Zero No Tsukaima Fan Fiction ❯ Zero No Tsukaima Darkness Rising ❯ Resolve ( Chapter 20 )

Resolve

 

 

The group finally reaches the site of the final battle, it seemed odd that it would be so easy to get close enough to the army but from first glance there seems to be not many archers. More than likely a majority of the warriors in the one hundred army are weapon specialists and a smaller number are triangle class mages or better. The group stands a few hundred yards away from a large force.

Seth looks across the group, “Is everyone ready?” Saito draws his sword, Airo pulls out his knives and the rest of the group nods, “Here we go.....”

The men lead the way walking towards the army silently noting that there are a lot more than just one hundred soldiers but once again, it would be foolish to think that someone looking to completely take over the world would eventually accumulate more soldiers.

Seth hands begin to tremble he quickly uses his magic to cover them with his gauntlets. Saito notices the event and whispers to him, “You okay.”

“I don't want to die.......I'd love to wake up tomorrow and be able to see everyone. It's hard to be a hero when you die...” Seth smiles, a smile that means nothing remotely close to happiness. He whispers back to Saito, “I'm sorry about Louise, If you want to you can stay back and guard her and the rest of the girls.”

Saito shakes his head, “They will be fine we need to do our part so that they can do theirs.”

Seth nods and looks up at the army and notices that they have cannons, “Those will be troublesome....”

One of the cannons fires a blast of fire that slams into the ground about twenty feet from the group. Seth turns back to Louise, “How close do you have to be for your magic to effect them all?”

Louise look from left to right across the vast army, “I'm going to have to be at least one hundred feet closer.”

Seth smirks and as confident as he can says, “Okay.”

Seth charges forward and the others follow right behind him. The cannon operators quickly adjust and the first shot is fired. Seth roars and fires a blast from his left hand destroying the shot from getting with ten feet of himself. Saito runs past Seth and makes it another ten feet before having to stop to deflect another cannon shot. Zion gets ahead of him and soon after raises an earth shield and blocks another on coming attack. Airo hurdles over Zion and continues forward. Airo comes to a dead stop and does a front flip swinging his left leg down with force and speed. The motion creates a wind blade that cuts through the next blast. While Seth is starting to catch up Hina, Rain, and Tabitha deflect the next cannon shot. Seth runs through the smoke of the blast stopped by the girls and finds on the other side the first of the soldiers. Seth draws his sword and cuts down the first man easily. He kicks the next man in the front of the knee knocking him down and he runs him through. As the smoke clears Seth finds himself at the beginning of an outer wall of soldiers.

Seth jumps backwards and whips out his hand firing a blast into the middle of the ranks and causes a large open spot as the rest of the group continues forward while Seth stays behind to handle the soldiers. Seth sticks his sword into the ground and removes his jacket, “HHHHHhaaaaaaa.....HHHhaaaaaaaa....YAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!”

Seth charges into the closing gap of the ranks and spins cutting down four men while a fifth runs up form behind him and tries to run him through with a spear. Seth traps the spear between his arm and his side and slams his elbow into the man's nose shattering it. Seth rips the spear from his hand and twirls it throwing it at a man charging toward him. He is struck in the side by a large man with a club riddled with sharp points Seth quickly gets to his feet and halves the club then halves the man. His side now has a four or five tears in his skin. Seth connects with a heel kick into the side of an enemies head. A blast of fire slams into his back burning away the over shirt he was wearing leaving just his black tank top to soak up his blood. Seth spins around and launches another blast that explodes, hopefully killing the mage that just hit him with the fire blast. A large sword gleams in the sun revealing itself just seconds before it has a chance to cut through Seth. He brings up his blade and shatters the sword into pieces and he continues with a spin cutting open the man's gut. An arrow flies past his head cutting off some of his hair. Seth looks ahead at the uneasy soldier who just missed a key opportunity to kill him. Seth charges releasing another roar and cuts down the adept archer. Before he can block it a man slams his foot into Seth's side knocking him down allowing another man with a club to hit Seth in the gut with an up swing sending him rolling over onto his back. Seth whips his sword around cutting deeply into both of the men's legs. Seth gets up and kills them both with one fluid motion. Falls to his knees and coughs out a mouthful and then some of blood.

