Roughly two weeks had passed since they came to Nara. The sun was settling on the horizon, yet another day was coming to a close. However, Krieg wasn't finished with his training as he kept trying to unleash his true potential as a swordsman.
"Haaaaah!"
Despite his proficiency, he still struggled to master blade energy. Another full swing of his arm and another arming sword snapped under the sheer pressure of the mana imbued into it.
Miyamoto sighed heavily as he approached.
"I don't doubt your skills with the blade." He said as he picked up the metallic piece that was once a sword. "But you are terrible at controlling your mana."
"It's not like I'm trying. I put the absolute minimum I could into this one."
"At this rate we'll run out of swords for you to practice with."
From across the training area, Leona and Setsuna just about wrapped their own session and walked over to the two swordsmen. The shrine maiden let out a quiet whistle as she looked at the snapped blade on Miyamoto's hands.
"Did dragon's aspect do that?"
"No." The swordmaster turned to her with a discontent expression. "It was just raw mana. I told him to practice unleashing blade energy but as you can see it resulted in this."
She extended her hand.
"May I?"
"Go ahead."
He passed the piece of metal to Setsuna—who wasted no time inspecting the blade.
"Hmmmm… interesting…"
Leona curiously leaned her head and looked at the broken sword before asking.
"Did you figure something out?"
"Different materials often have varying degrees of mana conductivity. Generally speaking, metals are somewhat decent at transferring raw mana, but the amount of mana Krieg imbued this blade with far exceeded its capacity, which made the metal snap."
Miyamoto turned at Krieg with a blank stare. The knight raised his hands in his defense.
"I'm telling the truth, I put the absolute minimum I could into it."
The swordmaster sighed.
"I'd rather not ask for Robert's help with this one, but…" He scratched the side of his head before tucking both hands inside his robe's sleeves. "I'm not sure what to do now."
The knight stared at the broken weapon on his hand before turning to his father.
"Didn't my mother use some technique that involved mana reinforcement as well?"
"She always used her fists to fight and besides…" He averted his gaze as if he remembered something unpleasant. "...she never accepted to hold a blade like I did."
"Hmmm…"
Leona kept gazing at the broken blade and her left shoulder throbbed. In that flash of pain she remembered there was a weapon that could handle mana just as well as a dragon.
"What if we use Avalon for this?"
All eyes turned to her. Both Miyamoto and Setsuna had surprised looks on their faces while Krieg himself seemed skeptical as he voiced his concern.
"But that blade belongs to you. It's the last heirloom you inherited from your father…"
"And I don't see the problem in lending it to you. Avalon first and foremost is a weapon—I hardly am fit to wield it as I am now." She smiled bittersweetly. "I'm sure father would insist on you wielding it if it was to protect me."
With quiet resolve, Krieg tightly clenched his fingers around the handle as he nodded once.
"I can assure you. My will to protect you is second to none. No matter the odds I will keep you safe."
Those words made Leona feel warmth in her chest before she slowly turned around.
"I'll go fetch it."
As she left the training area, Krieg kept looking at her back with a sense of nostalgia. That made Setsuna bluntly ask him.
"Do you happen to have feelings for her? Romantic ones."
"It's more like… an older sibling sort of affection." He adjusted the sword he broke on the side alongside plenty of others before stretching out his arms. "I have stood beside her ever since she was little after all."
"Haha, you do sound like you've known her for a very long time."
He nodded with a satisfied expression on his face.
"No matter who it was, she would always go above and beyond to help them if she could. Actually, one of the reasons why I'm still alive was for her passion to save those she could." His hands clenched tightly. "That's why, I must protect her, no matter the cost."
A few minutes passed before Leona came back holding the sheathed frostburnt silver longsword. An eerie light blue glow trailed the hilt as she brought it close to the knight.
He swallowed dry. Despite his earlier conviction, there was a glint of doubt lingering in his mind. Ever since he learned to exert some degree of control over his mana he could feel it more clearly. Not only in himself, but others as well. Though unlike other people—the senses he now possessed was closer that of a dragon's.
He knew exactly how powerful each one of them were—saving for one person. Robert. No matter how many times he sparred against him, the otherworldly sage seemed like an unfathomable existence in his mind. Until he grabbed a hold of Avalon.
The simple act of grasping the blade sent a terrifying chill throughout his arm which spread like a malady throughout his body. Though nothing physically happened to him, it was as if his fingertips—all the way down to the bone—were frozen. The very heat was being taken away from the core of his body.
'You… are not my wielder!' An unrecognizable voice echoed within his mind. Despite not understanding the words of who spoke, he could understand all the meanings behind it. 'You dare to take me away from my Empress?!'
He could feel his quickened heartbeat suddenly slow down as if his muscles were seized in a chilling grasp.
In a snap, he recoiled back. Panting and visibly distraught—Leona put the weapon aside and asked.
"What happened?!"
"I… I don't know…" His left hand instinctively grabbed the clothing over his own chest as he slowed down each breath. The heat was slowly coming back to his freezing core. "I heard a voice…"
Setsuna looked at him until her eyes caught a glimpse of his right hand. The very tip of his fingers were blackened while the rest of his hands had a pale white hue to it.
"Your hand–!"
At first it didn't seem too bad, but when Krieg noticed the color of his limb—a sharp pain shot through his whole arm as he clenched his teeth. Despite being frozen to the core, his arm felt like it was on fire. The scalding frost flames felt like they had consumed his very mana to fuel its own wrath.
The shrine maiden rushedly approached him and extended both her hands. Mana started to gather around her fingers as the light blue hue turned green.
