It feels like I've been bouncing around a lot in a very short time.
That is, of course, because I have been!
In a flash of light, I'm back in the Norse Realms, and right back in my inn room, letting out a soft sigh as soon as the light clears.
My mother took everything well, or, well enough anyway. Good thing too, as I couldn't stay, as I still have work left here after all - that's why I'm back.
"Hasn't even been a day yet…" I utter, the words trailing off as I turn toward the door-
Which promptly bursts open, revealing Rose, her long silver hair frazzled, uniform slightly unkempt, her teeth tensely gritted, and eyes more than a little wild.
I stop, take pretty much only her appearance in full, before all of a sudden she's latched onto me, fisting my collar with both hands. I offer no resistance, almost limply flailing back and forth as Rose practically starts shaking me.
"What. Is. Going. On. Noriaki!?" She punctuates each enthusiastic shake with a word, and I merely lean into the motions, enjoying the ride with a smile on my face.
Following a short spurt of sounds that are likely attempts to convey emotions in verbal form, she slowly eases the shaking and lets out an almost strangled sigh.
"I'm sorry…" She heaves, pressing her forehead against my chest, "It's just, the message, then you've been moving around, and your clones, I kept running into them-" she pauses her babbling and glares at me, "you're the real one, right!?"
I hold up my hands quickly. "Yes, yes, I am Rose, sheesh!"
"S-Sorry!" She slams her head into my chest again, causing me to groan in faux pain. "Right…just, what, the hell, is going on?"
I let out an exhausted huff as I wrap my arms around her. For a second, I let my body sink against the softness of hers, her chest, my fingers against her curves. I feel her wriggle in my arms, and I feel her face heat up against me.
"N-Noriaki…!" She sheepishly exclaims, and I resist the urge to kiss her right then and there.
It'd be so easy to just tear off her sexy little suit and take her right now, just let off a bit of steam…
But I know, rather than get anything done, I'll just stay with her instead. Make up for when she had to evacuate the sauna.
Now is unfortunately not the time for that. No matter how much mind and body would vastly prefer that over retreading the same conversation for what already feels like the umteenth time.
Instead, I sigh and bury my face against her neck for a second, nuzzling against her and drawing a cute little squeak from her throat before I pull away, taking what little recharge I could get from this to give her a small smile.
"Well," I begin, "it's exactly as I said on the phone, isn't it? He did die, and now He's back, and He wants to kill everyone. Fun times, right?" I simplify, my smile not faltering for a second.
Rose stares up at me with the blankest, most neutral expression I think I've ever seen her have.
After a beat, she replies with a simple, "Elaborate. Please."
Me. Damnit.
Right then, I'll make this quick, then I need to take a trip to wherever Freya has Regin holed up.
After all, there's still that case left to wrap up, and I'd like to not end this whole thing on a bittersweet note for the other girls.
~ A New Sun ~
If I had known she was here, I would've handled what I'm about to do right after Charla.
I click my tongue in annoyance as I walk down the halls of Vanadis Academy, this time toward their infirmary.
It's even more infuriating, because I had to leave Rose in the state she was in to come all the way back here.
Oh, Rose isn't in a bad state, no, nothing of the sort.
Well, unless you consider obsessively planning a bad state for her to be in. Which for her health? Probably, yeah.
The girl heard what we were up against, and I guess what she learned as Odin's guard going around to different supernatural factions across the world kicked in, because her mind immediately went to alliances, as I did.
But, unlike me, she actually has ideas about who to approach first, who we should avoid for now, and so on.
So, yeah, that's the state I left her in. I'll probably have at least forty essays about these topics by the time I get back, fit with a citation ledger, probabilities, action plans, and so on.
I love the girl, but damn, she really does jump straight to overworking herself, huh?
Same, but I complain far more, hah.
Anyhow, shame on me for not checking Vanadis before I left, but I think I can be excused for that, considering the contents of what I learned that even prevented the thought of doing so in the first place.
Double shame on me, because I had three big signs pointing me towards her being here.
The halls of the Vanadis Academy infirmary are like a more sterile, quieter version of the rest of the academy's halls, with the bustle of Valkyries around these parts carrying a far more somber rush.
As nobody was lost during the attack, everyone here? They're here purely to keep an eye on the one flickering power settled in a room down here.
Of course, as I said, her sign isn't the only one here, as two other, much larger powers sit around hers, not so settled in.
I almost roll my eyes as I approach their door. I mean, I get it, but come on? It feels like I just healed them, yet they ran straight into a hospital room anyway.
