A New Star Chapter 36

Alexandra 

The next day was, thankfully, an uneventful experience that felt like things were getting back to some semblance of what normal was. The day after, however, was not, and that was mainly because both the count and the Silver Lady were at the training ground that morning. More specifically, they were waiting for me at the lane I usually used at the very far end of the grounds, clearly ready for me. I gave them both a nonplussed look as I walked over and stopped in the lane, planting Gungnir's tip into the dirt and holding it partway down the haft. I would have liked to hold it by the pommel section and lean slightly, but I would be reaching over my head a decent bit to do that, which would ruin the lazy look I'd be going for with the gesture. 

"Alex," said the count, stroking his beard. 

"Is there something I can help you with?" I asked, glancing between them. 

"The lady would to see you in action," the count answered for them. 

"Yes?" I said, looking at her. 

"I want to see this vaunted combat ability of yours," she said primly. 

"Very well," I replied and simply stared at her, still holding my spear. 

"You may begin whenever," she said airily. 

I exchanged a look with the count, who just shrugged while continuing to stroke his beard. I shrugged myself, took up Gungnir, giving it a little spin and flourish, which I saw the Silver Lady roll her eyes at just slightly. That was exactly what I was going for and, right before I finished the flourish, I teleported through the Dark to directly behind her, already thrusting quick and hard with the spear right at the base of her skull. It was an attack directly into a person's worst blind spot in such a way that, barring external arts, the person was forced to dodge. It was very difficult to counter or parry while dodging, as well, and the strike could be redirected as the person dodged and still clip their head or neck or hit them in the shoulder or arm.  

Of course, that exception to external arts from my previous life was really the rule here, and my spear stopped a few centimeters short as it impacted a thick plate of silver. The metal, despite normally being rather flimsy, was stronger than steel and didn't budge an inch or so much as scratch from the force of my thrust. The other thing about silver, however, was that it acted as quite a good conductor and as soon as my spear impacted it I let off a blast of lightning that rocketed through the plate and into the lady, though she just ignored it like it hadn't hurt her. Likely it hadn't, but I was already moving on, rolling through a series of thrusts and lunges while blasting lightning out of the tip of Gungnir at her as she dodged or deflected everything I threw at her. 

Right as she first retaliated I changed my strategy, stepping back and disappearing into the Dark, avoiding the massive blast of electricity she directed at me, though I still felt a numb sensation in my arms even in the Dark. Well, that would help to explain how my lightning blast seemed to not even tickle her. I circled around her in the Dark, thrusting at her from different angles, only the tip of Gungnir piercing the veil and returning to the normal world. I also did it in such a way that the tip didn't emerge from where I was standing; I was able to cast an attack through that thin barrier separating the realities and have it emerge in a slightly different place on one side or the other. I suppose that would be why the lady had such a surprised look on her face as she blocked two thrusts to her back and, at nearly the exact same instant, I emerged in front of her and punched her full in the face. 

She was made of some pretty tough stuff and barely moved, reacting instantly and blasting me with lightning while spikes of silver half the thickness of my pinky and about the same length as said digit bombarded me. I wasn't sticking around to take that beating, however, melting back into the Dark as soon as my fist had connected with her face. I caught a few hits as I did so, but I healed myself with my Body Reconstruction affinity, including pushing out the silver trying to worm its way into my arms and tossing it away. I knew the tricks she was trying to pull and it would be a very cold day in hell before such novice moves got me. My retaliation was to fire ice and fire bolts out of random places while I moved around and struck from odd angles. As the attacks came fast and thick I suddenly emerged from her shadow on the ground, thrusting Gungnir up at an obtuse angle to strike her pelvis. 

Disks of silver stopped my strike and tried to hold Gungnir in place, but a heavy roar came from the spear and I felt my mana dip as a massive blast of lightning exploded from the weapon's length. It was my lightning, purple that deepened to black at the center, but it also had traces of a blue so dark it was edging into black in it. The blast carried enough force that Jeanne staggered back a full step from it and I disappeared again as she did so, circling her in the Dark. I saw her glance around, a touch of frustration in her features before she started gathering mana. I knew this was going to be a big attack and so, naturally, I struck first. Jeanne had still not seen nearly everything I was capable of, and I planned on showing her exactly who she was messing with by carrying out this little test.  

I emerged from the Dark myself, but moving as fast as I possibly could with my Time affinity, leaning on it to accelerate my time scale by multiple times over. At the same time, I grabbed gravity in the area using my strongest, or now, second strongest affinity and crushing down on the Silver Lady. I blasted fire into her face while at the same time freezing her legs with Pure Ice and thrusting with my spear, weaving it in a complex pattern that created the illusion of many slashes when really there was only one true, lethal attack hidden in the blur of noise. Gungnir took Jeanne in the throat as my attack intensified, but I noted the thick layer of silver blocking the strike from actually penetrating her flesh.  

"Enough!" she bellowed then, creating an explosion of silver spikes around herself that carried her electric affinity embedded in them, creating an expanding sphere of silver and electricity.  