“Shit, did he break one of my ribs?” The sound of a screaming man behind him makes Seth turn just in time to dodge a decapitating swing and Seth drives his blade into the gut of the man. Seth gets back to his feet and frees his sword from the man. Seth slowly looks up at the next man closest to him. An ogre of a man swings a giant club down at Seth. He dodges the attack but has to quickly take his attention off of the ogre and concentrate on the two men in front of him. Seth dodges a sword thrust and blocks another horizontal slash. Before he can counter he is hit in the shoulder by a club as well as the two men he has engaged. Seth slams down into the ground hard and gets to his knees quickly grabbing his sword before he can spin a giant hand takes him by the neck and lifts him off the ground as a spearman charges forward. Seth throws his blade down piercing through the foot of the ogre, as the monster man drops him Seth uses his gauntlets to glance the spear away and connect with a left hook into the jaw of the spear man. Seth turns around and removes the blade and quickly beheads the monster making sure that he won't be bother by him again. Seth points his blade at the men circling him leaving about five feet of fallen bodies between him and the rest of the warriors.

'Come on Louise what is taking so long, I'm gonna finish here before....'

A bright light suddenly floods the area. Seth quickly cuts down as man of the soldiers he can before they regain their composure from Louise's light. The small group of soldiers is finally lowered to less than ten but now Seth feels more stress than before when he was facing many more people. Five men charge at him from all directs so Seth flips backwards over a man who tries to jump and catch him but instead gets his head split open. Seth lands and immediately thrusts forward and cuts down three more with a horizontal slash. Seth takes in a few short breathes before he hears the sound of a bow string being drawn. The pain in the back of his left leg flows over his entire body as the jagged arrow slams into his skin instead of just piercing. Seth falls to the ground and yanks out the arrow realizing a pain filled scream. He gets up and dodges an arrow meant for his head and blocks another with his sword as he charges at the attacker and cuts the man diagonally up his body lifting him off his feet killing him before he hits the ground. Seth continues toward the castle and hopefully all of his friends.

As he is running as best he can he notices another smaller group of men that have all been cut down by what looks like knifes. Seth catches up with the girls who are in a circle formation around Louise who is down on the ground breathing heavily. Seth jumps into the air and cuts a man down from behind and runs over to Rain.

Rain hugs him and looks over his wounds, “Are you okay?!”

Seth nods but doesn't say yes, “You three need to get Louise to safety okay? That is what I am asking you to do. If you go in the exact same direction I just came from you should be able to get away from here without any trouble.” Rain begins to protest but Seth looks at her with stern eyes, “This is not a time to argue, I need you all to get to safety you've done your part now let us do ours.”

The three standing nod and Tabitha helps Louise as Rain and Hina lead them back. Seth turns around and tries to spot any of the other guys but can't, “You had better not die.”

Seth charges into the mass of warriors getting ever closer to the castle. Once again he is slammed into this time by a weapon known as a morning star in his world. Seth gets up and angrily severs the chain removing the ball from the handle of the weapon and with a spin cuts down the man using the weapon. A burst of wind nearby catches his attention so he begins attacking in that direction until he stumbles into an open circle and in the middle is Saito. Seth quickly goes back to back with Saito, “Good to see you are still here.” Seth notes the one cut on Saito's right forearm from possibly a barely dodged spear stab.

Saito notices the damage all over Seth's body, “You have a rough time?”

Seth smirks and cuts down two charging men, “Ever heard of an army with archers on the front line?”

Saito shakes his head and continues to attack noting the reference to wars back on Earth where the archers would have been at the back of the army so that they could protect the front line and rain arrows down on enemies without the fear of being cut down by them. Seth fires another blast from his hand while Saito releases his attack he recently learned from fighting with Seth both taking out many enemies. Saito and Seth move backwards increasing the distance between them and the circle of enemies.

“Hey Saito how many more times can you use that attack?”

Through breathes Saito unknowingly says, “I probably have four or five more of those in me. How about you I'm sure you can't keep firing those all day yourself.”

Seth slams his fist into the throat of an attacker, “To be honest I've already used more of these than I ever have before so your guess is as good as mine at this point.”

“Perfect.....”

An explosion blows both Saito and Seth backwards onto the ground.

“What the hell Saito, I thought Louise used her dispel magic.”

Saito gets up and looks around trying to find out where the blast came from, “That must have been there version of a bomb or something!?”

Seth ducks under a scythe silently noting the originality of it but then thrusts his blade through its' welder's chest killing him. Saito flips over Seth releasing another blast of energy clearing a path for them to get even further into the army. As they continue Seth notices more soldiers killed by Airo's knifes and now a few look to have been burnt to death. A man slugs Seth in the face staggering him and another spin kicks him in the back of the head knocking him down to his knees.

