The Novel's Sidekick

The snowstorm that calmed down before, followed with heavy showers of snow and wind with the grief of the Winterheart Reindeer. Mad winds swirled from all directions, twisting and turning all around, making the situation utterly chaotic.

With Lord Penron drawing the beast's attention from other things, we managed to rush away from there, however, we were not nearly safe.

"We need to get away from here," I said, hiding against the prominent ridge with the other two. Yeriel was still unconscious, while my aunt was looking out at the chaos on the other side.

This little task, which was about searching for the warlock's trail, turned so big that a small elite squad of knights and a grand magus might not be enough.

"What about them?" she said. "They can't hold on for much longer."

I became silent. Even if we were in our top condition, the best thing we could do against a saint beast was not enrage it, but since that already happened, it would be best to flee exchanging no more blows, which would aggravate it more.

No joke, even a Grand Magus would be helpless against a saint beast in a one-on-one fight, not to mention there was no Grand Magus among us, and this was an enraged one.

Well, Winterheart Reindeer was never known for its savagery. It's a symbol of purity and good. We can only hope that it deals with its grief and calms down.

"Can you even fight?" I broke the silence.

"We can't leave them like this," Shailyn muttered, sighing, "but we have nothing that could help. The best thing we can do is reach out to Noyar and Jon. Perhaps they can help in the rescue."

"Alright, let's do that," I said and looked towards Yeriel. As soon as they got out of this chaos, the better it will be for her and everyone else. "How far is that from here?"

Shailyn bit her lips again. "It would take more than a couple of hours if we had to go on foot," she said, shaking her head, "and then there is this blizzard."

Two hours? I don't think Lord Penron could keep up more than a quarter of an hour, not to mention he has a burden on him already.

"If only your suit was alright," Shailyn sighed.

"The suit is alright, well, not in proper condition, but it can work, however, I don't have," I paused as my eyes were drawn towards the fiery red lamp at hand's distance, ". . . fuel."

I grabbed the heater-cum-lamp as a frown appeared on my brows. "Is there a firestone inside it?" I couldn't help but ask.

Shailyn nodded. "I found it near the Altar," she said and found me turning off the device and then breaking it. "Oscar, what are you intending?"

I broke the outer layer of the device as the inner layer appeared inscribed with some runic patterns. I went forward on breaking them too, until a few pieces of crimson stone appeared in my view. As I pulled them away from the broken device, they stop radiating heat and light. From fiery red, it turned into a scarlet, black crystal.

"You know fire stones are just another variant of spirit stone?" I said. "This could power the suit if I try."

"Are you kidding?" Shailyn yelled. "This could blast off the suit with you in it. You know how dangerous that is?"

"It's dangerous," I admitted, "but not nearly as much as you're making it out to be. The most dangerous thing would be the heat melting the fabrics inside the suit, but I can protect that with my spirit force."

I hope I was right. Well, there's a faint chance of it blasting off, but I can minimise that, using less of the power, as if that was even possible.

"I need to crush them without igniting the fire spirit inside them," I said, "but I can't do it."

Ignoring Purgatory my spirit energy might have some unknown effect that I would not like to see. It was a risky thing to do without a crusher. Well, if it was any normal spirit stone it would've been alright, but Firestones are highly unstable, and without some particular arrangement, they could blast off right at our face. Well, the amount we have wouldn't be enough to kill if we don't stay in close proximity, but still . . .

"I can do it," Shailyn said and stopped as if regretting the moment the words came out of her mouth.

I handed her the pieces of firestone and started undoing my cloak. "Do it," I said as my eyes darted towards the saint beast. "Even if I can't use it, it will be useful later."

Taking off the cloak, I covered Yeriel with it. It was a lot larger for her, reaching her toe, but I don't think she would complain. I wish she would complain now.

The knights were flying away from Winterheart Reindeer, though that was a pretty hard task with the snowstorm pulsing with the cries of the saint beast. The rogue knight was nowhere to be seen now—should be still unconscious or half-dead where we left him, while Lord Penron was trying to pull the beast elsewhere from where we were.

I turned my attention to Shailyn. She had the firestones on her palm. They shook as a couple of them hovered in the air. They lit up a little less than how they were in the device, however, they started radiating heat. Instead of turning into small bits, one of them started to melt.

Shailyn stopped. She tried again, but this time not so slowly. Bits of fire flakes spread around the air as red sand dust fell on her palm before turning into a metallic black colour.

"It needs more physical distortion," Shailyn said as she collected the dust, which was more explosive than gunpowder.

"Leave a couple of pieces intact," I told her. They could be useful in what firestone was best at.

There were about twenty grams of dust in her palm. With her control over the spiritual energy, almost none of the dust was wasted.

"Are you sure about this?" she asked.

"Yes," I said. It was not like anyone hadn't tried it before. Okay, let's think about this as a fun experiment. Yes, that's right, fun experiment, except that there's a saint spirit beast at the level of demi-god rampaging a few hundred metres away.

"Scar?" Shailyn called, finding me lost in thought.

"Ah, yes," I said and turned, showing her the tank on my back. "Fill everything in there. No, wait doesn't fill everything, just one third would do for now."

"I don't like doing this," Shailyn muttered, but she did follow through with it.

"Trust me, it won't blow up," I said, "and even if it does, I will be alright."

"How can you be so sure?"

Well, cause, I have a high tolerance to any fire on courtesy of purgatory. However, a blast was another thing. I'll have my best defence ready. Let's just get it over with and hope it doesn't blast.

"I'll take one of these," I said and took one of the two intact fire stones. "You keep the other to yourself, just in case."

I then drew some space between us. Well, about a dozen paces, just to be safe. Igniting the fabrics inside the suit, I called for a small amount of the firestone, however, there was nothing little on what happened next.

. . .