For a moment, the two men simply stared at each other, measuring their counterpart with their eyes.
On one side, Ume with his sword already drawn, a single piece of armor adorning his chest and a mix of grief, anger, and satisfaction on his face.
On the other side, Lukas, in his cadet's clothing with his sword still securely hidden in the scabbard by his side, no armor whatsoever beyond just his thick clothing and a look of complete disregard on his face.
Two men who only ever met before on the training grounds and during the march, never to actually exchange a word. And now, they stood on the blood-soaked ground of the Baskar tower… Or, as would be more fitting to name it, Baskar towers or Baskar Fortress Complex.
"Why?"
Ume finally broke the silence with just one word, a simple question.
A question that made Lukas raise his eyebrows.
"Seriously?" he asked back, leaning his head off to the side while openly holding back laughter. "Are you seriously asking me this?"
His lips trembled.
The ask of holding back his amusement was quite tall.
"Why are you doing something so stupid?" Ume added on to his question, turning it from an extremely broad one to a narrow and precise version. "You know that the only penalty for desertion is torture and death!"
"Desertion?" Lukas raised his eyebrows. "That only applies to the members of the army. And I never was a part of yours."
Not even when Ume brought up the consequences of leaving the military camp did Lukas lose any of his confidence. Instead, his lips quivered, slowly turning into an open smirk.
"If it's about how you've been summoned…"
"It's not," Lukas cut Ume's attempts short. "I was never in your army because I already took an oath that forbids me from ever joining any other force besides the one I'm actually a part of. So," he leaned his head to the side, "rather than deserting, I'm merely making an exit after learning all there was to learn about this rotten empire."
There was a lot one could learn just from observing the military traditions of a country. The way cadets were treated, the sort of food they were provided with, even the way the logistics of the military were organized—all of those things were a result of former experiences that shaped the current force of the Plenarian empire.
But it was only upon touching this bloodstained ground that Lukas finally got the full picture.
The images he saw?
Most of them were bloody, but innocent.
War was always a part of human civilization. Whether waged for resources, out of personal grudges, or over some historical faults no contemporary person remembered or was affected by, it didn't matter.
'I'm not the judge, jury, and executioner for the societies with different values,' Lukas thought. 'But the sacrificing of the innocent just to get this spell formation work?'
Lukas shook his head.
"You don't look like a soldier," Ume, for the lack of better ideas, attempted to strike from a different angle. "I could still remember how much you've struggled to run a simple course, and you want me to believe you are an actual warrior?!"
In the heat of the moment, Ume raised his sword and pointed its tip right at Lukas' face, even though the distance between the two made it into a pretty much empty threat.
"And who are you to judge that?" Lukas merely smiled in response. "Who are you to tell whether I ran with all my might or merely played the role you expected me to play?"
Once again, silence filled the air between the two. But if one thing changed, it was Ume's understanding of the situation.
'There will be no talking him out of leaving,' he thought, gritting his teeth right as he clenched his fingers over the handle of his sword. Instead of keeping his blade pointed at Lukas' face, he lowered his weapon down while also lowering himself on his knees, readying himself for actual combat.
"I'm going to offer you a way out only once. Go back, and I shall forget about seeing you here. Refuse, and your blood shall sanctify this ground."
For a moment, Lukas' face froze, almost making Ume think that maybe, just maybe, he would consider the proposition.
Then, however, Lukas smiled again.
"Do you know what's your problem?" he asked while leaning his head over his shoulder, still not bothered enough to even pull out his own steel. "As in, with summoning people from another world to reinforce your army and all."
"I'm merely following the orders. You picked the wrong person if you want to blame me for summoning you," Ume squinted his eyes as he countered while taking a single step forward, slowly closing the distance between the two.
"Ah, that wasn't what I meant," Lukas quickly shook his head, even going as far as to reach out with both of his hands and shaking them at his wrists as if to physically cut himself from what Ume just said. "What I meant to bring up is a very core issue of using people from other worlds to add on to your military strength. Sure, there's a whole debate to be had about the morals of doing so, the effectiveness of it and all…"
Ume continued to slowly advance, bit by bit chipping away at the distance between the two.