With a pissed off yell Seth sweeps the first man's legs and punches him in the crotch and then does a back flip slamming him foot into the other man's skull. With two swipes of his sword the two breath their last, “FUCK!!!!” Seth aims at the closest man and whips his sword at the man impaling it through his chest. Seth pounds his knuckles together and charges forward slamming his fist into the next man after the impaled one crushing the bones in the front of his face. Seth grabs him by the leg and spins throwing him against three men running up from behind him and Saito cuts them down while they are getting back to their feet. A dome of wind and fire erupts a few hundred feet away from Seth and Saito sending men in all directions.

Seth and Saito run in the direction of the blast and find Airo and Zion cutting down enemies with a combination of powerful magic and super fast knife cuts. Airo ducks under a man swinging a hammer like weapon and stabs his knifes into the man's thighs and then crosses the blades over the man's throat. Zion picks up a fallen man's spear and puts an electric current through it. He quickly hits four men sending currents of electricity through them allowing Airo to run over and kill them. Seth and Saito stand on either side of Zion and begin to protect him as he begins to look pale over his use of magic so constantly.

Zion stands up and begins to shout to the heavens as a large run symbol begins to grow out from the ground underneath him until it covers an area of thirty feet on all sides of the group. “Ready to see that magic you never saw before Seth.....nex addo patefacio porta quod vindicatum illa ago, EGO voco vos!”

Darkness covers the area within the rune except Zion, Airo, Seth, and Saito. The air becomes thick with sinister energy like the devil himself had opened the gates of hell begins to swirl the darkness like a tornado until it disperses and all the men within the rune all lie dead on the ground. Zion falls to his knees and spits out some black blood, “That will be the last time I ever use that magic, I hope you were paying attention Seth.” Though the forty some men that were within the circle all died more charge in.

Airo runs at the men meeting them mid stride. With a quick spin two more fall to the ground. An axe comes down but it is stopped by Saito allowing Airo to kill another man. Seth stays back by Zion making sure that no one runs around Saito and Airo. While he is standing by Zion he takes in the battle field countless men have been killed even more will die before the day is done then I dawned on him.

“Saito!!!!”

Saito cuts down a man but can get back to Seth as he has to pay attention to the two other men attacking him, “WHAT!!!?”

Seth hands Zion a short sword and charges forward and rams into the man trying to kill Saito. He grabs the man by the side of the head and the jaw and yank breaking him neck, “We need to get into the castle, forget about the army.”

Saito slashes taking down another man, “How can we just forget about an army?”

“If we kill the leader why would these people continue attacking, besides there will be less soldiers inside a castle of that size.”

Zion gets up and runs the short sword through a man that was sneaking up behind Saito, “Shall we!?”

Airo turns back to them, “Try to keep up!”

Airo charges forward and activates his rune cutting and dodging attacks one after another cutting a small path through the soldiers. A few moments later the group reaches the large door but it won't budge. Seth who is bringing up the rear leaps over the group and slams his fist into the door destroying a human size piece of the door.

The group quickly get into the hole and cut down the unsuspecting soldiers guarding the door.

Seth falls to his knees panting a bead of blood mixed with sweat falls from his noses, “We made it. Everyone alright!?”

Zion and Saito say yes while Airo simply falls against a wall and slides down to the floor, as he lowers himself to the ground the wall behind him becomes smeared with blood.

Zion walks over to Airo and looks at his wound, a large gash in his right shoulder blade has quickly bled through his shirt, “Are you okay?”

Airo coughs out a, “Yea,” and gets back to his feet.

Seth looks towards the spiraling stone steps leading up to higher levels. They start going up the steps and halfway to the second level Zion uses what little magic he has left and turns the steps into dust.

“Don't need anyone following....”

As they continue from level to level they realize that there are no other soldiers in the castle or at the very least on the higher floors. They finally reach the final level the steps lead to. The room appears to have been made to hold very lavish and grand parties but now only a thrown and three people fill the room and a fourth pinned to the wall.

The group quickly look over Griffin's body from a distance his head is bleeding and his hands have been impaled and stuck to the wall behind him leaving his unconscious body limp like a hanged man.

Ryu is standing next to the thrown while Sara is a few steps away on a small step before the thrown. A man with long black hair tied into a tight pony tail is sitting on the thrown a sword in one hand and a glass of wine in the other, “I'm so glad that I can finally meet the people who have cause me so much trouble.” The man throws the glass against a wall and stands up, “And now I can kill you all personally!”

