Young Magic Knight: Chapter 20 (Trace)

I stand in the crater created by the last spell he had cast... I've been hit so hard and so many times I can barely even stand. All my weapons are broken, I'm out of ammo, and I've used as much as I could of Grey's mana. Emerald is dying, and I have no clue what state Cleo is in, right now... Dammit! If Primo doesn't get here soon, we're all doomed...

“Trace! Cleo! Emerald!” That voice... It must be Primo. I can hear him breathing heavily. He's probably out of breath from speeding over here. I turned in the direction of the voice to face him. “Trace!” He slides down, into the crater, and comes towards me. “You're alive...!”

“Primo... you made it.” I try to smile. I was sort of doubting if I'd live long enough for him to save us.

“Take them and run,” he says, looking up at Savior, hovering up above. “I'll face him.”

“But--”

“Go!” He draws two of the Thirteen Swords. “If it's like this, I can win. Please...”

Not willing to argue, I just nod. I gather what strength I had left, and go looking for Emerald and Cleo. Emerald's just outside the crater, still in pretty bad shape. If she doesn't get medical attention immediately...

“Trace!” It's Cleo who calls out to me, injured, but still able to move properly.

“We should get out of the way.”

“Are you sure, Trace?”

Looking back at Primo, I say, “We need to trust him. If we stay here, we will die.” I try to keep calm while saying this, but the truth is that I am afraid of dying. I hadn't felt this scared since...

“Come on! We need to treat her!” I shout, trying to snap out of it. Come on, Trace. You've been in danger before... get it together...!

“Okay, let's go.” We run. We get as far away from the fight as we can. After getting about 200 yards away, I can't run anymore. “Trace, I'll heal you both, now.” After a few minutes, I am fully healed.

I think for a second about Primo and Savior. How is the fight going, I wonder...

I look back at where we ran from. Lots of destruction and explosions. Was Primo winning? Or... “Cleo, heal Emerald, for now.” I start to run. I run back there...

“Trace, wait!”

“I can't!”

Cleo stands up and grabs my arm. “Trace, don't go! You'll just get...”

I pull away from her. “Don't panic! Listen... I, uh, I've got a plan!” I lie. It's more like a feeling, but it's something I can't deny. “I got this. It'll all go just as planned. But you gotta stay here with her, okay? I'll make it back... and Primo will be with me.” I smile and run off. I just hope this feeling I have is right...

I arrive back at the scene of the fight. Primo and Salvator are still goin' at it... I decide to observe them for a second. For the longest time, I had wondered why Primo had brought all thirteen swords with him, but now it makes sense. First, carrying all of them seems to have given him a power up. He couldn't touch Salvator before, now he's on equal footing with him. Second, Primo seems to be using all thirteen swords at the same time...

I go in closer to get a better look. That is, in fact, what Primo is doing! I see him swing the “I” Sword, now “II”... he grabs the “III” Sword out of midair, then slashes. As Salvator backs up, Primo throws “IV” and “V”, then comes charging at him with the “VI” Sword.

Salvator manages to block that, but then Primo slashes with “VII”, catching him off guard and getting a hit in. He throws “VIII” and “IX” into the sky, throws “X” straight at his target, and dashes forward with “XI” and “XII”. A flurry of blades before “X” reaches Salvator. Primo dodges the blades coming at him, allowing Salvator to be hit by all three of them. He now pulls out his last blade, “XIII”, and brings it down with an overhead swing. If Salvator wasn't as god-like in power as I think he is, he'd be dead.

Freaking hell... This is impossible! The speed of his hands, the concentration necessary to pull all of these moves successfully... I can't believe my eyes! I know he's not human, but how can he do all this? It must have taken an extreme amount of training and discipline to pull it off... Impossible... but somehow, it seems familiar to me...

“You remind me of an old friend... Her name was Láng Shísān, the Bloody Prince...” Why am I remembering this right now? “This is just one more unbelievable thing. Come on, I won't lie to you.” Bloody Prince. Master swordswoman. Thirteen Blades. Xuè “Láng” Shísān. These are not my memories...

“Don't worry, I'll tell you when the time is right. Until then... don't die, okay?”

So confusing... it's like information is spilling into me out of nowhere...!

“Until I can keep our promise, I won't die, but don't you go dying either, got it?”

What? Where is all this coming from? Why am I able to hear these things?

“Don't worry, Grey. I won't die.”

Is it possible that Grey is sending memories to me? I don't know... Grey should be resting, shouldn't he?

“...and Grey... Thank you.”

...it stops. The flood of information stops. Still, I feel that there's something I can use in there...

While I'm sitting here, thinking about all of this, I notice that Primo has gone flying away from where Savior was standing. He probably got unlucky and took a hit. It seems like Primo's getting tired. Savior's hurt, but he'll outlast Primo easily if this keeps up. Again, Primo grabs the swords and uses them, getting a few more lucky hits in. He is doing a decent job of surviving, but he's slowing down and the amount of power behind his blows is getting weaker...

