(Attendances… plz…)
….
The peaceful, happy sounds of the villagers were shattered in an instant.
A wave of intense, suffocating heat erupted from where Shizue had been standing, accompanied by a concussive blast that sent the nearby goblinas flying like ragdolls.
Their cheerful chatter was cut off mid-sentence, their existence simply snuffed out by the sudden, roaring inferno.
The simple wooden huts nearby, their timbers dried by the sun, began to smoke and then burst into flame, the fire spreading with terrifying speed.
The other goblins, their faces masks of pure, uncomprehending terror, scrambled away, their orderly work dissolving into a frantic rush for survival.
From the heart of the blaze, a raw, triumphant scream echoed through the clearing. It was not a sound of pain, but of freedom, the roar of a caged beast finally unleashed after decades of imprisonment.
It didn't take long for the others to react.
Kaval and Gido, who had been relaxing and chatting just a few moments before, were startled by the explosion.
Their first instinct was that a powerful monster had somehow bypassed their patrols and was attacking the village.
But when they got a clear view of the creature floating in the pillar of fire, a higher elemental fire spirit, their eyes went wide with a dawning, horrified realization that chilled them to the bone.
"Where is Shizue?!" Kaval yelled, his voice tight with panic as he scanned the chaos for their new companion.
"I don't know!" Gido shouted back, his hand gripping the hilt of his sword. "She was outside! We should go find her, she might be hurt!"
"No! Look!" Kaval said, pointing a trembling finger at the floating spirit, his face pale. "Do you see that thing?"
"Yeah! Are you trying to play games right now when our lives are on the line?! And Shizue's too! Where's Reinhard?!"
"Listen, damn it!" Kaval snapped, his adventurer's knowledge overriding his fear. "That's a superior fire elemental! That's Ifrit! The same one that was seen with the hero decades ago, Shizue… Izawa."
"And we have a person with us who wears a mask just like the hero did," Gido said, the pieces clicking together in his mind with sickening speed. "And her name is also Shizue… what was her full name, exactly? We never asked. We just called her Shizue."
"How much do you want to bet," Kaval said, his voice dropping to a horrified whisper, "that her full name is Shizue Izawa?"
"What?!"
As if to confirm their worst fears, one of the goblinas who had been near Shizue, her simple clothes smoldering and her skin red with burns, stumbled toward them.
"Miss Shizue!" she cried, tears streaming down her soot-stained face. "It's Miss Shizue! She was helping us, and then she was in so much pain, and then… she turned into that thing!"
…
Rimuru was in a meeting with the dwarven brothers inside their forge, discussing plans for a new, more advanced furnace, when the sudden, violent explosion of magicules rattled the entire structure.
Great Sage immediately alerted him, its voice calm and analytical in his mind.
[Warning. A high-energy individual with immense magicule reserves has materialized within the village.]
His thoughts raced as he burst out of the forge and saw the pillar of fire consuming the heart of his home.
He didn't even wait to assess the situation.
He shouted to the nearest hobgoblin, his voice a commanding roar that cut through the panic, "Rigurd! Evacuate everyone! Get them outside the village! Take the children, now!"
The workers and villagers were in a frantic rush, but Rigurd and the hobgoblin riders immediately took charge, their training kicking in.
They began herding the terrified goblins away from the blaze, creating a perimeter and getting the non-combatants to safety with a disciplined efficiency born of their recent evolution.
At the same time, Reinhard emerged from the communal cooking area, Ellen right behind him, her face which had confusion written all over it seeing flames and explosions.
"What's happening?!" she yelled over the roar of the flames.
"An attack, it seems," Reinhard said, his gaze fixed on the floating, fiery figure of Ifrit. His not so calm demeanor changed as he saw Ifrit. He turned to her. "Ellen, take the others to a safe area."
"Where are you going?!" she asked, then the answer hit her with the force of a mental punch from her own self.
Of course. He was going to deal with it. The question felt stupid the moment it left her lips.
"Never mind," she said, her voice firm now, her own fear pushed aside by purpose. "I'm taking the others to safety."
"Thanks," Reinhard said, and then he was gone, a silent blur moving toward the center of the inferno.
…
Ifrit, reveling in its newfound freedom, prepared to unleash a wave of fire on the helpless, fleeing goblins below. It raised a hand, and a volley of fireballs, each a streak of incandescent rage, shot toward the terrified creatures.
But before the attack could even reach its targets, a red-haired figure appeared between the fire and the goblins in the blink of an eye.
He didn't raise a shield or prepare a defensive spell.
He just stood there.
The fireballs simply… vanished as they got close to him, extinguishing as if they had hit a wall of absolute nothingness, their fiery energy consumed by an invisible force.
Ifrit turned its blank, burning gaze on this new challenger. It saw no overwhelming aura, no visible magic. In its perception, he was just a frail human, standing in its way.
Ifrit descended, and the ground beneath its feet scorched and turned to molten rock.
Flames swirled around it, multiplying into a dozen identical copies, each one radiating the same intense, suffocating heat.
They all raised their hands in unison, and a single, massive fireball began to form above them, a miniature sun growing larger and larger with each passing second, scorching the very air around it.
They then launched the colossal sphere of destruction toward Reinhard, an attack meant to not only vaporize him but also incinerate all the fleeing goblins behind him.
The massive ball of fire hurtled toward Reinhard. And just like before, just a few feet away from him, it simply dissipated, vanishing into thin air without a sound, its immense energy ceasing to exist.
Reinhard looked up at the confused fire spirit, his expression calm. He muttered a quiet request, a whisper lost in the roar of the flames.
"Requesting the Blessing of Severance."
He didn't want to just slash Ifrit apart. That would mean destroying Shizue's body in a bloody spectacle.
The Blessing of Severance was different. It would allow him to separate one thing from another.
To cut the connection, to sever the spirit from its host, leaving the body unharmed. It was the perfect tool for a delicate operation.
And in the next second, he got it.
[Bestowing Divine Blessing: Severance.]
….
A/N: So, How was it?! Hmmm dont forget to send some power stones if you liked it.
First of all i have tagged a fanfic if you like frieren and gojo you can check it out.
Second of all i have nothing more to say today. Good Night.
Next two chapters are already on my discord.
Melatonin, spawn and many more on my discord … thanks for beta reading this fic and not to mention suggestions too.
Hoped you all liked the chapter and all.
And if you want to read ahead you can do it by just joining my discord server.
&
you can join my discord server: https://discord.gg/5Y7uZ2kN2Y
Or in short just click in join via invite link in your discord and enter this code: 5Y7uZ2kN2Y