Just five more steps, and he would be within the range of a lunge, allowing him to execute a lightning-fast strike that not many of his contemporary warriors or soldiers could ever hope to deflect.
And an otherworlder? Even with all the help of his system?
Ume's face suddenly turned dark as he remembered the several instances when he had to cut down promising summoned candidates just like Lukas, even ones with higher ranking fate than him, even ones with swordsmanship-oriented systems.
As for Lukas?
He was weird.
But his fate wasn't all that powerful. And his system had nothing to do with combat to begin with.
In his head, in his mind, Ume could already see how this whole fight would play out.
And so, to buy himself just a little more time, he squinted his eyes and muttered, "enlighten me."
"You can control those who are too weak or timid to bring forth real change," Lukas revealed while Ume advanced two more steps, now only three steps short of his goal.
"But those capable enough to change things around?"
Ume made another step. He was now just two steps short.
Then, Lukas clasped his hands together, somehow invoking an explosion of painfully bright light.
"WHA…!"
Taken by surprise, Ume instinctively raised his left forearm to shield his eyes from the bright glare, while raising his right hand a bit to ready his weapon to defend against Lukas' strike…
But Lukas never attacked. And by the time Ume managed to pry his eyes open, blinking them over and over again to remove the tears obstructing his view, Lukas…?
Lukas was nowhere to be seen.
"Where did you go?!"
Alerted, Ume rapidly turned on his feet, scanning his surroundings in search of the opponent.
'What the hell is this?! Did he somehow cheat on the system assessment? But how?! It has never happened before! And to do that, he would have to be more powerful than Jahel himself!'
Ume gritted his teeth.
He didn't know whether it was possible to change how one's system appeared. As Jahel's blessing, it was a taboo to interfere with it to begin with.
And now he was left dealing with a supposed "healer" system holder who could not only create a bright explosion of light but also managed, in the short few seconds it took him to recover his sight, to slip out!
There was nowhere for Lukas to hide.
The open space between the various elements of the fortification was called a kill-zone for a reason. And yet?
No matter how many times Ume turned around, how much he strained his eyes, he couldn't see a single hint of where that guy was. And even worse, he couldn't see a single hint of just where the hell he went!
"SHOW YOURSELF!"
Swinging his sword at nothing but air, Ume screamed out, the first tinges of fear now revealing themselves in the depths of his soul.
He feared no enemy. If a day came for him to lay his life down, then so be it. He killed enough otherworlders not to fear their favorable fates.
But now? When facing this aberrant?
'Just who the hell is he?!'
Ume gritted his teeth again.
"RUN IF YOU WANT, BUT YOU SHALL NEVER ESCAPE THIS PLACE!" he screamed out from the bottom of his lungs before dropping all hesitation and activating his trump card, the confusion spell.
A spell based on massive fortifications, infused with armies' worth of life-essence and blood. A spell capable of singlehandedly dealing with entire armies all on its own.
A spell… that didn't respond to his call.
"And what makes you think that?" Lukas asked, his voice appearing right next to Ume's ear.
Ume swung on his feet, his body reacting faster than his mind could command it to. He cut at the air in the direction the voice came from, wasting no time to consider just how that could be to begin with… And yet, his blade was met with no resistance whatsoever, met with nothing beyond the cold air of the late afternoon.
"REVEAL YOURSELF, YOU DEVIL!"
With the seeds of fear now quickly sprouting into flowers of confusion and terror, Ume started to slash all around himself, dashing forth only to turn around and cut behind before transforming a simple slash into a spinning one.
"You thought you could use the spell embedded in this place to hold me prisoner if I proved to be too much for you to handle, didn't you?"
Lukas' voice now gained a mocking tone, almost as if he was making fun of Ume right in his face, knowing full well the man would be powerless to retaliate.
"Tell me, mister drill sergeant," Lukas' voice continued to ring in Ume's ears, not bothered by him lashing out in the slightest. "Now that I took over this fun little spell, how do you plan on ever escaping it?"