Finally, he falls to his knees and drops the swords. I immediately start running over there. Savior stands in front of him, and raises his sword.

It's as if time has stopped. What should I do? I can't hit Savior. My attacks aren't strong enough. If I stand in-between him and Primo, I'll just get sliced open, wasting my life. Grey doesn't have enough mana to generate a Mystic Coat for me, and even if he did, there's no point in taking the hit, because I'll still at least get badly hurt, or probably just die, anyway... What should I do!?

Ah, yes. The swords. I'll use them. Seeing one of them nearby, I grab it and continue to run forward. Just as Savior swings down, I slide, getting between the blade and Primo. Replacing the sound of splattering blood and flesh, and the image of both our mangled bodies on the ground, is the sound of clashing swords, and me standing there, having successfully blocked Savior's strike.

“Trace...?” Primo whispers this, probably upset that I didn't run like he said I should.

Yeah... the sword feels familiar. After struggling for a while, I manage to push Savior back. As he stands there, I go and grab one of the other swords scattered about. This is the “I” Sword. While I do this, Savior rushes over and attacks me, but I turn around and parry it with less trouble than I expected. The blades are making me stronger and faster... if I wasn't holding them, that strike would have torn me in half before I'd even noticed him. Seeing how much Primo has weakened him, I know that I can stop the Savior, now.

Earlier, I couldn't keep up with Savior's movements. In fact, it seemed as if he could stand perfectly still one moment, then be somewhere else, like directly behind me, the next. Now, it's as if he's moving in slow motion. Seeing that he's much slower, and I've gotten faster, I swing the “I” Sword at him, hitting Savior in the ribs. He doesn't fall, however, and he starts the motion of a diagonal slash. Before he can finish it, I stab him with “II”. Savior still doesn't stop, and I move just before he finishes the swinging motion. If I moved any later, I would have lost my eye. 

Thinking quickly, I throw both swords at him, which he manages to block, then I run toward the “III” sword. He fires something at me, probably some kind of magic, which I barely manage to dodge. I keep running, grab “III”, and swing it. An arc of light, one shaped like the swing I just did, goes flying in Savior's direction, cutting him in the chest. Somehow, I knew this would happen.

“Hey, Savior.” The wounded angel looks at me, surprised that I even wanted to speak. “Let's not do this.” As I speak, I walk around, looking for “IV”, while at the same time, making sure I keep an eye on Savior. During all this, I wonder where Primo is... He seems to have disappeared.

“Why did you choose to fight me in the first place, Trace Prince?”

"It's obvious, isn't it? I just don't want anymore people to die."

"I know that," he says, growing irritated. "What's the real reason?"

I take a deep breath, and answer: “Because you are propping up a rotting kingdom.”

“That's not true!”

“THE HELL IT ISN'T!” I can't take this garbage anymore. “The reason Shadowhand exists, the reason CORE rose again in the first place was because people predicted things like you! In your effort to protect the weak and innocent, you have become a source of fear and hatred for a different group of people!” How silly. I'm starting to sound like a Corist, myself... “Are you okay with that!? ARE YOU!?”

“I am meant to protect this city! I will do what I must for it!”

After shouting that, Savior charges at me again. “You, and Shadowhand's very existence, are dangerous!” He swings his blade, and I dodge it. “How am I supposed to quiet the fears of the people with criminals running loose?! People like you are what they were afraid of to begin with!” Another beam. I am able to block it.

“It's a cycle, Savior! If you just try to force your will by killing people that you think are bad, that won't stop other people from doing bad things, and it won't save good people from being hurt! All it does is breed the hatred that's right in front of you!” As I say this, I run and grab “I” and “II” from where they had landed.

“What you're saying makes no sense... If I kill all the bad people, only good people will be left! Isn't it obvious!?” Savior swings at me again, and I block it.

“If you really did 'kill all the bad people', almost everyone would be dead.” We both stand there, silent. He looks like he honestly doesn't understand what I'm saying...

“SHUT UP!!!” Suddenly, I'm blown away.

“If that's what needs to happen, so be it! In order to create a peaceful world, I will kill all of you humans if I must!” Looking at Savior, now, I can see that his sanity is slipping... “I don't care if they hate me for it! Who are they to judge!? They, who even God cannot bring Himself to love!” With that, he flies into the sky and begins to glow. I don't know what he's doing, but I'd rather not stand around and find out...

“Trace!” Just as I decide to run towards Savior, Primo throws the other swords to me. Concentrating as much as I can, I grab one out of the air, and fling it at the Savior. I repeat this eleven times, sending them flying into Savior's body.

I hold “XIII” tightly in my hands, then jump towards the light. “Listen, Savior. I don't know much about La Salvato, but I know they believe that the human race is only alive because Salvator convinced God not to destroy us, and that we were worthy of living. They believe it was Salvator who gave us another chance, and it's because of him that God pities us.” As I get closer, I see the surprised look on his face. “You are no Savior... you are just an imitation gone wrong.”

...and I stab.