Danmachi: Westward Cloud [Complete]

[Vol.3] Quest 261- Knossos, Part 5- Nowhere Left

Back with the Xeno.

“Huff! huff!”

“Cough!! Cough! You… you certainly are a damn monster.” Said Dix as he lies on the floor bleeding out with several punctures and broken bones.

“I do not want to hear that from you, a man obsessed with violence.” Kalion sharply turns his head to swing the blood off his horns. “But at this moment, we were both monsters.” He clopped next to him.

“Well… at least I don’t have to follow his curse anymore.” A big smile grew on his face. “Come!!! Kill the one who took several of your people!!!”

“My pleasure.” A burst of fire spewed from his mouth and when his mouth opened, a stream of fire incinerated Dix.

Bwoosh!!!

‘Ah… peace…’

“…” Kalion watched as he slowly turned to ash. He felt a bit of him feel better, but there was still more work to be done.

“Kalion, we should get going.” Said Ray.

“Yes, we must help. Everyone activate your magic tools.”

They all press a magic tool in the shape of a necklace and a bright red scarf flowed out with the Artemis Familia Emblem on it.

“It’s a good thing we have these!” said Lyd. “There sure are a lot of powerful people here!”

“Especially Fels’ son’s wife.” Said Gros. “I could feel my magic stone shake at the thought of fighting her.”

“Let’s get moving. Lady Ai isn’t one to lose without a fight.” Said Kalion.

Back to Ai, Asfi, and Ryuu’s fight.

Boom!!! Boom!!!

Boom!!!

Boom!!

Boom!!! Boom!!!

It was like a modern-day battlefield with explosions everywhere.

‘This is insane!’ thought Asfi as her brain is working overtime surviving this battlefield.

“Watch out!!”

“!!”

Ai jumped in and got Asfi out of the way as spikes of the earth grew from the floor.

“Keep your head straight, Asfi! This isn’t the time to lose yourself in thoughts!!”

“S-sorry!!” she took out some more grenades and threw them along with some needles, causing the grenades to change directions.

Boom!!

Boom!!! Boom!!!

Boom!

“Grrr!! Annoying tools.” Neze said, blocking it with her earth.

Asfi's explosion's limited what Neze could make with her magic.

“Then give up the body!!” Shouted Ryuu.

“Sorry, elf, but I can’t. (Terrain Shift) [An Ki].”

Clang!!!!!!!!

A spear of earth barely blocked Ryuu’s strike.

“Tch!!”

Neze proved to be stronger than they thought.

“(Terrain Shift) [An Ki].”

Neze was launched by the earth as Ai’s slash cut through the earth like butter and another wall of earth covers her.

“You fox,” Neze said, landing back on the ground. “Why are you holding back?”

“…”

Ai remained silent as she quickly moved.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

“These explosions have gotten annoying. (Terrain Shift) [An Ki].”

Several spikes emerged from the ground, making the room into a massive spike trap.

Ryuu, Ai, and Asfi easily evaded it by jumping up and jumping from spike to spike, while Ai cut them to make flat surfaces.

“You say I’m going easy on you, but I can say the same for you!!!” Ai shouted as she went around making more flat surfaces.

“That is because there is the human who slew Xuanlong, we had to give up on plans for unsealing monsters for how badly we underestimated Nox’s power, but we won’t have to know or fear it by sticking to the Knossos and the dungeon!” Neze said strained.

“How generous of you! If only you just give us the body!!” Ai shouted as she came at her once more.

Back to Lefiya and Cirrus’s fight.

“Fuuu~” Cirrus let out a long breath. “This has gone long enough, Lefiya.” Cirrus reaches into his sleeves and pulls out a pair of handcuffs with a magic stone embedded in them. “Put these on Filvis.”

“So you're finally going to show your fangs, Cirrus?” Arbuda said as the cold then concentrated around her. “No more playing around?”

“I guess so. We already took control of the Knossos now we have to clean house, Circe!! It’s time!!”

Circe flies over and lands on top of him.

‘C-Cirrus, are you going to do what you did last—'

“Just watch and see!” his magic circle appeared behind him. “(Exousía, Adorn)!!”

‘!!’

Compared to Nox, Cirrus didn’t have his veins light up on fire, but he felt better than normal, powerful like something that was limiting was broken.

