‘93 REMAINING’

  “Sanctity! Haven! Hold the front and advance!”

  “Apotheosis, on the flanks! Dominion, covering fire!”

  ‘81 REMAINING’

  “Team 21, reporting in! Strike successful!”

  ‘75 REMAINING’

  Things started to turn around rather quickly after Hayate made his speech.

  Emboldened by his speech, the students charged into the wave of constructs and slowly took back full control of the plaza we were tucked into.

  They didn’t charge alongside their friends, for the most part, rather choosing to just march alongside those who swore themselves to the same Order, charging as one entire collective akin to the ancient Knights Templar as opposed to the thirty-one separate squads of Nindo.

  Of course, every now and then, a few of the more specialised teams like Strahl’s strike squad would capitalise on an opportunity if they found one amidst the chaos.

  We started to make such rapid progress it was hard for us healers to even keep up.

  I jogged through the damaged streets, hopping over bits of debris and ducking underneath stray projectiles that were flung across the battlefield.

  I caught sight of an injured boy leaning against one of the walls and quickly tapped him with my staff to heal him back up before quickly moving on.

  Far off in the distance, where I remembered the Market Quarter being, I saw a tornado spiral and howl.

  Well, at least Setsuna was having fun.

  A cathedral a fair distance away toppled over, exposing a bright light that extended all the way to the ceiling, before it was quickly extinguished by a pillar of ice.

  ‘71 REMAINING’

  If I remembered correctly, the cathedral would have sat right next to an open park space, which surely meant there would be another cluster of beacons nearby.

  And sure enough, the counter rapidly ticked down.

  ‘67 REMAINING’

  I grimaced.

  I really needed to hurry up. The frontline looked like it was progressing faster than we were able to shuffle everyone up.

  By the time I reached the makeshift barricades where we were pushing against the artificial army, the counter had already ticked down three more times, displaying ‘64’.

  A row of healers and priests panted behind me as they ran, some of them slowed down by the fact they were carrying a few of our incapacitated classmates.

  We had already pushed out across the entire park and reclaimed the entire row of gardens.

  “Over here!” I waved everyone over, “this’ll be a good place to settle everyone down! Set up camp here, it’ll be in reach of everywhere else.”

  I didn’t stay with them to set up a new makeshift medical bay though, instead just running out ahead to where I could see a line of wizards taking up various high ground positions and manipulating the terrain itself to let our frontline continue their charge.

  “Symphonia! Where the hell are you- oh, Sol, damn it!” I heard one of the priests call out behind me as I left them behind, “What the hell is up with people who swear to Burden!? Why the hell is a healer marching up to the front line? No wonder the Calybcorians didn’t like them!”

  I swept my eyes over the line of mages.

  There she was.

  Amongst the line comprised of those of Nature, who were experts in battlefield control, I found Kagura up on a small rooftop, ducking below a stray rod of steel and catching her breath.

  A stray projectile slammed into the temple of one of the other Nature mages, knocking them out and almost sending them stumbling off the roof.

  I caught them as I climbed my way up towards my friend, gently lowering them to the floor and prodding them awake as I imbued them with my magic.

  I ran and dived, sliding up beside Kagura and joining her under the makeshift cover.

  “Oh, hey, good to see you again, Estelle,” she chuckled, wincing partway through her life.

  A small brush of light passed over her body, and she found herself sighing in relaxation.

  I looked side-to-side, appraising the state of the other wizards and witches who had taken up this spot.

  They were doing alright, but they could definitely use a small touch up.

  Luckily, my mana reserves had recovered enough.

  It was all an unfortunate side-effect of the system that had hastily been thrown together; both my recovering mana and the fact everyone looked a little worse for wear.

  The small faction of healers stayed far away from the combat – against weaponry like the constructs had, even being in the backline was moderately dangerous, as evidenced by the fact that one of the mages had been knocked out not even seconds ago – and if you were fighting, you stayed in combat until you were incapacitated, at which point some nearby classmates would pick you up and haul you all the way back behind cover until you reached the healers, at which point we would finally get off our asses and fix you up.

  Aside from the constant running as we continued to advance, it wasn’t all that strenuous of a task, really.

  “Thanks,” Kagura mumbled to me as she flexed her sore fingers, quickly taking a peek above the parapet to see how the frontline was doing before ducking as another railgun bolt slammed against the small protrusion of the roof wall.

  “So what brings you up here? Getting lonely? The rest of the folks not treating you too well?”

  I chuckled a bit, nodding and smiling wryly.

  “Yeah, a little bit.”

  It seemed my troubles when it came to mingling with my peers in magic and healing never ended.

  Even when it came time to band together as the Orders of the Knights Templar, I couldn’t help but find myself a bit alienated.

  There was naturally an uneven spread of students among the Twelve Orders; some were just destined to be more popular than others.

  Herald, for example, was pretty sparsely populated. It called to leaders and other inspiring figures, and despite the high ambition amongst our cohort, the level of responsibility that Order demanded only left around a handful of students that swore themselves to it.

