After a few miraculous minutes, still without an attack from the monster, Yugo opened his eyes.
"H-How long have I been unconscious?"
"Just a dozen of minutes, but everything's fine now, young master!" Lavitha bleated, her tears on the verge of falling.
As he struggled to his feet, clutching the part of his chest where the bandage had been put, the reaper turned his gaze towards the beast.
"I can feel my Kilith coming back, I suppose the procedure worked, but there's no time to breathe!"
The others looked at him, a worried expression passing on their faces.
Yugo shifted his gaze back to them and asked Willfors to go and regain control of the remaining troops, and encourage them to concentrate their strikes on the dimly glowing seal, located on the belly of the monster.
He particularly insisted on the importance of the archers' salvos, which would have to be carried out at very close intervals, so as not to give the beast the slightest moment of respite.
"Also tell them these two things : first, and you might have noticed it yourself, but the Negacion is growing weaker as the night passes. If we can maintain our strength and continue attacking at least until the first rays of the sun, we will prevail... I think."
Yugo grew silent, then lingered for a bit and stared at the monster, still shakingly fighting against the swarm of humans assaulting it, on the esplanade.
"Second, and most importantly, we might not even have to wait until dawn, as the monster isn't moving any more because it's at the end of its tether, so it might soon be the end of it... if we double up our efforts" added Yugo.
He knew deep down that it wasn't really the case, but as with the first time, this lie —here, saying that the monster was weak and probably dying — would raise the morale of the combatants, which would fill the area with a wave of positive energy, and therefore weaken the negative influence of the surrounding Kilith.
All this to say that an excess of goodwill, and a wave of enthusiasm, would result in a weakening of this creature, which sprang up, fed and persisted in places where there was already a dense mass of negative emotions, mixed with the natural Kilith in the area.
The banneret obeyed and returned to the improvised battlefield, where he passed on the information to his troops and the courageous inhabitants, who were resisting the treachery that fate could sometimes display, particularly on that night.
Yugo sensed that although the monster was weakening, it was necessary to put an end to it as quickly as possible before the situation turned into a war of attrition. A war they would eventually lose, simply because of the drop in morale and energy.
...Or would win, if eventually they didn't all die until the sun appeared. Who knew what this monster had in its reserves, after all ?
Still, they had to fight, no matter what. Not like they even had a choice.
He stretched and, rising from his little warm-up, addressed Doctor Tory.
"Doctor... I know you've just stabilised me and all, but I have to go there again."
The lady gazed at the esplanade and removed the round pair of glasses that had been resting on her small nose. She lingered for a bit, then looked at the young Reaper intently.
After a couple moments, she sighed.
"I suppose no matter what I say, you're still going to try and go, aren't you?"
Yugo looked at her for a second or two, unable to respond verbally, and just nodded.
Clenching her fist, Tory was feeling frustrated. In fact, she even felt powerless and couldn't accept the fact that she should be sending someone she had just saved, especially such a young boy, back to the scrap heap.
Her oath as a doctor didn't permit her to make such a decision, and it only got more complicated when she looked at the young man, who reminded her horribly of her own children, one of whom was more or less the same age as the boy in front of her.
In all fairness, Tory understood more than clearly the urgency of this dire situation, yet she could not bring herself to willingly send such a young person, full of promise, into a battle which — although relatively under control by now — could be his last.
Was it her maternal instincts, her duty as a doctor, or something else at work in this internal conflict raging between her heart and her head? She couldn't say, but the fact remained that she refused, in all conscience, to sacrifice this child who had already done so much for her community.
...Even if that was his original mission.
And yet, as strongly as she wanted to tell him not to tempt the devil, especially in his state, she accepted the harsh reality of things: Yugo was a reaper, and so it was his duty to purify this creature.
For him, it was a sworn and solemn duty he had to fulfil. Even if it meant losing his life. He had been aware of this for a long time, and she was no one to deny his resolve.
So, in the end, Tory sighed again, her hands trembling with anxiety. It was really difficult for her to accept this.
But she resigned herself.
"Go ahead... but don't overdo it, young master." she finally exhaled.
Yugo nodded, a smile of gratitude floating on his lips.
He immediately rushed onto the battlefield and, in his stride, picked up a pebble which he threw in the direction of one of the civilian combatants, who was about to be hit by a jet of rubble.
