“That’s fine. It’s normal to be scared in a situation like this.” Ryan turned around the corner. “Just listen to my voice, we’re almost out of here.”

  There were people running into a building, so that was either the way down or some kind of shelter. But while those people were running in, there were others running out; people carrying guns wearing assault gear.

  Were those people called here to fight against that rampaging titan? Or … were they on that titan’s side? Ryan knew that Bluesky practically had a private army, and they each carried weapons enhanced through skills, and many of them were awakened gunmen in the first place. But that didn’t matter right now. He had to trust that Runar and Yamada could handle themselves.

  “Are you excited for school tomorrow?” Ryan asked, trying to keep his breathing calm as he continued running. Liam almost flinched at the question, clearly not expecting it.

  “Wha, what? School?”

  “Yeah, are you excited? You remember Modak, right? I’m pretty sure his brothers go to the same school,” he explained, and Liam quietly answered.

  “That was the . . . the orc, right?” he asked.

  “That’s the one. His brothers are a bit of a handful, but they’re good kids. I’m sure you’ll get along with them.” As Ryan explained, he ran up to a bench and climbed on top of it, using it to jump over the barricade between the footpaths and the road. Even up here, there were cars sometimes, but they seemed to mostly be small delivery vehicles. Just like the one that was currently being thrown through the air, right into the direction of the building Ryan was running to. He stopped and pulled back, turning around to cover Liam from any debris that might be flung around.

  The young boy buried his fingers in Ryan’s shirt. “And … and what if they don’t like me?”

  Surprised by the question, Ryan didn’t immediately know what to say. Sure, he figured that Liam was a bit insecure behind all that “king” stuff he protected himself with, but revealing how he felt now of all times wasn’t really what he thought would happen.

  Slowly, Ryan stood back up. “Then they don’t like you. That’s fine. There’s plenty of people that don’t like me either. But I’ve got a couple of really amazing friends to make up for that. You’ll find people like that too, alright?”

  Liam carefully nodded as they got closer to the building. They weren’t that far away, when the ground in front of the two cracked open. Ryan could barely pull away as a large chunk of the floor, directly between himself and the entrance to the building, fell toward the ground, soon landing on the rooftop of a small building below the overhanging platform.

  Even then, there wasn’t much time for Ryan to even process what was happening; he was only able to pull Liam closer to his body in case they fell, when a small blob of green appeared in the corner of his eye.

  Runar jumped up into the air, clearing the punch from the oversized giant that was attacking them. He glanced over to Yamada.

  “Giant berserker plus fragment experiment,” she quickly filled Runar in, briefly holding one of her guns with her teeth so that she could sign. One of her eyes was shut because of blood that was flowing from her forehead, so she was already in a rough situation. Runar quickly nodded his head, flicking his wrist with his pen in his hand. He drew something into the air, and then continued running. As he did, Runar quickly wrote something on his underarm as another strike from the giant came at him.

  Runar stopped moving, waiting for the right moment. The mellow green droplets spread over the skin of his arm as he swung it to the side. A pillar of rock shot up diagonally, pushing away the giant’s arm rapidly. The sudden jolt against the weighed-down arm made the giant topple over, dropping onto his knees. Runar twisted his arm around, making another pillar of stone shoot right into the giant’s face, throwing him backward quite a bit.

  As Yamada came over to him, Runar drew another rune into the air, leaving it there for the time being. When the demon reached him, Runar quickly wiped the blood away from above her eye, writing a few runes onto her skin to stop the bleeding for a while.

  After pulling back, Runar signed to her, “Do you have the fragment?”

  Yamada quickly nodded, pulling it out of her pocket before pressing the small green stone into the man’s hand.

  “Keep him busy, I’ll send this to Ryan so we can concentrate on taking him—” Runar started, but he didn’t even need to finish before Yamada ran off toward the giant. She began to shoot at him without hesitation. Each shot seemed to take a brief moment to “charge up,” but once the bullet hit, and they did without fail, large chunks of rock were torn off from the giant’s body.

