Crest of the Strongest Knight

Chapter 30 - Jade Beauty

It was time to act.

Sakura leapt from the tree, descending upon the Jade Beauty and slamming her to the ground. Though the Jade Beauty was strong, Sakura wasn't worried as she leveraged her superior momentum to push her opponent into the muck she'd discovered just moments ago.

"G-Guh! What is this!?"

Sakura ignored the Jade Beauty's feeble attempts to squirm out of the thick mud that encased the two of them. While something of this caliber normally wouldn't have posed an obstacle for a Jade Beauty, the mud's quicksand-like consistency coupled with Sakura's mounted position made it pretty much impossible for anyone but a knight to escape.

Quickly, Sakura wrapped her hands around Viviane's head and focused intently, extracting as much ki as she could in a single attempt.

A long time ago, she'd learned that the only way to prevent a Jade Beauty's transformation was to forcefully extract the overflowing ki before the transformation was complete. In theory, it was simple. In practice, Sakura found it far more difficult than she'd anticipated.

Please work, please work! Please just work!

A second later, Viviane screamed, her howl of pain piercing through the thick canopy of the trees and reaching upward into the sky.

The sound was deafening, but hope returned to Sakura's eyes. It was a single coherent sound unlike the jumbled swarm of voices that belonged to the Jade Beauty.

It was Viviane's scream.

"Viviane! Viviane!" Sakura cried urgently. "That's you right!?"

"U-Uwaaaah! S-Sakura...!" Viviane blubbered as tears began running down her face even before the emerald taint could fully fade from her features.The sharp claw-like nature of her nails that were previously digging into Sakura's arms had receded, leaving long gashes in the foreign lady's arms.

Blood seeped from her wounds, but Sakura paid it no mind. Instead, she grabbed hold of Viviane's arms and quickly pulled her upright. If Viviane didn't refine the ki in time, this would all be for naught.

"It's not over yet, Viviane! I know it's a lot to ask, but you have to focus right now!"

"W-Weh? W-What do you mean it's not over!? I... I...!"

"Viviane!" Sakura shook her, perhaps a little too hard. "You have to trust me! Remember how you felt when you first absorbed ki? You have to remember that feeling right now!"

Viviane was clearly still panicked, but she struggled to focus as she recognized Sakura's urgency. "O-Okay! Okay! I just don't want to get t-taken over by that thing again!"

"Hold onto my hands tightly, alright? We're going to fix this right now!"

"Y-Yeah! Okay!"

"On the count of three! One... two... three!"

Viviane wrenched her eyes shut, trying her best to summon an image of Medrauta to her mind. Gleaming silver hair, brilliant blue eyes, and most of all the warm smile that refused to give up, no matter the obstacle before her.

I-I can do it! My journey's only beginning! Help me, Medrauta! At once, that familiar warmth flooded Viviane's body once more, coursing through her entire being. But this time, that feeling was almost overwhelming. It poured out from her body, touching every tree and every blade of grass around her.

"L-Lady Sakura! I feel so... big! It's almost like there's a second me!"

"That's right, but don't focus on that, Viviane! Focus on the rhythm of your heartbeat and with each pulse, you have to draw that warmth closer and closer, got that!?"

"I-I'll do my best! Closer and closer...!"

Sakura's eyes widened the moment Viviane started refining the ki within her body. The overflow was sucked in precipitously, so much so that Sakura didn't even have time to react. She'd intended to help Viviane through the process by absorbing some of the ki, but the Avalynian noblewoman had managed just fine.

What the hell!? I thought she was weak, but is she actually a genius...!? This is insane!

"U-Uhm! It can't get any closer, Lady Sakura! What do I do!? I-It feels like I'm going to explode!" Viviane's voice snapped Sakura back to reality.

"That's fine! Let it unravel slowly. If you can visualize the clearing we were in, then that's even better."

"G-Got it!"

Bit by bit, the surplus ki flowed out from Viviane's body, returning to the forest where it belonged. It trailed through the air in the form of thin green threads like a brilliant aurora, weaving itself back into the trees, the bushes, and the grass as the clearing gradually returned to life.

With her eyes closed, Viviane could not see the gossamer strands of emerald slowly flowing back into the flora whence they came. Yet, she alone was privy to the strange intimacy that suffused her very being.

Each breath she took breathed life into the trees, and every sway of her hair in the wind was mirrored by the countless blades of grass regaining their lives. As ki flowed from her body and returned to the forest, she was entwined with them in a sort of oneness that allowed her to feel everything that the forest felt and see everything that it saw.

And as the last thread of light departed from her body, for a very brief moment Viviane and the forest were one.

She gasped deeply at the magnitude of sheer life that the forest not only possessed, but supported. Both the fragility and the resilience of life, Viviane came to understand very well.

And though the immensity of her enlightenment frightened her, it also gave her hope.

Throughout all this, Sakura couldn't help but marvel at the sight speechlessly. After all, it was the first time she'd ever seen something like this before.

Only when Viviane finally opened her eyes did Sakura dare speak.

"...You did it, Viviane."

Viviane nodded slowly. Cautiously. Though she no longer felt as if she wanted to explode, she could feel an almost boundless source of energy circulating within herself. "...I never wanna do that ever again," she laughed.

Sakura let out a peal of laughter before collapsing onto the ground, a great deal of terror and anxiety lifting off her shoulders all at once.

"Yeah. You can say that again."