24 Hearts

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The twenty-fourth fragment, Carpe Diem

Their duel began. The ancient ruins served as their stage, and even with no one to witness their magnificent dance, the two knights fought with nobility to their deaths.

The Flying Fighter charged at her enemy with her spears, while the Blue Lancer, equipped with agile movement, aimed to meet the spears head-on. There was no breaking through her impenetrable wall of shield and armor.

However, a precise movement allowed the Fighter to pierce through an opening. Avoiding the thick lance swinging at her in full force, she lunged her spear at the shield, its tip getting caught into a hole somewhere on it. It collided with the iron plate powered by magic, and its friction sent sparks of light into the air. Ea was lucky, but the attack barely sufficed, and Jeanne’s shield instead, hooked her from the hole her spear was stuck in. Sacrificing the potential damage she could exploit, Ea kicked the shield and used it to fly herself and her spear away from her opponent. If she hadn’t decided, Ea was sure to end up like the goblin she saw before the fight.

The Blue Lancer stood firmly like a fortress, meeting every attack from the offensive Ea. Without any breaks, she blocked every single attack the Knight sent her way. Jeanne concentrated on her defense, and as soon as she saw a gap between her opponent’s attacks, she charged at Ea with her Lancer. A shrill noise screeched into the air.

Ea stepped back in surprise, but Jeanne followed closely. There was no way to escape. She clenched her teeth, and as a last resort, she crossed her spears to block the attack. The pointed edge of Jeanne’s lance landed exactly at the middle of the spears.

Shhh!

Ea used the momentum to jump back with a sharp inhale and had to roll the floor a few laps. In the middle of her escape, her body collided with a Goblin’s corpse, sending her up into the air. She turned around and landed safely on the floor. She frowned, and despite being covered in grime from head to toe, her red eyes were alive and beaming.

Shhhng!

Her spears rang as it gleamed, red magic cascading faintly over it. In a beat, Ea was back in attacking Jeanne.

With the help of magic, her spears managed to strike Jeanne’s armor, shield, and lance, clashed with the power within them, and began to cut through the materials layer by layer.

In the battle of the spear that pierced through the shield and the shield that shattered the spear — the shield had begun to waver. As if getting rid of a shell, a thin portion of the thick, cone-shaped lance shredded into the air sending anxiety straight through Jeanne’s bones.

“!”

Jeanne stiffened at the turn of events, fighting to straighten her defense like the fortress she was meant to be. All this time, she waited for Jeanne to grow tired, but to her surprise, it was herself who grew frail as their rally dragged on. Ea’s attacks grew more powerful. While it wasn’t powerful enough to break Jeanne’s defense, it was strong enough to damage her equipment’s durability.

On the other hand, Jeanne’s attacks lacked the agility to breakthrough. In the first place, the Blue Lancers were particularly strong in groups. On the contrary, the Flying Fighters were stronger in one-on-one melee battles, so Jeanne had to put in more effort.

“That’s awesome.”

The comment didn’t come from Ea, nor did it come from Jeanne.

Deep in a battle where a simple mistake could lead to defeat, the knights found no space for any casual talk. But there was Judah, watching the heat of their battle from the very top of a three-story building.

The moment he arrived at the ruins yesterday and checked on his map, Judah recalled his old memories. The map created for this quest using his computer was the same as the terrain shown in his -Map-. To ensure his safety, he entered the building and spent the entire night waiting here, and when the expected time arrived, the Blue Lancer appeared as scripted, followed by the Flying Fighter, which engaged the battle. Judah knew this was no coincidence.

‘You’re following the script.’

Judah took a deep breath, watching them fight at the exact time and date as it said in his notes. Their battle flowed smoothly, and he wished for it to continue the way it was, not desiring for it to grow more destructive.

Before Judah can even intervene to help Jeanne, the hologram window for the quest appeared before his eyes.

[Hidden Quest!]

[You are watching a duel between two proud empires.]

[Baekje Empire’s -Flying Fighter-, Byron Empire’s -Blue Lancer-.]

[Who will you side with in the battle between these two knights?]

[Depending on the actions and words you choose, they can be your companions or enemies.]

[Flying Fighter “Ea”- uses double spears and approaches opponents with agile movements. She quickly eliminates opponents with her unique, fast attack speed and high attack power. However, she has a rough personality and acts badly towards adventurers and other commoners. However, if you could open her mind… Well, what could happen?]

[Blue Lancer “Jeanne”- she wears a silver full body armor and holds a shield in her left hand and a lance with the other to protect her allies from the front lines. She practices chivalry with an upright personality. Because of her brutal honesty, her words can be quite hurtful to others.]

Looking at the options that emerged in his vision, he reminisced once again of the life outside this reality. Flying Fighter was a fairly useful member. Her skill was defense penetration matched with bleeding boosts, so the damage she can inflict was quite great. Due to low stamina and defense, she often died quickly, but to compensate for such shortcomings, she could get better at evading attacks directed to her. This would have been enough, but he wanted the players to maximize her survival power by spreading the code that increased her evasion ability. According to his statistics, the item was used mostly during the second half of the game because it grew more useful to sub-tankers that showed tremendous efficiency in boss battles. Of course, to match the evasion code setting, it was necessary to invest as much effort as you had to in the setting of your other characters, so he deducted no points for the use of that item.

In Blue Lancer’s case, she had a higher defense and stamina than any other characters that can be obtained initially, and having her in your game guaranteed the player’s stability. Unlike Flying Fighter, she could grow wonderfully without the need for investing much in money and skills. Good growth, excellent defense and stamina, sturdy range-type attacks, and excellent skills, everything was perfect, but of course, there was one drawback.

