Volume 13 - CH 18

Chapter 18: Storm and Stress

A tall blonde woman and her subordinate enter a room in a detention house where a young silver-haired girl is also brought into. The girl has a terrible expression after she had just lost her parents and neighbors in the ‘La Croix Sanglant’ incident. Her eyes are severely reddened and swollen from crying, and there are no emotions reflected in them. The tall woman is surprised to see the girl has no scar at all since she heard that the girl had received life-threatening injuries. The tall woman’s subordinate explains that the team sent to the incident was able to take the girl down once, but she recovered after a short time and attacked them. Her defense power became so strong that it was incomparable to the first time and was able to heal wounds immediately which caused the unit unable to give her even a single wound. The tall woman says that talent is a terrifying thing as both siblings have achieved ‘Brute Soul’. The female subordinate doesn’t understand what ‘Brute Soul’ means but the tall woman tells her to not mind about it. The subordinate continues her report by saying that the girl was able to be captured because she lacked offensive capabilities and she fainted as if the thread had broken probably because the main offender had released control of her or he had moved to a distance that made him unable to control her anymore. The tall woman then introduces herself as Levi Ascarid to the girl. She is the France branch leader of the League of Mage Knight Nations with the nickname ‘Bayonet’. She asks the girl if her name is Iris-Gaule, which she replies with a small nod. Iris’ current state is natural because her younger brother, Orleus-Gaule, had recently taken control of her body and made her kill a lot of people including her parents. Levi says to Iris that she and her brother are such unbelievable siblings that the younger brother had committed such heinous act and the older sister defended him by sending half of the League’s suppression force to the hospital. Levi’s subordinate argues that Iris is actually a victim but Levi disagrees because Iris as an older sister must have realized her younger brother’s abnormality at some point. Levi says, “Everything that happened in that village…is all your fault, Iris-Gaule”. Her subordinate becomes angry at her for saying such cruel words. But Levi continues by saying that the person who made that hell in the church was not human but a demon. She then asks Iris if she’s okay with her younger brother spreading the same tragedy all over the world. After thinking about it for few minutes, Iris replies by shaking her head which indicates that she’s not okay with it. Levi then says that Iris survived the tragedy in her village because it is her duty to stop her brother. While grabbing Iris’ small hand, she tells her to come to her place and that she will lend her strength to her. Levi’s words cause a sense of responsibility to enter Iris’ half-dead body and her eyes to be lit with determination. While holding Levi’s hand strongly with both of her hands, Iris asks her to lend her strength to her and swears that she will defeat her younger brother.

Back in the present, the ‘Black Knight’ Iris Ascarid is facing the ‘Puppet King’ Or-Gaule in the corner of Lucier’s castle town. While wearing her armor-shaped Device ‘Orichalcos’, Iris is attacking Or-Gaule with her large battle axe. Or-Gaule is keeping his distance from Iris by running all over the castle town. He then uses his Device, ‘Black Widow’, which are threads strong enough to cut even huge buildings like butter. Iris however just repels the tens of threads away with just single swing of her axe. Any Blazer can gain speed and power by strengthening their actions with their mana, but in Iris’ case she also has a healing ability that enables her to withstand force that is strong enough to blow away other Blazers. With such unparalleled defense power, Iris can just keep attacking with maximum firepower without considering the enemy’s counters. Such power that combines offense and defense together without leaving any opening is the true value of ‘Orichalcos’. Iris keeps pursuing Or-Gaule with her overwhelming attack power and charging speed, but is still unable to land a fatal blow. She is able to move fast by strengthening her kicking feet, but this makes it difficult for her to make sudden stops and turns. Or-Gaule has spread his invisible threads that act as scaffolds for him to move freely all over Lucier, and so this makes it difficult for Iris to hit him. Or-Gaule then says he feels sad that he’s hated so much by his beloved older sister. He also claims that he actually loved everyone in their village which is why he still remembers their names, faces and voices.

“Michèle and Tor from next door, I played with them together a lot. Uncle Gérard the butcher and auntie Romy, I always went to their store to buy consumable meat. The obliging big sis Irène was with the precocious Stéphane. The leader of the kids Gasper was with his followers Bernard and Éric. Gasper and Irène were dating weren’t they? You didn’t know, right? It’s because you used to be shy around people after all. Aha, somehow looking at your face makes me remembering various things from the past. How nostalgic.”

“SHUT UUUP!! …Why…, how could you do it with such face..? While doing such thing to everyone…, how could you call everyone’s name with such gentle voice…?