Transposing himself to the piece of stone, Yugo instantly activated his barrier in front of the person.
The small shower of rubble bounced off the bluish surface of the energy barrier and fell into the surrounding area, raising a small cloud of dust as it did so.
"Are you okay?!" asked Yugo to the civilian.
The man nodded and Yugo, reassured, undid the barrier.
Having just recovered from a Kilith rupture, he needed to save his energy as much as possible. So he knew that excessive transposition and barrier incantation would be counterproductive. And he certainly didn't want to tempt the devil.
Yet a fundamental question was emerging from this problem.
'How do I get rid of this creature without abusing my energy?'
He didn't know how, and there didn't seem to be a single clue in the horizon of his mind. Still, he knew he had to find a way out of this whole situation.
Letting out a breath, Yugo set about fighting again, inwardly hoping that the flow of action would allow him to concentrate his mind on the essential, and perhaps find a last-minute trick that would help him put an end to this whole nightmare.
The civilian passed him his sword and withdrew himself from the battlefield, too exhausted and scared to continue. Yugo thanked him and quickly thought of a way to continue exhausting the monster.
Granted, the spike in troop morale had greatly affected the course of the battle, with the Negacion running out of surrounding negative Kilith — and having presumably depleted its own reserves to generate and maintain the huge black beam that had dealt a fateful blow to everyone — they were, indeed, some chances to prevail before the sun showed up.
...But you couldn't rely too much on luck.
In fact, if there was one constant that Yugo had learnt since becoming a reaper, it was that luck was inherently impartial and merciless.
It could befall one or the other of the parties involved in a confrontation, or it could simply benefit whoever had the most data on their side.
Luck was neither good, nor bad. Neither conscious, nor unconscious of whatever could be the outcome. Neither illogical, nor rational.
It just was.
Yugo gripped the pommel of the sword so tightly in his hand that his knuckles turned white, and stared at the monster with the determination of a last hope.
'I don't care if I have to end up with my body in charcoal again! It's my sworn duty to purify this abomination!'
Truth be told, Yugo was right, but not entirely: for a Reaper, tracking down and purifying Negaciones was a sworn duty, but they were also told, during their training, one key thing:
They mustn't make hasty decisions, as it would instantly put their lives and those under their protection at risk.
He remembered this part of the lesson and swallowed his earlier thought, almost regretting having imagined for a moment that he absolutely had to throw his life away to accomplish his mission.
If anything, Doctor Tory would kill him herself if she could hear his thoughts. Granted, Lucile didn't do it first.
Yugo lunged towards the beast and, dodging a piece of debris coming straight at him with a forward roll, cast his flame spell. The sword burst into blazing fire but the blade began to blacken, as the weapon was not made to hold an infusion of Kilith.
Nevertheless, he managed to get closer to the beast and swung sideways, hitting a part of the creature's body where gas was emanating.
The flames spread like a blast around the affected surface and the beast seemed to feel the effects of the burn.
A shrill cry rang out and the monster tried to get to its feet, but before it could make the slightest move, a bolt of lightning struck one of the beast's able-bodied eyes, piercing its skull and exiting through the jaw of the beast. Black blood spurted out, and the massive cloud of black smoke that followed the electric flash blocked out the result of the attack.
"Master Yugo, you were right! The creature is weakening!" Willfors shouted from his side of the esplanade.
Yugo simply nodded and redirected his gaze towards the agonising creature.
Suddenly, as he followed the effect the flames and lightning had on the beast, a flash of ideas went through his head, giving birth to a plan to definitively get rid of the monster.
He threw a small stone towards the knight-banneret and transposed himself to it.
It may have been a waste of energy, but his plan was more than worth it.
Yugo positioned himself just to the left of the leader of the knights and asked him to stand back a little, while signalling to the archers capable of infusing the fire attribute into their Kilith to do so on their arrows just before firing them at the monster.
Some hesitated, but Willfors quickly signalled for them to obey, and they complied.
The jets of arrows flew towards the monster and the air around it burst into flames from the gas emanating from its body.
At the same time, Yugo, who had stepped back with Willfors, told him his plan.
"Willfors, how much lightning can you still generate?"