I shielded myself with a blast of lightning in front of myself while lowering gravity's effect on my body and further increasing my timescale. I leapt back at the same time, sliding into the Dark before circling around and reemerging behind the count, hearing him give one of his patented startled exclamations at my appearance. I waited a moment, seeing the lady standing in a smoking circle of charred and churned dirt, watching to see if either of them would make any further move to attack me. When the lady settled herself and smoothed her dress, I walked back around the count and stood in the lane, leaning on my spear and frowning at the damaged area. 

"I hope you're going to clean that up," I said before Jeanne could speak. 

"I certainly will not," she said, getting a funny expression on her face that was some combination of surprised and frustrated. 

"Somebody has to do it," I said drolly. 

"That's what guard trainees are for," the count interjected, likely trying to play peacemaker. 

"She certainly hits like a behemoth, Emmanuel," said Jeanne to the count then, rubbing at her jaw where I had socked her.  

"Any time you want some," I said calmly, gesturing at her with a closed fist.  

"Spare me your childish threats," Jeanne replied with a sniff. 

"Interpret it how you will," I said coldly, seeing her narrow her eyes slightly at the rebuttal. "Anyway, are you fully satisfied now?" 

"I've seen what I wanted to see," she said, stopping rubbing her jaw when she noticed that her gesture was very much like the count stroking his beard. 

"Good. I have training to do," I said, making a shooing motion at both of them. 

"Why, I never!" Emmanuel exclaimed. 

"I bet you have," I said caustically, shooing them again. The two left together, the count grumbling under his breath, just loud enough I could clearly hear his complaints about ungrateful youth and how times used to be different. The count often liked to do the old 'back in my day' routine, and would drone on for an interminable length if somebody didn't redirect him into something more productive before he got really rolling. 

I finished my training for the morning, noting that all that pushing at the local timescale had managed to push my Time affinity to G, which now made me an official G-rank, as that was my third G-ranked affinity. I suppose there might be other great prodigies out there at G-rank at nine years old, but I had yet to hear of any of them, and I had done quite a bit of research on what typical rates of progression were. I shrugged as I finished lunch and turned to my other work, entering my lab for a long afternoon and evening of pill concoction. The process was rather meditative and I thought over the duel that morning, as that was what it was. I was sure Jeanne had not revealed all that she was capable of during our exchange, not by a long shot, but what little she had shown had me deep in thought. 

Thought that was interrupted in the evening by a knock at the door, after which Mina stuck her head into my lab. She asked if I had seen Marianne lately, which I found a rather odd question, but I answered that I had not seen her since the day before, which seemed to satisfy the captain. I went back to my work after that, but something nagged at my mind, and I eventually put away my finished products and cleaned the lab rather late. I took up Gungnir from where it leaned against the wall and stepped into the Dark, casually walking a partial lap of the mansion as I peaked into a few rooms here and there. I found not a sight or sign of third sister, so I broadened my search, looking around the grounds to see if she was somewhere within the walls. 

That search proving fruitless, and the general state of alert that had quite a few guards and others milling about at night, had me starting to get worried. I walked out of the estate, passing through the south wall and heading towards town. I walked along a path that I often used but few others did, well away from the road and circling around Umberton when it eventually got there. I think it was an old track for shepherds or some kind of animal herding profession to move their charges about, but it served my purposes well enough, even though I walked in the Dark. I also had a hunch that if Marianne had either gone off on her own, or was taken by somebody at some point, that the town would be the direction they would head. 

I was, in fact, quite accurate with my assessments, as I found traces of a bit of a struggle halfway to town and followed some traces down a game trail to the west. I walked quite fast, though I was only using my natural strength to do it, and it took me some time to come upon the clearing where my sister was being held. There were three men and a woman present, with one of the men hauling my sister by her arm towards the far end of the clearing. It looked as if they had stopped for a time, likely to eat and relieve themselves, and were now continuing on. To be fair, we were quite a distance from the estate and along routes that not even the scouts among the guards used, so it wasn't a real mistake on their part, they just didn't know who they were messing with.  

The only thing that did give me pause, other than Marianne's battered state, was that all four of them felt fairly powerful. I decided to trail them for a moment, knowing that I could likely ambush them and even the odds a little without them being able to respond. I wasn't talking the count levels of power by any means, but they gave me a sense of threat, and I was still in a weakened state to boot. It never rained but it poured.  

"Can't we just kill her and be done with it?" asked one of the other men, directing his question to the woman. 

"Quiet!" the woman snapped, but this didn't have any effect on the three men.  

"What's the point in draggin' her away like this?" asked the other man who wasn't hauling on my sister. 

"The death has to be staged in a specific way," the woman snarled. "If we just killed her randomly and dumped the body it wouldn't have the intended effect. It would also be traced back to us too easily." 

"But what about-" the first man started saying, but I had already heard enough. This was clearly not just a kidnapping but an assassination attempt, which meant these four were already corpses, they just hadn't realized it yet.  

