The Sword and The Shadow

Saint Realm

Lisana was clad entirely in a black, tight suit. She cut her long, flowing hair short and wrapped it up, leaving only her eyes visible. But no matter what disguise she put on, Alissanda recognized her in an instant.

Lisana wasn't trying to hide her identity from him anyway. Her pink hair color was simply too eye-catching and she didn't want to cause him any trouble by coming as the emperor's fiancee.

But why did she bother? She had already resolved herself to stop Alissanda. Why would she focus on such a small detail? She wasn't aware of the reason herself. She justified her behavior for not wanting to make her reputation tank like Leguna's, despite believing that she wasn't doing anything wrong.

When the sword suddenly interrupted the execution, Innilis, who had accepted her fate, opened her eyes suddenly. Her emerald eyes glowed with hope. But when she saw who was behind the masked face, she turned numb once more.

Lisana flashed about through the crowd and appeared on the execution platform. She turned to look at Innilis.

Is this still the girl I saw back then? She couldn't imagine this woman was actually the cute and mischievous Innilis from back then.

To say that she had changed substantially would be an understatement. She used to have long, beautiful hair, but now they had lost their luster and looked inhumanly pale. Lisana's first thought at the hair was the bones of long-dead people. They were just as pale and lacking in shine. Her hair almost seemed like rusted metal wires. How could any self-respecting woman allow their hair to come to such a state?

However, her hair was far from the only thing that changed. The most shocking shift was her overall looks. Innilis was not more than 27. Given that she trained in magic, she should be in her prime. However, her skin now looked as pale as her hair and there were black warts all over the exposed parts of her skin, even on her face. Her eyes were deep and sunken and there wasn't a trace of red on her lips. She looked so skinny she seemed no different from a leather-wrapped skeleton. Lisana thought for a moment she was looking at a corpse.

Innie, you…" Lisana felt much pity to see her in that state.

"Who… are you?" she asked. She had killed indiscriminately for the past ten years and was now labeled as a devil just like Leguna. The people of the whole continent wanted to get her and end her. How could anyone possibly risk their life to save her now?

Actually, Innilis still had a trace of hope. All she wanted was for Leguna to still be alive. If he was, he would come to save her. It wasn't that she hoped that she could still live. She only wanted to see him one last time. But if Leguna made it there, she would willingly kill herself. She didn't want Leguna to take any more risks for her. She wasn't worth it. She was nothing more than a venomous woman who had numbed herself to killing and wasn't fit to be with Leguna. She believed that she would be better of dead than alive.

So, she was quite happy when she noticed somebody trying to stop the execution, but she lost hope once more after noticing that the person wasn't Leguna.

"Who I am isn't important. Just trust me. I'll protect you as long as I need to until Leguna comes." Lisana stroked Innilis on the head and turned to the gloomy Alissanda.

"Your Imperial Majesty…" Alfreid could long tell who had come. However, this was a personal matter between the two of them. Alfreid would never send those people he had in ambush to attack her.

"All of you, stand down," Alissanda forced himself to say. He took out Lunaminous and went towards the execution platform.

"Why?" he whispered.

"I think you shouldn't do this." She jumped off the execution platform and went to the executioner's blade to pick up Gale.

"Do you think what I'm doing is wrong?" Alissanda growled in a voice only they could hear. "Look! Look at the empire! It's growing even more prosperous! The citizens are leading better and better lives! What I did is bring prosperity back for humanity! I wasn't wrong!"

"I only said you shouldn't do this. I didn't say you were wrong." Lisana twirled the swords in her hand. "There aren't many things in this world that's clearly right or wrong. People merely make different choices. You chose to sacrifice Leguna and the rest, and I chose to stop you. That's all there is."

"Is Leguna more important to you than I am?!" He roared with his impetus, no longer able to control his anger. As a saint-realm expert, his power was now at a level normal mortals couldn't comprehend. A mere impetus blast was enough to disorient the crowd so much they weren't able to hear what he said at all.

She didn't respond and took a resolute step forward. With Gale and Swiftshadow raised, she got into a battle stance.

"Hahahahaha!" Alissanda laughed instead of getting angry. However, everyone could hear the hint of grief in his laughter. After a long moment, he gripped Lunaminous tight. "Looks like you've made up your mind!"

Wham!

The moment he finished his sentence, their battle began. He split Lunaminous into two and danced with them at lightning spin. Lisana also moved about like a specter at blinding speed, striking accurately and swiftly. Even though Alissanda was a saint, her lightning-fast swordsmanship still caused his armor to ring out nonstop from the strikes that landed.

Wham!

Even though she was much faster than him, he didn't react too slowly either. When the opportunity presented itself when Lisana lost her balance from suddenly changing directions, he slammed the flat of his blade against her chest, sending her flying backwards towards the audience seats in the plaza. She seemed embedded into the wall.

"Give up!" he said, wielding both swords as he approached, "The disparity between the saint realm and the high order isn't something you can make up for. I've already held back against you."

Lisana coughed out two mouthfuls of blood, staining her black mask dark crimson. However, she didn't seem to mind. She merely adjusted her breathing and stood back up.

"Don't you understand? You won't be able to withstand my might!" His expression soured even more. He knew well that he was far stronger than her. Even so, she was a swordswoman at the brink of breaking through. Defeating her was easy, but making sure she wasn't harmed badly in the process wasn't. If she was dead set on fighting him to the death, would he really be prepared to kill her?

"Saint-realm power, huh?" Lisana said, letting her power levels surge once more before his eyes. "How do you know I can't match that?"