Nihilus Filius Et Sacerdos Chapter 8 preview

“Ecclesia, could you calm down for a moment? You’re going to wear down the floor.”

The blonde saint stopped her pacing and looked at him with a frown. “Sorry. But I can’t help it! You saw what that man did!”

Albaz grimaced as he flashed back to the…spar. The defeat was bad enough, but the man nearly stabbed him through his heart!

He sighed. “Yeah, I’m not happy about it either. He said it was a spar, why did he act like that?”

Ecclesia crossed her arms and frowned. “I don’t know…maybe he was just mean. Some people are like that.” She approached him and looked at his chest, slowly reaching for the faint mark near his heart. “Are you okay?”

He nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine. I’ve taken worse.”

“You don’t need bandages? Medicine? I know a few healing spells that could help.”

“I’m fine, really. It’s just a few scratches and bruises.”

The girl’s face scrunched up as she looked over the wounds. True, there was no lasting damage - and she knew that Albaz had taken far more punishment in the past - but she couldn’t help the frustration boiling in her gut.

“Um, Ecclesia, what are you -” The boy was cut off as she pressed a palm to his chest and closed her eyes.

“Θεραπεύω”

He froze, and a trickling sensation crawled up his spine. A soft yellow light emanated from his friend’s palm and washed over his chest. A few seconds later, the light faded and she stepped back. “There, all clean.”

He looked down at his chest; sure enough, all the bruises were gone. Glancing at his arms, he saw that the wounds there had also vanished.

“You didn’t have to do that.”

“I wanted to.”

He could have sworn there was a hint of smugness on her stern face. Still, he sighed and gave her a fang-filled smile. “Thank you.”

She replied with a smile of her own, and for a moment he thought the room had lit up. But it then quickly faded as she gripped her chin. “What’s wrong?”

“I really don’t like this…why did that man - Daemon - attack us like that? It wasn’t a challenge for a spar, he wanted to attack you.”

Seeing how troubled his friend was, Albaz scratched his arm.

“I don’t know…I can’t think of anything. I saw him a few times, looking at us, and that time we went to find Corlys he was talking to him so…” he shook his head. Nothing came to mind.

Ecclesia sighed, the frustration still on her face. “...I don’t like him. He reminds me a bit of Ashiyan, but a lot less subtle.”

“Ashiyan…the guy with the mask and claws?”

She nodded and the dragon boy grimaced. That bastard burned Ecclesia after she tried to protect him from her people and cast her out. To hear anyone being compared to him…

“...did Laena say anything about it?”

The girl nodded, albeit half-heartedly. “She apologized a few times, saying her husband was eager for a fight for a while now, but she didn’t expect him to go this far. She promised it won’t happen again though.” The look on her face however betrayed her doubt of the statement. Albaz also agreed; despite his ignorance of Daemon’s language, he didn’t need Ecclesia or Laena to tell him what kind of things the man had said.

“What should we do then?” His friend blinked at him, taken by surprise at the question. She made to answer, only for silence to leave her mouth. After a few seconds, she sighed again and sat down beside him, patting her dress.

“I don’t know” she admitted, a hand rubbing her forearm, before her face tightened in determination. “But if he tries that again, I’ll let Rocky go full Spriggan on him, and not just that tap I gave him at the yard.”

Albaz smiled as she pumped her fist, glancing at the dragon-skull hammer perched against a nearby pillar. His smile grew wider as he caught a flash of yellow from within the skull’s eye-holes.

“...Full Springan on him? Isn’t that a little much? He was way weaker than you.”

The blonde paused for a moment as she contemplated the thought, fiddling with her golden locks.

“Hmmm…no.”

He chuckled at her enthusiasm, and then his gaze moved to the sword beside his feet. He carefully picked it up and examined it, eyeing the smoky patterns on the blade and the intricate carvings on the pommel. Idly turning it around, he sent out a pulse from his hand into the blade and saw it starting to glow red. He slowly felt heat gather around the weapon and the smell of ash began to tinge the air.

A shuffling of cloth drew his attention, so he turned and saw Ecclesia leaning forward and staring at the sword, their shoulders touching. “Is something wrong?”

“The metal…it isn’t as sharp as some of the weapons back in Dogmatika, but it channels magic really well,” she muttered. She then glanced at his hands “you might want to stop before it catches on fire again.”

Albaz blinked before letting out a yelp and loosening his grip on the sword. The blade immediately dimmed and the scent of ash dissipated. Fighting down a blush at Ecclesia’s giggle, he flashed back to the fight. And what happened…

“Can you teach me?”

“Eh?”

He turned at met her confused stare with his draconic eye. “Can you teach me to fight? Or how to use a sword for real?”

Ecclesia was taken aback, and for a moment she wanted to ask him why. Then she saw the look on his face: it was similar to the one she saw when he lost against Daemon. Also…it was similar to the one she saw in the pool, back when they had to flee her homeland.

To be helpless like that…for seemingly the whole world to watch you fail…nothing could describe how crushing it could feel. Then she realized that for Albaz, it must have felt even worse; in the few fights he was in, most of the time he lost. The only consolation then was that his opponents were far out of his league, ones that even she couldn’t beat, but after he saw what she did to Daemon?

“You don’t have to ask,” she said, holding his shoulder. “I’ll do my best. Fleur taught me how to use a sword before my hammer, but I’m not anywhere near her level.”

He briefly winced before smiling at her and lightly bowing. “I’ll be in your care then.” She smiled back at him, despite the heat blooming in her cheeks. He looks like a puppy when he does that…

“So, when should we start?”