Part 1

March 14th, 2029.

Today is just another day, harsh day.

Just like it had always been, i woke up from my sleep, clutching my head.

“My head feels funny….”

I headed to the bathroom, washed my body and all.

“Haru, breakfast is ready.”

“Ah, yes. I’ll be there in a bit, Asya.” I answered as i brushed my teeth by the wash table.

I  looked into the mirror in front of me, displaying my appearance.

I  has a long black hair, reaching my shoulder though I  is male. Usually i would tie the sides in a ponytail, leaving the back side like it was. my body frame can be considered skinny. Not too tall, 170 cm at most. My face has a bit feminine charm, though i thought it’s not bad. Maybe if he were to dress myself with a skirt and a frilly cloth, I’d be mistaken for a girl? Well I have no such hobbies so no thank you.

I headed to the dining room after that.

There, I saw Asya in her Maid Mode. She uses her black frilly apron on top of her clothes, her silky black hair tied like a ponytail, but unlike a female athlete’s. It’s more like a housewife’s ponytail to ease movement. She has a very entrancing beauty, calling it god’s gift is by no means an exaggeration. Her body is a bit shorter than me, about the top of her head on the same height as my eyes.

But the most important thing is,

though she’s only 15, her feminine trait has bloomed spectacularly on her chest, and ass on an exploding size, inviting male’s gaze everywhere.

Wondering why she’s in my house so early in the morning?

Because she is my childhood friend.

“Good grief, Haru always wake up late in the morning….” She said as i take my seat, in front of her.

“It’s you who always wake up too early….”

“If Asya weren’t here, what will Haru do about breakfast?”

“I can always eat toast on the way to school.”

“That’s a no! Breakfast must be in a balance nutrition value to give Haru proper nourishment!”

“Are you my mother?” i asked her, sighing.

“Haru is an idiot.” She said, pouting.

“Well, though it’s like you just said, you’ve been a big help always coming here. Thanks, Asya.”

“I-it’s nothing. Asya is Haru’s childhood friend after all.” She said, stuttering. Her face is a bit red? Not something dangerous he hopes.

As the two finished breakfast, the pair tread their legs to school together, just the two of them.

The spring breeze graze my cheek, giving him a nice feeling. The tranquility of the tranquility of the residential area road was very peaceful, I walked as i enjoyed this peaceful atmosphere I’m feeling.

“Hehehe, Asya get to walk with Haru to school again….” Asya said, seemingly happy about it.

“You seemed happy.”

“Of course.”

As we reached school, we make their way to the classroom, shoes changed to indoor slippers.

Asya-sama! Asya-sama!

I would hear that as we passed by people. Of course, that is to be expected. Not only she’s a beauty, she’s also a prodigy in studies and combat. Though her body frame is a bit short, the strength that body carries is frightening.

Though when relaxed, she’s a bit of a klutz… which makes her even cuter.

No one knows this, but when she’s in panic… her thoughts are in disarray she can’t think properly she can’t solve even a simple problem. Although, she rarely panics in reality.

“Today is a good day, right Haru?” She asked.

“No comment.”

“Haru is always so cold in school ….why?”

“I should be the one asking you.” He said as both of them enter the classroom, and take my seat. Asya’s seat is right by my right side.

“You’re pretty, smart and strong, and you’re popular. Everyone likes hanging around with you. Yet why do you still waste your time with an incompetent and gloomy boy like me..?”

“Is Asya….. A bother… to Haru..?” She asked, a bit of uneasiness appear in her voice, tears gathering in her eyes.

“That’s not it. I’m happy that you are here with me. But I don’t want to eat away the blessings you received….if you were to hang around me, you—

“Asya doesn’t want it…” she cut my words.

“Asya doesn’t need… such things like that. Asya doesn’t think…being with Haru is a waste of time..”

“I directed our dialogue in a wrong direction in the morning. Sorry. If that’s what you think then you can do as you like.”

“Yeah, Asya too….”

Silence permeated the atmosphere around the two, but it’s not an unpleasant one. As he felt time went by, he unintentionally peeked at her beautiful eyes, ensnaring himself in her gaze.

“Um, is something wrong, Haru? Haru’s gaze is intense…..”

“Nothing, I’m just appreciating the beauty of your gaze….”

“Uuuu… Haru, not at school, everyone’s looking…”

“Hn?”

Come to think of it, the class is silent devoid of sound. But when he turned my view to my classmates, everyone was actually immersing themselves with their own things.

Ah well.

As the two finished their little chitchat, the bell rang, signaling the start of lesson.

We live in a world, where death is always near. Do you want to know why?

Because of void dimension disasters.

Kingdom of Seyrun, year 1901.

It was the beginning of a disaster, when mankind realize how surprisingly weak they are.

--Excerpt from history compilation archives--

Year 1901, an unknown disaster occurred at the outskirt of the kingdom, making space distortion and from its very center something resembling a crack in space appeared before it finally covered a huge area approximately within 2km radius in a jet-black dome-shaped barrier. Thousands lives were lost.

This disaster, which later be called as "void dimension disaster" occurred again and again in various part of the world, covering various terrains in black dome-shaped barrier. It is not long that only 10 percent of land all over the world remained.

Many scientists and researchers all over the world put their fullest effort to analyze the barrier. While it can always be entered from the outside, the inside of the dome-shaped barrier, is a dimension, later to be called void dimension where magical creatures and various beings supposed to exist only in myth which would be called void creatures in the future lurk.

Many theories came up in order to reclaim territories covered by the jet-black dome-shaped barrier, but no human was able to make it alive to tell the tale whether the theory proved to be right. Thus--

It is evident that no matter which theory is right, combat strength to survive the encounter with void creatures and then analyze is a necessity. Thus begin the pursuit of power of the remaining mankind, which is the kingdom of Seyrun. And when a certain assault team who has that strength finally appeared, they made the first expedition about the void dimension, came back bringing a discovery, finally brought a great step in mankind's liberation.

Seele core.

A magic stone carved from the dead body of a void creature capable of drawing out Mudra imbued weapons, making its wielder have abilities that surpass any weapon mankind had that time. While of course the kind of weapon drawn from the Seele core varies, it is clear as day that the strength it possesses gave mankind a considerable standing against void creatures.

Not only that, the assault team, later to be called the thirteen legendary void slayers of Seyrun also proved that the void dimension can be destroyed by killing the being who rules the dimension, Namely the Void king.

It was the first step for mankind to reclaim their original world.

After finally having a way to learn more, Mankind gradually made researches about the inner energy to use Seele, to finally produce art of magic, later to be called mudra.

Mudra, as in this term is defined as supernatural powers originated from the manipulation of inner energy called prana that every living being has. There are various kinds of mudra, but roughly they are divided into 3

main categories.

Elemental manipulation, Summoning, support mudra.

As time goes on, so does researches and experiments, making more improved armaments in mankind's arsenal.

Little by little, one by one, more void dimensions are destroyed by The Thirteen Legendary Void Slayers of Seyrun, making more developments for mankind's arsenal and magical civilization.

7 years after Kingdom of Seyrun's first victory, Raid of the thirteenth void dimension, at the innermost part of dimension. It was reported the void slayer team encountered a unique void king, Whose strength was unpredictable which made six of the thirteen void slayer was killed in action, making only them came back alive, bringing the new Seele and their deceased ex-comrade's Seeles.

These heroes named Felix, Christa, Madrinne, Raynare, Geneviev , Fremy, Lutenberg are granted very mind-numbing rewards and gratitude from the kingdom.

Glory, fame. Wealth, swomen. Everything. As these seven were rewarded as such, they are branded the title "Seven heroes of Magnanix Dimension Raid". And then, their techniques and teachings become the main basis for education materials in nurturing void slayers of next generation.

While the deceased six, they are recorded in history as the fallen slayers of Magnanix dimension Raid. They are Mithril, Lamia, Baal, Casper, Xavier, and Meldra. The records containing their techniques, and teachings howsoever, remained in this dying world as the same relic as the seven left behind.

And so................

120 years later.

That is how… this world had become the way it is right now. As countries began to regain their lost land from the discovery of Seele, they constantly have infinite demand of void slayers, and so other countries outside The Kingdom of Seyrun such as this Far East nation, built schools specialized in nurturing void slayers. Which is this school.

Right now, is lesson about mudra.

According to what the teacher explained, Mudra is an art of prana manipulation to produce an intentional natural phenomenon desired. For example, by channeling prana to your hand, and chant a certain spell you’ll have fire burning on your hand. Since it’s made of its caster’s prana, it is harmless to the caster to a certain extent out of his tolerance towards his respective resistance against it. Needless to say, if he were to be attacked with fire surpassing his resistance, then he would be burnt.

He continue to listen to her explanation, though it doesn’t give him any real benefit.

Why? Because he has the lowest rank of overall talent in mudra, and prana output a human should have. Simply put, the rank ranges from F to A, then AA, then AAA, S, SS, and SSS with every minus and plus in every rank, meaning that if it’s plus one is a bit stronger in his or her rank but not stronger than one above her rank, it’s the same way for the minus. When one is at least ranked B-, one is considered able to become

an average Void Slayer.

Every 1 of 1000, is A rank.

It is said that those who reached AAA is already considered hero’s level. A super rare existence.

If you are in the domain of S- rank, you’re considered demigod rank. SS- rank, you’re god rank. SSS-, you’re supreme god rank.

And I’m…. F minus. The greatest failure, most worthless of all.

Unable to use mudra and Standard seele.

In a world filled with death, I’m considered a burden for having no means to protect myself.

As the lesson ended, students began to disperse. And now hell awaits me.

Because by that time, Asya would always be called to the student council office, and I’m alone. Which is dangerous.

Asya is so beautiful, so graceful, so amazing every boy in the class like her. Seeing a boy, an incompetent and gloomy one at that, so close to her, how would they feel?

Yes. Of course they’re envious. And that envy give birth to hatred.

And one of them, is the most dangerous of all.

Ranked 2nd of our school, Rank AA+, Hyuuga Kouji.

“Yo, Haru. Feeling good today?” His friends laugh as he said that.

“Nothing significant to report.” I said in surrendering tone.

“You’d better be!” he said, throwing the notes I just wrote into a trash can.

“Bastard, I already told you to get your hands off of Asya!”

“I am getting my hands off of her….”

“Oh, is it? Don’t joke with me.” He slapped my head this time.

“Haha, he’s chickening out, Hyuuga!”

“Follow me to the roof, Haru.”

What follow me, you’re dragging me by the back of my neck….

But, even though seeing me being bullied like this, no one helped me. When I look at them, they would always avert their eyes.

From then on, the usual thing would always happen. Me being brought to my knees, and beaten till my organs ruptured, healed using mudra, beaten again till I vomit blood, and so on. This is the normal, harsh day that I, Haru go through. Of course, so that Asya doesn’t find out, I was healed like there was no injury at all. This is how I’m being bullied.

“Why….is life so unfair…..?”

I muttered to myself as I lie on the hard floor of the roof, my face facing the blue sky.

“I…. only want to live peacefully….” I said to myself, tears falling down to my cheeks.

“Dammit…” I curse my fate.

After school.

By this time, Asya will be busy with student council work. Even so, she would always insist on going home together with me, so she’d always ask me to accompany her in the student council office. Of course, other members frown upon the sight of me. But since they respect Asya, none say a word.

“Haru, would Haru like a cup of tea?” Asya asked.

And everyone’s glare except Asya’s gentle gaze pierce my soul.

“I-I’m fine, Asya. You don’t need to…..”

“It’s fine, Asya is very happy doing this for Haru…hehehe.”

Her habit of always referring by name, not “you” is…. cute.

“Asya-sama, we’re in a bit tight schedule, so please refrain from doing things that waste precious time.” One of her friend said, scornfully looking at me with disgust.

After she said that, the atmosphere froze, like a sudden blizzard came.

No, the atmosphere literally froze.

“Kanae….. WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO IMPLY?” A girl asked, her tone flat, eyes wide open.

She stood on her ground, the edge of the room. Her face looking at the floor, bangs covering her face, give a seemingly mysterious expression.

“N-not at all, Ma’am. Please allow me to retract my careless remark just now.”

“YOU SHOULD.” She said, still in her silent angry mode.

“You shouldn’t get angry over little things easily, Shiori.” Asya reprimanded, which she-

“I can’t stand Haru being considered a waste of time.” -Shiori, the one who got angry just now, said.

As she began to calm down, the atmosphere began to unfreeze….. She’s calm now.

“Asya, maybe I really should go home….it’s not like you can’t go home alone, right? Rather, you should go home alone for today.”

“Eh? Ha-Haru? Why?” she asked, confused.

“There’s….. Something I need to do at home..”

“Then I’ll accompany you—

“Asya-sama…. Please consider your actions. We’re about to begin the usual meeting. If the president is absent, then who will lead the discussion?” the other student council member called Kaori, said.

“Then gather your ideas concerning the topic we are about to discuss in a paper, I’ll come back a bit later. If I’m not here in an hour, you are dismissed.” Asya answered.

“Asya…. It’s okay. Please?” I pleaded to her.

“Haru? But….”

“Then I’ll escort Haru to his home.” Shiori said, noticing the unease evident in Asya’s expression.

“Eh? Is it okay, Shiori?”

“It’s fine. Haru is a friend.”

My chest feels good hearing her said that.

Shiori and I walk out of the school, destination is my home.

We don’t talk much.

Shiori is a relatively quiet person. Even so, she is ranked 3rd of our school, so the slight change of her emotion is something that give everyone except Asya and Kouji unbelievable chill in their spine.

She has a moderate posture, not too tall nor too short. She’s neither too fat nor too slim either. Her face is, though Asya is prettier, I can’t say Shiori’s not pretty. Just that, since she seems expressionless at a glance, she’s a bit unpopular with others and only Asya can understand her.

Which means, even I don’t understand her.

“Shiori…. Why, did you defend me that time?”

“Which time is it?”

“When Kanae said I’m a waste of time.”

After being silent for a bit, she said:

“Because you’re not a waste of time.”

“Why do you think so?” I asked again, curious.

“Because Asya would always smile whenever she’s with you.”

“Really? She’s popular so she has lots of friends unlike me right? Won’t she smile when she’s with her friends, even if I’m not around?”

“She does. But…”

“But what?”

“I see no happiness in her smile, whenever you’re not with her.”

“I…. didn’t know that you are that sharp.”

“It’s a woman’s intuition…. Never underestimate it.”

So she has something called a woman’s intuition too… Wait that’s rude!

“I consider myself warned, and I appreciate the warning.”

“Likewise.”

We reached my house.

“Haru.”

“Yeah?”

“Asya cherishes you very much.”

“…….”

“So cherish her too.”

“……”

Taking my silence as an answer, she left.

Shiori, I cherish her.

I went to my room as I think that.

“Finally back here again…..” I muttered to no one in particular as i enter my room.

The outside world is uninteresting…. With all its happening only giving burden to my mind.

Thinking so, I changed my clothes.

Prepared some late lunch.

Ate by myself.

“Asya’s food truly is a bliss…..”

I said, remembering the delicious taste of her cooking as I compare mine to hers.

My handmade food is abomination compared to hers….

“That being said……”

I cannot become her strength.

I cannot become her support.

I cannot do…..anything for her.

Dammit.

I curse my fate for having no strength.

After doing all the dishes, I take a quick bath and headed to my workshop.

Why do I have a workshop?

Because I plan to become a Seele Engineer.

These days, Seeles which has the form of crude stones and gems are processed and refined into Seele cores, in various forms with various additional attributes. And the one who makes it all possible, are Seele engineers. Not only that, Seele Engineers are also responsible for giving maintenance and upgrades for Seeles. So it’s a safe, yet profitable job.

The development of science is progressing steadily, to understand and analyze the abilities Seeles hold, and determine what uses it can give us.

And being an engineer myself, I’ve been wasting my time studying about Seele engineering and physics.

That is why, even if I don’t have talent in mudra, I still choose to go to such a school, so that I can still learn Seele Engineering.

