Episode 39. The Spirit Jilpeu
Sylvia, who had lifted Binaeril into her arms, kicked off from her spot to evade the Spirit’s attack.
Rike shielded Simon and deployed a defensive spell.
The Spirit persistently targeted Sylvia.
The Wind Spirit loaded the air with spears of sharply condensed wind.
And it fired them directly at Sylvia.
“Hup!”
‘I can’t block this!’
Sylvia chanted an acceleration spell.
She narrowly evaded the spear flying straight at her.
The rock where the Spirit’s attack landed was cleanly pierced through. It was a terrifying power.
Sylvia felt a chill run down the back of her neck.
Simon, who had been under Rike’s protection, stepped forward and attempted to speak with the Spirit.
“Spirit of the valley, please calm yourself! A child of the Myo Tribe is here! A child of the Myo Tribe who serves you!”
The Spirit paused for a moment at the sight of Simon.
[How dare you involve even a child of the Myo Tribe!]
Streams of water around the Spirit erupted into fierce columns.
“Hey, it’s like pouring oil on a burning house.”
“This isn’t what I meant……”
“You, stay put for now!”
Sylvia nimbly evaded the Spirit’s attacks.
Once, twice, thrice.
After dodging the successive onslaughts of wind pressure, there was nowhere solid to step.
Sylvia had no choice but to leap high into the air.
But that was exactly what the Spirit had aimed for.
[Hand him over!]
It was difficult to guard against attacks properly while airborne.
In the strong gust that blew in, Sylvia lost her grip on Binaeril.
Binaeril had temporarily frozen his wound while Sylvia carried him and ran.
“Kruk…!”
It was painful, but stopping the bleeding was the urgent priority.
Binaeril reached his arm toward the approaching ground.
“The place I touch shall become a swamp.”
He mitigated the impact by applying the swamp magic Rike had shown him before.
“Urk.”
He reduced the impact with his uninjured arm, but pain shot through his pierced shoulder when his body struck the ground.
Binaeril bit his lower lip.
But he couldn’t afford to remain seated.
The Spirit’s next attack was charging in with a terrifying sound.
Binaeril pressed his body tightly against the rock he had raised.
The sound of the Spirit’s wind striking the wall reached him from beyond.
[Futile!]
The Wind Spirit created sharp blade-like winds and attacked again.
The stone wall Binaeril had erected was cleanly severed by the Spirit’s wind.
He managed to avoid losing his head only because he ducked in haste.
Defense alone wouldn’t bring this to an end.
“Simon, I’m sorry.”
Whether it was a Spirit served by the Myo Tribe or not, if it had no will to talk, he had no choice but to retaliate!
Binaeril thought of the most powerful magic he could cast.
“Contracting earth, binding sand. Beneath my feet dwells the voracious Agwi.”
It was the very same magic that had devoured the Wild Hounds at Fairhill.
Perhaps because it was his second time chanting, he didn’t feel his head throbbing and on the verge of bursting like before.
An enormous amount of mana flowed through Veritas into his imagination.
In an instant, an immense sense of lethargy enveloped his entire body.
If he failed to subdue the Spirit with this single blow, it would be Binaeril who fell.
“The starving Agwi hunts for prey. Devour, Agwi. For it is you who shall be devoured.”
Groooan—.
The entire valley rumbled and shook.
[What is this!]
Even the Wind Spirit, devoted to its attack, sensed the anomaly around it.
“The mana gathering… it’s enormous…….”
To Rike’s eyes, which could see mana, the manifestation of Binaeril’s magic resembled thousands of fireflies gathering in one place.
The spell that had inherited Binaeril’s will soon began to take form.
Schloomp!
The valley’s water was sucked into the newly formed pit.
Binaeril’s magic appeared, gaping its maw like a monster that had lived in this valley since ancient times.
Chomp!
And it swallowed the Wind Spirit whole.
“Is it… dead?”
He hadn’t intended to go this far, but in his haste, he hadn’t been able to control his mana properly.
It was also a magic he wasn’t yet familiar with.
From where Rike was, Simon, eyes wide as a rabbit’s, ran over.
“What did you do! What on earth did you do to the Spirit!”
“Hey, if I hadn’t fought back, we all would’ve died!”
“Spit it out quickly! Order that thing to spit it back out!”
But there was no need. Simon’s worry soon proved to be unfounded.
The maw of the Agwi that had swallowed the Spirit convulsed and let out an ominous sound.
It looked like a mouth holding back vomit.
The swollen Agwi soon burst into pieces.
The wind blades the Spirit had fired minced the Agwi’s flesh into pieces like grains of sand.
Binaeril and his friends were coated head to toe in the burst of dirt and sand.
“Impossible!”
Binaeril opened his mouth in astonishment, not even realizing dirt was getting into it.
It was the most powerful magic he could unleash.
He had pushed Veritas’s mana to its very limit.
And yet to see it not even slightly wounded?
Binaeril’s magic seemed only to have further stoked the Spirit’s anger.
[Is this all?]
[Possessing the power of the Fragment, and this is all?]
The Spirit asked, as if puzzled.
Binaeril no longer had the strength left to twitch a single finger.
[All the better, then. In that case, die now.]
The wind blades summoned by the Spirit turned toward Binaeril with a whining sound.
And countless blades poured down.
“Eden?”
The spirit dwelling within the ring revealed itself to protect its master.
