Headed by a Snake

⟬ In another place, another time... ⟭

Pale swiped his left hand to incinerate an oncoming ⌈Fragmentation Thorn⌋.

Whew. That was too close...

Thankfully, his activated Whitefire Gauntlet could destroy those things completely.

Even a small part of the black projectiles could do some serious damage. A few weeks back, he saw an Iron-Rank Devil get barely grazed by one. They amputated her half her arm at her request, but she still suffered ⌈Mana Drain⌋ until she had nothing left...

Pale couldn't let any of his friends get hit by that.

He glanced back to check on Vanya. Her skin had turned icy blue-- a side-effect from the Spell she was channeling?

Her ⌈Frozen Atmosphere⌋ acted as a buffer against the overwhelming heat and kept them mostly safe from long-distance attacks. It was inevitable that one or two would get through, though-- that's why Pale decided to keep close.

"(Morninglord!)" she cried, "(My powers are waning! I cannot sustain my magics for much longer!)"

"Vanya, you have to try!" Pale yelled back.

The Plane of Fire was pretty hot usually, but a terrible feeling stuck to his skin like boiling oil. Something was supernaturally heating up the area enough to cook a regular person's insides.

If it wasn't for Vanya's quick thinking, they'd have all been turned into crispy-crunchy snacks for the Thorn Elves.

Pale understood the basics of what she was doing. What was normally a mid-scale attack Spell, Vanya modified into a series of independent protective barriers.

But to keep everything working as intended, her brain was doing a million calculations a minute; she was near her breaking point.

Pale had never seen the Frost affect her so strongly.

If they couldn't get the upper hand--

--"(Kill the OUTSIDERSSS!!!)"

--"(The female is the source of the dark magics!!)"

Uh oh. Enemies had climbed up their hill.

Pale activated ⌈Misty Step⌋, bashing the back end of his spear into a Thorn Elf's side. The first collided with the second, allowing him to activate ⌈Spiral Pierce⌋, drilling a ring of mana-empowered spear-strikes into their bodies.

"(Young Master,)" Vanya whispered.

"I'll protect you, Vanya," Pale smiled.

"(I'm...)"

"Yeah?"

"(I'm supposed to be the one protecting YOU!!)"

The frosty blue girl couldn't move her hands, as she had to concentrate channeling power into her defensive Spells. She was, however, able to kick her bare feet at Pale's shins.

Thankfully, Vanya was a pure caster; her reflexes were honestly kind of slow, especially when compared to him and Ree.

Pale danced away, chuckling to himself.

Vanya... Ree... Troia...

He'd protect everyone, somehow.

He had to.

He was a Hero.

The ground started to shake, so Pale stabbed the blunt end of his Lifedrinker Spear into the red rock to keep stable. At the same time, he held onto Vanya's waist to make sure she wouldn't lose her balance.

"(Y-young Master! I can't concentrate in this condition!)"

"You can do this, Vanya," he said confidently. "I believe in you."

"(Be that as it may,)" Vanya tilted her head down, letting her dark blue hair drape over her face, "(the problem lies elsewhere~)"

Just before she did, Pale saw that her cheeks had turned a deep bluish-purple. That wasn't a good sign...

She just had to hold on a bit longer, though. The ground shaking meant that the big bad evil guy was set to arrive!

A bulbous creature began to emerge from a huge crack in the ground.

It had an almost human head and torso, but it was... not pleasant to look at.

Its skin was mostly green, with bits of orange, much like the Thorn Elves that kept trying to sneak up on them.

It might have been human before, as its face had what should have been a huge mustache. However, it had transformed into literally a part of his fleshy face, covered in warts, boils, and black ⌈Fragmentation Thorns⌋.

And the stomach on its torso was extended, so he looked really unhealthy.

If they were friends, Pale would gently suggest that he watch his diet. Maybe they'd go on brisk walks, together?

Oh, and the chimera also walked sideways on giant crab legs. And instead of arms, he had what looked like segmented worms, ending in a fiery, red-hot cone.

Crab-chimera! That thing was definitely the boss!

"The gods favor Xander TAVOR! AhahHAHA!!!!!" it cackled, "Witness the power of my NEW FOORRRRRRM!!"

It even sounded like a villain!

"You look familiaaaaarrrr!!!!" Pale shouted.

"You brats got me THROWN INTO JAIIIILLLLL!!!!" the crab-chimera screamed, "Xander Tavor will NEVER forgive your INSOLENCE!!!"

Tavor? Pale grinned as the memories clicked into place.