“Today’s practice, is to shape C ranked ice Seele core, to a B- ranked ice Seele.”

Truthfully, just changing a Seele core of a certain rank to a Seele of the same rank is difficult, but the result of my determination and practice had finally shown itself. And so, I waste my time in the workshop, till late at night. Alone.

Part 2

I wake up from my bed.

“Why does my head always feel funny in the morning?”

I asked to no one, as I make my way to the bathroom.

“Haru, Breakfast is ready.”

As usual, Asya would come and make breakfast in my house early in the morning.

I wonder how she get in.

Don’t tell me she has a duplicate key.

Well it has always been fine so I won’t talk about it.

After fulfilling my morning necessities in the bathroom, I have my breakfast with Asya in the dining room, like usual.

“Haru, did Haru reach home safely yesterday?” She started our conversation.

“Of course. You can see that I’m all green, right?”

“But…. Yesterday when we were at the student council office, Asya can feel traces of moderate healing mudra. Haru, Is Haru okay? Asya is worried…..” she said, leaving her seat and closing her distance to me.

“I’m fine. When you’re gone I was sleeping on my seat. Too relaxed, my body fell off the seat back of my head first.”

“Does it hurt?” she asked, patting the back of my head.

“It’s fine. You can sense the trace of healing mudra right? It’s all gone.”

“Who healed Haru?”

“E-eh? The class rep. I think? When I came to, I saw her by my side…” I said averting my gaze.

It’s really hard to lie to her. It’s like I’m tormenting my own heart. But I can’t tell her I’m being bullied because of her, right?

She’s silent.

Which is bad.

And then she returned to her seat, continuing her meal.

“I’ve always known, but the meal you make….. is always delicious.” I said, to change the subject.

“Ehehehe, Is Haru happy?” she asked, corners of her lips rose to the max.

“Yes, I am.” I said, casually.

“…….” She looked at her food, face down.

Wait…. Her face seems a bit red? But she’s fine right?

Today is the start of weekend. And so, no school.

In other words, free time.

“Asya, do you have any plan today?”

“Not really…. Does Haru want to go somewhere?”

“I want to go to the graveyard.”

“Ah, then Asya will get prepared. Asya wants to visit Uncle and Auntie too…”

“Yeah. I’m sure papa and mama will be happier if you come along.” I said, smiling.

We’re not really blood related, but when my parents were still around Asya often came to our house, playing with me. Not long after that, she called my parents Uncle and Auntie.

We changed to our casual clothes and make our way to the graveyard.

I visit the graveyard once a week. Occasionally, Asya would always follow.

There, we give our respects.

My parents passed away 3 years ago.

There’s nothing surprising about it…

They died because of blood loss from void dimension raid.

That time, they were a part of void slayers tasked to subjugate the void king.

The raid was successful, but they sustained fatal injuries.

“Uncle…. Auntie….. Asya will always be with Haru…. So please watch over us….”

“……..”

Seeing her finish giving her respects, I start to take cleaning tools to take care of their grave.

Asya helps too.

After we’re done, both of us go back to my house.

There, I enter the living room, watching tv.

The televisions in this world are made from E- Ranked Reconnaissance type Seele, one who provides sound and visual information which is modified to receive unique signals from other Seeles of the same type the stations use to provide information.

Though science had also developed well, daily necessities still rely on Seeles. After all, because of void dimensions, mankid lost lots of valuable land, giving us scarcity in natural resources and lands to produce resource or energy. Thus the use of Seele which functions with the use of prana is more convenient.

The fact that Seeles give impact in daily life like this is an evidence this is the age of Seele.

On weekends like this, I would waste my time looking at news, and other shows. Usually, Asya would sit by my side, shoulders touching each other.

And today is the same like usual.

But, she served tea (which she found somewhere in the kitchen), and some potato chips (which she also found somewhere in the kitchen), and brought them to the table in front of our seat.

“Asya, where did you find these?” I asked.

“Hm? Asya brought it from home.”

So it didn’t belong to this house…..

Well it means free food.

“Can i?”

“Of course!”

I took a few potato chips and began to chew.

Peaceful days like these sure are nice……

If only school life wasn’t so hard.

Breaking news: Cocytus Void dimension Raid is currently halted. So far, we have received reports of 3 squad members fallen in combat, and 4 incapacitated. The said squad tasked for subjugation is in need of reinforcements, and so under the authority of major, permission to recruit volunteers is granted. Those who would like to volunteer, please gather at the city’s hall at the allocated time. To those who volunteer, there will be rewards from the mayor himself.

“The Cocytus Void Dimension Raid….was the one where the mayor’s daughter participated in, right?” remembering, I asked.

“Yes, Asya thinks so. Does Haru wants to volunteer? Asya will volunteer too then.”

“No, no…. I just wanted to know, and that’s it.”

I have no reason to jump into the front lines whom even prodigies of this town are having a hard time.

“Asya….”

“Yea?”

“Will Asya volunteer for the reinforcements?”

“Asya wants to stay by Haru’s side the most so no.”

“But the reward is from the mayor himself…. And with your above hero-level talent, wouldn’t it be just a walk in the park?”

“Asya wants to stay by Haru’s side.” She said, pouting.

This girl…..

Truth to be told there’s no way someone with hero level talent won’t be famous.

The day such a person is found, the defense department will hurry to scout them right away.

And of course, all the more reason for Asya who has above hero-level talent.

In our school, the third strongest is Shiori, while Hyuuga Kouji is the second. And the first is… Asya herself.

She’s the one even rarer than the world’s 49 AAA Ranked Void Slayer, and S rank.

Many times scouts have visited her to recruit, but she always refuse them with the same reason she just refused my suggestion with.

The last time I participate in a raid, she killed the void king of the said dimension alone, not longer than half a minute. Added with the time she wasted to march her way from the entrance point, it’s not more than five minutes. Not only she killed the void king, she also rescued the void slayers that had been deemed as doomed.

And when she was being questioned why she raided the dimension alone, and very late at that she nonchalantly answered “Because Haru is in danger, so Asya needs to save him!”.

Are you my mother?

When you treat me like that, I feel the urge to cry…..

If you’re worried then why did you refuse to partake in the raid from the beginning that time?

I know that asking these things won’t help me with anything so I stay silent about it.

Days after that, scouts would always come to recruit her but one day she seemingly snapped, hugged my hand and said “Asya wants to be with Haru.” In a flat tone.

From then on, no one came back.

Out of fear of the obvious bloodlust, that is.

But their target changed from Asya to me.

They thought that if I were to enlist, then Asya would too.

They even offered various mind-numbing offers to me, like status and wealth.

Of course, I refused all of them.

“Then I guess we’ll be here together, like always.” I said, as I continue to chew her snacks.

“Yes, like always.” She said as she rested her head on my shoulder.

That day, we spend our time peacefully in my house, just the two of us.

The flow of time, continuously ticking feels pleasing to my heart as I stay by her side.

I cherish this calm sensation in my heart, as I feel the warmth of her tiny, fragile hand as we held our hands.

When it’s late, I’ll have to fight with all I had to persuade Asya to go home.

After that, I call it a day.

Start of the week.

As usual, I wake up, go to the bathroom, and have breakfast with Asya and then go to school together.

And just like it has always been, Asya is greeted by everyone, while none greeted me.

Seeing me continuously being ignored, she frowned for the first time this morning.

“Everyone is cold towards Haru… And Haru is cold towards Asya at school….. huft.” She said, pouting.

“I can’t help it…. By talent, Asya and I are worlds apart, so people would assume I’m using some kind of dirty trick to get closer to you…..”

“There are people who assume like that?” she asked, her tones lowering a bit.

The same time she said that, everyone on the road felt extreme chill was sent to their spine.

Including me.

Even birds flee for dear life.

“I-i’m only speculating, it’s not necessarily true!”

“…..”

This is bad.

“Morning.”

“Ah, Shiori!” as if forgetting our conversation just now, she greeted Shiori who approached us from the back.

I’m relieved…. Good timing Shiori!

“A good day to you, Haru.”

“Ye-yeah, you too Shiori.”

“Ehehehe, Shiori and Haru get along well like always….”

“You seem happy about it, Asya.”

“Of course…. Because Asya never see Haru chat with others than Asya and Shiori at school so Asya is happy everyone get along….”

“……”

Silent like always, huh… that Shiori.

From then on, we chatted and walked together to the classroom, put our bag on our seat and make the usual gathering.

When Asya and Shiori are around, everyone would play nice.

Only when they are gone, the bullying began.

But, since the two of them knew nothing about it, they leave me alone occasionally.

I’m grateful if they protect me, but I have no intention of seeking protection from them.

I’m still a man, after all.

The lesson began as the teacher started the lesson.

Right now is math.

Even if it’s a school to nurture void slayers, math is still a necessity.

Though unlike normal school, the lesson materials are not that advanced.

The first 3 hours of everyday lesson is always reserved for common subjects for schools like math, science, and others while the last 2 hours of everyday lesson is for combat practice.

This schedule had been designed so as to let the students grow into remarkable void slayers without discarding the necessity of understanding the common knowledge kids their age study.

Or so they said.

I looked at the school gate.

I could see lots of people gather around.

Did something happen?

“Haru…. Asya has a bad feeling about this…..”

“It’s fine.” I assure her, though I’m not sure myself.

She sits by my right side, so whispering in the middle of lesson is possible.

Though it results in me being glared at by the boys.

“I assume… they want to ask for Asya’s help.” Shiori said, speculating.

Shiori sits in my front, so whispering is possible too.

Though she doesn’t talk much, when she talks.

Seconds later, I saw them entering the school building. Not long after that, a person knocked the door of our classroom.

Shiori is…. As sharp as ever.

“Please, enter.” Said the teacher, a bit perplexed.

A person came in.

He has a handsome face, tall posture in an elegant knight uniform. His stance even when normally standing looks firm, proof of his training and combat experience. It was obvious that the girls of our class gasped at once.

Since he is the renowned fiancée of mayor’s daughter.

And Hyuuga Kouji’s older brother at that. His name is Hyuuga Reiji.

“A good day to you, honored instructor and students. Pardon my rudeness for skipping my introduction, but under the authority of mayor, I would like to scout my brother, Hyuuga Kouji, Shinomiya Shiori, Anastasia Nikolaschka, and Kazunari Haru to participate in the task of Dimitri Squad reinforcement which is currently halted and trapped inside Cocytus Void Dimension.” In a polite tone, he stated his request to all of

us.

And I can see Asya avert her gaze, only looking at me. Ah, the usual.

“I-I would like to comply with the request!” Standing nervously in a grandiose manner, he shouted.

He’s fired up about this, huh. That Kouji.

“Shinomiya Shiori? Would you like to lend us a hand?”

“………”

She’s silent.

Which can only mean one thing.

“For me, no thanks. I’ll pass.”

I declared, dispiritedly as he turned his eyes to my direction.

“………”

What? Why is everyone looking at me?

“Kazunari Haru, Anastasia Nikolaschka….. Would you please consider lending us a hand?” Reiji asked.

“Kouji is a minus away from hero level. Why would you need me too?” Asya asked.

Asya has a habit of referring to herself and others by name. So when she changed it to pronouns…..

Means she’s damn pissed.

Which explains the intense bloodlust coming from her.

“O-Of course Kouji is a big help for us, but getting your help is also a necessity for us. According to our analysis, we-

“I don’t need such reports.” Asya cut in, flatly.

Which gave us more horrifying chill to our spine.

“Asya….”

“Haru, these kinds of people always wants to use us to their advantage at will, Asya doesn’t trust them…. Asya doesn’t want to help.”

“……. Kazunari Haru?” Hyuuga Reiji asked me.

………….

“Reiji-sama…. Please allow me to refuse.” I said, resolutely.

I who wave no power,

I who have no valor,

No bravery,

No resolve to take a life,

I don’t want such a pathetic me….. Being seen by Asya.

“I see. The Mayor has granted access to the two of you, so please whenever you have a change of mind, I beg you to come to our rescue.”

“A-ah…..”

“Then, please excuse us.”

After bowing, he and Kouji got out of the room.

And after all that interruption, the lesson continued.

Break time.

The three of us made our gathering to have lunch.

This is weird.

Asya and Shiori would go to student council office at these times.

“Asya and Shiori don’t go to the student council office today?”

“We want to have our lunch here, with you.” Shiori said.

“What’s the occasion?” I inquired.

“It’s nothing….. Asya wants to have lunch with Haru in the classroom… is it a no?” Asya asked back.

“O-of course it’s fine…..”

As I said that, the boys of our class got out of the classroom, and the girls keep sending me cursing glares.

I understand the boys, but what did I do wrong that girls hate me?

Well, thinking too much about it won’t help me with anything.

I already know from the beginning I have no friends other than these two.

Rather than thinking about something which would waste my time and give me no real solution and salvation, I should do what I can for now.

Like cherishing these two.

My and Asya’s lunch is home made.

Of course, Asya herself makes it.

Today is mapo doufu. At first this food tastes a bit bad since it got cold already by the time we eat it when Asya served it months ago, but the next day after that I made 2 customized lunch boxes, using leftover Seele core materials in my workshop to add heat preserving feature in it.

I can still feel the joy of seeing Asya’s smile that day as she received my handmade lunchboxes.

Shiori would bring lunch from home too. But unlike Asya’s and mine, hers feels like rations provided for soldiers in the middle of battlefield.

She deliberately chose those kinds of food with the reason of “because it’s meddlesome to cook”, “I am content as long as I have energy”, and things like that.

If food isn’t really a concern for her, I wonder what will make her happy?

Seeing her friend like that, Asya would sometime deliberately make more food, and give it to her.

Asya’s food is always delicious, so Shiori had no reason to refuse and accept it readily.

But that’s how it usually is.

Because today, Shiori’s food seemed extravagant unlike her usual lunch.

I wonder who made it?

If Shiori herself made it…..

Wait don’t. That’s rude!

“Shiori, your lunch is delicious.”

“…….”

“Who made it?”

“……..”

She’s silent, only looking at me in the eye.

“I made it myself.”

UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!!!

“E-eh? Haru? What’s wrong?!” Asya asked in panic.

“N-no, it’s nothing…. I just came to know an unbelievable reality….”

“So you think that I can’t cook.” Shiori said, flatly.

This is bad…..

“I have no argument to help me deny. Forgive me.”

“Eh? Eh?” Asya looked at me, then Shiori repeatedly.

“It’s fine. I also got to know how to cook recently. Asya taught me how to.”

So that’s how it is…..

After that, the lunch went on as usual.

After school.

I went home with Asya as usual.

But since I wanted to look for books related to Seeles and mangas, both of us circled around the district.

What? Manga is good you know. Those who thinks it is childish entertainment are idiots behind comprehension.

“Hehehe, a date with Haru!” her mood seemed to say.

Though I might be overconfident.

Using the free time we had, we took a detour circling around the shopping district.

After buying some mangas starring a certain pair of alchemist brothers who lost parts of their bodies to revive their mother from somewhere with Asya, we take a bite in a nearby outdoor eatery.

“Haru has a sweet tooth, right? Then let’s eat this café’s crepe together!” She said, as we decide what to order.

“Wait Asya, the price is….”

“It’s fine, Asya will pay.”

“No, no… please don’t.”

“two crepes please.” She said, as the waitress asked us to order.

“A-ah… I give up.”

“Hehehehe….. Obedient Haru is a good Haru!”

“Ugh…… Asya, you seem happy whenever you have the chance to feed me.”

“Ehehehe…..” she laughed, the corners of her lips rose.

No matter how many times I see it…. Her smile always stole the beat of my heart.

Still, always eating her homemade food, and eating this crepe paid by her…. I need to grow to become a dependable man.

My pride as a man is at stake here…..

I don’t want to always be pampered by Asya after all……

“Then next time when I have more money, I will buy you something.”

“Really?!”

“Yes. Really.”

“Un!”

I’m glad that I can see her this happy.

Maybe I should buy her more things more frequently….

Which means I need to try harder in improving my ability in seele engineering.