"Heal!" However, despite being quite an adept healer, her magic was not having any effect in the frostbite. In fact, the verdant spell slowly became sickly green before she eventually dispelled its effects. She flicked her head towards Miyamoto as she shouted. "Get my father here! Quickly!"
He nodded and dashed off. Krieg held his right arm with his left as he endured the pain—it felt like the inside of his hand up until the wrist was burning from inside out.
Panic settled as Leona let go of the sword and also extended her right hand out. Unlike Setsuna's spell, her hand was glowing faintly with a golden hue.
"Don't." Suddenly she felt the air beside her become cold as Robert grabbed her wrist. The sage appeared out of thin air just where Miyamoto was a couple seconds before. "What Krieg is experiencing is a dragon's curse."
Hearing him speak so unconcernedly made Leona snap.
"Then do something that will help him!"
"I will. Don't you worry."
He placed his other hand on Krieg's shoulder and in that singular moment the world felt like it was spinning. The space around them warped and in the blink of an eye they were on top of a snowy mountain.
Leona's vision was blurry. She blinked a few times until her brain finally adjusted itself after the sudden teleportation and what she saw could only be described as otherworldly. There was nothing but snow in all directions except a small house in the distance with a large winged creature beside it.
'A… a dragon?!'
As her vision focused she noticed it was an enormous dragon. The afternoon orange sunlight reflected off its platinum scales as it opened both wings out. A violent gale kicked up snow as it turned its head towards them.
Leona's hands trembled. She fought against Akamui, a colossal creature of the depths and yet the fear she felt here was something that shook her from her core. As she locked eyes with the dragon, it emitted a bone chilling roar that took all the strength out of her legs. Her knees buckled as she fell on the snow.
The dragon flapped its wings once and it was enough to propel it right in front of the group. Once it landed, it created a shockwave big enough to send snow flying, but a semi-circle section around Robert seemed unaffected by its movements.
It leaned its slender head covered in platinum thorns towards Robert before unleashing another ear splitting roar.
Leona couldn't even hear or see as her ears ringed from the earlier roar and fear kept her head hanging low near the snow.
The sage poked inside his own ears before shouting back.
"Have you forgotten manners already?!" In response, a low intimidating growl echoed from within the dragon's large throat. "You know! I wasn't expecting your young sister to be so vengeful!"
Its aquamarine pupils tightened as he mentioned that name. It reared its head back as flames started to pour out of its mouth full of sharp teeth.
Leona managed to look up one last time and as she locked eyes with the dragon preparing to fire a full breath attack—she passed out on the spot.
The dragon flinched and the flames pouring out of its mouth—faded. Robert looked to the side and noticed the tactician's face planted against the snow.
"Oh… right… this is the first time she's ever seen a dragon up close." He started to scratch the side of his head. "I should have seen this coming…" He then looked up at the dragon—who seemed troubled. "I want you to dispel a curse. But before that, could you do something about your appearance?!"
Despite the visible annoyance in its metallic brows, the dragon lowered its head and suddenly started to glow bright blue.
Krieg, who was still hanging on the brink of consciousness, saw the enormous platinum dragon transform itself into a humanoid shape.
She was a towering woman, her platinum hair cascaded down on each side of her face, framing her slender face as the back of her hair seemed like a cape that curled at the end around knee height. Alongside the serious expression, a pair of sharp deep aquamarine eyes stared intently at Robert.
Her entire body was clad in a set of platinum armor fit of a royal knight—the gleaming steel felt alive as a giant pair of metallic wings sprouted from her back with the resounding noise of cracking bones as if she was simply stretching her limbs.
"That's much better." Robert smirked. "You know, it wouldn't be so bad to have you in the city if you were like this." However, seeing how she was simply giving him the cold shoulder he raised both his hands and sighed. "There, behind me. Your nephew. You might want to lift that curse off him."
She didn't reply. Instead she brushed him out of her way and stepped closer to Krieg. When he noticed her platinum boots in front of him, he made an effort to look up, but all he could see was around her waist level as the woman in front of him was simply too tall. Not only that, but her mere presence was overwhelming to his senses as the mana that exuded from her felt like a constant stream of magic power that was nigh bottomless. Whereas Robert's felt like staring at the abyss, hers felt like the whole world was on his shoulders.
"I…"
"Shhh…" She gently hushed him as she kneeled. Even with one of her knees on the snow, she was still almost his size when standing. "I'll take care of it."
She carefully cradled him in her arms like a mother would a baby. Despite the frigid cold of the mountain top, her metallic arms felt akin to a warm embrace. Even the pain throughout his arm felt like it was fading. Alongside that warmth, he started to feel tired until his eyelids became heavier and heavier.
"Don't worry…" Her strong voice was laced with the softness and understanding of a mother as her left wing covered him around her arm. "You can rest now, noble knight."
The unusually comfortable and healing effects of her scales made his eyelids finally give in as he slumbered in her arm.
Robert whistled as he nodded to himself.
"No wonder you took up your sister's mantle." He looked at her as she finally stood up and walked towards Leona. "That's–"
"I know." She replied with a stern voice as she cut him mid-sentence. "Thanks to you, now I have to deal with these… unnecessary feelings inside my chest."
He lifted both his shoulders and smirked.
"You're welcome."
She returned a piercing death glare as she picked up Leona from the snow and also used her right wing to cover her from the cold. The towering woman then slowly made her way to the house.
Robert in the meantime turned around and looked up to the orange tinted sky with a smile on his face.
"Your daughter is doing well, old friend."