Anti-mages and knights

Lucifia charges towards Sigmund who didn't feel threatened enough to move from his spot. Lu thinks that the five other knights he has behind him will try to aid him, so the archdemon prepares for that as she swipes her right claws at Sigmund.

It's to no one's surprise that Sigmund avoids the swipe by moving along the direction of it, and sliding under the next swipe from her left claw. What does catch Sigmund by surprise is Lu's bladed tail that shoots towards him like a scorpion stinger.

However, even that he manages to avoid by grabbing a random blood coated sword from the ground with his free hand and parrying the stinger with it. The random sword Sigmund picked up shatters, proving two things which are Sigmund's strength as a Cerenian and Lu's durability as an archdemon.

Not wanting to break the sword Leiger entrusted him with to bind the demon, he quickly sheaths it back into its equally flashy scabbard.

Sigmund then backsteps to create some distance between him and Lu. As he cast his broken sword to the ground and pick up a new one, he feels something beneath his feet that he taps on to confirm what it is.

Before he could be certain what's under his feet though, Lu lunges towards him as if to say she won't be giving him any time to think of a plan. Trusting his intuition, Sigmund kicks up the object beneath his feet and it reveals itself to be a dented tower shield.

"I guess you don't know! But I can tear through shields like they're made of paper!" Lu laughs as she uses her tail to pierce through the shield, but feels it connect only with the ground.

The red-haired commander used the shield as a feint cover to force Lu into using her tail and give him time to recite an incantation.

erfullen l'arme je greifen apud per vis et bringen ihr volles latent

"Infuse the weapons I grab with vis and bring out their full potential."

Sigmund then throws the sword at Lu and as it travels, the blade heats up and radiates a color of red that alarms Lu into backhanding it but the sword violently explodes on contact.

It sends Lu flying off her feet and falling on her back. She didn't have time to be dazed from the explosion as Sigmund throws two more swords in her way. They hit around her and she sees both of the swords heat up and explode like the first one, sending piles of snow and dirt into the air that it hides Lu in a cloud of dust.

As though fear did not exist in his mind, Sigmund approaches the dust cloud while picking up two swords with his right hand, holding it between his fingers, and grabbing a third sword with his left.

But then the red-haired commander stops dead in his tracks as he hears the strange sound of the wind whistling. The dust cloud in front of Sigmund then suddenly rips away to reveal Lu pointing at him with one of her claws that's gathering blue flames on its tip.

Ausloschen ma ennemi vor mir

"Annihilate."

Blue flames flare up from the corners of Lu's eyes as she unleashes a sapphire inferno that torrents towards Sigmund, who raises and swings the sword he has in his left hand, creating a powerful shockwave that snuffs out Lu's firestorm.

Although Sigmund manages to snuff out the inferno, he didn't completely come out unscathed as his left arm has intense burns all over them.

Once again the sword in Sigmund's hand shatters upon the first use which catches Lu's attention. Understandably, a normal sword would break when it collides with her, but so far the swords Sigmund has been enchanting have been anything but normal. Furthermore, his sword didn't even hit anything but the air.

"What kind of magecraft are you using?" Lu asks, honestly curious. She understood what Sigmund's incantation meant, but it's the first time she'd heard of that spell.

"I don't see how I should be inclined to tell a demon, but I'll spill. Would you believe it though that I picked this up from a squire of mine?

He wasn't aware of it himself, but he has a talent that lets him manifest the true potential of a weapon. What I'm doing is a cheap imitation that doesn't even have half of the strength that it's copying, but it's more than enough against you." Sigmund taunts Lu at the end, and that's the last straw for her.

The archdemon charges towards the red-haired commander, pretending to only see red since she believes that this charade has played out long enough and the commotion she's made should be enough to let Adela know that the plan is proceeding.

The commander holds a sword in each hand and prepares for the demon's next attacks.

Lucifia bears her claws at Sigmund once more, swinging her left arm at him first which he quickly parries by striking back with his sword. The impact of the strike sends shockwaves reverberating throughout Lu's body while it sends her left arm back, leaving her completely open.