As dumbass one's question distracted the leader, I thrust my spear from the Dark and took the one dragging my battered sister in the throat. The thrust was powerful and clean and I nearly severed the assassin's head with the first strike. Just to be sure, I followed up instantly with a crossing slashing, hacking his head off and sending it flying. Marianne screamed but also wisely dropped to the ground and starting crawling away. I turned to the other three when the world lit up like a nova and I felt a tearing sensation. 

I had been ripped out of the Dark by some kind of device the woman had, a device I could see melting on the ground, so clearly that was a one-time thing. It was not, however, that easy, as I could not step back into the Dark again, even with the device having cooked itself. The three remaining hostiles, dumbass one, dumbass two, and leader bitch, were all on me immediately, attacking from three separate angles with weapons and affinities both. The woman used a rapier, dumbass one used a set of daggers, and dumbass two had a mace. I decided that leader bitch was the biggest threat, blasting lightning at the other two while making gravity feel like it was quadrupled for her.  

The attacks threw them off and slowed them down, but dumbass one waved his daggers and made thick vines appear in front of himself that absorbed the blast. Dumbass two wasn't quite as fortunate, as it appeared his defensive affinity was metal-based, and the shield he made was somewhat thin. The lightning hit him partially, which had him wincing and swearing as he slowed further. The woman thrust at the air in front of herself and suddenly she was moving faster, whatever affinity she had activated having sped herself up and relieved at least some of the added weight. 

What followed was a fast, brutal, and bloody conflict. Dumbass one was easily pushed back with my fire affinity, dumbass two was stopped by Gungnir, but leader bitch was tough and needed a lot of focus for me to deter. When I stopped blocking the dumbasses they advanced rapidly, throwing out attacks left and right. I was boxed in, but that wasn't the end of the world, and we exchanged blows as our affinities flared and lit up the night. I got a good thrust on dumbass two, but I hadn't anticipated that leader bitch had two affinities that could boost herself. At least, that's what I assumed happened, as she became even faster and thrust into the front of my left shoulder, doing some damage before I could disengage. 

It was a lot of slashing, swinging, thrusting, blasting, and entangling after that. My inability to use the Dark to teleport or hide was a massive detriment and made the fight far too even for my liking. Eventually, I took dumbass two out, a thrust through the gut and a massive blast of lightning to his organs enough to seal his fate. That left me open to dumbass one, who slammed a dagger home in my back, getting the damn thing stuck in my right shoulder blade. I don't know what he thought he had accomplished, perhaps a killing stroke, as he was unprepared for me to shrug the strike off and return several of my own. I was rather injured at this point, bleeding from several puncture wounds and slashes and my left side had a couple cracked ribs, but I dismissed dumbass one from this mortal coil a short moment later. That left just me and leader bitch, who was circling me with a pained, worried expression on her face. 

"You can't beat me," she said in a taunting tone. 

"Don't care. Villain speeches are boring," I replied before pushing on my timescale as hard as I could. I had use my Time affinity sparingly, but now I went all-out, in more ways than one. I summoned the Dark, not trying to step into it, but trying to bring it to myself and it responded, fast and eager. I wrapped it around myself, the inky blackness turning into a suit of sleek armor that covered me from collar bone to toe, only the dagger sticking out of my back giving any indication of my wounded state.  

I thrust forward at the same time, launching a blistering series of strikes while I stored lightning in my body and increased gravity around both of us. I felt the lightning build, seeing leader bitch look at a point right above my head with a frightened expression, leaving an opening when she was already barely holding me off. I used that opportunity, thrusting at her face while pumping a huge glut of mana into my ice affinity to freeze her feet and then throw a wall of fire between us. As she struggled to deal with those things on top of everything else I thrust forward again in a classic lunge, too far from her for even the long Gungnir to hit, but from its tip a great gout of lighting spiraled forth, the faint roar of a dragon echoing forth as the bolt slammed into and through the woman's chest armor, piercing her torso and blowing apart her heart. 

"Fuck, I needed one alive," I cursed before checking all four of them. They were all dead, which I confirmed with a few quick thrusts before racing over to my sister, wincing as the knife pulled at my shoulder. Marianne was in a bad state and I took out a grade E healing potion and thrust it in her mouth, forcing her to drink the whole thing before picking her up and leaving the area as fast as I could.  

Full use of the Dark came back to me as I made my way back to the estate and I let the armor drop to pull both of us into the Dark Paths, walking through them directly to Marianne's room. I deposited her, still battered but much mended from that first potion, directly in her bed. I forced her to eat a regenerative pill and drink half of another potion before making her take a few sips of a calming tincture I had made that helped a person relax slightly. It was useful in quite a few applications and it helped here as Marianne seemed to drift right off to sleep. I made sure she was going to be alright before gathering Gungnir and leaving the estate again. 

I had something I needed to verify, having seen a scrap of paper in the woman's pouch about schedules and slipping into town, having checked for any evidence when I double-tapped the four of them. There were only three people in Umberton who could have helped with the assassination attempt as that little scrap of paper indicated had happened, and I wanted to cross the one I least suspected off my list first. 

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