Steel and Mana

Chapter 559 – Capture

The world was still ringing... Well, it could be my ears; it was hard to tell which. It was probably both, to be honest. Still, looking around, seeing how everyone was also wincing and rubbing their ears, it apparently wasn't just me experiencing the feeling. Evidently, the entire battlefield had undergone some kind of metaphysical tinnitus after the spell was activated by Arthur. Watching it happen... It was invisible yet not. I don't know how to describe it well, but you couldn't see the bubble being erected, yet you could tell exactly where it was, how it spread, what it looked like, its color, everything. Wherever it went, the world's magic had winked out, then, to my surprise, the moment it reached its maximum spread, all of it returned. What... happened? Shouldn't it be constantly on? Unable to be deactivated?

Pushing myself up, I felt how the Camelot steadied itself as everything returned to normal, while I glanced at the others. I was still hearing them speak in a muffled way, but they looked fine... Including Sa'Ith.

"Where did they go?!" Sasha yelled out, her worried voice breaking through the droning and ringing, making me realize the actual issue.

Screw the fact that the spell deactivated... Ignis was gone! Along with my son! Standing, wobbling and wiping my mouth, I tried to look, but my vision was swimming... Nevertheless, it was clear as day that the massive dragon suddenly disappeared as if it never even existed. Where it was crouching previously, there was now a perfect circle of dirt and ash carved into the ground... Wait... are there... people down there?

“Where is he…” I whispered because the moment the bubble swallowed them both, the usual feelings I had, sensing Ignis, were gone from me. All that connection, even if it wasn't done consciously on my part, disappeared along with the beast.

What I heard next was that Kustov reported someone jumped out of the Camelot, and when I looked, I knew it was Leyla, hurrying to the middle of the crater. That could mean she is still sensing her brother... please be that...

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Leyla didn’t bother with taking care of herself because the moment she landed and tumbled from the impact, she slid down into the crater on her knees, dirt spraying everywhere, only looking ahead where she could sense her brother. Arriving at the bottom, getting up and rushing into the middle of it, Arthur was lying half-buried in the dust, looking pretty much limp, pale, his chest unmoving at first glance. When Leyla noticed that, her soul almost left her body. She was reaching for him, her trembling fingers touching his cheek, trying to call out for him via their connection... and the moment she did so, Arthur inhaled so sharply, it was like he’d been underwater for minutes. Without pause, he sat upright with a violent, choking gasp, grabbing at the air, coughing, blinking at his sister, looking a bit confused.

“Arthur!” Leyla threw her arms around him, nearly knocking the breath back out of his lungs, causing him to choke, “I thought... You were gone for a moment! I thought... That... you... IDIOT!”

“I’m okay.” His voice was hoarse, but made him sound like he was only tired but not injured, “I’m okay, really!”

Even then, she held him tighter anyway, until the sudden sound of someone moving behind them froze both of them.

"Grrr..." It was like a painful, angry growl, filled with shame and utter rage.

Releasing her brother, the twins turned their heads slowly, only to see Ignis lying in the dirt like a wounded animal, slowly starting to move, her red-scaled skin showing from under the sludge. Just as in Arthur's previous 'dream,' she was human-shaped... mostly. As far as a humanoid dragon could fit the description, that is. When she moved her head, they could see that her right eye was gone, blood still dripping down her cheek, while not that far from them, Empress Mirian's Spear was standing there, impaled in the ground, unbothered by the events. As if it was saying, its job was done, its time to sleep...

"Youuuu..." Ignis growled again as her consciousness returned, and she was staring straight at Leyla and Arthur. “You,” she rasped, coughing, blood coming from her throat, “You..." Her one eye locked onto Arthur, "Damned... Vasa spawn. I will tear you... apart!” She snarled at them, revealing a set of way sharper teeth than any human would have.

Arthur didn’t even have to think, because the moment he raised his hands, the chains he remembered from his vision snapped into existence with a loud clank that echoed across the battlefield. This time around, it was thin, mostly translucent, humming with magic that was a mix between how everything felt and... how the nullification magic worked. Looking at it, Arthur realized that the individual links were all their own tiny formations, made of runes, including those that Merlin had deduced from the Gods' Formation. Once again, it wrapped around Ignis’s throat and not only stopped her... It gagged her mid-sentence and mid-lunge, causing her to faceplant into the ground, skidding to a halt right before the two.

"What...?!" Leyla’s breath broke out of her in a stunned exhale, thinking she would die, but... “Arthur… you…”

"Um..." He looked at his hand, still holding the chain. "Don't ask, because I have no idea."

By then, they could hear rumbling at the edge of the crater, and when they looked up, Lancelot was the first to arrive. His mech slid down near the rim, kneeling after stopping at the bottom, already in the middle of opening the cockpit. He dropped the last few meters in a half-controlled fall, sprinted to his siblings, his expression a mix of everything that could tell about his worry, right until noticing his older brother.

“Arthur!” He grabbed him in a bone-crushing hug. “Don’t do that again. Ever!”

Of course, he wasn't alone, because Jila's machine landed next, stumbling out of its cockpit as her legs nearly gave way from the residual disorientation, shaking her head.

“It worked, yeah?! I knew I could summon them, I had the feeling!” She grinned, looking at the chains in his hand, "Where are they?" She asked, looking for the gauntlets, but only finding... a chained Ignis, that had her throat wrapped around with it, unable to move, speak, forcing her to just lie there, growling and watching the arriving humans with one eye. "Ew! Is that?!"