I slowly, and thus quietly, push open the door and peer inside.
Schwe was passed out in her Valkyrie uniform, on the right side of the bed, while Zekka sat on the left, her head propped up by her arm, snoring softly.
Yet, despite both girls being out, the soft click of the door closing behind me, barely audible, prompted both girls to twitch. Zekka's free hand moved slightly as though gripping a hilt, while Schwe's hands almost held out, as though she was going to cast a spell or two.
I chuckle softly, despite myself. These two, maybe I should've gone full stealth? Leave the girls to the rest? After everything, I guess they would still be worrying, especially about the one in the bed, huh?
It takes barely a few steps before my stride takes me to the side of the bed, and, unlike the two around her, Regin is still awake. Her pink eyes are still open, albeit half-lidded. Half of her face is hidden under her clothes and blankets, so I can't see what sort of expression she's making.
All I can see is her eyes as they lazily move toward me.
Though, now that I'm this close, I can actually see that her silver hair has these pale pink highlights, and they sort of remind me of the blue highlights Schwe has in her hair.
Honestly, considering how weak her aura feels, how completely and utterly dried out it is, I thought she, of all people, would be asleep right now.
"Heya." I nod at her, voice soft, so as not to stir Zekka and Schwe.
Silence. She simply stares at me.
I open my mouth to speak again, thinking maybe I was too quiet, but after a moment she responds by simply nodding her head in my direction.
Well, okay then?
That was a fairly weak nod, though. Can she even talk right now? She looks…even more sick than I remember her looking before. Her eyes move away from me and seem to focus on something across the room, pointedly, with a hint of desperation.
I blink and turn my head to track her gaze, only to find a…
I stare, blankly, as I see a bag of 'Natural Icebreaker Rock Salt' the size of my torso, leaning against the wall, with the tagline, 'Not even Niflheim's ice will survive!'
The front also features a picture of Odin, with an exaggerated and goofy smile, pouring a mug full of what I presume is the salt onto a very vibrant chunk of ice, giving a thumbs-up with his other hand.
Well. I guess I learned how Odin funds his trips, huh?
I could've died without learning this information.
I turn my head back to Regin, and find the girl's stare has grown increasingly pleading. Oh yeah, Freya mentioned she needs to eat salt to live, something about being a side effect of her Sacred Gear, yeah?
Well. I'm not shoveling that shit into a little girl's mouth. Anything that has Odin on it can't be worth a damn.
I shake my head as I walk right up to the bed. "Yeah, no, sorry…I'm not touching anything that has that old lout on it."
Regin's eyes abruptly snap toward me, and she slowly starts lifting her head, as though trying to speak. She doesn't get to choke out any words, however, as I place my hand on her head.
She's cold. Not deathly so, but enough to be incredibly worrying all by itself.
"What I'm about to do will be a bit better than stuffing ya with salt, okay?" I wink down at her as the poor girl's body stiffens up, before promptly falling limp as her strength simply fails to manifest, and all she can end up doing is stare at me with slightly wider eyes.
Now, to be fair, I've never done this before.
On the other hand, Charla somehow thought some random dragon I've never even heard of before, one called the Slavery Dragon, could.
So if this random shitty-ass dragon can manage to awaken some Sacred Gear that's currently locked away, surely I could too, right? Besides, I have at least some experience digging around in people's souls. I'll manage.
And even if I don't, well, there's still a bag of salt behind me, and I know where the Grail is, in case I need to give the girl a one-up.
Honestly, the only thing giving me pause about awakening her gear is that it's sort of playing into what Charla wanted, right? The offer she extended to this girl, the plan I learned about.
The only way to save Regin is to awaken her gear, fully. Otherwise, her body will succumb.
And that's simply not acceptable. I'm not going to allow Schwe's friend to die just because her Ancient Sacred Gear passing on would be advantageous to us right now.
That's pussy talk. That's not winning in the way that matters.
"Everybody is going to be happy." I utter, quietly, yet enough for Regin to hear as she perks up, "Or else, really, what's the point in fighting?"
She looks briefly bewildered, only for her eyes to grow completely shocked as my eyes activate.
From my hand, a golden glow hums into existence. I don't smash my power against hers, as she can't even really move it herself, so instead, I brush against it.
I could hear it. Like water boiling out, drying up, the hiss of heat, and then nothing.
I blink, and I'm completely elsewhere.
Salt. Salt, everywhere. It's an ocean - no, desert would be a more apt term - a desert of salt spreading as far as my eyes could see, and even beyond that.