  Trailblazer was similarly unpopular, as an Order that called to inventors and pioneers. The sheer amount of intellect as well as its semi-selfless nature intimidated all but a scant few of our cohort from flying that banner.

  In fact, there were so few of them that they didn’t even stick together as a single group like the other Orders did in our year. Instead, they just went wherever they pleased, doing whatever it was they were best at since none of their expertises overlapped.

  And of course, there was me.

  Amongst those who had learnt the healing arts, taking up the Oaths of Sanctity, Wayfare and Haven, there was me, the lone witch who had sworn herself to Burden.

  I wasn’t the only healer in Burden.

  I was the only student in Burden, period.

  I didn’t even know if there was another one in any of the other four senior year groups at our school.

  The only Order as unpopular as Burden was Avowed, and even then I knew a couple seniors with that Oath.

  “Well, happy to entertain you anytime,” Kagura chuckled, rolling her shoulders as she exhaled and steadied her mana as she prepared to unleash another binding spell, “you’re the only healer in our year willing to get their hands dirty.”

  She lifted herself above the small wall and spoke her incantation, letting a small field of light spears rupture from the open market ahead, staggering the constructs’ ranks and letting a small encampment of students pinned behind cover move forward.

  “Don’t think I’ll be staying around for long,” I frowned, “do you know where Hayate is?”

  The shrine maiden grimaced.

  “All the way out there. Pinned currently, also busy ordering everyone around. You trying to get over there?”

  “Yeah,” I nodded hesitantly, “I-... I need to speak to him about the city’s layout. I-I think we might be about to make a mistake, and I can’t just sit back and let it happen.”

  Something was gnawing at me.

  The railgun-armed constructs were the only feasible design – the only ones to get past the testing phase and somehow manage to even get into some level of mass production – but they weren’t the only constructed designs.

  There were other prototypes that had reached the construction phase as well, and even a handful that had been tested.

  Even if they never reached the level of development of the constructs we were currently fighting against, it was still very possible that those leftovers were still hanging around in this reconstruction of the city, just waiting to be dismantled.

  And a few of those prototypes…

  It wasn’t going to be pretty if they did become active.

  Kagura just chuckled.

  “Well, you never did like just sitting still,” she sighed, bracing herself, “okay, fine, it’s reckless for you to be all the way out here, but you’re not gonna listen to what we say anyways… I’ll cover you.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Don’t mention it,” she shrugged, “Now, three. Two. One.”

  I hopped over the parapet, plummeting all the way to the street below before quickly charging forward.

  Two students carried a third, slinging her arms around their shoulders.

  A brawler was viciously blown back across the street, skidding across the ground in front of me.

  A retreating strike team hopped behind the line of fortifications.

  A small wave of light flooded across the street as I ran forward and hopped over the barricade, joining the active battlefield.

  I could see Hayate’s massive flagged spear just up ahead. I just needed to make it to him, through the battalions of constructs trying to flank us and collapse our hold on the park.

  Enemy constructs started to appear on either side of me, swinging at a line of monks and swordsmen.

  A sheet of ice burst out across the park, freezing a small troop of constructs.

  ‘59 REMAINING’

  I could see a rain of lightning thunder down several streets down near the Artisan’s Promenade, followed by a series of crumbling buildings and exploding beacons.

  One of the armored golems batted away a spearwoman with a vicious swing as she was distracted dealing with three more to her side, before turning to its next target.

  Me.

  It raised its blade.

  A needle of light burst from below and pierced its chest, letting me pass safely.

  Thanks, Kagura.

  Blue lightning sizzled with deadly intent, a bright flash of molten, sparking orange lit up the dark streets, and a volley of steel rocketed forth.

  I heard one of the shielders ahead of me groan and roar, erecting a massive transparent barrier of light that held off several of the volleys.

  A couple constructs took advantage of the distraction to slip by the shielder, only to be batted away by Hayate.

  “Alright, that’s the signal!” he turned around and shouted, waving his arms wildly, “Retribution! Get Apotheosis through!”

  “We can’t! Took too much damage storming the Market Quarter! Don’t have enough forces to break through!”

  “Shit!” Hayate clicked his tongue, “Where the hell did Setsuna go then!?”

  “A couple of us followed her off to the side into the Artisan's Promenade!”

  Before any new orders could be relayed, they found a sudden warmth enveloping their aching, bruised bodies, smoothing the wounds over and brushing them away.

  They looked around side-to-side in confusion, only to find me rapidly approaching.

  “You heard him, go!” I shouted.

  They nodded in confusion before quickly hopping back into battle, their conditions restored, pushing back against the ambush forces.

  A wave of students followed behind them; with my aid, the stragglers at the back of the fighting were slowly catching up.

  But the worst of the fighting was still far up ahead.

  The vanguard had already marched past the market and were storming either the Artisan’s Promenade or the Crystal Arcade.

  At least I hoped they were.

  I prayed they weren’t going for the third option, Foundry Row.

