Johannes Volkner bid farewell to Pedro Cabral. The moment that Lady Tomoe uttered the name of her Aristeia, the man's fate had been sealed as her blade soared upwards in a single, graceful arc. His head went flying, his sword tossed aside in the same instant. It landed right in front of Yoshinaka's feet, and he bowed his head forwards. He did not crouch down to pick up the head, but simply stepped forward over it towards the makeshift arena where the two had fought. Before him, Pedro's body began to break apart, revealing the clay vessel that had held his spirit. Johannes could see that Wilhelm of all people seemed to have an adverse reaction, dropping to his knees as if a dear friend had been wounded. Did he care, even for that monster of a man? Even though his death would potentially earn them a better and more moral ally, and he had been so wretched?

  Yoshinaka craned his helmet down, looking the older woman in the face. "Then, shall I be your second match? Or have you successfully fulfilled your obligations, Lady Tomoe?"

  The air was still for several seconds after that, as they locked eyes. Yoshinaka placed one hand on the large, sheathed blade at his side, clearly ready to fight if needed. Tomoe casually pointed her naginata's blade, still sleek with blood, down before raising the blade up and holding it vertically. "There's no need for that, my Lord. I have fulfilled my obligations, and I am ready to fight beside you once more."

  Johannes couldn't particularly see, but given the way that Yoshinaka froze up, he thought the man might have a surprised look on his face.

  "Right, of course. Then, once more I will let you ride by my side. You should swear fealty not just to me, but to the man who summoned me. He's a fresh child of a man, but he has a good heart." With those words, he took his hand away from his blade and casually pointed a thumb over his shoulder to Aylin.

  "That's... A man, my Lord?"

  Yoshinaka cleared his throat. "Sorry, not her. This one." Glancing back at the onlookers, he adjusted his angle a bit, pointing his thumb to Wilhelm. Wilhelm had been whispering and speaking to himself for some time during the exchange, but seemed to finally clear up a bit when he realized people were looking his way. Standing back up, he dusted off the formal suit he seemed so comfortable wearing, before giving a light wave and a smile.

  "Hello, Miss Tomoe. I hope that you will be comfortable fighting with us, even given some of our allies." Despite how uncomfortable he had been moments ago, he seemed to perfectly snap out of it, offering her some kind words before stepping forward and offering a handshake.

  Soon enough, the entire group had begun to head back, in somewhat worse spirits. While they had lost a member nobody particularly wanted to work with, and even gained a new ally, it came with a bitter cost. Tadakatsu had died, sacrificing himself to push Wilhelm away from whatever that horrifying strike had been. Johannes could feel that the answer was on the tip of his tongue, but he wasn't sure just how to answer it. There was no visible machine or mechanism that caused the blast, nor any present Spirits that Johannes could see, besides the ones in their own party. While it could theoretically be an Artifact or Aristeia of a traitor, or even the raw authority of a god or godly beast, Johannes had a feeling that it was none of the above. The missing water had to connect to it, as there was no other indication of a drought, but how? Was it perhaps some authority of the sun being used to bake the area, and then concentrated to strike down heretics who came too close to their city?

  He still was unsure, but he felt that he might be edging closer to the truth of the matter, as they arrived back at the village. Ponce de León looked over their party with a dour and suspicious gaze. It was obvious as to why - they'd returned without two of their party.

  Martin stepped forward, bowing lightly. "Se?or León, we are sorry to report that we were spotted by some bizarre manner when scouting the enemy city out. While we did not locate any enemy Spirits in our reconnaissance, we were struck with enemy artillery. A blast from the heavens took down Honda Tadakatsu, and an enemy Spirit also defeated Pedro himself in an honorable duel."

  Each word seemed to make the Governor grimace more, and by the end Johannes thought he would slap the apologetic man, but Martin simply bowed his head and closed his eyes, bracing for it. The slap never actually came, and Martin continued to elaborate. "Despite this, we have made some gains. As you can see, we were joined by an enemy combatant of particular prowess, the Hod classification Spirit, Lady Tomoe." He took a step aside, so that the Governor could see past him, yet did not stop speaking.

  "In this, regrettably, we have still lost out, but this scouting mission would always be risky. The enemy's Pagan gods are guarding them, and it is through the providence of God himself that we may prevail over them." Finally, he finished his speech, reaching forwards and placing a hand on the Governor's shoulder as he opened his eyes once more. "I am sorry for your loss. Truly. He was a Spirit, but he was clearly a man of similar temperament and disposition to yourself. Above all else, he was a comrade in arms, and losing such a comrade is never an easy thing."

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  It was then that the Governor really did slap him, before turning away. "Do not assume me to be such a soft man. Ready yourselves for the next three days, you can use Pedro's old lab in the other village, or the smaller workshop he set up here. We assault them then, no earlier. I will not have more of my men die needlessly."