The surrounding rocks, stones, dirt, and sand formed a sturdy barrier according to Eden’s will.
[What……!]
The Wind Spirit’s attack and the Library Spirit’s defense collided violently.
Binaeril could feel that Eden was straining.
Even though they were both spirits, there seemed to be a difference in level between Eden and the Wind Spirit.
After blocking all the attacks, the revealed Spirit’s expression looked utterly bewildered.
[A child of the spiritfolk? Why?]
Eden flew toward the Wind Spirit hovering in the air with an angry gesture.
“Eden! It’s dangerous!”
Though he warned Eden with his mouth, Binaeril couldn’t truly stop her.
But what followed was different from what Binaeril had expected.
The Wind Spirit seemed greatly flustered by the little spirit’s bold charge.
[No, that’s not it…….]
[Child, calm yourself first.]
“……!!”
[I understand. I’m sorry, I’m sorry! It seems I misunderstood.]
“……Are they talking right now?”
Binaeril couldn’t hear Eden’s voice.
No, today was the first time he had even learned that Eden could speak.
But judging by the situation, some kind of conversation seemed to be taking place between the spirits.
Binaeril stood dumbly, waiting for Eden to persuade him properly.
The Spirit of the valley was a powerful being. Powerful enough that victory couldn’t be guaranteed in a proper fight.
After a brief ceasefire, Eden returned to Binaeril’s embrace.
With her hands on her hips and a very prim expression.
She had undoubtedly given him a stern talking-to about why he had attacked them so recklessly.
[Sigh…….]
The Spirit of the valley descended among the group, who watched nervously.
And it approached Binaeril, scrutinizing him from head to toe.
[You are certainly not him. You are indeed the owner of the Fragment, but too weak.]
“What do you mean……”
[I misunderstood. My apologies.]
Binaeril blankly accepted his apology.
[My name is Jilpeu. I am the Wind Spirit residing in Hohenberg.]
The Spirit extended its hand to shake Binaeril’s hand.
But for that, its physique was far too small.
Because right now, Jilpeu was no bigger than Eden.
Jilpeu shrugged its shoulders, put its finger to its mouth, and blew into it as if inflating a balloon.
Its physique swelled instantly to the size of a robust young man.
Only then could it achieve its original purpose.
Binaeril took Jilpeu’s hand and rose to his feet.
Though his surroundings were still spinning and his head was ringing, this did not seem like someone he could converse with while lying down.
“What did you mean by what you just said?”
[My name? Or this place? Hohenberg has treacherous mountain terrain and many places where the wind can rest. It is the best place for a Wind Spirit to stay.]
“No, not that. I meant what you said about some owner….”
“Ah, the owner of the Fragment.”
Jilpeu raised a finger and pointed to a spot on Binaeril.
It was his waist, where Veritas hung.
Binaeril looked at him with an expression of disbelief.
[Is that not your Fragment?]
Binaeril was startled.
Until now, no one had ever openly noticed Veritas’s existence.
“Do you know what this is?”
[A Fragment.]
“No, so……”
Binaeril felt the need to align their words.
Whether what Jilpeu called a Fragment was indeed the Library of Truth. What he meant by “misunderstanding.”
Fortunately, before Binaeril could sort out his questions, Jilpeu organized the situation for him first.
[Since some time ago, someone has been gathering the power of the Fragments. Old spirits like me are affected by that power.]
“What kind of effect?”
Binaeril decided to ask questions carefully from the start.
[The owner of the Fragments seemed to say this to us. “Rampage. Destroy. Annihilate all life.” I made this valley my grave and reined in the destructive urges that drove me.]
Simon had said that the valley had been engulfed by an impassable gale since one day.
It seemed to be because of the circumstances Jilpeu was describing now.
Binaeril asked the most important thing.
“What are these… Fragments you’re talking about?”
Jilpeu looked at Binaeril with puzzled eyes.
It was a look that asked why he was asking about what he held in his own hand.
But then Veritas cut in.
-Foolish spirit, it would be better not to say too much.
Jilpeu hurriedly closed its mouth.
[…So it was not merely a Fragment.]
[I cannot explain more at the moment. If you were chosen as the Agent, it may be natural that you do not know.]
“Wait a moment!”
[No. There is not much I can explain. But I will tell you this one thing. You are not the only one gathering the power of the Fragments.]
From context, what he called “Fragments” seemed to be the “Pages” Veritas had spoken of.
But what did it mean that Binaeril wasn’t the only one gathering Pages?
“What kind of power are these Fragments?”
[It is exactly as the name Fragment suggests. They are the remnants of will that still remain. Fragments are the power of change, the power of imagination, the very driving force that constitutes the world.]
Jilpeu seemed to be struggling to tell him even one more thing while watching Veritas’s cues.
[As you wield the power of the Fragments, think carefully about where it came from.]
-Enough. That is all.
At Veritas’s intervention, Jilpeu could no longer continue speaking.
Binaeril was confused.
[That is all I can say about the Fragments. I cannot say more. However.]
“However?”
[You wield magic. That is unfortunate, yet at the same time, fortunate. I shall give you a piece of advice that will help you.]
Binaeril listened closely to his words.
[You must first learn how to command souls. Find the Jineulbaram in the Myo Tribe’s village.]
With those words, Jilpeu returned to the embrace of the valley.
The surroundings were quiet, and the stream flowed like crystal.
As if nothing had happened, the scenery of the valley returned to peace.