Her attack power paled in comparison. She was helpful in hunting basic hoards of monsters, but she couldn’t inflict toxic damage on bosses. It can be seen as a disadvantage, but if you look at the other strengths… You can just forget that drawback.

[Flying Fighter]

[Blue Lancer]

“Ah…”

Urging for him to decide quickly, the hologram in front of his eyes flickered. Without hesitation, he chose the Blue Lancer. There was no changing it, and his decision was made a long time ago. Judah and Flying Fighter spent two years in quiet bad blood. He could never consider her over the Blue Lancer.

Blue Lancer was the most ideal for a real companion. They trusted each other, and he didn’t need to use subordination on her. The moment Judah chose the Blue Lancer, the hologram in front of him disappeared. As he watched closely at the fight below, what changed was that the Flying Fighter had gained the upper hand.

The Blue Lancer aimed at her head, and Ea gently bowed her upper body to avoid it. The two of them breathed so heavily, exhausted and worn. Ea flashed a smirk.

Shhhng!

The spear in her right hand screeched. The red magic covering the blade instantly boosted its power but consumed the blade’s durability in return.

Ea thrust her gleaming blade, going straight for the Blue Lancer.

“!”

Jeanne panicked as she tried to draw her lance, but Ea’s spear was faster than that. Lance’s durability, which had already reached the limit, could no longer withstand Ea’s attack, and his lance broke right before her eyes. Of course, the Flying Fighter’s spear had been blunted by her previous attacks, but it didn’t matter at all. She had two of them, and giving up one of them was no big deal to her.

Ea managed to break the lance, and in a victorious final blow, she sliced her dull blade at Jeanne one more time, through the gaps in the armor of her right hand. Jeanne sucked up the pain with clenched teeth, swinging what was left of her lance before staggering.

However, Ea stepped back and evaded, launching back at her with a heavy kick to her shield.

The Blue Lancer tripped out of balance, stumbling a few steps back until her back slammed to the wall. The loud clanking of her armor rang in the air as she met the concrete.

“I think I won? Blue Lancer, what do you think?” Ea laughed through her clenched teeth, catching all her breath. And as she proclaimed, Jeanne had lost.

Jeanne glanced at her lance through her faceplate, heart dropping at the sight of its blunt edge. Her eyes dropped to her arm, where Ea had tried to slice through the gaps of her armor, feeling the heat of the attempt cutting her skin ever so slightly.

“…”

The Blue Lancer took a deep breath and paused for a moment, letting the battle sink in. This was a chance to swing her shield, but her pride stopped the sly attack in their moment of vulnerability.

‘Are you still there?’

“…I see. I lost.” Jeanne responded softly, admitting her defeat.

Accepting her fate, she slowly bowed her head and lowered her shield. Completely defenseless, if the Fighter stabbed her should she choose, she would die. The Flying Fighter burst into another boisterous laughter as she reveled her moment of victory.

Slowly, Ea’s laughter began to sing like music in her ears.

Jeanne closed her eyes. But before she could, something moved under her feet, covered by the shield. She wished not to worry about what happened in her resting place, but it nonetheless caught her attention.

‘The floor?’

The floor covered with white asbestos was full of rubble and dirt, just as it did before. But another look at it, Jeanne spotted hazy, black energy slithering the floor. It was a shadow, dying the floor around her like an ink dissolved in water. She blinked in disbelief until she knew she was not hallucinating. Sooner, her blue eyes calmed at the sight of it.

‘Is this the death that they spoke of?’

She felt like she hung at the end of her life, and the shadow was death coming to take her home.

Born as a nobleman in the Byron Empire, she lived a life far from poverty. She reached great efforts to learn the responsibilities and duties that nobles had and put them into practice. She wanted to live a righteous life, and she worked tirelessly to achieve my dreams. For her dedication, her talents were unyielding.

Eventually, she joined the Blue Lancers, one of the empire’s most honored ranks. Many young people have obtained the admirable job they hoped for. And for Jeanne, she joined with the promise of making her family’s name a legend, but it seemed that her very dream was the cause of her demise.

A ruthless Baekje Flying Fighter defeated her, and her skills, which she thought were outstanding, proved to be insufficient. Jeanne fought with what she had, and for that, she accepted her death humbly. She had no regrets.

‘No. I might have regrets.’

Jeanne stopped herself before her mind could go astray. She felt like her like was soon to flash before her eyes. And to not leave any regrets, the noble Lancer decided to comply with her imminent death. The laughter of her opponent died down.

“Your voice sounds pleasant,” Jeanne mumbled through her daze.

“Oh, are you daring to be sarcastic right now?”

“I had no intentions of that. I was honest. It sounded like music.”

Ea watched Jeanne blankly for a moment before offering a smile.

“Thank you for that. But I have to finish this now. It was pretty fun.”

Ea approached her slowly. The tip of her spear dragged on the concrete floor.

Preparing for death to come, Jeanne closed her eyes shut.

…

…

…

However, her time of death was yet to come.

The black shade patiently waiting beneath her frame shot out from behind her shield like the surge of power came from Jeanne herself.

“What?!”

As Ea approached with her the intent to kill, the shadow sent her tumbling back, only to find herself standing on a ground covered by the darkness underneath. Despite the strange phenomenon, nothing happened beyond it. The shadow stayed on the ground, and Ea merely glared at Jeanne. This was a skill she had never heard of.

“What did you do?”