‘This!!!! This feeling!!!! Ahhhh~ THIS IS WHAT YOU MEANT NOX!!! TRUE UNITY!!!’ Circe shouted in utter fulfillment as she turns into smoke and changes Cirrus’s white and gold magic circle into that of the falling sun over the horizon.

“(Synafxáno: Circe)!!!”

A beautiful plume of dusk-like smoke covers Cirrus.

Tap!

Tap!

Cirrus walks out of the smoke dressed in very stark contrast to Nox’s as hers was deprived of any color and was like a bright star in the empty darkness. Circe was one of her own color, one of radiance and beauty of the sun returning over the horizon.

With each step, the smoke dissipates to this knight in light armor. He had a twin-tailed cape in the pattern of feathers. His hair was like the soft glow of Circe’s, as were his eyes. Cirrus was dyed in her colors of twilight.

“…” Lefiya, Arbuda, and Filvis look in awe at this living crystallization of the boundary of night and day.

“… So this is what Wu said when she said you and Nox became one,” Arbuda said with sweat for the first time on her brow.

‘This!! This is unnatural!!!’ Filvis thought as she put on a poker face. ‘I can feel the magic in the air converge on him. He is impossible! It was the height of stupidity to think we can even try to kill him!’

Filvis started to really shake in fear.

“I call this [Spirit Drive].” Cirrus moved his hands and spear about. “Seems her attributes are enough for me to handle… (Damocles).”

His magic circle appeared with a twilight color to it. His spear then spun intensely.

“Seems my magic output has increased as well…” Cirrus glanced at Arbuda. “Well, it’s unfortunate you had to crawl out of your hole, Spirit, as a consolation prize. If you lay down your spear, I will send you right to heaven’s front door.”

‘His personality shifted a bit?’ thought Lefiya.

“U-um sir… y-you seem more… malicious o-or um… calculative?” Lefiya spoke up a bit.

Cirrus glanced at her, and a chill ran down her spine.

“… Hmm seems so I kinda feel like experimenting with her a bit more. Good eyes Lefiya, that is good to know.” He grabs his spear, which was still spinning, and a strong gust of wind blows past them. “So… what do you say? Die here or die under the sun?”

“… I will die with honor.” Arbuda readies her spear, the cold then concentrates on her.

“So be it, Filvis. Should you run before I make my offer to you, I will cut off your tendons and impale you with my spear. Understand?”

Filvis nods her head.

“Good. Now come at me Arbuda, the Great Spirit of Ice.” Cirrus didn’t even bother getting into a stance. His calm tone told enough.

“(Frost of samsara, turn the earth back into laminating white- Hahava)!! [Naraka]!!!”

An ice-blue magic circle appeared under her and the skin and even the surrounding air dropped considerably. The paleness of her skin turned as blue as the waters of the artic as did the rest of her body.

“This is my strongest form now for the last piece.” Her voice was as cold as her appearance and area. “(Frost of samsara, turn the earth back into laminating white- Padma).”

Cirrus could feel a conflux of coldness radiating from her and her spear. Frost quickly covered her like blanket of snow.

“Such frost… (Sword of Damocles).”

Soft-colored lighting danced around Spekð, a rather jarring contrast of beauty and danger, but compared to the frigidness of the cold, it was more than welcomed.

“When I fall my fellow Spirits will avenge me and fulfill her goal!!!” Arbuda shouted

“And I will be there to kick them down whatever horror lays in the depths of the Dungeon.”

“… Well, you’re not wrong. [Naraka].”

Arbuda tenses her body and with all of her strength launches her spear at Cirrus, the spear left a trail of white behind it as it cut through the air.

Cirrus then twisted his body and threw his spear and the crack of thunder boomed both from the thunder and the force at which Cirrus threw.

CRACK!!!!!

It wasn’t even a clash; it was as if he just threw his spear at a half-melted block of ice, for that is how it looked when he struck Arbuda.

“Ah…” Arbuda looks to see a chunk of her ripped out. “My… core…”

For monsters, they have a core, their Magic Stone. For beings like Olivas and Filvis who were Creatures, they also have a Magic Stone, but for Corrupted Spirits like Revis, Thetis, Neze, and Arbuda their Magic Stone are more unique. The Core was a roughly spherical shape with flat edges, like a gem fresh out from the mines.

“A-Arbuda…” Filvis said as she saw her slowly wobble towards Cirrus.

“Ci… rri… us.”