  Meanwhile, Runar looked at the fragment, unable to stop himself from clicking his tongue. “Shabby workmanship,” he grumbled, trying to erase the enchantments on the surface of the gemstone as he placed it down on the ground. After wiping some of the debris away, Runar quickly drew a magic circle around the fragment, as he turned to the side. During the battle between Yamada and the giant, one of those small delivery cars driving up around here was kicked toward Runar.

  Rolling his eyes, Runar held his hand outward, blocking the empty car. Though, part of the metal was so dented that it was flung off, hitting the magic circle that Runar had been drawing. “Fucking—”

  Annoyed, Runar got up. He held the pen between his lips, pushing his fingers into the metal of the car. With a loud groan, he heaved it above his head, returning it to the giant. Grabbing the pen again, Runar muttered to himself, “Berserkers … always messing up my work.”

  As he squatted back down to continue, Runar noticed from the corner of his eye that the giant had deflected the car, and it was being thrown over some of the smaller nearby buildings. Figuring, or rather, hoping, that it wouldn’t hit anyone, Runar quickly continued drawing the magic circle. Before long, it was finished and Runar activated it; the droplets of Runar’s mana gathered around Gaia’s fragment, before taking on the form of a small fish. With the fragment floating in its center, that fish speedily swam away right toward Ryan.

  Now that he could concentrate on the battle itself, Runar pulled up his pant legs, drawing a few runes onto his skin, but as he got back up, the giant had its arms raised up above its body. At first Runar wondered if he was trying to surrender, but from that completely maddened look in his eyes, that wasn’t the case. The giant slammed his arms down onto the ground. Though extremely thick and built using the surrounding buildings as support, most of this area was an elevated platform above the busy streets of the Channel.

  And as the giant slammed his hands into the ground, massive cracks formed that immediately spread far beyond this street. Panic set in as Runar watched parts of the platform sink down. This part in particular was above one of the Channel’s main roads. Without hesitation, Runar leapt to the closest platform that was in danger of sinking down, drawing a simple pattern onto it. Luckily this spell didn’t require a ton of complicated runes, since it had been fine-tuned specifically for situations like this. The moment the pattern was activated, the platform stopped sinking down, levitating in place. But this wasn’t the only part of the platforms that was in danger of falling. He wouldn’t be able to do anything about small debris, but it looks like the people below had been warned to evacuate as well, so hopefully nothing too bad should happen.

  Having already sunken below the platform, Runar activated the spell he just placed onto his legs, jumping forward. The moment he pressed his foot onto the underside of the platform, he began to stick to it and was able to run upside down to get closer to the other large pieces falling down. After dodging past the platform’s support beams, Runar kicked off and jumped to the next piece. He drew the same pattern as before, activated it, and jumped to the next. Like this, Runar jumped from piece to piece, trying to stop as many of them as he could that could potentially injure someone. In the end, he was able to stop most of the ones that seemed like they were in imminent danger of dropping near where people were running away, though the last of them stopped just a few meters above the street.

  The pieces of the platform would now start slowly sinking down to the street level, and once in a solid position, the spell would deactivate. But until then, Runar could use them to get back up. He kicked off the piece that he was on right now, jumping back up to the next and then the next. When they were too far away from each other, Runar ran on the side of the closest building for a while, before finally making his way back up.

  Before long, Runar made his way back up to the fractured platforms, where Yamada was still whittling down at the giant. It seemed like her pacifying bullets weren’t able to take him down, so Runar had to take over. He glanced around; the runes that he had drawn into the air were still levitating in space. Perfect.

  Since Yamada seemed like she was able to keep the giant busy, Runar kept jumping around, drawing different runes into the air, using them to draw a circle around the large giant. Once he was done, Runar and Yamada locked eyes for a moment, and she quickly nodded. Runar grabbed a piece of debris on the ground and threw it at Yamada, who was jumping through the air trying to avoid the holes now all over of the platform. She kicked off the piece of debris, pushing herself out of the confines of the large circles of runes. Once only the giant was left within, Runar held his hand forward.