  On the surface, it might have appeared to be an appealing target to take, even if a bit risky, as it extended up onto a fortified hill. If our frontline got overconfident and tried to take it, there was a decent chance there was a nasty surprise in store.

  “Estelle, what the hell are you doing here!?” Hayate panicked, ushering me behind a small bit of makeshift cover.

  “I-I remembered something about this part of the city, I needed to tell you,” I hurried through my words.

  “That doesn’t matter, you need to get out of here!”

  I ignored his words.

  “You need to pull everyone back from Foundry Row! I-I just remembered… if they’re using the abandoned designs for the railgun constructs, they’ll likely be using the designs for the city-defense cannons too! Just across it, up the chokepoint and hill of Glassbridge Crossing, that’s where the prototypes were being assembled, you have to pull everyone back from there and scout it before we approach!”

  “Huh, Foundry Row?” Hayate blinked, “That’s where the vang-”

  An ominous bell rung, cutting us off.

  We looked to the source of the sound instinctively.

  ‘50 REMAINING’

  The counter above our heads flashed intensely.

  The blood drained from my face as an unsettling feeling swirled in my stomach.

  Did we activate some kind of hidden trigger because we passed a threshold of destroyed beacons?

  Something glimmered in the dark distance.

  Up a familiar hill, tangles of electricity started to dance, revealing an object once hidden behind a set of walls which now slowly unfurled.

  A cannon sparked, its barrel heating up and glowing with an intense orange as blue light gathered within it.

  I froze.

  I remembered what I heard about the specifications of this weapon.

  “A-ALL BARRIERS, UP IMMEDIATELY!” I tossed my head from side to side and screamed to whoever could listen, “THAT THING’S GOING TO FIRE! IT CAN TAKE DOWN CALAMITY-RANKED THREATS, YOU’RE NOT GOING TO STAND UP TO IT!”

  A Calamity-ranked monster, capable of running through a small town if left unchecked, required an A-Rank Adventurer to take down, sometimes needing a whole squad of them if they were particularly unlucky.

  Even Setsuna, despite her level of prodigy, was barely capable of matching that feat with our aid.

  My hoarse scream echoed out through the battlefield.

  Despite my lack of authority, some people heeded the panic in my voice, and I saw both magical and physical barriers alike be raised ahead.

  The noise drowned out, and the world turned white.

  The dark underground flashed with a brilliant light.

  The silence peeled and burned, pulling into a thunderous roar that quaked the earth.

  A scorching heatwave passed through the battlefield.

  I opened my eyes again, and beheld the sight in front of me in abject silence.

  The row of buildings that was formerly Foundry Row collapsed to the ground, molten slag cutting a clear circle through the centre, scorching the ground and crumbling the roads.

  Our front line was split apart.

  The constructs piled through, forcing themselves through the hole in our forces, causing chaos amidst our ranks, pushing the students up ahead back until they joined up with their fellow constructs flanking into us.

  I watched as my classmates were trampled.

  The only thing keeping me from descending into hysteria was the knowledge that no one was dead, or would be permanently injured or scarred.

  But still, even that was cold comfort.

  My fingers twitched around my staff.

  Even though everyone was theoretically safe, and this was just a play-battle, and it was all under careful exam conditions, and the only thing we risked was a failing grade, I could not help but tremble and bite my lip in distress.

  Even if the pain was all superficial and temporary, I could not help but feel that it was all real.

  I had always been like this, I guessed.

  Even back in my previous life.

  Whenever one of the girls in my class fell over and scraped their knees during P.E or something, I was the first to panic.

  Whenever someone looked worried, anxious or dishevelled, I was always the first to ask if they were doing alright.

  I don’t think I had ever not been a worrywart.

  Maybe I wasn't before I was four years old, maybe I wasn't before I learnt I was getting a younger sister.

  But even now, after I had left that life behind me, after I was now no one but Estelle Symphonia, those memories and emotions still lingered.

  I remembered what Hayate said in his speech, when he rallied everyone to confront the back half of these exams together, making everyone recall why they came to this school and what it was they swore themselves to.

  And I remembered everything that led me here.

  Everything.

  Where had it all started?

  Why did I want to become a ‘witch’? Why did I want to reject being a simple ‘healer’?

  All the events that ‘Estelle Symphonia’ had gone through, every experience that shaped her – my – life, unwound before me.

  Before I wanted to be a witch, I just wanted to make sure my little sister was happy and healthy.

  Before she and I were Luna and Estelle, we were just two nameless orphans wandering the streets, calling each other ‘Sister’.

  And before that, before those harsh winter days we spent struggling to hobble together a home and gather enough food for the cold months, we had found a bed.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  And in that bed, on the first night she called me ‘Sister’, I made an oath.

  She would live and be happy, no matter what.

  I recalled the other oath I swore, the Oath of Burden.

  ‘The world’s cruel and lonely tide is naught but sanity. If that means kindness is madness, then the mad riptide I will be.’

  I would fight, no matter how hateful or vicious the nature of the world was, no matter what inevitable cruelty the world would strike me down with, and no matter what anyone else thought of me.