  Despite being slapped across the face, Martin seemed satisfied, a light smile on his face as he watched the Governor leave.

  Without a word, Johannes moved onwards, entering the village and urging the forces of Heliopolis to follow him forth. He briefly spoke with one of the colonists, and found the secondary workshop where Pedro had set up his craft, as well as where the rest of the armaments they'd wheeled into the village had been taken the night before. Many of the Callers had sat down immediately to check and maintain their typical-use gear, but Johannes found himself with a bit of a different idea. The situation they were in was clearly going to only get more dangerous, and in the next few days they would surely encounter more enemies. Boudica, the massive plane, and Lady Tomoe made one thing clear as a trio - on an individual level, the enemy Spirits were stronger than the ones allied to them. They could make up for that difference in the number of Spirits, or through clever strategy, but that was impossible with next to no intelligence on enemy forces.

  That meant there was only one reliable way they could make up the difference in firepower, and that was the Callers themselves. He examined the blade he'd retrieved from Pedro's other workshop, looking it over. The sword itself was amazingly well put together, yet he doubted that he could put it to effective use. He was no trained fencer, and that went doubly when facing an opponent with superhuman strength or speed. Yet, if he were to use its capacity for magical energy storage, and use it as a vessel for other capabilities, like support magic or a sneak attack, he could significantly boost the odds of being helpful.

  He found that the pommel of the sword was actually threaded onto the tang, a development he thought had been a bit more modern. Still, unscrewing it, he couldn't help but consider an idea, given the gem-studded pommel and his existing Bellende Hunde wand. It would drastically affect the weight of the sword itself, but he didn't have to worry about proper swordsmanship at the moment. Using Thurisaz, the Rune of thorns, giants, and concentrated force, he slowly began to bore a hole through the center of the tang, being careful not to break out into the rest of the handle and completely compromise the weapon. After enough time, he had a long, narrow hole, and sawed down the base of Bellende Hunde, which had no rune arrays. It would be functionally unusable as a wand in crisis situations, but either it would be permanently left inside the tang as a 'holder', or he would die long before that mattered.

  Before inserting the wand, he used it for one last thing, and couldn't help but realize that he should have ordered his techniques a bit better as he held the awkwardly stubby wand and began to carve into the length of the blade. Not only would removing extra material from further up on the blade allow for rebalancing some of the weight he'd shifted, but it would only slightly compromise the sword itself in the process. If he was going to fight Spirits, he needed a rune array that could necessarily boost his capability against Spirits of all kinds.

  Engraving the sword with the array in question, he started with Sowilo, the rune of the sun itself, then Tiwaz, the rune of Tyr, and of order and calls to war. In merkstave, that is, vertically, he placed Ehwaz, the rune of the Horse, and of progress and skilled movements. By placing it as such, he blockaded its meaning, forming an inversion and a way to help target that movement. Next was Kenaz, the rune of torches, eyes, and illumination, in reversed position for much a similar reason. Afterwards, he finished with Eihwaz, the rune representing the yew tree, and the cycle of death, rebirth, and the significant lifeforce there of, and Nauthiz, the rune of requirement symbolizing constraints and hardships.

  By the time he had finished, he noticed the sun had shifted notably, and most of the other Callers had left the workshop for the day, leaving him to his devices. He could feel that most of his magical energy pool had drained away in the several hours he'd been engraving, but he looked down at the blade's new array, and found himself quite proud. STEKEN, that is, Stechen, was a rune array roughly meaning to stab in its base word, yet by reading the individual runes, one came with a longer, almost poetic meaning. 'The sun's rays are called to battle, regardless of the foe's progress. As they find themselves unenlightened, the cycle of death and rebirth constrains and calls to them all.'

  In other words, it would strike regardless of things like status, a weapon designed to strike at a Spirit as well as it could a mortal man. He had called into question the sun specifically because of its potent properties in banishing Spirits of all forms, helping to make it just a bit more capable in that regard. Yet, the actual power of the sword was lacking in that regard, he doubted that just swinging it towards a Spirit would be capable of slaying them. Placing the Bellende Hunde wand inside of the tang, he used the tools present at the workshop to once more thread the pommel on, before locking it tightly by burning the joining of wood and steel just slightly.

  Testing to make sure it would stay together, he swung it through the air a few times, as hard as he could, before coursing his magical energy into it in the same manner he had the original wand. There was slightly more resistance, but it ultimately worked more or less the same, and he soon felt the energy stored within the gem as well, available at his fingertips even if his own reserves were spent. By utilizing his Runes through the sword, rather than the original wand, he could apply the anti-spirit properties to them for just a slight extra cost.

  Perhaps a little too proud of his new weapon, he decided that it needed a name of its own, one that honored the original item he had cannibalized to make it, yet clearly differentiated it as its own evolution of that concept. Beissende Hunde. If the previous 'barking dog' was a threat, this 'biting dog' would be the blade to make good on that threat.