Sara steps before the man, “Cid I must ask your forgiveness.”

The would be king, Cid looks down on the woman, “For what?”

She impales the king through the throat with her skinny, dainty, feminine, blade formed hand. As she removes her hand, slowly, the blood begins running down Cid's chest covering his kingly cape and the rub that the throne is sitting on and continues to flow until it forms a small puddle at the foot of the step. She takes in a deep breath and steps over the blood, “If it weren't for his status he would have been dead long ago.” She smiles, “It is amazing how many people would come if Regent Cid called for them, then a little magic and poof.......an army filled with completely loyal soldiers.” Sara walks over to Ryu and kisses his cheek and runs her hand down his cheek sensually, “We will rules and I will be queen of Germania and then Tristain and then the world.” She turns from Ryu and sits on the thrown. She begins to laugh hysterically until Ryu draws his sword and like the world had slowed down, Sara's head and the top of the thrown fall to the floor one with a dull thud and the other with a sickening splat like sound. Ryu turns back to the four as a beheaded body continues to twitch and spirt blood.

“I have no ambitions of becoming some king that has to rule over someone, I just want what I wanted all along. To destroy everything. If we started over then I'm sure we'd finally learn for our mistakes.” Ryu eyes grow wide and his breath short, “Think of it, a world with no war, no murder, no fighting.... an utopia....that is what I want, a perfect world and since this one is already to destroyed to be made into a perfect place I WILL reset this world and begin anew.” Ryu removes the scabbard tied around his waist and lets it fall to the ground, “Will you too stand against me knowing what I intend to do, will you fight someone who is trying to save the world?”

“You can't save anything by destroying it that doesn't even make sense!” Seth runs at Ryu and fires a blast at close range.

The blast explodes as soon as it leaves Seth's hand and sends him sliding backwards on the ground. With an irritated groan Seth gets back to his feet his left arm bleeding pretty seriously. He charges again this time Saito follows after him and so does Airo. A fire ball reaches Ryu first as he defects the blast and then he spins slamming the back of his fist into the side of Seth's head and then dodges Satio's slash and slams the blunt side of his sword into him knocking him over the destroyed thrown. He dodges Airo's first slash and blocks the second, then quickly slams his knee in Airo's gut and then punts him in the gut knocking him into the air and back down onto his side. Zion fires another fireball but his magic has weakened greatly because of his use of death magic. Ryu breaks the fireball into pieces with his fist. Seth tries to connect with a spinning kick but the kick is blocked and countered with the handle of Ryu's sword into the top of Seth's head. Seth swings again but has to stop other wise he'd punch Ryu's blade and Ryu follows up with a kick. Saito quickly jumps in front of the kick and takes the force leaving Ryu open and Seth slams his fist into Ryu's face. Seth quickly connects with a kick to the side of his knee knocking him to a kneeling position and spins whipping his heel into the side of Ryu's chin. Airo runs up behind Seth and flips over him connecting with a front flip heel smash to the top of Ryu's head. Ryu quickly recovers and kicks Seth in the face with the bottom of his foot and then uses his magic to blast Airo across the room and into a wall. Saito quickly gets back to his feet and swings his blade down as hard as he can but Ryu blocks the attack and punches Saito in the face and then pump kicks him backwards to the floor. Ryu fires a blast of lightning that slams into Saito's sword but it launches him across the room and he ends up next to Griffin. Seth gets up to his hands and knees but his body won't let him get any further. Ryu walks over to him and raises his sword about his head and prepares to end Seth.

“RYU!!!”

Saito charges at him with Derflinger in his left hand and Excamasa in his right. Saito slams Derflinger into Ryu's blade and brings Excamasa across for a horizontal slash but Ryu jumps back narrowly avoiding the blade. Saito charges in again and the two begin to trade attacks back and force neither one getting any actually hits. Ryu suddenly reaches out and grabs Saito's left hand and head buts him staggering him, Ryu draws his sword back and puts it through Saito's left arm.

Seeing Saito fall to the ground with Ryu's blade still in his arm seems to set off something inside Seth and he sprints at Ryu and connects with a sloppy straight punch that not only knocks Ryu to the floor but makes Seth fall over because he trips over his over feet and falls flat on his face.

“Damn it...... I can barely move.”

Seth struggles to get back to his feet and finds that Ryu is already back to his feet and walking toward Saito. Seth runs after him again but this time Ryu sees him coming and slams his forearm into Seth's chest sending him head over heels and back down hard. Ryu continues walking toward Saito but is kick away by Griffin whose arms are hanging at his sides.

