In the plaza, Sebastian looked at the beautiful person in front of him. She had a mature face, and it was absolutely stunning, as though carved from jade. Faintly, her face seemed as though it was covered by a bit of dirt. Her hair fell long, beyond her shoulders, and her legs were exposed. Her robes were layered, with blue robes underneath white robes that were loosely worn, and there were dual blades attached to her waist.
Sebastian then looked at the person she was carrying. As he gazed at her through the gap between his hat and spectacles, he asked skeptically, "Ohh... the Matriarch is still alive after all. I thought that fall from the King had killed the survivors."
Then he looked at the woman standing there as he said, a bit surprised, "You... are we sure it's our famous Headmistress of the fallen academy? The teacher of the famous Matriarch?"
"When did the Headmistress become part of the Way Path?"
The Headmistress looked at Sebastian for a moment as Sebastian asked, curiosity in his voice, "How did you even survive that time? I thought you were not alive. But you are standing perfectly fine after all?"
"That fight with the Faceless should have killed you..."
The Matriarch was silent for a moment as the air blew past them. The distant shouts of the King and the incarnation of an Aetherial, who were fighting somewhere above, resonated all around.
"You talk too much for a named Headless..." the Headmistress said as Sebastian suddenly went completely silent.
Sythris, meanwhile, couldn't register any more words as she felt the world turning dark. Even the memories that had started to unveil disappeared. She was completely unconscious. She had fallen into a dreamless sleep.
"Named Headless...? You...? How do you know about named Headless?" Sebastian's voice was eerily dark.
"Figure it out yourself..." said the Headmistress, her voice a bit mocking and angry.
"Who are you? You can't be just the Headmistress?" asked Sebastian, his voice a bit angry and desperate.
Sebastian carefully watched her, as though trying to see through her. The Headmistress didn't say anything as she carefully placed the woman in her arms and Sythris gently near the edges of a trench, and she uttered something, closing her eyes. "O spirits of the seven worlds... heed my prayers."
"Sthrira Vyuyu Bandha..."
As she chanted this, a golden barrier erected around Sythris and the Matriarch. The Headmistress's lips bled as she swiped them clean.
Sebastian commented, "You don't have pure spiritual inheritance... do you?"
The Headmistress's back was to Sebastian as she looked back, gritting her teeth, and suddenly there was a flash. A spear thrust towards Sebastian. It was very fast as Sebastian looked calm, pressed on his hat, and dodged. But just as Sebastian thought it was over, the spear immediately had afterimages, and one of them actually hit Sebastian as he rolled over and tapped his hat. He had rolled away quite some distance and was almost at the western edges of the big plaza.
Sebastian got up, and from within his glasses, he had a slight look of shock, as though such a thing could never happen.
The Headmistress said mockingly, rotating her spear gently, "Oh, is the untouchable royal counsellor having trouble dodging...?"
She didn't waste time as she moved again. Sebastian dodged her attack and used his stick to attack her stomach as she also dodged. Just then, he tapped his hat as the Headmistress, during midair, lost balance, and Sebastian didn't miss the chance. His stick struck her suddenly. She rolled over into the distance. As she got up, she coughed up a mouthful of blood as she looked at Sebastian's hands. She was looking at Sebastian's hands as though trying to decipher something.
The Headmistress took a deep breath as her hands manifested a blue, icy sword. She disappeared like a ghost as Sebastian's pupils constricted.
Sebastian immediately pressed his hat as he dodged the fatal attack, but some of his clothes were cut, and he appeared some distance away. But just as the area where he had immediately appeared, the Headmistress appeared in a split second. Sebastian's eyes squinted, and he immediately, in that split second, used his legs to kick her in the chest, but she dodged that.
Another weapon manifested in her left hand. It was the same kind of golden, regal spear. She hurled both weapons at him as he pressed his hat and appeared a bit distant away. But she was again on his toes. It felt like Sebastian was really having difficulty gauging the moves of the Headmistress.
Suddenly, the Headmistress made a feint and didn't appear in Sebastian's immediate displacement.
In his next displacement, which Sebastian did out of desperation, two spears manifested and aimed at his neck as the Headmistress had a smirk. He was too late to dodge that.
Just as the spears reached him, at the last second, a strange thing happened. As though by a miracle, his stick automatically blocked the two attacks. His stick was bent into a U-shaped structure, with flower-shaped petals above it that blocked both strikes as there were sparks.
The Headmistress's eyes went wide as she looked deeply at him, both stuck in a deadlock, as they created space between them, moving back.
The Headmistress suddenly moved again as she was before him, but Sebastian didn't move. He looked at her surveying eyes as there seemed to be beads of sweat along his forehead. This time, nothing happened.
Neither party attacked, as the Headmistress didn't attack and just said in a very faint voice, as if no one should hear it, "Say, Sebastian, if I remove that hand of yours, will you be able to counter?"
She said, pointing at his right hand.
Sebastian's eyes went a bit wide as he stepped back some distance.
The Headmistress looked at him briefly as she slowly looked over, finding the noise of someone screaming. It was John's scream. John had been screaming for a while. There was a girl over him who looked like she was bathing in rain. She was using her knives to tear him apart slowly.
The Headmistress looked over as she said gravely, "Just how many horrible things did this guy commit that a gentle girl like that is punishing him?"
Sebastian made a gesture as though removing beads of sweat as he said plainly from behind, as though he had just woken up, "It's plainly because he didn't... he didn't do it cleanly."
The Headmistress said, her eyes piercing as she looked at Sebastian, "So that's how you think... but if you don't save him now... he will really die."
"His whole body is already badly mangled."
Sebastian slowly walked towards John. As he walked past the Headmistress, who didn't attack him, his eyes looked sideways, and there was a smirk on his face as the Headmistress's face suddenly paled.
He said slowly and deliberately, "You... so you are from there... no wonder you recognized me... anyways, someone is already here for you."
"How could you act like you are the queen here...?"
Just as Sebastian walked past her, there was a boom near where the Headmistress was, and a small area seemed to have fallen out of existence. It was void, as though it had been eaten by something.
She also disappeared completely. Debris again became debris, and smoke again became superimposed.
Sebastian muttered in an indifferent voice, shaking his head, "You had another person already after you, yet you still had the time to fight and mock me. Even a bug reconsiders its position."
Sebastian slowly walked near John as he gazed at that girl stabbing John in the chest. John stumbled but couldn't get her off. He was struggling. His legs were bleeding like a fountain, his arms were mangled as well, his face was disfigured, and his chest was full of blood.
The girl who did that looked like a pure, untouched girl, but she was drowned in John's blood.
Sebastian kicked her in the stomach as she went far off, her fate unknown. There was a residual scream, as though the girl had only just realized she had been hit. "Ahhhh... Johnnnnnnn..."
Sebastian tapped his hat and tapped his stick three times as he procured a vial from his coat and poured it all over John's body. John screamed as Sebastian muttered, "This is the last time... If there are more people coming after you... I am powerless."
"I need to do the main show..." he said seriously.
John screamed and shouted as the potion made grizzling noises over his body. Sebastian walked away towards the altar he had created.
As he walked towards the altar, his face beamed with a smile as he saw two figures appearing from the other end. It was a shadow whose only outlines were visible and whose eyes were glowing and rotating. It was dragging a man. It was Veer. He was dragged by his legs as he was trying to escape, with his arms making a futile struggle.