After circling around long enough to feel tired, we went home using a different route than usual. Of course, because it’s nearer from the shopping district to my house.

On the way, I see a large mansion, barred with fancy gate and fences.

It was said that the mansion, including the garden and other things is 12.500 m2 wide.

It is the Hyuuga mansion.

I can see a new room was built recently on top of a flat roof.

I don’t understand how the rich thinks, so I don’t want to think too much about it.

Evening.

After changing her clothes, Asya would come to my house.

She doesn’t do anything particularly, she just stay in a vicinity where both of us can see each other.

Like now.

We’re currently watching tv.

And she brought snacks again…..

Asya’s phone rang.

The phone is made of Seele, with the same concept of tv. Only that, it has two-way communication feature with a display and portable design.

“We have your friend.”

An unknown voice resounded from the phone.

And in the screen, Shiori is visible.

She’s badly wounded, and tied with a rope.

“Who am I speaking to?” Asya asked, in rage.

“You know nothing about us.”

“…….”

“But we know you very well.”

“……..”

“If you don’t fulfill our demands, we’ll kill her.”

……..

Too late.

The reason Asya asked his identity is not because she needs to know.

It’s to buy time to track the trace of prana from the signal between their communication device.

And the reason I said too late…

Is because she’s already gone, soundlessly.

To kick their sorry asses.

But… they said they knew us very well…..

Doesn’t that mean, they also prepared the necessary plan if Asya’s after them?

I heard the sound of window breaking.

The steps of someone infiltrating the house.

Eight seconds after that, I lost my consciousness.

Part 3

“Ugh……”

My head hurts.

“What happened?”

My sight gradually came back.

I can see a bit now.

“………..”

I’m in a room. Maybe about 3 x 3 x 3 meters?

There’s only a single lantern as lighting.

I can see they are considerate enough to give me a room with air conditioner.

I sit in a chair, my hands and feet tied with rope.

I try to break free, but it was useless. It’s too strong for me.

I am positioned facing the door.

“…… Asya……”

I’m afraid.

What did I do wrong? Why am I in this predicament? What do I need to do to get out of here?

If Asya were to be threatened because of me……

If something happened to Asya…..

“Ugh…..uuuuuu!!!!!!”

I forcibly try to break the rope.

It’s useless.

“………”

I can’t…..

Dammit.

Dammit.

Dammit!

BAM!

The door was kicked from the outside, and opened with a bang.

“So you’ve woken up. Hello there, boy.” Said a man, coming into the room.

Hello there, boy? That was one creepy greeting coming from a filthy guy like you!

His facial feature was horrific, to the point like it rivals a ghost costume.

No, his face is literally horrific.

And I didn’t make this judgment because I’m afraid, though I am indeed afraid.

“Wh-who are you?”

“I wonder who we are…… right guys?”

“Yeah right!!! Hahahahaha!” his friends laughed as he said that.

This atmosphere…..

This is the same like when Kouji and his friends bullied me!

Which means…..

I don’t know any of them.

But I’m familiar with this atmosphere.

So the safest thing to do to protect my life and pride is…..

Act afraid, while pretending to say i know nothing.

Yes, this much is fine. I need to do this calmly…..

Or so I think!!!! I’m trembling like hell!

“Wh-wh-what do yo-you want with me?” I said, stuttering.

“Hey boys, he asked what we want from him!”

“Hahahahaha!”

Dammit, I can’t stop trembling every time I hear their laugh…..

“Try to stay alive as long as you can, boy.”

“E-eh?”

I was hit with a straight in the face.

“Akh!”

“Hahahaha! That’s how it is!”

I was hit again, many times.

Straights to the face, ribs, solar plexus shoulder, hooks to the temple, and kicks to my shin.

Damn that hurts…..

The room was dark, and no light can pierce through, so my sense of time is a bit…..

Shit. I can’t see very well, thanks to the hook to the temple…..

“Uhk…….”

I stayed tied to the rope, face down.

“That was one good thing.” Said the man who hit me.

“Now answer me, boy.”

Hu….huh…?

I….can’t hear you very well…..

My ears….. seemed like ringing…..?

“Akh!!!”

I was splashed with hot water….

Maybe he thought that I lost consciousness…..

“U,ugh….gahk!”

Blood spilled from my mouth…. My organs are ruptured.

It hurts…..

“Hey, should we give him more?”

“No, don’t do that Aniki. He’s damn weak, so if you give him more he’ll die. Then we can’t use her...”

“You’re right…. Then let’s send her a picture of him! But before that….”

“……..”

“What is her weakness?”

“Hu.. huh?”

“Don’t make me repeat myself, boy.”

“I-i-i don’t know I swear! I have never seen Asya go all out, and I myself am not very adept in combat so I can’t analyze her! Surely you guys who kidnapped me knew that fact!”

“Hm…. He’s got a point. Well!”

I was hit again after a brief silence.

Darn it. The bone constructing the upper part of my cheek feels like fractured….

“Hey, get a phone. She should have realized the picture we sent to her was a diversion.”

…… What happened…?

I can’t see very well…… My hearing is also temporarily disabled…. It looks like someone fetched something….

Is that…. A phone…?

“The Seele ready?”

“Yes boss.”

……..

“Hello beauty.”

“……..”

“What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue?”

“…….”

“Hehehehehe….. I like that serious look of yours….. Now do as I say. Your lover’s life is in my hands… if you fulfill my demands, I might decide to spare him…..”

“…….”

“Participate in the Dimitri squad reinforcement. Just to be sure, we’ll bring him inside the dimension too.…. If you don’t hurry, I can’t guarantee his safety, ya know?”

“……”

“You have time till tomorrow. Tomorrow morning, enter the dimension from point X12 Y43 Z5 alone. The ransom for your boyfriend’s life is the Void King’s Seele core. That is all.”

Asya’s POV ------

“Uuuu…”

I must not cry…. I must not cry!

What happened when I was gone?

The man calling me just now sent me a picture of Haru, beaten up and covered in blood….

I am worried….

Uuuuu…..

“Asya, he’s alive. They plan to use you, so if he died then there’s no use in kidnapping him in the first place.”

“Bu…. But… Shiori….”

“It’s not your fault.” She said, resolutely.

“……..”

“I know that you’re very worried, I’m worried about him as well. But only worrying won’t help. We need to think of a solution calmly.”

“But…. How?” I asked, in confusion.

“Let’s gather our information and analyze them first. Asya, when you received a call that told you I was kidnapped, did you check the prana trace scattering around the vicinity before you leave?”

“Asya did… and Asya sensed no one….”

“Then that means they have a way, be it mudra or Seele that covers their prana traces even from an S ranked like you. And when you tried to search my location, did you check the prana trace around the location?”

“Yes, Asya did….”

“Can you describe me what you sensed?”

“It felt like Shiori’s really there…. And when Asya analyzed further, Shiori is indeed in a position where Shiori sat and tied firmly with something….”

“That means they also have a way to fake prana traces as well, to the extent of faking one’s color of prana too….. And since we sensed no mudra used around us, it is safe to assume that they are using a certain Seele to pull off this trick.”

“What do we do Shiori? If we stay like this, Haru will….”

“I know. But hurrying and then making wrong steps is also not an option, so calm down.”

“Uuu…..”

I know….. But I’m still worried….

“That man said they’ll bring Haru to the void dimension. That means he has a way to enter the dimension, which means he has obtained access to use military tools, legally or not. Asya, if this is true we’ll have to assume that he’s a man who’s a void slayer and he has connections to criminal organizations.”

“But…isn’t that still insufficient to reveal his identity?”

“Yeah, but from what I thought up till now, there are possibilities which gives us leads to finding out his identity.”

“Eh? Such as?” I asked, confused.

“But before that, we’ll need to use a different method of searching. If mudra and prana related ways are unusable, then we’ll have to use another means.”

“But, how?”

“Asya, do you know where Haru would put his results of practice?”

“Ah, that Asya knows!”

We headed to Haru’s workshop.

There, we found many Seeles in place neatly.

Haru……

“Asya, let’s look for reconnaissance type and surveillance type mudra first. I don’t know the extent of his skill in this, but it shouldn’t be wrong to say that he has some skill in this.”

“Yes!”

We searched and searched every nook and cranny of Haru’s workshop.

There, Shiori found some plain white masks. There’s a closed hollow in the mouth part. Haru, how do you use this…?

“This is it.”

“This is what?” I asked.

“This is what we need.”

“This is what we need?”

“Yes.”

…………

Shiori….. I don’t understand the way you think…..

“Shiori…. please explain?”

“Asya, before that, please calm yourself down.”

“E-eh?”

“The enemy had already known that when you’re panicking you can’t solve even a simple problem, means that either you have been stalked for a long time, or…..”

“Or…?”

“He’s someone we know well.”

“What…?”

This is surprising…..

“So please calm down. With your mind in disarray like this, you’re playing right in their hands.”

“U, un….”

I inhaled.

Exhaled.

Inhaled again.

Focus, and…..

Yes. I’ve regained my composure.

“That’s better.” Shiori said.

“Then, what is the plan Shiori revised?”

“By speculating that they covered their prana trace using trace camouflaging, I assume…. They can’t use it many times, and for a long time.”

“Why?”

“3 things. Firstly, if they use it for a long time, they will leave trace and proof by creating prana trace disruption. You see, when you told me what you sensed and come after me, I felt slight disturbance by prana within vicinity. This will give us hints, which makes using that device for a short time is a must. I’m sorry, but because you’re very fast, your S ranked ability is taken advantage of this time.”

“It’s okay. Asya already knows they are cunning the same time Asya knew Haru was kidnapped.”

Wow, Shiori is right. I can understand her better when I’m calm…..

“Then I’ll continue. The reason they can’t use it for a long time is also because of them. They told you they will bring Haru inside the Void dimension, right? Which means either they have found a way to intrude without the military noticing, which is risky even if they use that camouflaging Seele because sooner or later the military will notice the disturbance, or they have access to military.”

“But how does that connect with each other?”

“They have the necessity to hide it from the military too. Of course, this is only under the assumption that the military is not working together with them.”

“What if they are the military?”

“That’s also worth considering. But if they really are, then what would be the point of hinting us that they will bring Haru to the void dimension?”

“But…. what if it’s a psychological trick that takes advantage of the assumption that a culprit won’t leave a trace hinting his pursuer?”

“If that is the case then there’s no need to send Hyuuga Reiji to us. That’s no psychological trick, that’s suicide flag.”

“…… But then, that’s not enough reasons, right?”

“Yes, and the final reason is Haru himself.”

“Eh? Haru?”

“Yes. Firstly, they must have known that we recognize Haru’s prana color, so they would try to hide his color from our detection the best they could. It means, the same time they captured Haru, the device will always be hidden around Haru’s vicinity at all cost, to hide the culprit and their accomplices.”

“…….”

“And secondly, if my assumption that it’s a device is true, then they must never let Haru get wind of its mechanism even a bit.”

“……..”

“Asya, Haru is a gloomy and incompetent boy. But when it comes to Seeles, he’s as sharp as a human can go. And though he’s not sharper than us, he can read prana traces well despite being F ranked. If he finds out their mechanism, then it is not possible for him to make countermeasure for that Seele and its next version and the Seele derived from the same tree diagram. You of all people should know this the best, right?”

“…… But that doesn’t give us any solution to saving Haru!”

“Still, that gives us plenty.”

“Eh?”

“They had already known that they must use it in a short time, which means they must ensure there are not even a slight disturbance in the device. Asya you tell me. Where do you think is the best for devices manipulating prana traces by signals is used?”

“U, um…..high places?”

“Yes. And where is the nearest highest place around here?”

………

“Impossible.”

“No, it is highly possible.” Shiori said, resolutely. Continuing,

“Asya…. Hyuuga Kouji is a possible accomplice of the culprit.”

“Eh? Kouji’s only a possible culprit accomplice?”

“There is no evidence to prove our hypothesis. Even so, the nearest highest place where they can use their device the best is the roof of Kouji’s mansion. If I’m not wrong, that mansion has a single room recently built on the roof. And, it is a fact that they know you very well. It can only mean that either they have been stalking you for a long time, which is unlikely even if they use that device because of the reasons I just explained, or they’re in a place where they can observe you nearby without rising any suspicion, which is possible. And that leads to Kouji being a culprit accomplice.”

“But couldn’t anyone from our school do that?”

“Of course anyone can, if they have connections to both criminal organization and military. And, this plan of theirs was executed swiftly with precision, so I think they have experts in this field, which means the one leading them has a fair amount of influence to gather them all which leads me to suspecting the minus away from hero level Kouji. The kidnapper might not be Kouji himself, but that doesn’t mean Kouji is innocent.”

“But then…. I understand if it’s Reiji-san, but what does it benefit Kouji-san by doing this?”

“I can imagine a few things, but let us move under the assumption their objective is to use your strength for their purposes.”

“Okay….”

“And now is the plan to rescue Haru.”

“Yes.”

“Since Haru’s position is hidden with the prana camouflaging device, it is no use to find him by following his prana trace. He told you to enter the void dimension, and get to point X12 Y45 Z5, right?”

“Yeah.… Normally, void kings reside near or in the center of the void dimension which is point X0 Y0 Zx right?”

“Yeah. The coordinate points are always numbered 90 for every pointer with plus and minus, that means the position you are asked to be in is a bit to south east of the whole void dimension and five coordinate points above ground level.”

“It’s fine, I can search every nook and cranny of the void dimension in five minutes at full speed.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Eh?”

“They know how frightening your ability is, so I’m saying that this position you are tasked to has some relation to their plan. Of course, this is no more than wishful thinking.”

“Eh? Connection?”

“Yes. They said they will bring Haru inside the dimension, so pinpointing his approximate location doesn’t hurt.”

“O-okay……”

“By revising with the thought that they had analyze you through and through, it should be safe to assume that they not only use a Seele that can hide him, but hide him in a confined space that you will surely never find out.”

“Um…. Does Shiori know where would that be?”

“Underground.”

“Eh?”

“I’m saying, they will hide Haru in a Z-x point. And knowing your thorough personality, they will try to choose a place where it’s underground, but an obvious plain on ground level.”

“Why, would they-

“You have overwhelming agility, firepower, prana capacity and perception, and killer instinct so even if they try to hide him on ground level and cover his prana trace with the Seele you’ll find out soon enough by circling around the dimension and checking every possible locations Haru might be confined. If they hide him under a building or within a forest, traces of their digging would remain. Even if they tried to cover it, the movement of void creatures around will tell us that something is hidden underground. After all, they knew void creatures give you no hindrance at all no matter how strong it is, so they must make multiple layered

plans to ensure their probability of success.”

“But then, if they hide him under a plain, won’t void creatures gather above them just the same?”

“Not if they are under a plain where lots of corpses were scattered all over the place, and the entrance is sealed from below using earth mudra.”

“Ah….”

“Void slayer teams has a tactic of luring the creatures into positions to their advantage. If they can’t get a higher ground, they will choose plain since there will be no chance of ambush or unnoticed reinforcements. And, by taking advantage of the corpses scattered around, traces of earth mudra being used will be fairly concealed. Even if other void creatures gather around detecting them, they will always give us false assumption that they want to eat their kin’s corpse.”

“Bu-but…  If they can hide him under a building, cover the entrance with earth mudra, and then destroy the building into rubbles won’t they achieve the same thing?”

“Then that’ll make it more suspicious because the military have the data of progress of the Dimitri squad. If the data of their battle didn’t say they destroyed a building, yet a building is destroyed won’t it make a hint? If it’s just corpses of void creatures lay everywhere, one can assume they went into a heated confrontation and killed each other. Of course this is also under the assumption that the military, or a fraction of military is not working together with them. Of course, that is of course under the assumption that there is indeed a building inside a Void Dimension.”

“I…. I see…”

“And so, I will explain the steps we need to take to save Haru.”

“Yes!”

“This is where Haru’s result of practice comes in.”

“Eh?”