"It is," Arthur nodded, trying not to smile, "As for the Gauntlets... no idea..."

Just then, another mech arrived, as Mirian descended, stopping at the bottom only for her spear to simply rattle and land back in her mech's arm, growing in size as she pointed it at the unmoving body of Ignis.

“I’m informing the entire command structure at once,” she said, keying her comm, her voice trembling a little. “Arthur is alive. Repeat: Arthur is alive.” Then... not knowing how to explain the next part, she just said it. “…Ignis also survived.”

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"What?" I asked, my mouth opening, hearing Mirian's voice, explaining how the creature appeared to be... shackled. As she was speaking, I was also catching Sasha, who fell backwards, the sudden relief almost knocking her out.

“Sovereign... your son..." Sa'Ith looked at me, "He was indeed the Savior of us all."

"..." I don't know what to say to that. Was he? I don't know anymore... "I want a premieter to set up!" I said, still holding my wife's shoulders, struggling with my own crashing body, barely keeping myself standing, wanting to just lie down and die, I mean, sleep. "Retrieve everybody we can, dead or alive, and retreat towards the Pride! Before another wave comes... And for fucks sake, bring my son back aboard!"

By the time the latter happened, I was... out. No matter how much I wanted to keep it together, see Arthur for myself, including Ignis, and take a look at what happened, I couldn't. My mind finally had enough and shut down, without asking me about it. One moment I was opening my mouth to speak, the next, bam! Blackness. When I regained consciousness, it felt like the moment between then and now was just an instant. I wasn't feeling any better either, nor was I rested at all... but at least my ears weren't ringing, and my vision wasn't swimming anymore.

"What...?" I muttered as a hand gently landed on my chest, pushing me back into a pillow.

"Don't hurry," Mikan's voice greeted me, "You were out for two days... no rush..."

"Two... days?" I moaned, blinking my eyes, realizing I was back on the Camelot and within my private room. "It doesn't feel like it." I chuckled, letting her help me sit up, "How's everyone doing?"

"Surprisingly well," She smiled, gently lifting a cup up to my mouth, letting me sip on hot tea. "Besides all the casualties, which mainly affected the Vasas... We are surprisingly fine. I don't think we lost as many as we lost against the Guardian..."

"What about the monsters?" I asked between two big gulps, letting its warmth run down my throat and spread around my body.

"None came at us ever since. Everything is quiet, way more than usual. The only issue is the stench of the corpses; there are too many of them."

"Start burning them," I grunted, moving my muscles under my skin, trying out my limbs, fingers, legs, but everything seemed to be in order. They weren't as stiff as I expected them to be, but I wouldn't break into a run any time soon either. "The last thing we need is some kind of monster-made sickness spreading from their carcasses. So... what about the others?"

"I took a look at them and..." She shrugged, "Arthur is fine. He didn't suffer any injury."

"But?" I looked at her, raising an eyebrow, seeing that there was more.

"We indeed have Ignis in, um... custody."

"Damn!" I laughed and finally didn't turn into a coughing fit, "I can't believe it... All that nonsense Zah'Ratil was telling us turns out to be right... Tsk!"

"It isn't funny, Leon!" She pouted, letting out a long and tired sigh, "That creature is dangerous! People are already arguing to just kill her off, but for some reason, Arthur refuses to do so! He even argued with Sa'Ith about it!"

"I guess." I nodded, letting my body sink into the pillows, "If he doesn't want to kill it, then we won't."

"What?!"

"What, what?" I glanced at her with one eye, "Arthur got her under control, and if he doesn't want to kill it, we won't."

"But..."

"Have any of you thought about what would happen to Arthur if we kill Ignis?" I asked, my tone going a bit deeper, watching her stiffen, "Good thing it didn't happen... We don't even know what transpired with this... nonsense. Until we understand it, study it... Nobody is killing anybody! I don't want to risk my son's life, that now happens to be connected to a dangerous monster."

"I..." She muttered, finally shrugging, "I see.. Sorry..."

"It's alright... I would also want to kill that thing, as she is too dangerous to be left alive..." I shrugged, shaking my head a little, "But... we will see." I fell silent for a moment before asking a weird question, "Is she docile?"

"In a way," Mikan chuckled, not knowing what to say, "Apparently, she can't go against Arthur's wishes at all. What Sa'Ith said is that the Master-Save contract between the two is stronger than it ever was between the previous Sect Masters and Ignis. Whatever magic was evoked... It's different from the original, two-way, the one that allowed Ignis to gain consciousness."

"Haah... Great." I pursed my lips, closing my eyes, almost falling asleep, for real this time. Not just being... turned off like a machine. "I will rest a little more, knowing that Arthur is fine. I will deal with this with a clear mind."

"You do that." She leaned closer, kissing my head, "There will be a lot to do afterwards anyway..."

"You tell me..." I chortled, "Nothing else lives up to Ignis being captured, no?"

"No, nothing," She nodded, but then she fell silent, making me reopen my eyes, glancing at her.

"Mikan?"

"Well..." She began, deciding it's best if she was clear about it, "Apparently, the Khulmani gloves that Jila summoned and tossed to Arthur... are gone."

"Maybe they went back to Khulman... hm?" I offered, but she just shrugged, having no answer for me.

"Maybe."

"Haaah..." I closed my eyes one more time, ignoring it, "I will deal with it... Later. Or Arthur will. With Jila! Yes... They will deal with THAT issue. I retired... And this time? For good."