Kapitel 63: Seraphim Princess - Chapter 62 - Conflict of Pride

"You can ask if you're curious." Cebrail said, looking at Elmenhilde from the corner of her eye.

"???"

"Indeed the truth is I cannot acquire Excalibur. Not just because I'm supposedly 'unworthy' but also because I simply can't use it."

"Oh…" The truth was Elmenhilde wasn't all that curious at all as to why Cebrail didn't get Excalibur, but it was pretty nice seeing the Seraphim Princess acting so childish. It was sort of like a kid saying "I could have beaten you if I wanted, I just wasn't trying!" Classic excuse.

"If I were to try and use Excalibur its holy powers would overwhelm me. Carnwennan is just right for me." Cebrail looked at the short sword which vibrated at the Angels' comment.

(So these legendary weapons really do have some kind of sentience. Flattery works on it quite nicely.) Cebrail thought saving the information for use in the future.

"Well if you're happy I guess?" Elmenhilde didn't know exactly how to respond.

Suddenly Cebrail stops in her tracks as the two girls spot her secret base.

"Wait Emmy…"

"Huh?"

"Come here."

Elmenhilde, doing as Cebrail told her with a look of confusion, got close to Cebrail only to have her consciousness fade as Cebrail hit her on the back of the neck.

Elmenhilde fell over immediately into Cebrail's arms and then was dragged across the ground by her collar.

"To think the moment you sensed my presence you would be so ruthless as to knock out your own ally." Marilyn's voice came from in front of Cebrail as the woman herself walked from behind a tree. "And to think you could build a house here in Brocéliande."

Though Cebrail didn't know that that was the name of this place she didn't particularly care, however, Marilyn very much did. Though it was simple for Marilyn to come here as she was half Fairy. Cebrail was related to her on her Human side and did not have a single drop of Fairy blood in her. Nor was she some legend that could be misunderstood as a kind of Fairy. This place protected by the Lady of the Lake was a sanctuary for Fairies not under the rule of Titania and Oberon, and a place no one could step foot in so casually as the Lady of the Lake was comparable to the original Merlin.

Cebrail didn't respond instead she dropped Elmenhilde onto the ground a drew her new blade in one swift motion.

"Break." She muttered as a barrier formed around her and he pointed the tip of her sword towards her aunt.

Instantly a blast of silvery Magic power erupted from the blade enveloping the whole area in front of Cebrail.

On instinct, Cebrail tossed Carnwennan onto the ground much to the blade's chagrin.

"Cheep! Cheep!" Epis cried out.

"Oh right, my mistake Nany. I'm used to my weapons breaking after I use them once." Cebrail apologized to the blade and picked it up as the dust from Cebrail's blast began to settle.

"Striking first without hesitation…perhaps you aren't as much of a moron as I thought. Though you still aren't very cute at all." Marilyn's voice came from above where she was floating in the sky outside of the blast radius of the Angels' last attack.

"I'm not cute? Perhaps you should get your eyes checked." Cebrail responded sheathing her blade casually. "Why are you here anyways? Did you really just want to see me again as quickly as possible?"

Marilyn flies down towards her niece at high speeds producing a burst of wind behind her.

Cebrail responded instantly by moving to draw her short sword and expanding her barrier.

The moment Marilyn got close with her sword brought back to strike she vanished and appeared behind her.

Her blade came down towards Cebrail's neck. The Seraphim Princess didn't hesitate for even a moment as she spun and the two clashed blades and the two backed off from each other.

Looking next to Cebrail Marilyn immediately noticed that the Vampire was gone.

(How curious. The Fairies must have taken the Vampire.) Marilyn noted it down, perhaps this had something to do with why she was allowed to stay in Brocéliande. (But why do the Fairies like her so much? Could it really be just her Royal Authority?)

"You should understand that… how do they say it these days?" Cebrail questioned sheathing her sword once again, she didn't really get the lingo of the world so it took her a bit of thinking to find the right term. "Ah yes… I am going to DOG WALK you for disrespecting me by stupidly attacking my subordinate when I was standing right there."

"Are you still mad about tha-"

Marilyn in the middle of her words was forced to duck as Cebrail slashed her sword before sheathing it once again.

(Yet again she attacked without producing even a single ounce of intent. Her eyes don't follow where she's attacking either.) Marilyn found it pretty tedious, such attacks were impossible for a regular person. What kind of sentient creature could attack another one without any intent to kill or even at the very least the intent to harm? A crazy person that's what. Just like her brother.

The moment the sword clicked into the sheath another slash came out and Marilyn moved out of the way with a step to the side.

"Utterly ridiculous. Do any thoughts even go through your head while you fight?" Marilyn grumbles in annoyance before charging.

"Moron. What thoughts are needed in battle? Who, where, and most importantly why?" Cebrail charged as well and the two clashed fiercely. Slash after slash created the beautiful sound of battle which echoed across the forest.

It was something of a stalemate until Cebrail attempting to stab Marilyn was tripped by her aunt as the woman dodged the attack.