“According to the manual, these masks here is a shape shifting mask. By inserting a part of the thing we want to shape shift, the ability will be active for about fifteen minutes. I will change into you, and you’ll change into another person.”

“Wh-what for?”

“Decoy, and infiltration. Before they kidnapped Haru, they must have ensured that you have gone a fairly distance, while in the middle of prana disturbance. This is possible either by a person with sniper-like sight, or they have an outstanding “eye”. By shape shifting, we can fool them if the “eye” uses sniper-like sight, and if the “eye” detects by prana trace, we can conceal our prana trace. I’ll change into you so that the mission looks like it’s commencing along their plan, while you sneak around stealthily and infiltrate. They told you to begin marching from coordinate X12 Y45 Z5, right? It should be safe to assume that they had deployed a

spy that will monitor your movements, so this deceit is also meant for them. The person you’ll change into, has a relation to our second step.”

“Wh-what’s the second step?”

Shiori is amazing…. I didn’t know she’s this sharp!

“Fool, and sabotage the military.”

……………

“E—EH?”

““I said, fool and sabotage the military. The plan for that, is to first obtain a part of Hyuuga Reiji-san. Hair or blood should do it.”

“Wa-wait a minute, Shiori. Why Reiji-san?”

We’ll need a cover that doesn’t give us any hindrance on clearance of the operation. And, if his brother were to appear, I’m sure he and his friends will be cautious not to leak any information, and also to draw their weapons.”

“But, Reiji-san is not a bad person, and Asya thinks that----

“Then you’d rather let Haru be done in like what we just saw again?”

“U,uu……”

This is hard…… please forgive us Reiji-san.

“It’s okay, Asya. It’s not like I planned to do this the hard way.”

“Okay, Asya will join this operation.” I said, resolutely.

“The operation will commence 6 hours from now on. It’s close to midnight, so we will need to sleep first.”

“……..”

That night, we slept in Shiori’s room.

Part 4

“……..”

I wake up from my sleep.

I don’t know what time it is right now.

I’m also too tired to forcibly move my tied body.

Asya and Shiori hasn’t come to my rescue yet?

This is pathetic.

I can only wait for them…..

Isn’t there supposed to be something I can do?

And by the way, how did they pull off this blackmailing anyway?

“……..”

Wait.

If I analyze it calmly enough, then there might be something I can do.

They have the nerve and means to capture me even with Asya nearby by using diversion against Asya’s S ranked overall ability.

“A Seele that can even deceive a demigod level void slayer…..”

And by kidnapping me, they will always try to hide me from her using that Seele.

Meaning that the Seele will be active around me all the time.

“Hm….. This is difficult…..”

This plan of theirs is thoroughly planned. Meaning they must have been spying on us for a long time.

If they have thoroughly analyzed us, they must have known about my specialty in Seele engineering.

Meaning, though it’s around me, it’s hidden.

If I can figure out its mechanism, there’s a possibility that I can escape from here.

Asya and Shiori should have made a plan.

Asya is strong and relatively invincible from a tactical point of view, but whenever something happens to me, she would always fall into a state of panic and her ability would drop by far.

But Shiori is different.

She’s silent and though she’s not stronger than Asya and Kouji, she has sharp comprehension and analysis capability, making her a strong piece from a strategic point of view.

It’s safe to assume both of them had made a plan for my rescue.

And the only thing hindering them and me might be…..

The combat units of the kidnappers.

The place where I’m confined right now.

And that deceiving Seele.

The combat units are nothing to Asya, so I can let her take care of it.

The place where I’m confined…. I can’t figure it out. But If Asya and Shiori had made a plan, then they should have figured out if not exact, my possible location currently or later.

The last is, that Seele.

I need to remember the moments before they kidnapped me.

Asya rushed to Shiori because she felt the prana trace of them and Shiori. And if they can deceive her like that, it means the Seele they are using works like a…

“Broadcasting system.”

They use prana signal broadcasting system to make a prana trace fabrication, while erasing their own prana trace.

Roughly, I’ve figured out the first part of information needed to find out their Seele’s mechanism.

Now should be the origin of that Seele.

“……..”

Asya is an S ranked void slayer, although still a student. Meaning, demigod level.

If the Seele they used can deceive even her, it is safe to assume that the Seele was obtained from killing a certain deity of deceit.

Creatures and Kings of void dimensions, are somewhat related to myth and lore of the area where the void dimension manifested. This is why the Cocytus Void dimension is difficult to conquer. After all, it has no relation to Far East lore, a rare one.

“……….”

A deity of deceit.

Is that all there is to it?

If I assume they are trying to make Asya conquer Cocytus Void Dimension…. Then that means this void dimension has given them a purpose, or relation to their purpose.

Then either way, it is safe to assume that their deceiving Seele came from the same lore of this Void Dimension, which is Greek mythology.

There are possibilities that the seele might come from a deity other than Greek mythology, but that’s only a meager possibility.

The more famous one myth is, the more frequent that myth become the source of creature inside the dimension. In Roman mythology there is a deity of deceit named Fraus, and Mohini in Hindu.

But connecting the situation right now, the possible identity of the enemy towards Roman mythology doesn’t sound too convincing.

By this reason, Fraus is out. And so is Mohini who came from Hindu mythology.

This is why I enforce the suspicion that the seele come from Greek mythology.

Even if they are indeed from another myth, the fact it’s from a deity of deceit doesn’t change.

“I see……” I muttered yet again, inaudibly.

Apate Aletheia.

According to what I recall, that deity was the personification of deceit, and truth. If they really had their hands on Seeles from those deities, or combine them together to function as one, they can not only fabricate fake reality but also affect the truth of reality itself to a certain extent.

A very fraudulent enemy with overwhelmingly fraudulent Seele.

And if they really obtained it, then they must have someone among them who literally defeated this very personification of deceit and truth. Meaning, a very fraudulent enemy to the point of defeating the personification of deceit and truth.

“Dammit.” I spat out inaudibly.

Still, I must not stop now, after figuring out this much.

I know that the Seele might be retrieved from Apate Aletheia, I know the general line of their power, but the main mechanism had not been found yet.

How does that Seele works?

How did it create detailed reality fabrication, though not on a large scale?

If my assumption that says it generally works like a broadcasting system, then I can imagine it being a portable signal transmitter. But then since it’s a Seele, guessing about its shape might not be beneficial at all.

There are cases where a sword shaped Seele shoots a concentrated fire ball. Just because it’s a sword, doesn’t mean it can be used to slash. The same goes for this Seele.

I need to analyze the events unfolded in front of me when I was kidnapped.

They not only used the fraudulent Seele to make fabricated prana trace of Shiori, but to conceal their prana trace as well. But it’s not like I can neither see nor hear them when they captured me. Meaning, there are limitations even to their fraud. And I need to figure that out.

Or on another point of view, there are still tricks they haven’t used yet. And I will need to find that out too.

Either way, this is because I haven’t figured out the main mechanism of Apate Aletheia.

Dammit.

To understand its mechanism, let’s make an estimation of how Asya was deceived.

Her sight is extraordinary, so I don’t think optical deceit was used.

Using vocal deceit is unthinkable.

I can’t make sure if Shiori is okay.

That leads me to two conclusions. The first is that Apate Aletheia’s deceit ability is to cover prana trace, and fake it.

That way, when asya left me she’ll chase after Shiori with the assumption that she’s in danger while the reality is unknown, and they covered their and my prana trace when they infiltrated then captured me. That’s the logical theory I can make under the assumption from what I know.

But using another point of view, my other conclusion will be…..

“Complete manipulation of reality perception and comprehension.” I muttered again, inaudibly.

The Seele uses neither Optical nor Vocal Illusion, nor Prana Trace Camouflage.

It’s Asya’s sense of perception and comprehension of reality itself that had been tampered.

Simply put, it’s like a nerve hacker.

Apate Aletheia not only have the power of deceit, but the power to control reality too.

I should assume that they can not only cover and fake prana trace, or manipulate perception and comprehension at will but that Seele can also fabricate a desired reality.

But such skill cannot be done without a person with enormous amount of prana, and the Seele though the core is from a deity Void King, must be processed by a very skilled Seele engineer so that the potential can be brought to its max.

And by looking at their reluctance to use it many times and only used it at the nick of time to capture me with such limits, it means they want to keep it hidden, as their trump card till the day come when the suitable void slayer for using Apate Aletheia appears for their cause.

It means, Apate Aletheia cannot be used to its full potential, and many times.

If until now the military hadn’t made a single move to rescue me, it means that they also erased their trace from the military.

After all, I am an important piece to making favorable relationship with Asya to them.

Meaning, when they deceived Asya and capture me, they also used Apate Aletheia’s power to secure a safe situation, devoid of witness.

If that is the case, then the latter assumption of mechanism would be more accurate?

After all, what’s the use of faking and covering trace if you are visually or vocally witnessed by unwanted pedestrian when infiltrating a minor’s house and abducted him? Even if you killed the witnesses their family and friends would notice them missing and Security Department or even the military under the order of terrorist attack using Seeles subjugation will move to investigate.

Even if the scale of prana trace camouflaging skill of Apate Aletheia falls under the category of AOE, then won’t it create a big prana disturbance in the air? That’ll give away the existence of such a Seele. Even if the military will need time to finally figure it out, they will already be aware of Apate Aletheia.

And the time of my capture is not that late yet. This is another mystery needing answer.

Why did they capture me that time when I’m together with Asya?

If they wanted to deceive Asya with Apate Aletheia anyway, they can do it when all of us are asleep. That way, they can have better chance at capturing me, and they won’t have to worry about unwanted witness. I have no possible answer for this. I have too little information so I can only put it on hold.

But just in case….

If the reason they captured me at a time seemingly slightly disadvantageous for them was related to the effectiveness and efficiency of their plan and or Apate Aletheia’s mechanism, then it’s a big flaw if I can’t figure it out.

I digressed. With all my assumptions and estimations, I’ve figured out a few strategic weaknesses.

The fact that Apate Aletheia is not at full potential.

The necessity to hide it from outsiders, whoever they are.

The fact that they have no void slayer capable enough to use that reality perception and comprehension manipulation of Apate Aletheia.

Let’s analyze them.

The reason it is not at full potential might be because it had not been given proper maintenance or appraised by a very capable Seele Engineer, but also because it’s hard to use it.

The Reality Perception and Comprehension Manipulation ability of Apate aletheia doesn’t fall under the category of AOE, or used in that manner because of the reason I explained just now, so it must be a linear type of ability.

Meaning, just to make sure I could be successfully captured, they must use Apate Aletheia in a multiple targeting manner.

In order to use that, they need the ability of an extraordinary “eye”.

In other words, if the user himself is not the “eye”, then he’ll have to have the “eye” stay by his side all the time.

In other words, as long as one can conceal one’s own prana trace then one won’t be spotted by the “eye”.

And when the image of Shiori’s predicament reached us, Though Asya was furious, I was able to keep my calm to a certain extent.

Meaning, when Asya is letting out intense bloodlust and prana trace, my almost nonexistent prana trace was masked even further, making their attempt to manipulate my reality perception and comprehension failed.

That’s why I was able to hear and see them when they captured me.

Though in the end I can’t figure their identity out just from that.

One flaw of their plan found.

Wait.

Now that I remember it, the men who captured me had a peculiar trait.

Yeah……

“Those necks.” I spat out, inaudibly.

There’s a tattoo, no it’s more like an insignia, unique to them on the left side of their neck.

When I regroup with Asya and Shiori, I’ll tell them about this. Maybe Shiori would know who we’re dealing with.

I digressed again.

I still have no plan.

The plan to release myself from these bounds.

The plan to ensure my survival when I am released from these bounds.

The plan to interfere with Apate Aletheia.

And the plan to escape from here.

Currently, I am bound to this room with a room and chair.

My legs and hands are immobile.

I need to analyze my weakness.

When my overall rank of talent in mudra and prana capacity was examined, it was found that I have no channel inside my body that connects my mind and soul.

Mudra is an art of magic to create a desired natural phenomenon.

The mechanism is to imagine the form of mudra, and by chanting the imagination will be relayed to the soul which is the purification and amplification factor of prana output and then the mudra is casted, and Seele’s peculiar ability is used.

Prana itself is a dormant spiritual energy, in other words ethereal. To convert ethereal substance to corporeal substance, purification and amplification by another ethereal substance, which is the soul is needed.

If the purification doesn’t occur, then the prana won’t convert to the desired corporeal substance, in other words mudra won’t be casted.

There are cases where one doesn’t need to chant, but the output is tremendous. It’s because the connection of the mind and soul and the soul itself is so clear that chanting is not even needed in the first place.

Since my mind have no connection to my soul, it’s not even a case where my prana’s not amplified.

My prana itself is impure, thus unable to convert into corporeal substance.

That is why I can’t use mudra and Seele.

But, wait a minute.

I am unable to use mudra and Seele.

The question is, why must I use mudra and Seele?

If only for its convenience, mudra is indeed convenient. But it’s not like Mudra and Seele are the only alternative I have to fight.

Yeah.

I should reverse my way of thinking.

If Mudra is an art of magic to create a desired corporeal natural phenomenon, from the imagination of the mind and prana purification and output amplification of the soul,

Then right here, and right now…..

I will create an art to destroy natural phenomenon, from the imagination of the mind and impure prana within me.

“Hm….”

Prana affects reality.

By purifying and amplifying it through the connections of the mind and soul, mudra is casted.

But even though prana itself is not purified and amplified, it can still affect reality.

Prana trace and Apate Aletheia’s ability is the proof of the statement though in ethereal form, prana can affect reality by taking another form of ethereal substances.

It’s just that, mankind had been doing it the complex way.

I will begin the experiment by channeling my prana to my tied limbs, and injected it to the chair and ropes.

I imagined the ropes and chair destroyed to molecular level as I inject my impure prana to the chair and the ropes.

Nothing happened.

“This is difficult.”

Destroying matter to molecular level cannot be done with impure prana, Huh.

Let’s revise the theory.

For impure prana to convert into corporeal substance, purification by the soul is needed.

In other words, as long as it’s not corporeal, it should be possible to use impure prana.

“Heh.”

I see, so that’s it!

I don’t need to destroy the chair and ropes.

I just need to eliminate the force which construct the molecular structure of chair and rope itself!

There is a reason why an element would take on solid, liquid, or gaseous form.

It’s because of the intermolecular bond and characteristic of each form.

If I were to erase it, then……..

“Success.”

I could see the chair and rope disintegrate into dust.

But it gave me fatigue.

“I need more practice for this……”

If my estimation is correct, then I can only use it eleven times a day.

With that one just now, ten times left.

I stick my ears to the door.

I can hear two people chatting.

They are laughing.

Judging by the direction of the voice, one of them is sitting frog legged on the floor.

What should I do?

If I were to disintegrate the walls and the doors, I will be spotted and direct combat will ensue.

Wait, why must I get out through the door?

I need to analyze the room again.

The room has air conditioner, so it’s a bit comfortable here.

But, right now’s not summer and yet it’s on.

If my assumption is correct,

Either the whole building is airtight, or we are underground.

I doubt they’d kidnap and torture a hostage in a luxurious mansion.

Yeah, air conditioner is needed in this room because it is airtight.

If even the room to imprison hostages has an air conditioner, then it is safe to assume every room in this building have air conditioner installed.

Then it is safe to assume that the whole building is airtight.

And the whole building is airtight, because it is underground.

After all, imprisoning me in a space mansion on the moon doesn’t even count as a joke.

“I see….”

If the building is underground, it safe to assume that I’m far from the surface. Even assuming that I’m at the lowest level is safe.

Their opponent is an S ranked void slayer, so I’m assuming this underground prison is fortified.

If so, then this building has a complex structure.

To break out from an underground jail……

I need to secure an escape route.

And a source of prana.

For that, I will need to reach the control room of this building.

Let’s ask the guards in front of my room then.

But I need to experiment one more time.

Can I disintegrate molecules shielded by another molecules without disintegrating the other molecules?

Prana trace can be felt even if you are in an enclosed space, so I can assume prana can permeate through matter.