Cirrus walks towards Arbuda with the bones in his hand popping. Ready to rip her core out.

“Be quiet.” He said as he dug his fingers into her chest, grabbing her icy-blue core.

“Ah~" Arbuda releases a short cool breath. “You… are… a… magnificent hero.”

“Hm.”

Rip!!!

With a single movement, he ripped it out of her.

She grasps Cirrus’s clothes, and she softly whispers.

“I… Curse you. You will die… with only the… cold to embrace you… Hero.”

“Nice words.”

“Heh,” Arbuda smirks as her body breaks down. She releases her hold on Cirrus and, as she is going to shatter on the ground, she mutters with the very last of her strength. “Spirit Neze.”

“…” Cirrus’s widen.

Shatter!!!

The room goes dead quiet.

A moment passed, and Cirrus needed solid proof. If Arbuda knew that name then it was mandatory he look into it.

“H-hiiiiiiiiiiii!!!” Filvis falls back in fear as she gazed at Cirrus’s eyes.

“Ahh~” Cirrus took a deep breath as his eyes swirled with anger. "Look at that." he said softly.

Cirrus reeled it back as much as he could. Even with equipping Circe his anger still slipped through in his eyes.

Lefiya couldn’t hear the last whispers of the ice spirit, but as she said those words. She could feel the air around Cirrus grow unbearably thick, thick enough to taste.

She looks to see Filvis shaking in utter fear. For the first time, she has seen such a look of terror. Lefiya could only assume it was the dark expression Cirrus was wearing.

“Filvis.”

His voice was heavy and cold. This was the most serious she had ever heard him speak. His voice sounded completely foreign as he was holding back an ocean's worth of emotions.

“Y-y-yes!” Filvis stammered out, clenching her fists to bear the tension.

“Is what she said true?”

He turned his head, and Lefiya could see the abyss in his eyes, it reminded her of the feeling she had when she fell down the holes of the 52nd floor and into the Dragon’s Urn, terror.

Filvis nods her head and falls to her knees to offer her head in forgiveness.

“… Lefiya will bind you, escaping is no longer within your options. Your god has been captured and is currently in custody. Do you understand?”

She nods again.

“Then I will take my leave.”

He walks over Arbuda’s body, he avoids crushing the ice, Cirrus at least gave her that small amount of respect. He disappears into the darkness of the Knossos. Leaving only a presence of fury behind to track him.

Lefiya quickly rushed to Filvis as the tension slowly lifted. It let Lefiya rush to Filvis.

“F-Filvis!!!” She comes to her side.

“L-Lefiya… I am sorry… I’m sorry I betrayed you… you have shown me kindness no one but Lord Dionysus had.”

“Filvis, what did she say? Why could make him so serious?”

Lefiya wanted to know what in the world could have set Cirrus this far off when he brushed off Beta’s taunts and Ottar’s attacks.

“…Neze.”

“N-Neze? Who is that?”

The look of horror in her eyes made it look as if her heart just dropped to the bottom of the cold sea.

“Neze… was an adventurer… who died… 5 years ago… she was part of the Astraea Familia… his Familia. She… Along with the rest of the Astraea Familia, aside from the Gale and Cirrus, are dead.”

“!!”

Lefiya could feel her heart drop as well.

She has heard from Finn and the other senior members of the Familia of the Gale’s Rampage and what caused it and how lucky they were when the Gale finished it before it could reach her last Familia’s ears. She ask herself why? Shouldn't they know what happened those they fought and journeyed together? And now she knew the answer. She met and saw Cirrus.

Masked Prince, Blood of the Empress, The Man Who Pierced The Moon, The Red Tower, The Uncrowned Emperor. These were the names she heard when studied aboard on one of the worlds powers, School District. Tales of this adventurer's feats amazed the students to no end, causing them to work harder to join his Familia, to meet him in person, to fight by his side or even just to watch his back, it was worth the world to be part of his story. That was who the world saw, a final gift from Hera that emboldens generations of people, even Lefiya herself at 8 years of age saw that moment where his name of Masked Prince became a household name.

And he was holding back a wrath that could engulf world to quench his fury, this was the Uncrowned Emperor, Cirrus Zephyr.

“S-s-such depth… I could see my death in his eyes. They have stepped on something no one should not even the whole of Orario should… the ire of the Uncrowned…. death.” Filvis spoke in both reverence and fear.