  The nature of the two oaths were one and the same. That was why I had sworn them, after all.

  And what was it, before all of that, that led me down the road to swearing those oaths in the first place?

  “...”

  “Estelle? Hey, Estelle? Wait, where are you going!?”

  I heard Hayate’s voice become distant behind me for some reason.

  Oh.

  Right.

  When I peeled it all back, only one truth remained. The reason I swore those oaths, the reason I ran away with that little girl at the orphanage before I ever knew she would be my beloved sister, the reason I never stopped thinking about that hospital room where I saw my mother crying…

  The reason I clung onto all of that, the reason I clung onto her so tightly…

  I always was rather terrible at letting things just happen in front of me.

  And I always was rather terrible at just letting things go.

  Before I knew it, I was running forward.

  “Wait, where are you going!?”

  I shut my eyes and grit my teeth, rolling out of the way as a stray bolt of steel flew towards me, threatening to stop my mad dash.

  Two constructs descended on top of me.

  I leapt forwards and ignored them, leaving them behind me for the other students to deal with.

  My eyes did not stray from the pile of collapsing or unconscious students shambling away from Foundry Row as the constructs piled out and joined their flanking brethren.

  I didn’t care about anything else.

  I needed to get close enough to heal them.

  I wasn’t going to wait until they came to me.

  I wasn’t going to wait for our injured classmates to hopefully pick them up and gamble everything as they limped back towards the rest of our forces that were slowly collapsing from the flanks because of the cannon shot.

  If they were in front of me, and I could do something about it, I wasn’t just going to let it happen.

  I had several minutes. That excessive cooldown was why these cannons were scrapped after initial testing. I just had to pray it was enough.

  A sword swung towards me.

  I amateurishly flipped over it before slamming my staff into the ground, roaring as a forest of vines drained my mana and did whatever it could to clear my path.

  It wasn’t much. I wasn’t a trained combat mage like Kagura, or anyone else in Nature, Truth, Dominion or Trailblazer. I could hardly take forest beasts down, let alone advanced armored constructs.

  The most I could do was slightly slow them down and annoy them.

  But that was enough for me.

  I slid through the legs of a rooted construct, and stumbled back onto my feet.

  I made it to the centre of Foundry Row, in between the dozen or two injured students scattered around me in the ruined street as the hot coal-like ground threatened to burn my shoes and feet.

  “EVERYONE!” I called out to those still conscious, and prayed my voice would break through to those who had fainted.

  I lifted my staff above me and let my mana well up, pouring everything I had into this spell.

  I felt my fingertips numb and freeze, and the nausea inside of me swell.

  The teachers at Nindo had always warned against spending your mana in massive bursts, to always pace yourself, but I’m not sure I could care about that anymore.

  I just wanted everyone to get up.

  I roared as I slammed the staff into scorched earth, overpowering the plasmatic heat with my magic.

  I felt the overload of energy burn at my veins, but I didn’t care.

  I was forced to close my eyes as my magic took shape, manifesting as a blinding light.

  I panted, feeling sweat roll down my forehead, my numb fingers shivering as I lost my balance.

  I huddled my staff, cradling it for balance as my feet wobbled back and forth.

  “Huh, what the!?”

  “Ah, what the hell happened… saw a massive flash and then… why is nothing hurting?”

  “Where is this light-... Symphonia!?”

  I held my hand to my mouth, holding back the rising vomit.

  A shadow fell on top of me.

  I closed my eyes and braced myself.

  That was fine.

  Healers might have been valuable, but I was just one of many.

  Even if I didn’t get along with the priests, they were capable.

  My classmates would be in good hands.

  “Get off of her!”

  I heard a sharp metal screech above me, followed by the sparking of runic circuits.

  The severed half of a golem fell to the ground besides me.

  A soft hand steadied my body as it forced me back towards standing upright.

  A female swordfighter with a fur-lined red coat pushed away the constructs who had broken through my temporary cage of vines, backed by the dozen other students who had been brought back into the fight by my effort.

  “S-Shizue?” I mumbled, unable to make out her features.

  I felt her gently set me on the side of the road.

  “Thanks, Symphonia… this whole thing would have just gone sideways if not for you… I don’t know if we could have recovered from that one without you.”

  I groaned as I pushed myself back onto my feet, leaning on my staff for support as I wobbled.

  “T-the cannon,” I winced, trying to fight away the migraine.

  My vision slowly cleared, and the sickness slowly went away.

  There was a reason why healers couldn’t constantly cast mass healing spells, why they had to keep their strain light and stay out of the combat, and I had ignored all of that just now.

  “Y-you have… three minutes thirty, before it fires again.”

  “Huh? How do you know that, are you sure?” Shizue blinked at me, wide-eyed and confused.

  “My mother’s Arden’s patron, remember?” I grit my teeth as I stumbled, recalling my mother’s loud complaints over the dinner table.

  All that wasted money, engineering and time for a cannon that took five minutes to reload. If a Calamity monster lived through the first shot, the town would be destroyed before the second one was prepared.