  He started to speak in a slow, clean, and deliberate manner. The words were clear, but to anyone else would sound like gibberish, as the runes whose sounds had been lost over the centuries were vocalized. As he did, not only his eyes were letting off the characteristic glow of mana usage, but his mouth was filled with that similar green light. Runes that were engraved onto his tongue, but were hidden most of the time, were glowing as he spoke, strengthening his spell.

  The runes that Runar placed into the air were glowing as well, as green droplets started spreading out from them, placing themselves into a regular pattern in a dome around the giant, with the runes as the perimeter. Once they were all in place, the runes thinned out into sheets, connecting to each other and forming a barrier around the giant.

  Carefully, Runar took a step forward, and as if the barrier was fleeing from him, it grew smaller and smaller. The giant didn’t even know what was happening until the barrier touched his head, slowly but surely pressing him down. Completely enraged, the giant tried to strike at the barrier closing in on him, but no matter what he did, it would only grow closer, until he wasn’t even able to stand anymore.

  Before long, he was forced onto his knees, when the barrier began to contort to his silhouette, practically trapping him in the position he was currently in.

  Runar scoffed, finally looking into the fury-filled eyes of the stone-covered, enlarged man. “See? You know how to stay still after all.”

  Chapter Fifty

  Spirit Armament

  The ground shook as Ryan carried the terrified Liam. A massive crack had formed between them and the closest exit, and it didn’t seem to be the only one. All over the place, cracks were spreading out, and large chunks of the ground were falling down to the roads or buildings below.

  The part that Ryan was standing on specifically didn’t seem all too unstable, but he also didn’t have a lot of time to figure the situation out all too much before something entered his peripheral vision. It was a koi fish made of soft green light with droplets floating around it, swimming through the air directly toward Ryan. The Light of Guidance in his mind was pulling him straight toward it, and the pull grew stronger and stronger.

  Before long, the fish stopped in front of Ryan, slowly dissolving. The only part it left behind was the small gemstone in its center. And he didn’t have to hesitate at all either; before the last of Gaia’s fragments could drop down whatsoever, Ryan instinctively pulled it into the spirit’s domain, and some system messages appeared in front of his eyes.

  [You have found the last Fragment of Gaia]

  [The Light of Guidance has found its target and disappeared]

  Ryan’s heart almost skipped a beat as the last of the three fragments appeared in Gaia’s domain. The three pieces were excitedly floating around each other, though they still weren’t combining. He would have to try and figure that out later, but for now, he was just happy to have found all of her.

  But that didn’t solve the situation that he found himself in right now either. Rather, it caused a whole other problem. Ryan glanced at the direction that the koi fish had come from, and a number of those armed men were standing there, clearly looking into his direction.

  “Fuck …” he muttered quietly. Of course, a glowing magical fish just swam toward Ryan, and considering the situation, that was incredibly suspicious. So if they were just here to deal with the villain, they might move on after seeing that Ryan was just a guy carrying a scared kid to safety. Though, that hope quickly disappeared from Ryan as he saw the ones in the front aim their guns at him.

  The hairs on the back of Ryan’s neck stood up as his instincts were absolutely screaming at him to get away. And he didn’t hesitate to do so for even a moment. Ryan turned around and started to run away, when he heard a loud sound echoing around the buildings. He felt a sharp pain in his leg, and didn’t even have to look down to see what was going on. The pain coursed through his body as blood filled his shoe.

  Liam flinched in Ryan’s arms, feeling him recoil from the pain, but Ryan just smiled down at him and laughed a bit, “What, a bit of noise is enough to scare you? You won’t like living with Runar then … he tends to sing in the shower.”

  Confused about what Ryan was saying, Liam glanced back up at him. “H-Huh?”