I touched the floor.

I injected my prana to the floor where the chair was positioned.

I imagine that the intermolecular bond of matter 1 millimeter below the surface of the floor is erased.

Done. There’s no damage done to the surface of the floor.

But if I were to hit it…

The surface cracks.

“Success.”

I touched the wall where I estimate the guards are positioned on the other side.

I did the same as I experimented.

I disintegrated the first guard, and the limbs and vocal chords of the other.

I imagined the part of the hand till the elbow was disintegrated.

And while I’m at it, I disintegrated the locks of the door.

I stepped outside of my room.

Damn, the stench of blood made me want to puke though.

“Where is the control room?” I threatened.

The crippled guard tremblingly pointed with the remaining of his disintegrated limb.

This is a chance to experiment.

Prana is an inner energy every living being has.

It is produced from the prana source point located below the navel.

And the source point is ethereal, not corporeal.

I inject my prana upon contact with his body.

I destroyed the prana channel, channeling the source point and every part of his body.

And I imagined the prana I injected merged and assimilated with his prana source. And as if taking it back, I guided it back to my source.

“Success.”

I can feel impure prana flow into me.

I disabled my new art.

I tried it again, this time without body contact.

Success.

This experiment had given me precious understanding of facts.

The fact that this technique of mine can be used in a ranged manner.

And that I can not only destroy an ethereal substance, but also manipulate it to a certain extent.

“Magnificent”.

This art is the exact opposite of mudra which uses prana to create a desired natural phenomenon by converting it to corporeal substance.

This art is using prana to manipulate ethereal substance.

I can’t call this with any proper name, since it’s still incomplete.

There are lots of theories I have come up that I haven’t tried because I have no time.

And the last thing, is that it can affect prana source.

If it can affect prana source, I can use it to upgrade my own prana source!

I injected prana to my own prana source.

Prana source is an ethereal substance.

It has no exact form.

So I imagined it being compressed.

And the circulation of prana production accelerated.

And the prana channel connecting the source to every part of my body expand to withstand the increased amount of prana.

I can’t say it failed.

But the improvement is little.

Well I can take my time in this experiment while I absorbs people’s prana.

Besides, the amount of prana used to upgrade my own specs just now was little.

I tried upgrading my prana source and, production channel again as I sucked him dry.

“Hmmm…..”

I can feel the growth as the man went limp.

Yes!

This is it! With this, I had found a way to secure lost prana.

But I can’t get carried away. I must act with caution. And this scene in front of me is undeniable proof that I’ve escaped. If they have people patrol or report periodically, then that’s my time limit.

I should assume that I only have a minute limit to find Apate Aletheia and steal it, or tamper with it.

Part 5

Still at the same level as my confinement room.

I have yet to find neither Apate Aletheia nor this building’s structure.

Where the hell is this building constructed?

I’m currently in front of the emergency exit door.

The alarm signaling my breakout had already activated.

The same time it activated, I erased my prana trace so that the “eye” with Apate Aletheia won’t manipulate me.

I’m currently under pursuit.

But they hadn’t reached this level yet.

Judging by how the alarm was activated, it seemed that the control room officer above detected no report coming from officers of this floor.

In one of the guard’s body which I sucked dry to evolve myself, I found a handheld device.

Looks like it’s a portable Visual and Vocal Communication Seele.

What to do?

If I were to aim for the elevator, they’ll attack me when I exit the elevator.

Should I use the emergency exit?

But it’s not only an enclosed space, there are no places to hide at all.

And they’d also assume that I would get out from there.

That leaves me only one choice.

Use the surrounding here in this floor, and suck them dry.

Though I did think that, I’m trembling.

This is the first time I’m in a life threatening predicament, where neither Asya nor Shiori is around.

I need to control myself.

This is survival of the fittest, and self defense.

And also, this is to protect Asya.

The only reason I’m alive is because they want to use Asya like they please.

I won’t let them.

I won’t let them!

Hopefully, just incapacitating their motoric nerve system is enough.

Nerve System is corporeal because it works with the existence of its organs and bioelectricity.

What I’m aiming is that bioelectricity.

Because bioelectricity is ethereal, I can erase it.

The idea of controlling bioelectricity thus controlling a person came to mind, but I have no time for experimenting.

I have sucked about 14 people dry.

That’s all I could find in this floor.

After sucking everyone on this floor dry, I looked for healing seeles and healed myself.

Luckily they are not conceited enough to rely on mudra for healing. After all, before I woke up I was hit many times and sustained injuries. By using it once, all my wounds were almost healed.

I also found some rations I can eat and some mineral water I can carry in a small belt pouch.

Nice.

If my analysis wasn’t wrong, right now I can use Negative mudra fairly like moving my own hand, formed from the imagination of my mind.

Although in direct combat, I won’t last any longer than 2 minutes.

I think 2 minutes is enough to beat them at once.

But that’s considering they use no tactic and attack head on.

That’s why I aimed at the emergency exit.

There are no visual monitoring devices installed on the ceiling.

I can safely assume that I am visually undetected.

And now is where I execute my plan.

My goal in intercepting them is to incapacitate, evolve, reduce their manpower, and slowly fleeing.

I have no need to confront head on.

Stealth is better.

So as I reached this place I use my art to erase the light reflection, and sound vibration coming from me.

My prana is visible to the naked eye in the form of black miasma of annihilation.

When I erased light reflection, that doesn’t mean I’m transparent, because the light and reflections that was supposed to travel to the walls, floors and other things is still blocked by my body. From other’s point of view, it might look like a black wriggling something is walking in front of them.

Though they can’t recognize my form, they can detect the abnormality.

That’s why I destroyed all the lights on this level.

This place is a one way corridor.

I have no ground to retreat behind me.

Their men will surround me from the front.

And they came.

1, 2 , 4…….. 8 people.

No, I could sense prana coming from the elevator corridor, so I must assume that they have backup team on standby.

By the way, I didn’t forget to erase my prana trace.

Using this newfound ability I have, it’s even easier and more effective.

They are 4 meters from me.

I crawled like a lizard towards them.

They noticed nothing.

I injected my prana not to them but the whole dark space, covering them.

This way, they are under my negative mudra’s mercy.

I erased their bioelectricity.

As I hold them down incapacitated like this,

I used my art and sucked them dry.

Success.

I spent about three and half a minute to suck them dry.

My body’s overflowing with prana.

I need to spend it to evolve.

And so I ran to the front door of emergency exit.

Sat there.

And, using prana I just absorbed, I evolved my prana source point.

I need to do this calmly, yet as fast as possible.

Because during evolution sequence, I cannot use another negative mudra.

Which means, prana trace can be detected.

I sensed them moving to this place.

I can sense 5 of them. But their prana is more powerful than the eight just now so it’s safe to assume that they are stronger.

No matter.

I’m nearly done spending absorbed prana to evolve by the time they will be on the same corridor as I am, so I’ll just project my prana, concentrated them to a ball so the jet black miasma of annihilation will expand, and annihilate any kinds of ethereal substance.

I did as I planned. It cost me a considerable amount of prana, so I will need to catch my breath and rest for a bit.

They died.

More accurately, disintegrated to cellular levels, and flew in the corridor. But my art produce neither momentum nor force, right? Why did their remains fly?

Wait a minute.

Wow, so my art can erase gravity too?

That’s one precious data. I’ll remember it.

All right. I got a super brilliant idea to escape from here.

But that’s after I had dealt with Apate Aletheia.

I need to find it as soon as possible, while I can still crawl under the “eye” of Apate Aletheia.

And for now, I need to recover my depleted prana while hiding.

I detected no prana trace movement.

It’s fine.

As I think so like that……

I saw something moving in the corridor, and that something fired an ice sword straight at me out of blue.

I immediately evaded out of fear.

Who is that? I can’t feel his prana trace at all!

“You’ve got us, bastard!”

Damn, that was the voice of the person who beat me!

He charged at me at full speed.

I reflexively create a barrier of negative mudra between us, and erased gravity enveloped by the barrier.

When he was caught by my anti gravity, I erased his bioelectricity.

I can see him going limp in the air.

But that was a mistake.

I was hit with an earth bullet coming from him on my solar plexus immediately.

“Dammit, voiceless incantation…….” I spat out.

How did he discern my position and aimed an earth bullet to my belly while incapacitated?

Most likely he aimed at me using prana detection.

I am a noob after all. Slight nervousness caused me to be careless.

As I fell on my knees, he fixed his stance, took a step forward and kicked me in the face.

I fell on my back, my face facing the ceiling.

He shot my legs with an earth bullet.

With a bam, my legs was crushed, or so it was supposed to happen.

“What?! What trickery is this you bastard!!”

It’s nothing special.

I only nulled the momentum of your earth bullet, a skill derived from the foundation of my art.

Though it was a desperate measure.

I shot ten jet-black spears made of impure prana.

I can’t see him, but from the sound of his steps, he’s dodging three dimensionally!

This is bad.

He’s not stupid.

We’re underground, so he won’t use large scale mudra of the earth and fire system.

In this enclosed space, AOE is a no.

And more than that, he’s also adept in hiding his own prana trace.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

I’ve succeeded subjugating the others by attacking them stealthily.

In direct combat, my senses are too dull to catch up with him, which means I only have one chance.

I ran to the emergency exit.

I dare not take my eyes of him, so I ran backwards.

He shot ice spears towards me. Mudra?

I deployed active inertia canceller in his direction as I ran backwards.

The ice stayed in the air, and when I had retreated, leaving the ice spears out of my active inertia canceller’s range it dropped down on the ground.

But, he used a tactic, exceeded my estimations.

He used a large scale mudra, [Tidal Wave] in this enclosed space!

It doesn’t matter if I use active inertia canceller. By the time I’m out of prana I’ll drown!

Fine, I’ll teach you another trick!

Water is a type of liquid.

It will only stay liquid in a suitable temperature.

And temperature will always be affected by heat.

Heat is a macroscopic manifestation of microscopic motions of molecules and particles through diffused exchange of kinetic and potential atomic energy.

That’s what I’ll annihilate.

I fired my prana covering the space in front of me all the way to his direction.

As the jet-black miasma came into contact with water, the water froze into ice, sticking with all the parts on every angle of the corridor.

With this, I created a barricade.

If he heats the ice, oxygen will run out.

If he unfreezes the ice, the water will submerge him.

If he vaporizes the ice, he’ll be in for a self-made dangerous sauna.

I think he won’t drown, but he’ll be slowed by his own mudra.

That’s if he’s not frozen like the water.

I entered the emergency exit stairs.

Locked the door, and made my way to the upper levels while hopping, using anti gravity on my body.

The structure of the stairs is glued to the wall, encircling the space all the way.

While I hopped upstairs, I disintegrated the parts connecting the stairs and walls for five turns of ascension.

With a rumbling noise, the stairs crumbled and fell on the exit door.

This way, he’ll have a hard time to chase me.

I desperately looked for plans to escape while erasing my prana trace.

With such a commotion, there’s no way the ”eye” equipped with Apate Aletheia won’t notice.

My prana is at 10% left from being depleted……

I arrived at the ground level door.

It was made to face upwards, the bottom part of the door directing to the west.

I can sense prana trace of about 32 people with Seele out in the open encircling the door, distance is about 10 meters.

From how thin it can be felt, I think they’re trying to conceal their own prana trace.

But concealing it till it can’t be felt from this distance is impossible, except that man.

I can safely assume that man is the ace.

This is bad.

What to do?

My prana’s almost depleted….

Wait.

Though only a minute or two, I have escaped from the man below.

They have more men, so they gain more advantage when assaulting me in this enclosed place.

After all, there are no places to hide.

Maybe they misunderstood that I’m somehow able to fight, though not to the extent Shiori and Asya?

No, that’s not it.

They are wary of this unique ability of mine.

With how they think of me, and my current condition, this is a stalemate.

The person below haven’t made his move to intercept from the depth of this exit.

I can assume he’s going to regroup with the people outside through the elevator.

The people outside are holding to their positions, waiting for that man to regroup with them.

If that man were to regroup, this place will be stormed and I’ll be captured again.

What to do?

Direct combat is a no. I have no experience in direct combat except the one I had just now with that man.

Even if I use active inertia canceller to charge my way through, I can’t guarantee that I can hold on till I can escape far enough to lose from their pursuit.

By the time that alarm was activated, the option of escaping without annihilating every single one of them is already impossible with my current strength.

If I stay still like this, that man will regroup and I’ll be captured.

Not noticing this is a big mistake.

“Damn, if only there are other path I can take here….” I spat out that offhand comment.

...........Wait.

Wait a minute!

If there are no other path, I just have to make one with the remaining prana I have!

But this is dangerous….

Fine. I can ambush them better this way.

Still, in order to succeed this plan, I need to examine the type of soil this underground building is encircled with.

I disintegrated the wall below the ground level.

I could see soil.

It’s dry, and hard. Basically a wasteland though not to the extent of it being a desert.

I see…. This country is a fertile island.

If the soil doesn’t match, then I can assume I’m on another country, or I’m inside a void dimension.

Either way, I won’t have to worry about death by cave in.

I descended one stair turn. As I descended, I tore the stairs I passed and drop them quietly using anti gravity.

If I’m guessing that the direction of the door to the outside is west, then I’m facing wall west too.

I tapped the wall with my hands.

I injected my prana and erase the intramolecular bonds of the soil behind the wall to make a cubic room of 2 x 2 x 2 meters.

This way, the soil will be disintegrated to subatomic level.

Still, as expected making a room and with more detailed disintegration tired me out considerably.

I projected my prana to cut the wall squarely and lifted it with anti gravity as the air got in.

I pulled it out, hold it with one hand, and got into the hole.

I put the torn wall in its place again.

This room is 2 x 2 x 2 meters.

In other words, 8 cubic meters.

The amount of air is limited, so I disintegrated the soil above me all the way to the ground to make an air hole.

I can no longer use any negative mudra except erasing my prana trace because of lack of prana.

But this way, I can stay still and replenish my prana.

I opened the rations I picked from the storage room below.

The emergency exit is dark, so unless they bring flashlights with them the trace of disintegration on the wall won’t be spotted so easily.

I wolfed the rations like never been before.

Damn I’m hungry. And thirsty.

This way, I created a situation where both side is at a stalemate, and when the opponent take the initiative, they will be at a disadvantage. If they wait, they will also be at a disadvantage. In other words, everything

except taking the initiative is advantageous to me. If they were to recklessly inspect the emergency exit anyway or blast it away with mudra anyway, I can use my art to dig my way up to ground level.

The possibility of Shiori and Asya coming also exists. And by making this much commotion, I have pretty much given them valuable hints at where I’m supposed to be. Just that, I’m concerned about the “eye” with

Apate Aletheia.

If their reality perception and comprehension is manipulated, then there’s a chance I will have to incapacitate an allied demigod-level fighter.

Rather than facing such a fate, I should incapacitate the “eye” with Apate Aletheia.

But, how? I keep on thinking like that as I wolfed down more rations and water.

I should wait here for tactical and strategic advantage while making backup plans. This is what I had planned by the time I decided to take refuge here.

Let’s gather all the data I obtained and analyzed them first.

The fact that either this place is on another country, or inside a void dimension.

The fact that the “eye” had neither appeared nor made any noticeable movements despite the critical crisis of me breaking out.

The fact that the rest of guards except the man who tortured me carefully keep awareness of me.

If this is another country, I’m doomed unless Asya and Shiori come to my rescue. Even if I happen to escape, I have no idea which way leads to home. I have no resources, so I will have to hunt by myself for food

and other life necessities, if there are any.

But if this is inside a void dimension, then it is safe to assume Asya and Shiori will come to help. If they do come to help, then my role right now is to replenish my strength and create a diversion to give them

advantage no matter how small it is in combat.

And for that, I need to analyze the surrounding.

Is there any void creatures around here?

I can’t get a nice enough reading of the situation up above other than what I had already known.

The “eye” with Apate Aletheia had not made any noticeable movement. This is the more important issue now.