  “Are you absolutely sure?”

  “Y-yes… a-and… be careful up ahead, across Glassbridge… the tramline… they were also working on mobile siege cannons. Several of them.”

  “Got it,” the swordswoman nodded slowly after a small moment of hesitation, “I’ll get the information back to Wadatsumi as fast as possible.”

  “No need!”

  A familiar shout echoed across the crumbling remains of Foundry Row as Hayate barrelled through the last of the flanking constructs, my mass healing spell having managed to reconstruct the frontlines enough to barely pull everyone through and re-establish an offensive.

  A tide of students scattered across the now empty Foundry Row as the line moved forwards, the familiar covering fire of our witches and wizards finally covering this treacherous stretch of the battlefield.

  “What the hell were you thinking, Estelle!?” Hayate shook me in frustration as he knelt down next to my stumbling body, looking over me with an indecisive, worried gaze.

  “Not really anything, I suppose,” I chuckled, getting back up to my feet.

  I had a bad habit of acting before thinking, or even realising what I was doing in the first place.

  “You’re not gonna burn out of mana, are you?”

  I could almost hear his teeth grinding out of concern as he spoke.

  “No, just-,” I groaned as I recollected my balance, “I’m still good on my reserves, just… spent a lot at once.”

  Hayate lifted his head, briefly giving a series of commands to the advancing students.

  “We have three minutes thirty, everyone! Everyone in Knowledge, do not advance into Foundry’s Row! Stay safe at the edge of Market Quarter! Everyone else, we’re rushing to take over the bridges at Glassbridge Crossing before the next strike hits, using the trenches underneath for cover! Apotheosis and Retribution, you’re pushing with me! Sanctity and Haven, forget about pushing with us, you’re on strict shielding duty. When that next shot fires, I don’t want to see a single one of you without your barriers up!”

  His head snapped back towards me.

  “Estelle, you need to get back to the rest of the backline, now. You can’t risk yourself out here. You’re more important than any of us are individually.”

  “Is someone deserving of that importance if they just sit back and let themselves be protected?” I seethed.

  Hayate flinched in response.

  “I-I’m sorry, I just-... I don’t want to see you put yourself in danger for us. It’s just an exam, when I made that speech, I didn’t mean you should go out there and fight like your life depended on it. You’re an important person to me, you don’t need to-”

  My eyes softened at the stress in his voice.

  “Thanks, Hayate,” I smiled kindly, patting him on the shoulder, “your concern means a lot to me, it really does… but…”

  I chuckled listlessly.

  “I guess this is just the kind of person I am, in the end. I have something to prove too, a reason I came to Nindo, like you were talking about… and this… it’s just proof of my resolve. What did you say? If not now, then when, right?”

  My breath evened out. My hands stopped shaking.

  Hayate bit his lip, taking anxious glances at how everyone was holding up before looking back at at me.

  In the end, he could not help but chuckle wryly too.

  “Yeah… I guess that’s Estelle Symphonia, alright… I guess it does worry me, but in the end, I don't know if I would have liked you as much if you were anyone else. I guess the most I can do is make sure that no one gets into too bad of a spot, so you don’t have to risk yourself like that again… anything else I should know? Aside from the possible tramline thing and the cannons?”

  “In terms of abandoned weapon designs? No,” I shook my head, “best to keep your eyes open and your guard up either way, though.”

  “Got it,” Hayate nodded grimly, “I’ll do my best to rein everyone in for the future. Worst comes to worst, I should be the one out there taking the brunt of things and leading the charge… doesn’t look good for the Duke of Wadatsumi if the frontline falls before he does. What kind of bannerman is that?”

  He chuckled, shaking his head.

  “Go break a leg out there, Estelle,” he winced, “or well, don’t, I mean, uhh… well, you get what I mean.”

  I giggled, nodding and waving him away before taking sight of my next goal.

  Getting over the sudden lurch in momentum, the counter continued to tick down above us.

  ‘48 REMAINING’

  We continued to steadily march forward through the city once more, reclaiming control over the central Market Quarter that resided at the heart of this district, allowing us access to the other half of the city.

  I looked away, across from Foundry Row and its many tall, steel-lined structures, burning forges and molten crucibles, and towards the Crystal Arcade.

  A tall, winding spire of crystalline glass sheltered a nearby street, glimmering in the dark with an iconic iridescent sheen, appearing almost like a jewel-lit tower.

  There was a small brigade of students slowly fighting through it, trying to push through the tight chokepoint to break open the position and gain access to some of its vertical cover.

  Up even further ahead, there was a small strike team of four who advanced all the way to the central spire, having managed to take down a few of the beacons, but getting trapped and injured in the process.

  I breathed in, braced myself, and ran.

  I heard a voice trail from behind me as I ran perpendicularly to the advancing line.

  “Those of you towards the Crystal Arcade! Estelle is going to be coming through! Protect her with your life! Sanctity, Haven, I better not see you letting a single scratch get on her face!”

  I grinned.

  Thanks, Hayate.

