Swordmeister of Rome

"Dammit…!"

Stiel grew angry at the Fourth Elder. The spirit inside was strong, but it was reborn into the body of a Grand Bander so she thought it was going to be easy to manage. She was wrong. The regeneration was just too fast to keep up with.

'This regeneration doesn't make sense… what is Sian doing?"

Stiel glanced around to look at Sian. To her surprise, Sian seemed to be troubled.

'Huh?'

Those two were very powerful, but Sian was stronger than them, so Stiel wasn't worried.

'Are they stronger than I expected? It doesn't look like it though…'

At that moment, Sian began flying toward Stiel at an incredible speed. Stiel was so surprised that she missed her opponent's move.

'Dammit…!'

She readied herself to lose her arm as she saw the attack coming, but it did not come. Sian came over and smacked the Elder before he hurled him toward the other Elders.

"Sian, you came to save…"

"Miss Stiel! We don't have time!"

"Huh?"

Sian snatched Stiel's hand and put on a ring on her hand. She was dumbfounded, but she soon smiled.

"Oh, are you proposing here? How romantic. You don't need to do this in such a hurry."

"What are you talking about? Take care of my brother, will you?"

"What?"

Stiel was confused, but a green light encased her and she was gone.

Sian then felt relaxed. He wasn't sure what happened, but Stiel would probably be enough to save Rian and run away.

"I'm done. Let's play, you bastards!"

Sian then charged at the three Elders.

"Stay strong…! Just a little longer!"

Rian was getting tired from the skeleton attacks. He was barely managing due to the necklace that Sian gave it to him. He thought he was a goner when he was struck by a skeleton. However, the necklace began to shine and created a weird cloud around Rian's body.

It wasn't just a cloud. It began to form electricity on Rian's weapon and it even shot lightning out toward the enemy. Rian moved forward to the front line to fight. He needed to save at least one more.

But it was too much. The Fith Elder wasn't much help since he was still struggling from his headache and the others were too weak.

Then an attack followed. Rian saw the sword coming to him, but it was too late.

At that moment, green light exploded from the necklace. The light reflected the sword and lingered for a while. When it subsided, a thin and long slender arm came from within.

"Ugh… what is this?"

Stiel could've rejected the Exar that worked on herself, but Sian wouldn't do anything strange and he looked like he was in a hurry so she accepted it.

'It was a short-distance teleportation rune…'

She turned and saw Rian next to her. It was then that she realized the ring was the artifact that Sian was so happy to acquire.

"Ugh. I got happy for nothing."

She looked around and found weird skeletons attacking Rian and the others. She wasn't sure what these skeletons were, but she knew what she needed to do. She ranted and casually knocked the skeleton that charged at her.

The result wasn't light.

The skeleton was thrown all the way out, crashing into all other skeletons in the way and on to the ground.

Rian was shocked. The woman Sian introduced to him a while back had jumped out from the necklace. She wasn't lady-like anymore. She was more like a ferocious beast.

"Don't worry, Rian. Oh, I can call you Rian right?"

"Uh… Yes. Miss Stiel."

"I guess I am… a Guardian Angel sent by your brother to save you."

Stiel then turned with an irritated look toward the skeletons.

<URGH!>

Stiel turned to Rian after throwing the Fifth Elder away.

"This will do, right?"

"Uh… Yes. Thank you."

"But why is that old man charging at me like that?'

It was after she was almost done taking care of skeletons when the Fifth Elder suddenly charged at Stiel. She was weary if the Fifth Elder had changed spirits, but he simply just lost his mind. The Elder kept coming back after regenerating so Stiel destroyed all the Elder's bones and threw them away.

'Hehe… I'm still strong, right?'

Stiel suddenly became sad. She had to run away so many times lately that she had to feel proud while being looked upon by such babies.

"This will do."

"Thank you, Miss Stiel. But where did they come from?"

There were the skeletons, the mindless Granine, and the revived Ra-Bander. Everything seemed to be connected and there seemed to be a reason behind all this.

"Sir Rian."

"Yes, Khutil?"

"Shouldn't we take a look at the hole they came out from?"

"Did you see where they came out from?"

"Yes… it was from the hole behind Reynold's body."

Khutil pointed toward Reynold's headless body. There was something red inside.

"What is that? How did we not know?"

Rian spoke as he saw something suspicious buried within.

"That… is supposed to be miles deep. It's visible only because the mountain was dug up in the last war."

"I see."

Someone from the Lagran Region explained the situation.

"Let me look at it."

"But, Sir Rian…"

"Yes."

"If the Fifth Elder lost his mind like that… will the Granine village be okay?"

"!!!"

Rian realized he had missed something important. If the Fifth Elder lost his mind, there was no guarantee that the other elders were holding off.

"We should go right now. And… Miss Stiel."

"Yes?"

"If it's not too much… can you lend us a hand?"

Stiel had no interest if the Granines and humans fought against each other and killed one another. She was more interested in that suspicious red object. On the other hand, it was Sian's loving brother who was asking her.

'I should gain some credit here.'

The Third and Sixth Elders were probably at the village right now, and if they lost their minds, the village was probably very dangerous. And if Rian was to be sent alone…

'He wouldn't kill me… would he?'

She couldn't say for sure, so she decided to play it safe.

"Okay. Tell your brother that I helped you later though."

"Of course. We are alive because of you."

"Sir Rian, there's no one in the village."

"Right. Where did they all go?"

Rian and the others were confused. If they had gone mad, then they should've run toward the city. Rian had already gone to city first, but there were no Granines there either.

"hmm."

"Miss Stiel, do you suspect something?"

"Yeah… but you should return to the city. I'll look into it myself."

Stiel then disappeared from the spot.