The salt doesn't move. It sits there, unmoving, like a pile of dust unbothered. The air feels stale and dry. I lick my lips and wince, reaching up with my thumb to find my lip had cracked, and a single drop of blood was drawn before immediately healing over.
I look around, but in every direction I gaze, there's absolutely nothing of note. Just salt. Even the sky looks dried out, if that makes any sense, as though the salt sucked all the color out of it, too.
Even now, I can feel it attempting to dry me out as well, just as it did to the air, the sky, everything inside this poor girl.
This is what it looks like unawakened, too, huh?
Well, I know what they say and all. Keep it simple, stupid. You want to wake something up? What's the best way? Give it a shake, and make a whole bunch of noise!
I hold my hand out, a golden orb of my power bursting into existence.
Almost immediately, I could feel the dryness attempt to smother my power, to dilute and reduce it.
The orb crackles and pops instead, growing half again larger, then twice over, three times, and I'm forced to raise it over my head as it quickly grows a few times my size, almost immediately.
Beneath me, salt began to toss and bellow, rolling like dunes of sand by the pressure my power creates, stirring them into motion at last.
And as the golden sphere above my head grows bigger and bigger, each pop of growth thundering across the salty desert, the dunes only further shift and waft.
I breathe, resisting the urge to cough and hack as sheer dryness attempts to suck the air from my lungs, even as this pure salty aftertaste coats my tongue and fills my nose.
A golden sphere, packed with my divine power, following only my divine will, beats like a drum and shines like a newborn star above the salt desert.
I look up and see the sphere large enough to contend with the icebergs Dulio was throwing at me.
Yeah, this should be enough. Now, what would the name of the spirit in this gear most likely be?
Uh. This gear comes from that one story about the salt pillar. I can't remember the names, but from Charla, I got the name of the gear itself. It'll have to do, I guess?
"HEY!" I call out, pushing my voice past the sheer hoarseness the dry air inflicts upon me, even if it makes me sound like a chain smoker, "[VIOLATION LOT]! WAKE THE FUCK UP!"
Without further ado, I swing my arm down, pitching the golden sphere straight down into the salt desert. I ignore the taste of copper swelling in the back of my mouth as the golden sphere detonates against the salt, and immediately, the whole desert shakes.
The salt jumps in shockwaves from the point of my power's impact, bouncing up and shooting off in all directions, as if a meteor struck it. Ripples of salt waves tear across the landscape, and from the point of impact, quickly following behind them, were cracks.
Great golden cracks rapidly spread across the salt land as though spreading across a shell. Directly in the center of the strike zone, a great pillar of golden light and salt had shot straight up into the sky, bleaching the sky with a golden and almost chalky shimmer.
All around, there was a sound like a roar, which quickly seemed to change into the sound of a…scream?
A woman's scream.
I felt it, then. A change in the air, even though the taste on my tongue didn't change and the dryness never subsided, yet I felt it all shift.
As though something had broken free.
The salty ground abruptly burst beneath me and swiftly rushed up to meet me, and all I did was cackle, sputtering blood from my mouth as my vision went white.
Then black, as I blinked, and I was back in the infirmary. Then I blinked again, as I realized I couldn't move, and was neck-deep, buried in something.
A good few feet away from the bed now, I look over and see Regin sitting up, layers of salt coiling around her outstretched hand and forearms, a completely dumbfounded look on her face.
With shaky limbs, she looks down at her arms and hands, seeing the salt flowing almost like water around her.
Then she looks back at me, and then something…past me?
She looks back at me briefly, only to stick her tongue out, before quickly turning her gaze back and throwing her arms out that way.
I feel my expression slowly morph into a pure and utter blank deadpan as a small stream of salt seems to fly across the room and straight into her mouth, much to her audible pleasure, the half-dead pale pinky literally letting out stifled moans as she shovels salt into her mouth.
"H-Hnnn…?" "Uggh…"
This, it seems, is enough to stir Zekka and Schwe awake.
"E-Eh!? Regin-chan!?" "Weh!? R-REGIN!?"
Although what truly seems to shock them completely into wakefulness is the scene of their friend, quite literally, gorging herself on salt.
Likely the fast food equivalent of salt.
As the two get up and begin ineffectually attempting to stop the tide of salt from going down the poor girl's throat, I realize I probably could break out of my likely salty prison.
Wouldn't even be hard.
Instead, I take a moment and smile, even if no one else can see it. It's a good idea, from time to time, just to remind myself…
This is the kind of stuff I'm going to be fighting for.