  I clumsily dodged and weaved behind the fighting constructs and students on either side of me, narrowly escaping without injuries.

  A volley of railgun fire went off in the distance.

  “Hey!” A stalwart voice called out, slamming his shield into the ground and erecting a great barrier of light, “Not on my watch!”

  I ran by, waving my staff over the burly boy in thanks.

  I couldn’t stay behind the safe cover of my classmates forever, though.

  I had to cross dangerous territory for at least a little bit to get to the arcade’s entrance.

  A mechanical knight swung at me with a greatsword.

  I ducked down and tried to roll past it.

  As I dived and lowered my head, I heard the construct slam to the ground next to me as a sword was driven through its chest.

  “Stay off Symphonia, tin-head!” A classmate kicked the deactivated construct away, waving at me with a cheery grin as he leapt to my other side to cover me from yet another advancing construct.

  “Thanks for your help, Symphonia! Never would have gotten through mid-terms without you pulling together that study group… now’s time to pay back the favour!”

  He turned back and shouted towards his comrades, who fought emboldened by my presence.

  “Come on, everyone, we’re pushing these scrapheaps back, we’re taking the Crystal Arcade! For Symphonia!”

  They cheered in my name, making me chuckle and blush a bit.

  Still, their help was appreciated, and with their cover, and alongside the aid of my own healing, we were able to push to the Crystal Arcade and clear out the entrance, joining the ambitious advance forces in clearing the narrow shopping street.

  But I had to leave them behind here.

  My goal was still further up ahead.

  “Sorry, everyone!” I leapt over the clashing swordsmen, my eyes locked onto the struggling strike team in the distance.

  “You don’t need to apologise for anything! Robin, cover her!”

  A sharp melody was strung, plucked on magical strings and forming two sonic arrows that drilled through the constructs on either side of me.

  And slowly, I made my way up to the first set of advance forces.

  ‘45 REMAINING’

  I heaved my staff into the air, summoning an inefficient mass of vines to give the small group just a tiny bit of space to catch their breaths.

  A small bit of bile jumped up my throat.

  I ignored it and slammed my staff onto the ground, channelling that discomfort into a burst of mana that swept over my classmates that restored their fighting spirit.

  “Huh? Hey, everyone, Symphonia’s here! Hell yeah! We’re getting through this one alive, boys and girls!”

  They rallied themselves for another push, recklessly advancing further into the arcade as they smashed the windows and ransacked the recreated – but empty – shops and stalls, littered with constructs who offered supporting fire to the melee knights.

  And yet again, I could not stay, and I had to dive past them even further into danger.

  And then for a brief stretch, I was alone. With no one to rely on to fend off the constructs but myself.

  A sword clipped my arm, leaving a nasty gash along it.

  A railgun rod struck my foot as I struggled to roll away in time.

  I stumbled forward, hurriedly fixing my condition with another quick use of magic that left my head stinging.

  “Guys! Do you see that!? My eyes aren’t fooling me right!? Is Symphonia coming to save us!?”

  “Nindo’s White Witch, huh? Well, if you aren’t a sight for sore eyes! Alright, forget about everything! We’re getting her through to her goal! I owe a favour from last year’s finals! We’re charging alongside her, Team 3, with me!”

  And slowly, as I pushed through the arcade, shrugging off injury after injury, healing struggling group after struggling group, fighting off headache after headache, a small wave of students had joined my charge, swelling with momentum as we burst forth.

  I called out to the familiar face stuck in the pincer of constructs, huddled against the central spire as they made their last stand.

  “Strahl!” I shouted towards the spirit ranger, lunging forward as my newly-found escort force cleaved away at the constructs.

  My mana swelled again.

  I felt my body lurch and groan as it struggled to fully let the tidal wave of energy channel itself through my feeble teenage body.

  I spun my staff in a wide circle around myself, letting off another mass healing spell to reinvigorate everyone and get us through the arcade, burning off another fifth of my mana reserves by itself to do so.

  I felt my consciousness blur for a second, almost collapsing to the floor after the spell manifested.

  “Symphonia! Well, shit… I guess we owe you again, huh? Well, least us folks in Team 15 can do for you is clean up the rest of this Arcade. Alright then, everyone, let’s clean this fancy glasshouse up!”

  “Don’t mention it,” I chuckled, shakily rising to my feet as I shook my head.

  ‘40 REMAINING’

  “Alright, keep at it! If we can clear the artillery out, we have a good place to get our mages in and shell at that damn hill with!”

  In the far, far distance, beyond the soundproofed glass of the Crystal Arcade, I heard the rumbling of the earth, followed by the signature flash of that cannon.

  I couldn’t stay for long, there were more people who needed me.

  ‘38 REMAINING’

  “I’m leaving the rest to you! I need to get back to Foundry Row! I need to make sure everyone’s okay!”

  “No problem!” Strahl called out with a cocky grin, letting two astral tigers free from his bow, “Team 15, you’re staying with me! Not much until we clear this place out, everyone else, you’re going back with Symphonia! Get her back to the frontline safely, and get some damn artillery and snipers in here! We’re gonna pester that hill with everything we got!”