Taking the opportunity, Sigurd aims his sword at Lu and plans to run it through her chest, but then the archdemon grabs a hold of his left arm. Lu did not hesitate in crushing Sigmund's entire arm since she did promise that.

"Too bad, you were close though~" Lu snickers getting off on Sigmund's quiet wincing.

"Oh no, I'm right where I want to be," Sigmund replies smirking. His left arm drops the sword, and its blade begins to glow that dangerously orange color.

"Oh no you don't!" Lu shouts as she kicks up the sword into the air where it explodes, harming no one.

Now that Lu's truly open since her focus is on the explosion, Sigmund draws the demon binding sword and plunges it into Lucifia's heart, causing the archdemon to howl in agony.

She plans to now tear off Sigmund's arm for his slyness but she finds no strength to do so as the sword drains her of it. Lu knows that the sword won't kill her and that if it stays long enough her body will naturally overcome it, but now she's going to play her part in Adela's plan and hopes that Melissa and the others would too.

A cry from Melissa does concern her, as she's shouting Lu's name and hearing her run through the snow.

"Lucifia! What did you do!? Bast!- -ard…!" One of the five knights knocks Melissa unconscious, while the rest are escorting Hagurd and Aranea out of the house.

"Was that necessary?" Erize says coldly to the anti-mage who knocked Melissa out with a hit on the head.

The anti-mage that angered Erize is a man much taller than her but with a build that's on the lean side. Like the rest of the other five knights, he's dressed in their military uniforms that have little in terms of armor.

For some reason, he wears his uniform loosely with his shirt slightly unbuttoned and his tie just slung around his neck. His sloppy way of dressing himself matches with his messy black hair that hides his tired orange eyes.

"Oh-oh? Are we sympathizing with a witch?" Sarissa, the anti-mage in question, replies to her with a smug look on his face as he puts his long halberd on his shoulders.

"You two, don't start fighting now, or do you want to get in trouble with Sir Sigmund?" Heka says as he gets in-between the two and with him is Caron who's pushing Sarissa away.

Completely different from Sarissa Dory, Heka Ostanes is the youngest of the group yet also one with a cool head between his shoulders.

He dresses sharply, almost mirroring the same level of professionalism as Cecil. His dark blue hair is kept well and relatively short to avoid covering his dark eyes.

He wears glasses but they're completely for cosmetic purposes.

"Now-now! We're all here on a mission so can we all at least try to get along?" Caron says trying to reason with the hotheaded Sarissa and the equally hotheaded Erize who has Cecil talking her down as well.

Caron Hastine is both the heart and the reasoning of the group. With his cute and charming looks, he's able to usually defuse any kind of heated disagreement that spurs and he does so because he dislikes violence.

He's the in-between of the cold and hard professionalism of being an anti-mage soldier and the sensitive and instinct-driven capital knight. He represents the good side of both aspects, making him a local idol because of it.

Maybe also because he has such a cute appearance that puts girls to shame and fools guys into questioning everything in the world.

"Whatever, I'm only going to back off because Caron told me to," Sarissa says turning his back on the group.

"Oh-oh? Are we into guys now?" Erize says to antagonize Sarissa which works, quite effectively as he turns back around huffing and stomping his way to the Cerenian.

But before he could shove his index finger against Erize's face and before Cecil could cut it with her rapier, Sigmund turns around to look at all five of them.

All of the knights freeze and lock their gaze at Sigmund, waiting for their commander to speak.

"Heka, bind the demon and the two witches," he says which Heka acknowledges with a nod.

"What about the captain?" Cecil asks.

"I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt, but if he shows signs that he's plotting something, bind him like he's no different." Sigmund coldly answers as he walks past everyone, but stops beside Sarissa.

Suddenly, he grabs a hold of Sarissa's shirt and pulls him into staring him in the eye where Sarissa can see Sigmund's sharp glare that's seething with fury.

"This isn't me defending my fellow Cerenian but I'm already letting you walk around dressed half-assed without so much of a word from me.

However, if your mouth is as loose as the way you present yourself, how about I fix both at the same time?

Don't go freely labeling others as witch-sympathizers or you might find yourself standing at the gallows instead." Sigmund lets go of Sarissa's shirt and walk off, going inside the manor to investigate.