The man thought for a few seconds and circulated his Kilith to get an estimation of his reserves.
He opened his eyes, and spoke.
"I can still throw three large bolts of lightning like the one from earlier and soak my sword in electricity five or six times... I think"
Yugo lowered his head and made a general examination of the information at his disposal.
He placed his hand in front of his mouth in a half-closed fist and rested his curved index finger on his upper lip.
He raised his head, now sure of what he wanted.
"Good! So if possible use two of them to hit each of the monster's sides now, and on my signal, infuse your electric Kilith on your sword and attack it head-on in the abdomen."
The knight looked at him, a little puzzled at the point of not attacking a third time with a bolt of lightning.
It would have been far more effective to hit the monster with maximum damage in mind, so as to maximise the chances of victory over a creature that appeared to be in agony.
Or, alternatively, use the small discharges and apply them via slashes that could drastically reduce the Negacion's movements, as they had done a few moments earlier.
Such strategies would surely bear fruit, and bring far greater results than whatever Yugo had in mind. Especially when added to the essential value of numbers.
And when it came to numbers, they had a mountainous advantage.
As far as he was concerned, there was something wrong with Yugo's plan, or even the possible outcomes that could result from it. But hey...
... It was a Reaper they were dealing with. And a "Shadow" at that.
So, he decided not to try too hard to find out what the young reaper had in mind. After all, it was commonly agreed that the emissaries of the shadows were quite unique people, not to say fairly strange.
Without trying to dither mentally any more than he already was, Willfors resolved simply to take the request as it was and not waste any more time.
He simply nodded.
"Fine!"
Willfors sighed, still unsatisfied with the request, and returned to the fight.
As he made his way towards the beast, Yugo quickly circulated his Kilith and deduced an estimate of what he could do with the remaining reserves.
"Good! That'll do it... I guess."
He turned and headed towards Karlen's troop, which had stayed behind.
Once there, he addressed the mayor.
"Mr Mayor, do you by any chance have a means of long-distance communication?"
"T-The personal communicator assigned to me... was... er... left at the residence." he whispered.
Yugo looked a little disappointed.
"Here! I've got this external short-range switch," said Aleone, holding out the device wich she took from one of the pocket of her dress.
Handing the communicator, she continued:
"I don't know why you need it, but I hope it'll be useful to you."
Yugo smiled as he looked at the object, and nodded happily.
"It'll do just fine!"
He took the switch, entered a series of alphanumeric characters and waited for the tone.
[Yes! Good evening, what can I do for you?]
"Relay this message urgently to the Scythe agency! Black, crystal, Meroa, anomaly, intervention, scarlet, immediate" said Yugo as soon as he heard the voice at the other end of the network.
He hung up and handed the device to its owner.
"Thank you! You've been a great help, Lady Aleone."
She smiled, pleased to have been useful. For her, doing what was important no matter what the occasion, and no matter what the rules, was her watchword. And at this moment, she did what was right. Just like Doctor Mathyas would.
She took the device and put it back in the small pocket of her dress, on the left side of her hip.
Yugo returned to the battlefield and, as soon as he arrived, avoided a pile of debris coming from the monster.
He picked up a few pebbles, threw one of them into the air and climbed up.
Once at the top, he noticed the giant Stellar Cross hanging behind the monster.
'Good! Now all we have to do is wait for Willfors.'
No sooner had he thought that, than a bolt of lightning ripped through the sky and struck the creature, narrowly missing Yugo.
The beast let out a cry of agony and fell to one side, giving the attackers enough time to strike in unison with a flurry of blades and blows that hit the Negacion and inflicted considerable damage. But the monster eventually got back up.
It launched its tail once more against the defenders, which made another hellish rain of pebbles.
Yugo, who had already landed in the meantime, got back into position and dodged a gigantic piece of rubble. He swiftly got up and tried to head for the front, but a voice rang out in his back, stopping him dead in his tracks.
"LUKA! GET BACK THERE!"
Yugo turned his head and what he saw made him raise his eyebrows in utter horror.
The boy was for a corner, but at the same time, the huge gravel Yugo had just avoided headed in the same direction as the child.
And then—
There was an impact, and shards of rubble spilled everywhere, leaving a cloud of dust.
Rickard screamed, abominated at the thought of what had happened, and dropped to the ground.