In other words, using normal means of tracing and finding a person won’t be of use. Even if I erased my prana trace, the movements of his comrade will tell my position even though vaguely. In other words, even the “eye” had already known that I’m inside the emergency exit. Only because I’m completely erasing my prana trace using negative mudra, I haven’t been found out and manipulated by him.

I need to make plans to counter two possibilities. If the “eye” isn’t here then I should prioritize escape, which is currently ongoing. If the “eye” is here, then I’ll start with analysis.

It had been about 30 minutes from the time I’m out of hostage room, so it should safe to assume everyone had already known about me trying to break out.

Well, that’s natural.

But the eye had not made any noticeable movement. It could be that he’s in a safe position around me, which is hidden among the 32 people. If that is the case, I will use an AOE attack using the ethereal annihilation attribute of my prana from the middle of their circle formation after replenishing enough prana.

But if there is another alternative where I will need to use fewer prana and more unnoticeable, that’ll be helpful. I should make the AOE attack is a plan A for escaping.

As I was thinking that, I heard a big explosion.

Part 6

9 HOURS BEFORE EXPLOSION

Asya’s POV -----

After having prepared ourselves, we knocked the military camp’s door stationed near the void dimension.

When it was known it was us who came, the faces of void slayers instantly cheered up.

I have no intention to help you guys…..

“Where is Hyuuga Reiji-san?” Shiori asked in a flat tone.

“He’s currently inside the mayor’s dwelling, calming the mayor down…” said a young male void slayer in front of us.

“Thank you for the information.”

“A-ah, likewise….”

What was the blushing for, soldier-san…

We immediately headed to the mayor’s dwelling like he said.

There, we were welcomed by the many maids and butlers of this mansion, and were brought inside the guest room.

A little later, the mayor and Reiji-san came into the room to welcome us.

“It is an honor for you to visit, Anastasia-san, Shiori-san.”

“No, mayor. The honor is ours. Apparently, we have a change of mind, but still we have a condition we want you to fulfill.” Shiori said, straight to the point.

“Oh, what will it be?”

“……”

Shiori is…silent?

“The first will be some strands of your hair, Reiji-san.”

”””Eh?”””

Everyone except Shiori was dumbfounded by the unexpected request.

Shiori that was too straight forward!

“What are you doing? I want it now.” Unaffected, Shiori said in a resolute tone.

“A-ah, alright…..” obviously confused, he pulled some strands of his hair and gave it to Shiori.

“Not enough. I need your bodily fluid too.”

“…….”

“What kind of prank is this?” his face seemed to say.

You….

“Should I take this silence as refusal?”

“O-of course not, ma’am.”

And then as if it had been prepared beforehand, Shiori pulled out an empty bottle and filled it with his blood.

“Um, will that be all?” confused too, the mayor asked.

A little later, she sat back on her seat.

“Secondly, I want you guys to lend us your help should you see that both of us and Haru are in a somehow unfavorable situation.”

“I don’t think that will happen, but you have my words as the representative of this town’s military.” Reiji-san said.

“And thirdly……”

Shiori is…. Silent, but her eyes are still glaring at the mayor and Reiji-san.

The mayor and Reiji-san fell silent too, waiting for Shiori to state her conditions.

“Unrestricted clearance and access of intel regarding the operation, the foes, everything.”

Hearing Shiori’s unexpected condition, both the mayor and Reiji-san looked at each other while I looked at Shiori.

“If it’s only that much then of course… rather isn’t it natural?” Reiji-san butted in.

“I don’t think so.” Just as she said that, the atmosphere froze from the overwhelming killing intent coming from Shiori. Seemingly a bit affected,

“What is our blunder that made us lose your trust?” Reiji-san asked.

“Your timing in recruiting us.”

“Excuse me?”

“Yesterday, you came to our classroom and said you wanted to recruit me, Asya, Haru, and Kouji, right?”

“Yes, I did….”

“You of all people knew that Kouji has overwhelming talent, so why did you only recruit him yesterday?”

“I won’t deny that Kouji is a prodigy, but even so he’s still raw and inexperienced as a void slayer, so I would like to wait for his mind to mature and have him on a safer raid than this one.”

“Yes, I have already guessed that too. But if you are in the same team as him, won’t it be easier to cover his openings?”

“What are you trying to imply, Shiori-san?” Reiji-san asked, his eyes narrowed a bit.

“I’m trying to imply that from both tactical and strategic point of view, it should be easy and beneficial for the military to hasten the maturity of Kouji as a void slayer, since it has been hard for you guys to persuade us to join your cause yet you didn’t do that even though there were occasions where less dangerous void dimension raid presented before Cocytus. And unlike us, Kouji bears no particular dislike towards the military, so it should be safe to assume that he won’t deny missions you gave him to a certain extent.”

“All right. Assuming that your implication is right, then will you tell me the connection between this and the commencing raid right now?”

“The point of suspicion existed either within you guys, or Kouji himself.”

“……”

“The first is, if my assumption that you deliberately did this is on the mark, then all the more reason I can’t trust you, and the more I require unrestricted clearance of all intel you have. If it is otherwise, then I want you to spy on Kouji. If there was an occasion where you offered him a mission, I want to know every single details of reasons and circumstances why he accepted or refused the mission and how the mission progressed.”

“….. Then is there a second point?”

“No, but still i want to know the military’s real objective in every raid whether you recruited Kouji or not.”

“It’s fine if we go through the legal procedure and tell you all that, but will you tell me what uses do these and your request of unrestricted clearance of intel have to both of you?”

“I’ll tell you when I judged it is worthy to trust you.”

“Then will you tell me what will you do if we can’t comply with your request?”

“Then I and Asya will conclude the military’s untrustworthy, and declare war to you. You have the numerical advantage, but you should know how much of that will hold us in an all-out war. Needless to say, we have the resolve to face the risks of our actions.”

“…….”

Wow, Shiori’s scary….. But it’s not like I will hesitate if I were to wage war against the military.

“Then, please give us time to consider.”

“I don’t believe, I have that much time. It’s now, or never….. Reiji-san, Mayor.” She said resolutely, her gaze sharp.

“Mayor….. What do you think…?”

“Military affairs are outside of my jurisdiction being a mayor myself, but at least I can hasten the procedure to request what you wished for to the upper echelon of the military, Shiori-san. Will that be enough?”

“I’ll give you two hours.”

“Wh-what? Requesting something like this in two hours is—

“Your problem, not ours. You can’t give us what you want, we declare war. That’s it for our visit today. Needless to say, I want all of this off the record. Lastly, I want Reiji-san alone to visit my house exactly two and a quarter hours later for confirmation of the request.”

Feeling done with the two of them, Shiori stood up, and headed to the door with me following suit.

Though I thought that the negotiation was indeed successful, I can see no delight or anything from her. I wonder why…..

“Shiori, what was that for?” I asked as we reached Shiori’s house and made it to the living room.

“False alarm.” She answered while urging me to sit.

“Eh?” sitting on the sofa herself, she then said:

“I’ll tell you my motive in two possibilities. First, if the military is working together with the kidnapper, then the ultimatum just now was to declare that I have found out about your trick, and whether it had been found out or not, sooner or later you will face the consequences. Second, if the military is not working together with them, it is to inform them that they had let something slip out of their watch, and endangered us.”

“Wait… but if they figured out we guessed right, won’t it be harder to infiltrate?”

“No, it’s the opposite.”

“……”

“If the reality was according to my first assumption, then it will be necessary for the military to contact and inform the people of Haru’s confinement place and indeed, they will be more cautious towards us.”

“Then….”

“That is why they will absolutely try to monitor your every movement. After all, there is no more trusted observer than those who are suspicious and wary of you.”

“So the reason Shiori did that was to increase the spy monitoring Asya’s movement which Shiori will cover by changing into Asya, thus leaving the surveillance an opening for Asya to infiltrate?”

“That’s right. And with the necessary item for the transformation collected, we can start the operation. Yesterday, you brought the possibility of psychological trick, right? This is what I call psychological trick.”

“What if they had figured out that Haru had made shape-shifting Seele?”

“They will have to ask Haru about it, or they will have to peep his Seele manufacturing records. But I doubt they did that. I don’t think that being an F ranked himself, his ability is so interesting to others. And if they want to peep his Seele manufacturing records, they will have to infiltrate the house which require them to use that Seele that deceived you. The merit is unknown, while the risk is obvious. I don’t think they will go that far.”

“……”

“And if the reality was according to my second assumption, then they will try to observe us, and Haru. Eventually, it will be known that Haru had been kidnapped. That is why every single thing I said just now was trust and trust. That is also why I requested the second condition.”

“A, ah… So that’s how it is....”

“And lastly, I specifically ordered Reiji-san to come here for confirmation of the request so that we can use him too.”

“But wasn’t Asya supposed to change into him?”

“That plan’s not discarded. It’s for another thing.”

“What is it?”

“You’ll see. Just do what I tell you to for now.”

A little later, at the requested time Reiji-san was asked to come for confirmation.

He came and stood in front of the door, and rang the doorbell. Anticipating this, I hurried to and opened the door, and urged him to get inside.

“I thought that just relaying the confirmation was enough, so what is the occasion?” a bit confused, he asked.

“Well, there are still things we wanted to discuss with Reiji-san alone.”

“What if I don’t want to hear it?”

“Then Asya will make sure to cripple your limbs so that Reiji-san will live on, in an unsightly sight. We ourselves are cornered here, so don’t try anything funny in our territory.”

“……..”

We reached the living room. Maybe since I said that I would go to such length to have him listen to us, he gave no resistance and willingly entered. After having him sit, Shiori came inside from another room.

“I have the formal written letter of approval of your requests. Here is the thing.” He said as he threw a sealed letter towards her.

“………” After reading it, Shiori then went silent again. And then,

“Thank you for your cooperation, Reiji-san.”

“Ah, likewise.”

“I wanted to discuss this with you, but since there was the mayor that time I need to make an opportunity like this. For that, I and Asya apologize.”

“It’s fine already so get to the point.”

“Haru is missing.”

“Wait…..What?”

From there on, Shiori started to tell him lots of things regarding our hypothesis of the case.

The details of events unfolded during the incident.

The speculation of a criminal organization moving in the shadow of this town.

The speculation of Kouji wrapped up as a possible culprit accomplice.

The speculation of where Haru might be.

And finally the solution to rescue Haru from them.

“How could this be….”

“That’s what we’ve gathered so far. This also explains our behavior at the mayor’s mansion and our requests.”

“I see….. If you have already made a plan, then this conversation is made to ensure the success of the execution, right?”

“I’m glad that Reiji-san caught on so quickly. Though, my request this time is simple. I want you to lend your strength to us for this.”

“Is that request affecting the relationship the military is trying to build with you?”

“Not at all. This is a personal wish.”

“……………”

Shiori… to make a personal wish for Haru…. Thank you…..

“What’s in it for me?”

“A favor.”

“What?”

“Consider me owing you a favor. And later you can come to me to collect it.”

“………”

“Shiori, can’t Asya just-

“No Asya, I told you if possible I don’t want to do this the hard way….” Shiori said, cutting me.

After a brief silence, Reiji-san---

“Fine. I’m in.”—answered.

“Thank you, Reiji-san.”

“It’s not like I have a choice, right? If he dies, you two will lose one important motive in partaking in military activities which needs you two so much.”

“Yes.”

“So what’s my role?”

“Asya, what do you think?”

“From a tactical point of view, Asya thinks it will be better to move with a linear formation, with me in the front, Reiji-san in the middle and Shiori in the back. Asya will be the main role in intercepting any kinds of situation we will meet, Reiji-san will provide backup for what Asya will be lacking, and Shiori will provide long range support for infiltrating and for retreating and securing escape routes after extracting Haru.”

“Nice enough, no complaints from me.”

“Okay, the formation is formed. When do we depart?”

“Asya thinks that it’ll be best if we rest for four hours and use an hour to have a bite of rations, and an hour for preparation at the first half and then begin departure, reaching the desired location by the end of the last half.”

“Then it’s decided. Reiji-san can use one of the rooms in this house.”

“Yeah.”

Departure.

Shiori entered the void dimension, in a way that dropped her to point X12 Y45 Z5.

The kidnappers wanted me to go inside alone, so as a diversion she will change into me and pretend to look for clues in areas we thought impossible for Haru to be in.

Shiori thought that by acting to look for him, it will increase their wariness towards her, thus making a larger opening in their net.

10 minutes later, I entered anonymously with Reiji-san, me changed into Reiji-san while Reiji-san changed into Shiori. We deliberately did this so that the enemy will have wrong information about us, thus giving us room for surprise attacks using techniques unbefitting of our outer characters.

After walking for about 15 minutes north-northwest from point X-30 Y15 Z10, a dry plain was in sight.

The plain was just as Shiori speculated. It was full of void creature’s corpses lying everywhere.

In the middle of it, both of us can see people circling around something, their Seele out in the open.

“Asya-san, I sensed 32 people there circling around something. Maybe it was the entrance to the underground prison Haru is in?”

“No, Asya sensed 2 more. One is going up steadily just fine, but the other one’s prana trace is too thin…. No it’s almost nonexistent like it’s erased. The thing Asya felt is maybe the prana he used to cover his prana trace. Could that be the deceiving Seele user?”

“Or, he could be Haru….. Though I have nothing to base it on. What’s the plan?”

“If their situation is normal, then they should be putting their all not to let anyone outside finds out about them, which means right now a certain disturbances had occurred from within. I think that we should attack.

What does Reiji-san think?”

“Nice enough for me.”

“Then I’ll use AOE mudra in 20 seconds and charge in 10 seconds after the mudra is done. Reiji-san will charge in 5 seconds later after me.”

“Why can’t we do it together?”

“So that if they were to have a certain countermeasure against ambush, you can still keep your presence out of their minds.”

“Okay.”

“……. [Burning Hell].”

As I cast mudra, an orb of fire gathered in my hand less than half a second and drew an arc, landing in the middle of their circle and exploded.

The surrounding area became scorched earth instantly upon contact. I could see them burn to ash. As I confirm their death,

“Asya-san, watch out!” Reiji-san pulled me out of my position as he shouted, and…

A long range shot penetrated his sides forcing him on his knees, and then fall powerlessly.

“Reiji-san! .... Reiji-san!”

The wound left a burn mark…. Is it mudra? But I didn’t sense any prana trace beside them!

This is bad. That deceiving Seele user is here!

I pulled him to a safe location, a cave 500 meters west away from the previous location.

I lost sight of the plain as I retreat, and casted healing mudra right away.

Please, make it!

“Th-there was… a person—

“Asya knows already so please refrain from talking!”

“No, that’s not it….. The shooter was…. Most likely….. Kouji.”

“Eh?”

That’s one of his most prized technique, [Lightning Spear]. It travels at lightning speed, and The no prana trace and no mudra array casting is its most annoying point about it…”

“Asya understands, Reiji-san so please rest well here!” I said, flustered as I stand up to pursue him.

“Please wait, Asya-san.” Grabbing my hand, he pleaded.

“What do you mean wait? He’s going to get away!”

“I know, so please hear me out.”

……….

This is bad. I need to calm down.

“Okay. So what is it?”

“Please don’t kill him. There are things I want to ask him, I beg of you….”

“……. Reiji-san, displaying mercy in battle isn’t my style…. But I’ll at least try so please rest assured.”

“Yes, thank you….” He said, as he closed his eyes.

The enemy knows that I’m easy to fall into a state of carelessness by seeing a comrade getting hurt, that’s why he deliberately aimed at me. If I was hit, he’ll use that opening and if Reiji-san was hit, he’ll use my moment of carelessness. What thoughtful ambush. If you guys are actually my ally, I would have praised you for that.

Which means, this time it will be their real attack.

Will it be a frontal or a flank?

“Hm…….”

Terrain layout grasped.

Detection….. I can’t sense him.

“!”

I twisted my neck, and jump in a barrel roll manner to the left in reflex, evading five lightning spears which melted the insides of the cave as it clashed with earth. As I land my feet, a big thunder beam is arcing towards me.