  “Yeah, and he’s probably the worst singer I’ve ever heard. Can’t even hit a single note properly,” he pointed out, shaking his head disappointedly as he continued to run, even if he was limping. Ryan tried to hide it as much as he could, but that only went so far. Before he knew it, Maximus had jumped out of his domain, and a second gunshot sounded through the air. But instead of feeling a sharp pain, Ryan heard the sound of the bullet hitting metal, and a message appeared in front of Ryan.

  [Knight Spirit Maximus’s -Right Arm- has been damaged

  and cannot be used until repaired]

  Ryan widened his eyes as he felt the shattered, broken pieces enter his domain again. The arm was fully torn apart due to the impact of the bullet. These parts were in the same space that Maximus’s second arm was; right now, he was using the complete Guardian model, and the Crusader model’s arm was stored at the edge of the domain where Ryan could pull it out whenever he needed to. That was where these broken pieces also went, barely holding the shape of an arm. “Maximus! What the hell are you—”

  Ryan could feel something pull at his mind. He knew what that meant, and Ryan activated the connection between himself and the knight. As the Spirit Link formed, Ryan’s arm almost went numb, but it was just the feeling of a “missing arm” overlapping with his “existing arm.” But there was no pain or anything of the sort. The only thing that flowed into Ryan’s mind was a very vague feeling of confidence.

  “… Fine, I’ll trust you. Just … don’t die …” Ryan told him, and could quickly see Maximus glancing over at the car. It was on this side of the crack, and should be able to act as decent enough cover. Ryan quickly ran over toward it. More gunshots sounded out, and for a moment, an uncomfortable sensation coursed through Ryan’s leg. It wasn’t painful, but he could still feel what was happening. As if a cannonball tore through his leg.

  [Knight Spirit Maximus’s -Left Leg- has been damaged

  and cannot be used until repaired]

  As the leg appeared within Maximus’s domain as well, he could feel Maximus simply start to hop after deflecting a second bullet. Despite now only having one leg to work with, he still moved in an agile way, keeping up with Ryan’s slowed movements. Ryan soon reached the car and squatted down behind it, carefully placing Liam down.

  “Close your eyes,” Ryan said immediately, but Liam shook his head.

  “No! I can—”

  “Liam, please, just close your eyes.” Trying not to let the pain make him raise his voice, Ryan looked at the boy and pleaded. Clearly frustrated, Liam nodded his head, pressing his eyes shut as more gunshots sounded out. Of course, Ryan was still an extra barrier between Liam and the shooters in addition to the car. The kid’s safety came first.

  Ryan looked down at his leg, seeing most of his shin and calf covered in a thick, deep red. The bullet seemed to have gone clean through his leg at least, but he was bleeding a lot. With a groan, Ryan pulled off his shirt and tied it around the wound as tightly as he could, trying to at least slow down the bleeding. He would have to apologize to Silvia later for ruining the shirt she made him.

  As he tied it around his leg, Ryan noticed the symbiote freaking out on the back of his hand.

  % & ! ! ? ;;

  The random symbols, which seemed to come from some kind of fear or pain that they were experiencing together with Ryan, already made his stomach drop. Holding the hand to his mouth, Ryan whispered, “Sorry … you’ve been with me for a day, and we’re already going through this.”

  … :)

  Ryan laughed lightly. The gunshots had stopped, but instead footsteps were approaching closer and closer. They would reach this place soon. With another whisper, Ryan spoke to the symbiote again, “If things go sour, we should at least get you a name, right … ?”

  The symbols on the back of Ryan’s hand seemed to change hesitantly into three simple dots. Ryan tried to think of something good, though for some reason, something came to his mind. It was a story that was pretty fresh in his mind. After Modak brought it up the other day, he had looked the story up again; The Hundred Tales of Shazir.

  Shazir traveled the world in search of treasures and ruins, meeting new people and battling powerful monsters. And during one of his journeys, he met a number of fantastical beings, including sprites, which guided him toward his destination. A small red jewel imbued with powerful magics. And the name of that gemstone rang through Ryan’s head. The name of the jewel of creation.