The mage seized the opportunity and made to slash Cebrail however another barrier was formed by her Sacred Gear and Cebrail vanished.

Her position was replaced by a flower which was cut in two.

(She baited me?) Marilyn thought as Cebrail teleported behind her with an outstretched hand.

She was calm as a cucumber. Because she was confident in the saying "surprise attacks only work once." As if to prove this Marilyn reacted instantly and kicked Cebrail behind her.

The Seraphim Princess barely managed to block with the sheathed Carnwennan sending her flying into a tree.

"Ugh!" Her back slammed into the tree and before she could even begin to recover Marilyn was on top of her stabbing towards her with her iron sword.

"Che. Eep." A barrier formed around them and a mound of earth rose up blocking the attack.

Though it was destroyed it gave Cebrail enough time to recover her footing and move to the side to gain some distance.

"Chepipipi~" Epis sang from Cebrail's hair.

"Don't waste your energy like that." Cebrail scolded her Sacred Gear as she could have simply evaded the strike.

"Cheep! Cheep! Cheep!"

"What do you mean you understand what Viviane was trying to tell you?" Cebrail asked as Marilyn charged her once again. Her speed was overwhelming and Cebrail could only really brave herself.

"Cheep. Cheep." However, Epis erected another mound of dirt forcing Marilyn to cut through it.

Cebrail stabs toward her aunt once again but is parried.

(She's not letting her guard down at all.) Cebrail thinks moving back once again.

"Pi. Eep."

"Natural phenomenon? I see." Cebrail nodded slightly. "So long as you don't get in the way and don't waste energy you can do as you please."

Both Cebrail and Marilyn charged at one another. Cebrail because she couldn't simply allow her aunt to control the fight anymore and Marilyn because she wanted to defeat her niece as quickly as possible so she could use it as an excuse for her brother.

Merlin very much wanted Marilyn to train Cebrail and her group but if Marilyn told him that Cebrail was too weak she just might be able to get out of doing it.

Teaching an uncute girl like Cebrail was not what she wanted to waste her time doing.

"Just admit defeat child so that we can be done with this." Marilyn parried another sword strike and made to attack Cebrail once again with her pummel. Suddenly however an earth spike emerged from the ground cutting Marilyn in her side.

Her eyes widened in disbelief. She should have noticed it sooner however in order to counter Cebrail's intentless attacks which she couldn't detect with instincts alone Marilyn had been focusing almost all of her attention on Cebrail's blade.

It had become obvious to her that Cebrail could not use any of Atypical Properties' debuffs on her due to the gap in power, and she knew Cebrail wasn't as good at using it as Alexander the Great. She was only using one property at a time and constantly refreshing her barrier to create the change.

Marilyn teleported and appeared a small distance away with a dissatisfied Tsk. Now she had to actually teach her, she couldn't just call her weak if she scored a hit on herself. That would basically be the same as calling herself weak even if she wasn't using any magic.

(Perhaps I could say that there's nothing I can teach her?) Marilyn thought but felt that it might not work as a good enough excuse. Plus that would be a compliment to her uncute niece.

"Damn it…" Marilyn muttered in annoyance. Putting a hand on the small wound she used healing magic to fix it along with her clothes.

(Mmm…I could stop right here but then that kid will think she's won…) Marilyn was a very stubborn person despite her looks. (Plus I still haven't gotten very much data on her Sacred Gear.)

Due to this stubbornness, she completely overlooked the fact that she could simply collect all the data she needed simply by training her niece.

In this way, the two were quite similar. Both Cebrail and Marilyn did not like losing, nor were they used to losing at all. Losing to the two of them was as upsetting as having someone kill your dog and eat it in front of you. This was especially true when they were up against people that they didn't like. And man did these two not like each other.

If you were to ask each of them for the reason they would surely give one-word superficial answers that made no sense to the average person. Marilyn might call her uncute but how is that a reason to dislike your own niece so much? Cebrail would just call her irrational but the Seraphim Princess had only known the woman for less than a day.

These two were simply the kind of people that summarized their thoughts too much. The kind of people that simply could not be stopped by an immovable wall no matter how much they claim certain 'impossible' things exist.

To put it in the most simple of ways. Both of them were born strong and in turn, they were born proud.

The only thing really that could stop a fight between two proud people constantly rationalizing their reason to fight with ridiculous excuses was if someone stronger or someone they would listen to showed up to stop them.

If not it was likely the battle would escalate to a… certain point. A very dangerous point.

"Cheep!" Epis said in a dignified squeak her head held high.

"Where are you getting that pride from kid? Don't think that I couldn't have hit her too if I wanted to." Cebrail tried to shut down her Sacred Gears' sudden bout of overconfidence.

"Cheep! Cheep! Ephiii!" Unfortunately, she failed as Epis continued to gloat and spin on Cebrail's head.

"Hmm…" Cebrail decided to let the little thing enjoy itself a bit given that it didn't usually get to have bragging rights.

"I wonder…" Marilyn in her curiosity lifted her sword and pointed it towards Cebrail and uttered a single simple word...

"Break."