“It was nice of Saito to get me off that wall huh brother?”

Ryu takes in a deep irritated breathe and charges at Griffin. Ryu slams his fist into Griffin's chest so hard it lifts him off his feet. Ryu picks up his brother by the neck and begins to pummel him with the other hand. Airo runs at Ryu and he throws Griffin into Airo knocking them both to the ground.

Ryu turns his attention to Zion who has been quietly saying a spell this whole time. Saito slams himself into Ryu before he can get near Zion but Ryu just removes the sword and slams the blunt of the blade into Saito's back dropping him to the ground.

Ryu brings his blade back and swings at Zion but Seth gets in the way and blocks the blade with his gauntlets but the sword has broken through the metal and has begun to cut into Seth's hands. Seth changes his stand and holds the blade against his side so that Ryu can't twists it or swing it. Ryu punches Seth in the face but he doesn't let go of the sword. In one swift motion Ryu lets go of his sword and spins getting force behind his kick that connects with the side of Seth's head knocking him down hard, though he didn't still let go of the sword. Ryu pulls out a small blade and prepares to run Zion through when he suddenly opens his eyes and calls out.

“Release!”

Ryu stumbles backwards and drops the short sword. He begins breathing heavily and clutches at his stomach and then his head. Zion falls to the ground completely exhausted from casting the spell. Seth watches from the floor as Ryu begins to lose his composure and start to frantically look around for something that can help him. Saito stands up and picks up Griffin's sword. He slowly limps towards Ryu as he has fallen to the floor and can't seem to catch his breath.

Saito lifts the blade so the tip is at the center of Ryu's back.

“I just wanted to make the world a better place....”

Saito closes his eyes and forces the blade through Ryu's back and out the middle of his chest.

As Ryu falls to the ground his body slowly turns back into Kai's, “Thank you........you've saved me....thank..............................”

Saito falls backwards against a nearby wall and slides down to the floor, “Seth did we do it?”

Seth begins to slowly fade in and out of consciousness, “I...don't...know...” Seth puts his head back down on the floor and closes his eyes. Darkness surrounds......

 

 

 

The feeling of a warm body makes him not want to but he opens his eyes and finds himself in a bed in a familiar place. He looks at a beautiful woman in the bed next to him, a smile on her face.

Saito sits up and cringes at the pain in his side still, the mixture of sitting up and cringing waking up Louise. She sits up in the bed next to him a small amount of blush fills her cheeks.

“Morning Saito.....”

Saito looks at Louise, “Thank goodness.” Saito hugs her tight to him and runs his hand through her hair, “Louise.....”

Louise doesn't pull away she just let's her familiar hug her. Saito releases her and puts his hand on her cheek feeling the warm soft flesh of her face. Louise reaches up and grabs his hand and snuggles her face against his hand. Saito learns toward her and his hand slides behind her head and he lightly puts his lips to hers. He moves away and a moment later she reciprocates the kiss.

Saito pulls away, “I think I'd like to have a proper wedding now...”

Louise smiles and laughs as she hugs him and rests her head against her chest, “Me too.”

Saito doesn't want the moment to end but only moments this perfect happen after someone has died, “Louise what happened?”

Louise pulls away and looks at Saito with a confused look at first before realizing what he is talking about, “Well after we left we watched from a hill and another light flashed only this time a lot of the soldiers turn on some of the others. I couldn't really tell what happened but the men where cheering after they finished. We weren't sure what to make of it so we waited until most of them were gone and then we snuck into the castle. We found everyone in this large room, you and Seth where both very hurt. We quickly rushed you all to a healer thanks to Tabitha and her dragon we managed to save everyone's life except a man named...Kai. He already was dead when we arrived. A few days ago Seth finally woke up and they were called to Queen Henrietta's palace. From what I understand they have all decided to work for Tristain under a different name that I guess Seth thought up. I think he called it the Secret Service.”

Saito smiles at the idea that Seth decided to use a name from Earth like Secret Service, “So I guess it all worked out huh....”

The door to the room opens and a familiar face walks into the room.

“Siesta it is so good to see you.”

Before another word can be said a familiar feeling fills the air. Saito turns back to Louise and she is already holder her wand, “How good is it to see that maid? Didn't you just say you wanted to marry me? You perverted horny dog!” Saito gets out of the bed and runs past Siesta followed closely by Louise, “BAKABAKABAKABAKABAKABAKA!”

An explosion shakes the entire Tristain Academy for Magic and no one panics.....