Hmph. You’re underestimating me, Kouji!

“[Divine Interruption]”

As I cast the mudra, a barrier of prana covered my front, and I expanded to cover all of the cave’s entrances.

The beam collided with the barrier and a blinding flash of light flashed. Luckily, I was in time to cast [Blind] of the debuff support system, shielding my eyes from the flash. As the collision ended, I dispelled the debuff mudra.

Cave-in is fine and all since I can just blast my way through, but he’ll gain territorial advantage which must be prevented.

“…… [Macropyre]”

I cast an everlasting, wide linear mudra of the fire system outside the entrance and fired it in a sweeping manner, razing the whole area in flames.

This way, he’ll need to retreat at least 250 meters, and then—

“[Berserker Gale]!”

Enraging the wind with mudra, I cast a mudra firing 157 orbs of wind, continuously cutting space within 5 meters radius while spreading above the everlasting flame razing the red hot land.

The collisions of wind blades creates cutting sounds and momentum, blasting the space.

I dispersed the orbs, created a formation and made it move circling around its axis to cut through all the hidden space unburnt by [Macropyre].

“……..”

My instinct told me I haven’t killed him.

But he was at least wounded and then retreated.

That means from the beginning, he already sniped me from a very far away position, no less than 200 meters.

I went back to Reiji-san.

Though I was able to heal his wounds, with this Reiji-san will be immobilized for combat.

I need to control the wind orbs to surround this place making a perimeter.

“Reiji-san, I have created a perimeter with [Berserker Gale] so please rest for now. I will head out for a bit.”

“[Berserker Gale]?! A-ah, alright.”

He seems surprised? I hope he’s okay.

I went out of the cave, and marched my way straight to outside the area burnt by [Macropyre].

“Hmm…….”

I can’t sense him again.

What’s this? Is this that deceiving Seele’s ability? This means I have two opponents to face right now.

Annoying.

One is a sharpshooter one is a trickster.

What kind of battle is this?

“If that’s how you want it, then fine! I’ll just kill you like I always do!” enraged, I shouted to no one in particular.

“Haaa.... Haaaa....”

As I regulate my breathing, I concentrate and---

[Flashover] ---casted a high rank AOE fire mudra in the space 20 meter above the ground 520 meters north away from me, obliterating everything in a fiery explosion within 500 meters radius.

“Fuu……”

One more time.

[Flashover]

This time, I casted the mudra 520 meters south away from me, obliterating everything.

By exploding the area in the north and south with [Flashover], and making a perimeter in my west with [Berserker Gale], if they are still alive, their only path of retreat is to the east, where Reiji-san was shot.

Since Haru is in that direction, I will need to fight with Seele instead of mudra.

“Serve upon me, Adrammelech!”

As I call the name of my Seele, a gigantic torrent jet black flame formed from thin air and swirled, gathering in my arm forming a jet black sword. As the jet black flame fluttered in the air, the surrounding was burnt to the point it’s slowly changing into magma.

“Here I go!”

I charged full speed ahead destroying and burning the ground as I stepped on it.

In no time at all, I reached the plain where Reiji-san was shot.

The shape shifting Seele is still active. I’m still shapeshifting as Shiori.

“Well, if it isn’t Shiori-san. I see that today is a special occasion since you used Asya-san’s Seele?” as I trace my sight to the owner of that voice, I see the sharpshooter exactly as Reiji-san guessed.

His clothes are in tatters, I can see burn marks in his visible skin. I see, so even though it’s not fatal, I was able to wound him to this extend.

“Shut it. Kouji, surrender without a fight, and I won’t pursue this matter any further.”

As I threatened him, I extended Adrammelech’s burning aura’s range.

“Well, actually… I would rather be happier if you’d like to pursue this matter further with me?”

“What do you mean?”

“Exactly as I say, Shiori-san.”

…….

“So I take it you’re not backing down without a fight.”

“And so do you, right?”

Silence permeated the space.

A brief moment later,

Kouji made a huge retreat, while shooting 13 lightning spears towards me simultaneously.

Facing this, I jumped in a barrel roll manner to the right, and side stepped while twisting my body to evade the remaining lightning spears. Noticing his attacks as the start of the fight, I immediately wrap my body with prana for defense.

The distance is about 38 meters.

“Impale him, Adrammelech!”

As I call the name of my Seele, I made a fiery slash of black flame, burning the ground 75 meters ahead.

He wasn’t surprised when I drew Adrammelech?

Either he had already made plans to deal with me, or our strategy has been read. This is bad.

Anticipating that he might have evaded, I made horizontal slash waist height with the same output as the previous.

Countering this, Kouji let out a huge amount of prana burst boosting his mudra to the limit to defend my slash while retreating.

“Hmph. You won’t get anywhere with me if all you do is retreat!”

The same time I took my third step towards him,

“!!!”

The ground exploded upon touch with my feet.

I was able to jump at the last moment, but my feet got burnt a bit. No matter, my movement won’t be hindered by this much.

While still in the air, I fired a barrage of 3 meters radius fireballs at maximum output, numbering 54 shots.

“Hua!!”

As black fireballs rained upon him, he dodged by paper-thin margin, but eventually his movements become slower, and with a bam I got a clean hit.

A second after I confirmed that…

“Ugh!” I reflexively parried 3 lightning spears arcing from behind, and as I stepped to the side, he shot a huge lightning beam towards me.

Absolutely having zero prediction of this, I reflexively burst a huge amount of prana to invoke [Divine intervention], positioning it in front of me.

[Divine intervention] is a one directional barrier mudra with strong resilience. For it to have a dent….. Where does this power come from?!

I slanted the barrier as to let the beam’s firepower pass through while securing myself.

“This is…..”

I was gradually pushed back as the huge beam collided with my barrier,

And after being pushed a few meters, the ground where I stood collapsed, suddenly becoming a hole.

“A pitfall trap!”

As gravity made its effort to pull me to the pit, I reflexively shot fiery mudra-made compressed air in a jet manner and propelled myself up, while--

---a lighning orb 15 meters above me shined and released a huge strike, forcefully sending me falling to the 15 meters deep pit.

“Urgh…”

As I got up and fix my stances, I noticed the damage I took from that attack just now was considerable.

Wait. What’s this shiny thing on the pit’s wall?

“Crud! [Soar]!”

As soon as I noticed the shiny thing on the wall was mudra pattern of the water system, I jumped with all my might. The mudra pattern, as I expected, let out streams of water instantly filling the pit up with water. Just when I think it was about time to counter,

The water in the pit suddenly accelerated, forming shockwaves of high pressure water blades and bullets and roared its way to me from below.

Having no countermeasure for this, the high pressure water blade wounded my legs considerably, and I was thrown out of balance midair due to its momentum, causing me to spin in a chaotic manner which caused me to reveal more space for the attacks to wound me. The momentum’s accuracy was extraordinary that it hit every part of my body.

And as if all of that wasn’t enough, Kouji leaped from his initial position—before the pit--- and tried to stab me with a lightning spear in hand, accurately aiming at the heart.

“I won’t let you!”

Although very difficult, I was able to perform an emergency acrobatic maneuver and parried it.

But, the spear still grazed my flank considerably.

Noticing this is my chance, I immediately kicked Kouji out of reflex,

Only to be responded with a fireball from behind him.

“Aaakh!”

I was thrown again, this time out of the pit, and landed roughly.

What was that? Was the one I kicked a clone? I don’t understand it!

“Ugh!”

As I tried to stand up, I felt pain from my legs.

This is bad, my legs had been critically injured…

“Adrammelech!”

I slashed the ground, forming a wall of black flame,

“[Earth Lance]!”

And propelled myself using the ground as a spring, and when I’m midair,

“[Soar]!”

I raised the height of my position using mudra.

While I’m out of his range for a brawl, I thought about how to handle him.

In battles, be it one on one or groups, there are three aspects one must always give undivided attention.

That is the sky, the earth, and the men.

The sky means timing of action, the earth means position, and the men means teamwork in group battles and technique and personal capabilities in solo battles.

From the exchange just now, it is obvious that though I’m at an advantage for having better specs and defense against his attacks, I can’t guess his tactic which involved his and my position with perfect timing. Because of that, I can’t even land a single counter.

No. even my counter was predicted, and he used it to its fullest extent.

“What to do?”

I keep thinking as I healed my injuries, mainly my legs with mudra.

If assuming him taunting me to a one on one duel is preferred, then he should have also assumed that when his land ambushes fail, or somehow broken, he will also have made a plan where he’ll be able to strike me midair.

“A pity. If he displayed this ability at school, I might be beaten already… not that there’s anything I can do about it if that were the case…..”

I digressed.

Should I use it, after all?

If possible, I don’t want to reveal my trump card too often.

While thinking so, Kouji had already made a leap, a Seele in hand.

It shone with bright luster, conveying its divinity for all to see.

“I see, so that’s the Storm God Susano’o’s divine sword [Kusanagi]……”

I have no room to think about showing my trump card or not.

“Adrammelech, devour.”

As I gave the order, Adrammelech immediately burst into a haze of black flame, and engulfed my body.

Black flame swirling around my body, I then focus my prana to my utmost limit to fulfil the needed output for this technique while Kouji keep coming to deliver his attacks.

And just as Kouji was about to deliver it,

My body immediately exploded, forming a black supernova in the sky.

And from that explosion, completes the fusion of me and Adrammelech.

The jet black flame engulfed and wrapped my entire being with a dark flame full body armor.

The armor was not a thick, instead it was a light armor worn for war maidens in this land.

Still, since this is the result of fusion between me and Adrammelech, the armor was covered in black miasma, sinister aura permeating the air around us.

I start charging.

A few minutes later,

I crushed Kouji’s every trap and captured him.

Part 7

After bringing the unconscious Kouji to the cave, I tended to Reiji-san at once, and helped him sit on the ground.

He was still writhing in pain, but the major wounds had already closed up so I think it’s fine.

The cave was 20 meters deep, a space of 6 tatami mat was present for all to use, so I put Reiji-san on one corner and Kouji on the other.

Just a countermeasure if he somehow launched a desperate attack.

After all, he had no hesitation in shooting us with the intent to kill.

“U,urgh…”

His eyes seemingly shivering, Kouji slowly woke up. His painful expression is obvious for all to see, I must have hit him too hard.

Well, you reap what you sow.

“Feeling like talking yet?”

“Hmph. I guess I am no match for you in a lone battle no matter what tactics I use, Asya-san.”

“Yeah yeah. You should’ve known that already so stop muttering useless chatter now. Who ordered you?”

“Do you really think that I will tell you?”

“That’s not really the case actually, you know. I was willing to give you a choice.”

“Hahahaha, to choose between my life and my pride?”

“No. it is whether you would be willing to die after you talk, or to die without talking.”

As I said that, my anger surged from the depth of my abdomen, burning my whole body with rage.

“….. Wait Asya-san.”

Feeling the authenticity of my bloodlust, Reiji-san spoke.

“I don’t think we should kill him whether he talks or not.”

That was one good suggestion, but…..

“No matter what you say Reiji-san, it is a fact that he’s in cahoots with the guys who kidnapped Haru, and he attacked both of us with the intent to kill, and without hesitation no less. I have no room to grant him mercy just because he’s your little brother.”

He felt like a bit enduring some kind of pain…

Ah. My rage is boiling and my prana is unconsciously heating up the air around us.

“That’s a bit regretful if you said you have no room to grant him mercy, but what if what he’s going to say is not everything he knows? Like he’s telling the answer of your question, but then at the same time leading you to a certain trap he’s laid? After all, he dared to face you alone knowing the difference in specs. I don’t think that’s a coincidence. We should assume that from the beginning of his ambush, he had already made plans to face the possible situation he might encounter. After having shot me down, he lured you to where Haru might be, right? Do you really think that’s a coincidence? He must’ve lured you to a place where you won’t nuke him. The only thing he missed was the fact that you’re Asya, not Shiori. If not, wouldn’t his plan succeed? We should assume he has a card he can use were he to be captured like this.”

“That was a good point….”

As I accepted his suggestion, I turned to look at Kouji’s face and saw him grimacing.

“Your ideas are praiseworthy, Reiji-san. Asya can see Kouji’s face saying “it was spot on!”.”

What a good luck for you Kouji. You get to earn yourself a grave dug by your own hand.

“I am unworthy of your praises.”

……..

I feel, something is strange?

“What’s with this manner of speaking? Reiji-san seems strange.”

“It is my policy to be polite and return the debt to my life benefactor. And since you are one of them, I had to act in this manner.”

He answered me with a resolute face, showing no lies hidden within his words.

“Well, if Reiji-san says so…. Now back to the point. So, how does Reiji-san thinks we should deal with Kouji?”

“I think I know how to deal with that, Asya.”

And when I asked him how, Reiji-san replied- eh?

That voice just now wasn’t Reiji-san’s….

Could it be?!

“HARU!!!!”

I immediately jumped and hugged him who’s standing at the entrance with a bitter smile tightly, yet tenderly.

Haru came back….

I can hug him again…

I can touch him again…

He’s here! Within my reach!

I’m so happy he’s okay…..

Haru’s POV-----

“Asya was happy Haru’s alright…..”

“Ahaha, my bad. Not only making you worry so much, it seems I am still too far from being able to protect myself without you.”

While burying her face and letting out sniffing sound in my chest, I stroked her back with my left hand, and the back of her head with my right.

“It’s fine…. Asya doesn’t mind a weak Haru…. Asya wants to apologize, for letting Haru get kidnapped….Asya’s very sorry….. uuuu…..”

“It’s fine, really. Rather, I really want to thank you for saving me again. I will cherish and this life you saved so please, don’t cry. I’m still alive and kicking, and I will never leave you alone.”

“Un!”

After relieving Asya of her worries, I scanned the whole interior of this cave.

“Reiji-san, was it? I sensed you had a tough time just before the fight began but still you helped Asya. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

“You’re welcome. Quite cherished, aren’t you?”

“I have nothing to say regarding that.”

The three of us then laughed together.

“Mou, Haru is so dense… There’s no way a woman, especially Asya would go to this length to save---

“I am aware, Asya. But right now, I am still unworthy of you yet. So please will you give me a chance and wait?”

“Un!”

An instant answer, huh.

“This is the one sentence I’ve been waiting for! I am so happy Haru noticed my feelings!”

Her face seemed to say.

Seeing such a beautiful smile, I can’t help but be mesmerized by it, urging me to hug her tighter.

Well, I’m also happy that I’d get a girl like Asya, so I need to answer her expectations from now on.

Let’s try a bit harder and put more effort in life. Yep.

Still there’s one person who doesn’t enjoy the easygoing atmosphere around us.

Yup. It’s Kouji.

“Now that Asya thinks about it, Does Haru know any idea how to handle him?”

“Nope. But I ran across valuable information along the way here.”

“Oh, so that’s how we’re going to do this…Then Haru-san, would you tell us what you found?”

“Okay. Firstly, the culprit, or at least his companion has a peculiar mark. It’s this insignia on the left side of their neck.”

As I explained my first point, I drew the insignia I saw with a finger on the ground.

Heh. I didn’t miss the look on your face when I drew this insignia, Kouji.

“I have no idea about this, but the military or the police department has records regarding criminals who has this trait or cases which people with this trait are involved. From there, we can identify which groups they belong to and perform a swift sweep, rendering them immobilized. But to do this, I will be burdening you again. Asya, will you help me?”

“Of course! Asya will never say no to whatever Haru Requests!”

“Okay. Continuing on, my second point is about the Deceiving Seele. I will call it Apate Aletheia from now on. Simply speaking, I think it works by choosing a target and creating a connection to its target’s nerve system and insert the desired comprehension of reality. So it’s not really an illusion type Seele, but a Nerve Hacker Seele, a rare type. Even so, I think it works in a linear manner so if he wants to hack the nerves of multiple people, he’ll have to do with multiple targeting, which is difficult in a team battle. Not to mention the high specs of the user needed to use it. So as long as you move with a three-man tag team like us, I think everything is fine. The tactic to face it would be to focus on monitoring our prana flow, inward or outward. If you constantly and deliberately monitoring it consciously I think that you should be able to sense and intercept the prana it shoots to invade our nerve system accordingly.”