It had been years since he and Ree took down Duke Tavor in the city of Merylsward. He didn't recall the exact contents of the mission, but Boss Tycon always had a good reason for doing things.

O' Sol Invictus...

He wondered how Boss Tycon was doing.

"But what did you DOOOOO?!?!?" Pale yelled back.

The localized ice storm barrier he had around him was really noisy.

"Vanya," he said to the side, "we humans make mistakes, sometimes. But if someone has been imprisoned for a crime they did not--"

"(Young master, I think that's the enemy.)"

Pale glanced back to Tavor. It looked like he was about to blast fire beams out of his worm arms.

"Oh. Right."

He took his arm off of Vanya and pointed his hand at the big bad, "⌈Maximus⌋"

Mana surged through Pale's body, swirling about once in his chest before coursing through his extended arm.

A Third-Circle bolt of lightning shot from his palm and upon reaching Tavor, it arced all along his weird crab body.

"BRGRGR hrrHRHR HLRLLR HrrrRRghhhHHHKK!!!"

Pale felt pretty good about hitting the enemy successfully. A few years ago, he was really bad at hitting anything with his Spells-- lightning ones, especially.

Hmm.. He was hoping that hitting a crab monster would actually smell good.

Unfortunately, the lightning-shocked Tavor smelled just like old, burnt oil.

--wait! The smell!!

Tavor was the source of the weird heat!!

Probably!!!!!

"Take this, you freaky SPIDER THING!!!"

Kimura Taree was quick to take advantage of the stunned spider-monster. She sprinted toward it, barreling through the Thorn Elves that tried to get in her way. She even whipped her silver ponytail around, so the adamantine knife tied at the end sliced one of the elves' throats.

Pale was a little worried, but it looked like her Stone Body physique kept her safe from harm.

Ree activated her ⌈Berserker⌋ Skill too, so she swelled up in size from way-shorter than he was to even bigger than Dragan!

It was *really* cool how she could do that.

When she got to Tavor, she started smashing her mega-fists into his crab-leg joints. Spider-legs? Spider-leg joints.

It looked like the chimera was finally ready to use its ⌈Fire Beam⌋, though.

--if it even had ⌈Fire Beam⌋.

Pale was assuming-- but he was pretty sure that kind of chimera would be able to shoot ⌈Fire Beams⌋.

But, then again... it was more important to neutralize the threat than it was to sate his curiosity.

"⌈Maximus⌋"

"BRRA GRHGLLL grrrhhaAAAk ST-T-T-OP D-DOING THATTTT!!!"

❬❰ Trust Your Back To Me, Sister Kimura. ❱❭

The bells ringing in his head were from Troia in her Divine Armor, Dawnbringer. He could understand Celestial-- but she usually didn't speak without Dawnbringer translating.

Depending on the person, it made their eardrums explode.

He'd seen it.

Troia in her mana-constructed armor dashed in front of a worm-arm strike meant for Ree.

When Dawnbringer was at full power, it was almost 60 fulms tall. However, to keep mana-efficient, Troia's armored form was actually a little smaller than Ree in her ⌈Berserker⌋ form.

But that also meant that Troia could use ⌈Divine Barrier⌋ to block the chimera's attacks all sun!

Troia... was probably the most amazing girl he'd ever met.

"I could've taken that, Troia!!" Ree shouted.

❬❰ I Will Allow No Harm to Befall My Hero's Allies. ❱❭

"He's not *your* hero!" Ree countered.

❬❰ The Hero and I Share a Bond That Cannot Be Broken. ❱❭

Pale felt himself sweating profusely-- and not because Vanya's ice field was starting to fail.

The bond that Troia was referring to... it was probably because of *that.*

"Troia!" he shouted, "That-- that was an accident!"

"Get over yourself!" Ree yelled, "I kissed him first!"

Wait, what? When did that happen?

"(Young Master,)" Vanya whispered, just loud enough for Pale to hear, "(You have not informed our allies about the night we shared in my village.)"

Pale felt like his ears were about to melt off of his face.

"V-vanya, I-- I didn't know you could get drunk from eating fruits!"

Vanya swept her dark hair out of her eyes, tucking a lock behind her ear, "(I will forever remember the sweet taste of your kiss, my Hero.)"

"That's what I'm saying," Pale rubbed his face nervously, "I don't-- I don't even remember it. Should... I apologize?"

He felt that maybe he needed to apologize to all three of them? For different things?

"(Worry not, Young Master Pale.)" Vanya gave him a gentle smile, "(Together, let us live a thousand new memories.)"

",