the seventh, Mora. And what’s more, he wondered why Mora didn’t attack the defenseless girl.
However, Rolonia was focusing solely on trying to help Hans. It was as if she completely couldn’t see what was happening around her.
“Rolonia, you must have been traveling together with Hans. What in the world happened?” Fremy asked her. Yet even her words didn’t seem to reach Rolonia’s ears.
“I will help…I’ll help, you’ll see. If I can’t…”
Chamo then strolled towards Mora while wearing her usual carefree smile. It was as if she weren’t paying any attention to the fact that Hans had died.
“Ah…Cat-san died? That’s too bad.” Chamo looked down at the kneeling Mora. “Chamo quite liked Cat-san. He was cute, strong, and he talked amusingly. Though at first Chamo hated him after he hit Chamo very hard, over time traveling with him became a little fun.”
Chamo made a fist and struck Mora in the face. Her fist was small though so Mora’s face only moved slightly.
“I will never forgive you. I will kill you. I won’t let you have a normal death!”
Mora averted her gaze from the angry girl in front of her. “I don’t care if you kill me. I’m ready.”
“Really? Obachan’s prepared to die? Well, Chamo’s extremely disappointed.”
Chamo raised her fist again, but Fremy grabbed it and stopped her.
“Before that, give us some time to hear her out,” Fremy said to Chamo, then turned to Mora. Her eye was full of silent anger. “Talk Mora and make it as brief as possible. When you’re finished, we’ll kill you.”
Looking down to the ground, Mora spoke. “I didn’t hope for this to happen. I didn’t want to kill him. I didn’t want to kill Hans or anyone.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I couldn’t think of anything else to do. All other paths besides killing Hans had been closed to me.” A single tear fell from Mora’s eye. “I wanted to protect the world. I wanted to defeat the Kyoma alongside all of you and prevent The Majin’s revival.”
“Chamo doesn’t believe you,” Chamo said, but Adlet disagreed. Mora wasn’t lying, she was speaking from her true feelings.
“And only until yesterday, no, only until an hour ago, I had intended to do just that.”