Headed by a Snake

⟬ Outside the walls of Green Corn Keep, present time. ⟭

After Haelvia and Gaheris withdrew to a safer distance, she knelt down atop of a rock formation to watch the battle.

With the pain in her head easing and the adrenaline starting to wane, she finally remembered where she heard the name 'Tychon.'

It was... the 'Decanus' that Coraline said she knew.

It was... the current leader of Sol Invictus.

Coraline's reverence for him seemed to border on extreme, but... upon meeting him, it all made sense.

That... that meant that besides Duplicarius Tychon being a Gold-Rank adventurer... he also had rock-solid abs. The thought made Haelvia's mind spiral towards thoughts that had no place on the battlefield.

Piloting Talks-With-Fire-- or rather, the Divine Armor formerly known as Lancelot was something that should have been impossible.

After Loki was defeated in battle, Lancelot's Arcanite Core was destroyed beyond hope of repair. Without a source of power, he should have been nothing more than an expensive pile of scrap metal, much less one that could leap a half-stadia skyward and accurately land a flaming kick.

The Bear Armor fired another deadly salvo of magic attacks... as if testing to see if the earlier display was a fluke. Lancelot didn't even wave its hand. Each of the volatile spells exploded fantastically before reaching its target.

Haelvia leaned forward out of Gaheris' open chest plates.

« Gaheris... Did... did you feel that? »

⟬ Beatrice is with that person. ⟭

Of course!

That... that made sense!

Beatrice was a fire elemental... a living source of mana. Over the past few decades of technological advances, fire and wind elementals found common usage in providing mana to power-hungry airships and static defensive formations.

NO! That still made ZERO sense!

Lancelot was created to funnel power from its Arcanite Core! No normal person would be able to just... swap that out for a different power source. And besides that, Haelvia hadn't met with Tychon before she left the walls.

It would only make sense if... in the past ten or twenty minutes, the Duplicarius was able to redraw the spell circles inside of Lancelot... adjusting the mana circuits to accommodate Beatrice's output...

Haelvia began to laugh. That... was unthinkable. Even the smallest mistake could render Lancelot inert and immobile... or if certain conditions were met, it could trigger a catastrophic explosion.

The Bear Armor charged forward, heedless of the several gigantic gouts of flame that Lancelot casually tossed out. It plowed through each fireball, the metal twisting and blackening... and it roared in pain each time it was struck.

Yet somehow... the Duplicarius had done it. The specifications of the spell circles had just enough resistance to not overload the circuits... yet were capable of generating an inestimable amount of power.

Piloting Lancelot, Loki hadn't conjured a single torch worth of fire... yet Tychon had effortlessly summoned enough flames to burn down Holy City Basilica.

"Does something amuse you, Echo-Four-Libra?" Tychon tilted his head, raising an eyebrow.

Haelvia widened her eyes in surprise. She'd somehow forgotten that the audiovisual connection was still active, and the Duplicarius was privy to her giggling like a madwoman.

That perfect smile of his, though... it was too good to be true.

Haelvia shook her head and adopted a wide grin, "I'm dreaming, aren't I? I think I must have died, back there."

"Oh, that's high praise, calling me the man of your dreams?" Tychon laughed.

The Bear Armor had finally closed with the fiery Lancelot... but despite the size of its flame-warped frame, it had yet to gain an advantage.

Lancelot squared his body, raising his arms in the stance of a boxer. He danced around the metal bear, jabbing twice at its maw, slipping a heavy claw, then smashing a hook into its side.

The red and white armor released an ear-piercing roar as it lunged forward, managing to latch onto Lancelot's flaming arm with its maw.

But Tychon... he didn't panic. Instead, he had Lancelot push forward, reducing the effectiveness of the bite. Lancelot then smashed a burning palm on the side of the bear's head, allowing him to break free. Finally, grabbing onto the bear's head with both arms, he drove a rising knee into its chin, knocking it down.

"Hmm," The green-haired man in the visual display crossed his arms in thought, "I believe... that fulfilling your dreams would be more appropriate tonight... perhaps, in the privacy of your personal quarters?"

"Is that a threat?" Haelvia asked, fluttering her eyelashes... "Or a promise?"

The Duplicarius was in a life-or-death battle and still had the gall to flirt with her.

Never in her life had Haelvia been more attracted to a human being. Or a Divine Armor.

She apologized to Gaheris in her heart.

⟬ Gaheris can easily perform this well. His pilot only needs to grow in strength. ⟭

Haelvia furrowed her brows. Gaheris usually never offered such thoughts without her prompting him.

Was... her Divine Armor jealous?

"Keep it up, Echo-Four-Libra," Tychon winked, "and I'll head over there and *discipline* you, right now."

Haelvia coughed into a closed fist.

As hot and bothered as she was, that was... really not appropriate, considering the circumstances, "It's Elle. Just... Elle, please. And please finish the fight, Duplicarius Tychon."

"Ah, very well," Tychon shrugged. "Business before pleasure, then."

P... leasure...? That... green-haired man was really getting ahead of himself.

Haelvia's attention suddenly shifted to the enemy's movement.

The Bear Armor had reared up and, launching itself forward, had grappled onto Lancelot's arms. It repositioned the six cannons on its back, aiming directly at the smaller Divine Armor's chest.

The other pilot knew it was impossible to win. But instead of taking the loss, they decided to use its highly destructive cannon attack at close range.

"TYCHON!!"

Before Haelvia had realized what she was doing, Gaheris was already on his feet, sprinting towards the battle.

Besides Duplicarius Tychon being the only hope for her guild's survival...

Haelvia had already completely... idiotically... and unforgivably placed all her faith in that person.

She even had the ludicrous thought... that he... might actually be the man of her dreams, like he said.

She could not let that man die.

Her heart... wouldn't be able to take it.