  ‘35 REMAINING’

  Making our way backwards through the Crystal Arcade was easy enough, but it was a different story when we made our way back outside.

  It seemed Hayate had managed to prepare everyone for the cannon strike well enough, but pushing past the bridges at Glassbridge Crossing and up into the final third of the district was a different story.

  The mobile artillery platforms I mentioned earlier were brutally effective at halting the advances, keeping everyone almost stuck in place, struggling to get out of the emptied riverbeds beneath the bridges they were using as makeshift trenches.

  I couldn’t dive down there myself. The terrain would slow me too much if I wanted to go across. I would just have to risk taking fire for the time being.

  I saw a glimmer of blue out of the corner of my eye.

  One of the artillery platforms, trudging along the track on the other side of the bridge, locked onto me, its barrel glowing and charging with dangerous plasma.

  “Everyone, scatter!”

  I called out to the small troop protecting me.

  I didn’t ask for their help, they just came anyway. It would weigh on my conscience if they got hurt because of that.

  The shielder amongst us leapt forward, raising his barrier and bracing himself for impact.

  “Azumaken! Yonkata! Shiranuigakure no Yari!”

  A voice announced its presence with a familiar technique.

  ‘Spears Hiding in Unknown Fire’.

  Heated mirages of sharp wind blades sliced through the air from above, cutting into the cannon enough to disrupt its buildup and backfire explosively.

  ‘32 REMAINING’

  “Setsuna!”

  I smiled widely.

  The swordswoman gently landed in front of us, her tattered robe billowing in the wind.

  She flicked away the smoke lingering on her blade, greeting me with a solemn nod.

  “Estelle, I heard thee joined the frontline. I see that is not the half-conscious mirage and delusion of our peers.”

  I pulled my lips flat, preparing for a chastising.

  “You’re not gonna berate me too, are you?”

  “Hardly,” she looked to the side, hearing the familiar crackle of electricity as railguns loaded themselves again.

  The volley launched, only to be effortlessly negated by the combined forces of our shielder and her parrying skills.

  “It is that very strange and noble quality that drew me to thee,” she continued as if not interrupted, “I expected nothing less from the witch that dares to stand by my side.”

  I nodded towards my temporary companions, telling them that I was okay now that Setsuna had joined us again.

  They rushed off, scattering in different directions, leaving Setsuna and I alone.

  “You came from the Artisan’s Promenade, right? Is everyone okay over there?”

  “The injured have already left for the backline. Thou needs not to strain thyself any more.”

  “Well, that’s good to here, as long as everyone’s okay,” I breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Remind me, as well,” Setsuna remarked dully, inspecting her blade for any new chips or blemishes on its storied edge, “to ask thee to take me around the real Artisan’s Promenade, ‘tis a fine street, I wish to see its wares and crafts with mine own two eyes.”

  I laughed.

  Really, that was just like her.

  “Well, first, we have an exam to take care of,” I chided her playfully.

  “That, we do,” she nodded in agreement, smiling calmly, almost looking like she was teasing me back.

  “The test of whether or not thou art worthy to travel by my side in the distant future,” she grinned, almost entirely dismissing the brutal difficulty of the exams up until this point, “dost thou think thou art capable of keeping with my pace?”

  ‘30 REMAINING’

  The bell of the counter rang once more, signalling the final phase of the test, cutting me off.

  The mountain on the other side of the bridge started to groan and tremble.

  Then it shifted and moved.

  It lifted itself, taking that dreaded cannon with it.

  Two colossal legs of stone and iron stood up.

  A massive titan formed from a fortress, covered head to toe in cannons and artillery.

  It let out an unnatural howl from its mechanical jaw, rallying all the remaining constructs into a frenzy, overcharging their runes with energy and switching them all into a much more aggressive logic circuit.

  I smiled wryly, looking playfully at Setsuna.

  “Well, let’s find out, hm? Maybe I’m not as good as you elves when it comes to running through forests, but I’m certainly better than you all at climbing mountains.”

  I gestured towards the ‘mountain’ of a foe emerging from the fortress.

  “Hmph,” Setsuna just narrowed her eyes and brandished her blade with a dangerous smile as she appraised the strange foe, “there is no need to climb a mountain if my blade can split it.”

  “Well, sure there is,” I rolled my eyes, “I’m sure the wildlife at Yrd would be real sad if their home collapsed.”

  The swordswoman just chuckled, shaking her head.

  “Enough banter. The time for jest is over. I am a warrior. Let the battle be commenced, and the scars be collected.”

  I grinned, running alongside her.

  “Scars!? You think I’ll let something like that happen? Not on my watch! I’m a witch! Let the pains be passed and the scars be denied!”

  "Very well, Estelle! Let the battle be commenced, and let it be scarless! Let us march as partners!"

  "I like 'best friends' better!"

  A thousand emotions danced inside of me.

  That little bit of fear and worry over the health of my classmates still lingered, painfully throbbing at my heart every time the colossus smashed down on them or rained fire upon them.