“That’s because everyone is my benefactor. During that birthday I received life from them. They gave real smile as present to me who was just making a smile to my surrounding. That’s why I was really, really grateful to them!”

“～～～～aAAAAHH!!!!”

“Whoa! Close, that was close”

“I can’t take it anymore. My head is going crazy. I don’t want to hear your voice. I will cut that throat of yours immediately!”

Iris’ anger causes her attacks to become big swings little by little with visible gaps beginning to occur. However, Or-Gaule can’t attack because his ability is not suitable for combat after all. His real value is not in battle as shown by the fact that his main role in Rebellion was to use his threads to control world situations and dolls used for assisting other duties. Attacking fighter type opponents like Iris and Wallenstein straight ahead is bad for him. What he can do is lure his opponents into his area and wait for a chance to attack. Iris’ whole body then ends up getting tangled by countless threads which cause her to stop moving. Or-Gaule activates his Noble Art ‘Marionette’ in order to rob Iris of her own body’s movements and then continue the ‘La Croix Sanglant’ incident as he said earlier. However, Or-Gaule can’t move Iris’ body as he like. Iris charges towards him with her large axe and he narrowly avoids her attack instead. Or-Gaule realizes that it is caused by Iris’ power to influence fate as a Desperado. Ever since she was taken under the care of Levi Ascarid, Iris has lived for the sole purpose of defeating Or-Gaule. Her persistence, grudge and determination became like a curse that won’t allow her to be manipulated by Or-Gaule and let ‘La Croix Sanglant’ occurring again. Or-Gaule then uses ‘Grand Guignol’ but the thousands of slashes have no effect on Iris wearing the ‘Orichalcos’ armor. He continues by using ‘Deus Ex Machina’ to bind surrounding structures such as statues, poles and houses with his threads. He then uses the threads like a bow and shoots the rubbles towards Iris like arrows. The rubbles shot at Iris weigh several tons and have power that is tens of times greater than tank cannons, but Iris just receives them without fear and advances forward. Or-Gaule uses ‘Spider’s Nest’ to prevent her axe taking him down, but the resulting wind pressure causes the skin of his left arm to be torn and the surrounding structures have exploded. Or-Gaule then jumps over Iris’ head and entangles her in his threads even though there shouldn’t be enough power in the threads to tie her body. However, the force constricting her neck is stronger than the threads wrapped around the other parts of her body and is digging through deeply into the chainmail. Or-Gaule is making use of Iris’ strength which the threads will bind tighter and suffocate her if she moves with more strength. Suffocation is the only clear weak point of ‘Orichalcos’ which was revealed in Iris’ fight against Carlo Bertoni in last year’s A-League. No matter how much healing power her Device has, it cannot produce oxygen from nothing.

Suddenly, Iris’ axe is thrown at Or-Gaule and he narrowly dodges it by lifting his own body with the threads connected to his body. However, Iris’ fist immediately lands on Or-Gaule’s face which causes his body sent towards the ground, rolling. Or-Gaule immediately fires ‘Grand Guignol’ at Iris in order to prevent her pursuit but it has no effect like before. Iris then stomps on and breaks the right arm of Or-Gaule who is lying on his back. Or-Gaule lifts his left arm to fire ‘Grand Guignol’ again but Iris grabs and crushes the wrist of his arm, causing him to scream from pain. She then also grabs his throat and tightens her grasp while his head is against the ground. Or-Gaule doesn’t understand how Iris was able to escape from the threads that would have blown her head off if she moved hard. He then realizes that even now his threads are ripping the flesh of Iris’ neck through her armor and suffocating her, but she is able to bear the pain with her armor’s continuous healing. Iris will fall sooner or later at this rate but she doesn’t mind as long as she is able to break Or-Gaule’s head beforehand. She thinks he shouldn’t be able to escape with both his arms broken. However, Or-Gaule pulls a thread with his bare foot’ right thumb which causes the broken asphalt under Iris’ feet to shift. Iris’ body position has shifted and in that moment Or-Gaule escapes her restraint and runs to the sky where there is a nest of threads that act as scaffolds for him. Or-Gaule thinks there is a crack in his neck bone which causes him to feel pain every time he breathes in. He didn’t expect that there is this much difference in power between him and Iris, and so he has escaped to the sky where Iris can’t follow. However, Stella who is wearing her wings of fire is blocking him from escaping. She says Or-Gaule is a bastard who is better off dead after causing thousands of people to suffer. Stella then uses ‘Katharterio Salamandra’, swinging her heaven-splitting sword down at Or-Gaule.