Sora Yatagami was a young boy who lost everything. His parents were framed by a mistake they never commit.
After that none of his friends and other family wants to take him in. And thanks to that Sora lose trust in people and the idea of being in a...
Both Eugeo's Blue Rose Sword and Zora's black blade carved light-green trails in the darkened chamber.
The paths formed a perfect symmetry. This was to be expected, as both Zora and Eugeo launched into identical skills simultaneously, including the charging skill Sonic Leap. The timing was perfectly aligned, such that the sword tips reached the peak of their curve, flashing brighter to indicate the attack power was at its maximum potential, at precisely the same moment before silver and black edges collided.
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Zora didn't just execute the technique. He used the tension in his feet, rotation of his body, and swing of his arms as three separate accelerative forces on the attack. Even so, Eugeo's Sonic Leap wasn't even a microsecond slower than Zora's. Eugeo had pushed his as far as it could go, just like Zora had. And Zora hadn't even fully taught Eugeo how to do that yet.
Somehow, when Zora hadn't been paying attention, Eugeo had kept patiently, stubbornly swinging away. Hundreds of times, every single day, until he could hear the voice of the sword.
Zora: How?
Zora grunted under his breath as their swords clashed at their intersection point.
Zora: How did you lose to the Synthesis Ritual? The reason you studied the blade...the reason you left Rulid for Centoria was to take back your childhood friend Alice. Right?
Eugeo:...
Eugeo stood firm, blocking Zora's sword. As Eugeo had warned before they started, he had nothing more to say to Zora—his lips were shut tight. Zora felt like he saw a glimmer in Eugeo's green eyes the moment he heard the name Alice, but whatever that was, it was instantly swallowed by darkness. Perhaps it was nothing more than a trick of the eyes, caused by the green glow coming from the swords.
If their stalemate continued for a few seconds longer, the Sonic Leaps would expire, ushering them into a furious close-range swordfight. At that point, Zora wouldn't have the time to think. He used the brief recess to furiously spur his mind onward.
Integrity Knights were created through direct operation of their souls, in what was called the Synthesis Ritual. It involved extracting a crystal of memories from the subject's mind and replacing it with a device that forced their loyalty, an object called a Piety Module.
The moment Eldrie had heard his mother's name, he'd become unstable, and the Piety Module had begun to emerge from his forehead. That meant that in order to make him an Integrity Knight, Administrator had stolen his memories of his mother.
The other knights must've lost similarly precious memories. For Deusolbert, it was likely the memory of his wife. For Fanatio and Bercouli, Zora couldn't be sure yet, but he imagined it was either families or lovers.
Zora(mind): So who would it be for Alice?
The golden knight was back against the wall, watching the fight between Eugeo and Zora. The most probable answer was her little sister, Selka, who was still living back in Rulid. When Zora had casually dropped Selka's name while they were resting on the terrace ledge outside the tower, Alice had reacted violently. She'd cried at the mention of her sister and even sworn rebellion against the Axiom Church.