  That tiny sliver of desperation and hurt still tugged at me, wrenching me away as I made mad dashes across the battlefield and scrambled to the side of fallen allies, before restoring them back to prime condition before they even knew they were injured, as if it never happened.

  It hurt to be a healing witch. Not emotionally, but literally and physically. It hurt to be getting smacked across the frontlines by railgun fire and sword slashes as I scrambled back and forth between everyone and burnt out every last bit of my mana.

  But despite that, I couldn’t feel any of it weighing me down. I just got up and continued moving.

  The exam was a bit liberating, if anything.

  I knew what it meant to carry the Oath of Burden.

  I knew who I was now.

  I was someone who couldn’t let things just happen in front of her.

  I was someone who just couldn’t let go of things that came into her arms.

  No matter what it cost me to stop whatever was happening despite however much it might have hurt, no matter what it cost me to hold onto those fleeting joys long past their intended expiry dates.

  I knew what it meant to live as ‘Estelle Symphonia’.

  “Hey, Mother, Luna! I’m home!” I called out with a beaming smile, hobbling through the corridor.

  Maybe I had gone a bit too far when it came to just how much mana I was spending. My body was still kind of numb.

  “Welcome back,” Mother gave me a lazy wave over her shoulder, not looking up from the pan she was minding as I stumbled into the dining room.

  I collapsed onto the cold wooden table, letting my aching body finally relax.

  “Heard you put on a hell of a show back there. Heard all the way from the other side of the city about everyone excited about ‘Young Miss Symphonia’ showing up. Third-years put up a real performance, huh?”

  “Yup,” I laughed, “sure was painful, though… had to go up against the whole suite of abandoned railgun designs, and then a giant transforming fortress golem on top of that… Arden really doesn’t know when to stop, does it?”

  “Ugh, yeah, you’re telling me,” Mother rolled her eyes, “really wish they did. Would have saved me a lot of time and a lot of city council funds if they just scrapped the whole railgun thing early. You at least trash the damn things? Well, the cannons at least. I kind of liked the constructs, they were kinda cute.”

  “I think you have a very strange definition of cute, Mother,” I deadpanned, “but yeah… everyone let them know exactly how they felt about being slammed by railguns all day.”

  I sighed.

  “What’s for dinner?”

  “Chicken Fricassee.”

  I paused, blinking.

  “Huh? Is something special happening today? What happened with Luna?”

  “Eh, I’ll let her tell you.”

  And right on cue, I heard a thundering stampede rush down the stairs in excitement.

  “Estelle! Estelle!”

  She leapt towards me, laughing and smiling as she flew into my arms.

  “Woah, hey!”

  My eyes widened as I hurriedly got up to catch her in a hug.

  “Guess what!? Guess what!?”

  I stumbled, overwhelmed by her energy.

  “I-I-um… I-I don’t know, Luna, what is it?”

  She beamed at me, her eyes shining more brightly than I had ever seen before, the intensity of the light matching the days when we first started reading together.

  “I passed the exams early! I’ll be attending Nindo at the beginning of the next school year!”

  I blinked.

  My thoughts fell away.

  “H-huh!? R-really!?”

  “Yup!” She laughed with simple childlike glee.

  It took a while for my thoughts to catch up to me, and for my brain to form a proper reaction to the news.

  After several seconds of stunned silence, I laughed.

  “Wow, that’s great! You’re so smart, Luna!”

  I laughed alongside her, lifting her up and embracing her tightly.

  Luna was going to be attending Nindo a year earlier than expected.

  It seemed like we were finally going to be able to spend time together on weekdays again.

  I hoped I could continue to share everything with her.

  OATH OBTAINED

  "Run Away With Me"

  SSR

  Burden

  [Oath to Sol]

  “???”

  EFFECT UNLOCKED

  ["Don’t Go"]

  The holder of this Oath refuses to ever let anything pass by or just happen in front of them, swearing to shelter the burden of life on their own shoulders, turning their endless pain into limitless energy. After toggling this skill, if the holder of this Oath is from the Burden Order, the holder gains [Ceaseless Care].

  While [Ceaseless Care] is active, the holder gains the following effects:

  20% of Damage is taken from Mana before Life

  For every 100 Mana Lost in the last 4 seconds, the holder gains 30% increased Mana Costs.

  For every 200 Mana Lost, the holder gains 2% Increased Healing for 4 seconds, up to 200%.

  For every 200 Mana Lost, the holder gains 1% Increased Cooldown Recovery Rate, up to 100%.

  I was going to originally go through the motions of the big boss fight when I first planned this chapter and thought it would only be two parts at first, but the character arc had already resolved itself by the time I got there, so it’d really just be writing the scene for the hell of it to have a big flashy send-off to this part of the story, and we’ve already seen one fight against a big armored dude in the first part of this episode, no need for a second.

  I dunno, if you really want to see it, I can add it as an interlude alongside a write-up of what the boss’s mechanics would be, but I think the chapter’s okay as it is.

  We should be back to regular schedule after this.