”Amazing, this detailed analysis in just a moment of witness…..”

“As expected of Haru!”

Feeling proud of my achievements as if it was her own, he hugged me tightly and brushed my cheek with hers.

I returned the hug, and after releasing each other I hold her hand.

Of course, while explaining everything I didn’t miss the look on Kouji’s face.

Everything was bingo.

That’s what you get for underestimating a certain F ranked void slayer apprentice, Kouji.

Not that he is dangerous, but he can be annoying in his own way.

We have the upper hand for now.

“The problem is, though we have the upper hand, everything is not over yet. And so there’s nothing we can do but fight. Asya, Reiji-san, how about it?”

“Un!”

“Well, I don’t have any other choice now that I have come this far, do i….”

“Sorry, Reiji-san.”

“It’s fine. I don’t want to have bad personal relationship with both of you…. Just that… Be sure to help me when I am in need later okay?”

“Granted. Asya will comply Reiji-san’s request once.”

Once, huh? Asya is stingy…..

Well no matter. That depends on how Reiji-san will persuade Asya later.

“Then, I will proceed to deal with Kouji.”

“Haru, you’re not going to kill him, aren’t you?”

Hearing me saying dealing with Kouji, Reiji-san immediately put himself between me and him.

“Nope. I have no intention to kill. Just that I found a way to immobilize a remarkable void slayer while strengthening myself along the way here.”

“Eh?”

Both Asya and Reiji-san can’t hide their surprise.

“Well, the theory behind it is a bit long to explain and I have no guarantee that both Asya and Reiji-san will be able to do it like me, since I’m different from you guys. Still, once again I can guarantee that I won’t kill him. So will you let me, Reiji-san? Of course, critical injuries are also a no.”

“Okay……”

Having being persuaded, he stepped aside, allowing me to face Kouji.

Silently without word, I absorbed Kouji’s prana until he’s powerless and about to faint.

“Hm…. Reiji-san is against killing Kouji, right?”

“Although it’s a bit disturbing to you guys, yes. He’s my little brother after all. If possible, I want him to be judged by the law of our country. If the law judged him to be executed I will accept it of course. I have no intention to babysit him.”

“Then we should bring him to one of the military’s base and tell them everything regarding Kouji and the intel I just explained.”

After saying my suggestion to Reiji-san, I then moved my attention to Kouji.

“Kouji, I have no hard feelings towards everything you had done to me at school. But, it is a fact that I must do what I can in every opportunity to survive in this situation. Grudge is an unnecessary burden at present later on, so if you ever get out of this situation later, I want you to never show your face in front of me again.”

After saying what I wanted to say, we moved to drag him to the military base nearby.

“Now what do we have to do?” since I just joined the team, I need to know what kind of plan Asya and Reiji-san had come up with.

“Ah, we need to regroup with Shiori first after this. She’s acting as Asya using shape-shifting Seele when we departed to distract their attention.”

Both Reiji-san and I turned our eyes to Asya, only seeing her closing her eyes.

“Asya knows where Shiori is.”

Ah, so she was tracking Shiori by prana trace.

How reliable.

“Then Asya, how do we plan to move out?”

“From a tactical point of view, Asya’s and Reiji-san’s role isn’t changing much. The problem is, before regrouping, we need to deliver Haru to a safe location first. Kouji-san?”

“I think that bringing him is fine. Asya-san had already beaten Kouji, and he’s now immobilized by Haru. If we take this chance to bring Haru along, we can have him strengthen himself along the way. All things considered, he has a sharp flexible mind, so maybe he will come to understand things we don’t or notice crucial hints we overlook.”

“But…”

Asya is wavering, whether to bring me along or leave me out of this.

“Asya, I am grateful that you’re worried about me, but I think following you along is better. After all, we have no lead on the Apate Aletheia’s user. Even if you take me to the military and asked them to guard me, there is no guarantee when we separate our enemy won’t capture me again. He might not use Apate Aletheia since it’s not a matching weapon against many, but there’s also no guarantee he will not use it and he’ll come alone. Apate Aletheia can only be used by a person with high specs as a void slayer, I doubt the military has enough manpower and skill to confront someone who’s able to pull a trick on you. If that happens, the enemy will have the upper hand again, and there’s no guarantee we can overturn the situation like now.”

“….. Still, Asya has a bad feeling about this……”

As she said that while looking down, I lifted her face, took a step closing our distance till almost kissing, and hold her cheeks with both of my hand.

“I will do my best to be a man worthy of you. I will become stronger, and do everything I can so that I won’t be a burden.”

I looked into her eyes with the gentlest eyes I can make, and said that.

“And so Asya, for now… Will you protect me?”

“Yes!”

A resolute, decisive answer right away. How reliable.

As I let Asya go, I noticed Reiji-san looking at us.

No, looking at me, precisely.

“Both of you cherish each other. I pray that your feelings persevere till death do you apart.”

“A-ah… thank you.” Both of us stuttered and answered at almost the same time.

“You’re welcome.”

This is a bit embarrassing…. I can feel my face burning red hot.

“Ahem. let’s move on.”

“Of course.” Noticing me trying to hide my embarrassment, Reiji-san immediately nodded with laughing eyes and started treading his steps.

“By the way, when Asya was fighting with Kouji, Haru is below of that plain, right?”

“Yeah, that is so…. Damn.”

“Is there something you forgot?” as Reiji-san carried Kouji in piggyback style, he asked me.

“Well, one of the guys stationed to confine me there was a skilled man, he was able to use no-invocation mudra, and I wasn’t able to kill him… that time I was able to escape because of the narrow underground space preventing him from using his power fully, but I can’t be so sure if he enters the battle with his comrades. After all, he’s able to conceal his mudra to the extent I can’t sense him.”

“Any characteristics Haru can tell?”

“I can only say he has one creepy face. Utterly horrific, sending chills down my spine.”

“Hnnn…..”

With a hum, Asya posed a thinking pose.

Adorable.

“Well, we’ll think about how to face him when that happens. For now, let’s just bring Kouji to the military, and regroup with Shiori.”

Reiji-san said so as Asya pondered about it.

Well, in a way, that is true, Reiji-san.

But you know that you can never be too careful in battles, right?

“Asya understands. Then when something does happen, Asya will engage while Reiji-san cover Haru as top priority, and Asya when the opportunity arises.”

“Roger.”

Well I guess I have no need to reprimand them.

I forgot that they are more experienced in combat than me.

I forgot the capability of my comrades and chickened out.

Sorry.

“Oh yeah Haru-san… you did say that you’ve found your own original technique, right? Would you explain what kind of technique it is? Or its function in battles?”

“Well, where do I start I wonder….”

Nevertheless, I started a monologue about this new technique of mine.

How it acts with a different fundamental idea from mudra.

How it works, and what kinds of use.

“Well, there are lots of theories I haven’t proven its accuracy yet, since I invented it in the nick of time to escape. But at least with this I’m not entirely powerless forever…”

“Weak Haru is fine…. But Strong Haru is admirable!”

“Thanks, Asya.”

As I said my thanks, I patted her head, resulting the cutest smile in the world appeared in her face.

“Hn…. Then Haru, if everything is alright, Haru can be the support of our three-man team. The formation will be Asya as the front liner, Reiji-san as Asya’s support, and Haru can fill the hole Haru thinks necessary as the opportunity arises. How about it?”

“Sounds good.”

“Much appreciated.”

Reiji-san and I agreed readily to her suggestions.

Yosh. For now, I’m the jack of all trades of this team.

Thief in RPG’s term.

Uhehehehehe.

“Oh yeah, Haru-san… you were confined in that underground facility, right?”

“Yes.”

“Were you hit? Are the injuries need immediate treatment?”

“It’s fine. Indeed I was hit, but when I began my escape, I found healing scrolls in the control room at the lowest floor. I guess I should count myself lucky that they didn’t rely on healing mudras much.”

As I said that, I felt like my body became lighter, my treated injuries disappeared like it was never there, and my lost stamina was replenished while my body was surrounded by light.

Ah, this is….

“Injuries must never be hidden, if not treated as soon as possible, it will hinder movement in ensuing battle. And, Haru’s well-being is Asya’s constant concern…..”

“Okay. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about it, Asya.”

“Un.”

From there we talked about various things from what were the faces Asya make when I was captured, my shameful past Asya recounted as payback, and Reiji-san’s first love…

Very relaxed considering we’re in the middle of a void dimension.

“There they are!”

Seeing the military base first among us, Asya began to kick the ground as hard as possible to report them about the situation we had encountered.

But even though I said that she saw it, I can’t see anything in my sight.

“Haru-san, we should make haste and catch up to her.”

“Understood.”

We kicked the ground with our feet as hard as we can to reach the base.

Two minutes later, I could see it.

There were people in it. Maybe 20-30 people at the entrance, I guess?

Asya is currently talking with them.

The guys seemed like they had a perplexed and regretful expression….

Though I might be reading too much into it.

I wonder what had happened?

“Asya?”

Asking for information of current situation, I called her name as a simple gesture for the said action.

“Haru…. Asya had reported that Kouji is a culprit accomplice that kidnapped Haru, and asked the military to bring Kouji to martial court….”

As she explained that, painful, and regretful expression surfaced in her face too.

“Then that’s good, isn’t it…?”

I see no reason why you of all people would be perplexed by such a thing….

“But, when Asya asked about Shiori…. The officer said Shiori was captured by Kouji’s comrades, and they demand hostage exchange.”

Ah.

This pattern again?

Part 8

“What must Asya do, Haru? Because of Asya—

”””It’s not your fault.”””

Both of us said the same words as Asya started to blame herself.

“Sorry Reiji-san, even though you finally reunited with your fiancé again, I can’t bring myself to show you a happy expression….”

“It’s fine, Haru-san.” Reiji-san answered,

“Yeah, compared to us your friend’s situation is more dire after all.” Agreeing with her fiancé, the mayor’s daughter called Iori patted my head with a gentle smile.

Although saying she’s a beauty is not wrong, calling her cute is actually more correct. But not only that, with that huge chest, not even one bit inferior to Asya’s…..

I understand why Reiji-san likes her…..

But upon noticing an intense killing intent from a certain someone,

“Ara, how popular. Ufufufufu.” Iori laughed it off jokingly, and hide behind Reiji-san.

“Haru-san, what now?” with a puffing cheek, Asya snorted away with “hmph!” as Reiji-san asked me.

I urged Asya and Reiji-san with hand gestures to form a circle for discussion.

“Let me ask you guys some questions first. What was the assignment Shiori took?”

“Shiori told Asya that she’ll disguise herself as Asya, and lure the attention so that Asya can infiltrate Haru’s confinement facility easier along with Reiji-san. But, Shiori didn’t give any details at what Shiori will do regarding how that will be done….”

“I see. Then, soldier-san. Do you have any records regarding where she was last spotted?”

“Yes. The last time, she was located at point X50 Y2 Z20, and hostiles requested hostage exchange at point X20 Y7 Z0….”

“If she was captured we should assume hostiles has Asya-level fighter or even higher. It will be possible if he was the deceiving Seele user, or the the user himself crawl under his shadow like it had always been. For now,let’s use the formation like Asya set before, but I will be acting as the Apate Aletheia’s jammer. Just in case, Reiji-san and Asya must stay close to me if my theory in combating Apate Aletheia proved wrong. If I give no signal to continue, both of you must retreat as soon as possible as you see fit.”

“Okay.”

“Roger.”

“And Iori-san?”

“Yes?”

“It will be in your best interest to cover our retreat path. Our main objective is to rescue Shiori and capture the enemy, but if somehow we think it’s too hard then please help us in retreating. Of course, that is not to leave you guys as cannon fodder, but to add your and your comrade’s strength into combat. If that is still too hard, then there will be sacrifice to save many, but that’s a last resort.”

“I got it.”

“How many do you think can sortie right now?”

“Including myself, about 20 B-rank void slayers, formed into 5 four-man team.”

“Haru, wait. We have the general strategy, but how will we---

“And that’s what I’m going to say right now, Asya.”

“O-okay…”

“Now, the plan will be like this.”

As I said so, I began to explain the details of our operation will be.

“Quite nice, Asya thinks.”

“Well, not bad if it’s not considering the risk to all of us.”

“Iori-san?”

“This is a very elaborate plan. Of course, we are ready.” Iori-san answered with vigor, impressed.

“Then let’s go with this plan, and this for backup.”

With our determination set, we started to move.

Cocytus Void Dimension, coordinate point X20 Y7 Z0.

The silhouette of a certain girl met the dimension’s light substituting sun’s ray, as she was dragged out of a certain cave bound with a certain mudra.

The girl had a moderate posture, not too tall nor too short. She’s neither too fat nor too slim either. The proportion of her feminine traits are balanced, which won’t rouse men’s carnal desire at a glance. But even though she’s bound, the beauty she holds which is like a western doll modeling a teenager girl, showed no sign of declining as she properly uphold her demeanor with pride, not yielding to her enemies who bound her.

Behind her is…. A man.

One of slender posture, with a creepy vibe adorning his face, he walked behind the girl as if escorting a prisoner who’s going to be executed with a pair of twin scythes in his hands.

The twin scythes was covered with a purplish-pale miasma, signifying the dreadfulness the twin scythes hold.

The girl looked straight to her front, which is another plain.

The cave was located at the foot of a hill whose top is the place where the Void king is believed to reside.

While the hill is not very high, the void king and his minion above has the territorial advantage, so unless one has a splendid amount of skill in flight mudra, one won’t get through.

After all, climbing a cliff to invade is a big disadvantage to the attackers.

“Hmph. Even though we have the upper hand now, why bother using this roundabout way?”

The man asked to no one.

Since the girl knows nothing about what he’s talking about, she fell silent, not letting out even a single sound.

Because she knows, there’s no telling what he’ll do when he’s irritated.

Or so she thinks.

“Everything was necessary to defeat her, Paul. That woman, Anastasia Nikolaschka is no joke. Beating Kouji who moved according to my instructions and tactics, we should assume that the same way won’t work twice and she will have already prepared countermeasures for our plans which she can see through.”

A masculine voice, resounded from within the cave.

From there, comes out a man.

The creepy man felt a chill went down his spine as the owner of that voice made his way towards him.

He has a tall, well-built posture, with a western sword sheathed in his waist. His face is handsome, one would wonder whether he is a sculpture that came to life. His hair is a gorgeous silky blond, possibly charming every women who came across him with all that charming appearance. His left hand, though, was covered with a glove.

The glove has a unique design and pattern adorning it, also with a certain symbol carved in the backhand part’s surface signifying its rarity and might.

With a thud, the feet which was adorned with a pair of greaves stomped the ground, signaling the end of his steps.

“I got it sir, it was just harmless chatter during self-mumbling.”

“Self-mumbling? You really have quite the hobby, Paul.”

The blond man chuckled as he said that, in a dignified manner fitting a noble.

“That’s not really the case, sir.”

“Is that so? Well all you need to do for now is obey my orders, and I will give you the reward I promised if you don’t disappoint me.”

“Roger that.”

The man affirmed his obedience clearly, shown with his demeanor.

“Let’s just follow this man. I will make countermeasures in case he betrays me.”

“Though rash and reckless, I can still use him for my plan. Well, I can just kill him should he be a hindrance.”

As the creepy man—Paul and the handsome man spoke their respective remarks in their minds, they began to trot with the girl between them.

“By the way sir, I have said this already, but how will I deal with the previous hostage?”

“Hm, Kazunari Haru, was it? He was a very dependable piece, but him being snatched away from us means he’ll pose a threat somehow. Don’t worry, the role I gave you doesn’t change. If he does come here, I will make proper countermeasures.”

“Roger that.”

The man smiled as he heard his answer.

“They’re coming.” Said the man, as he saw the silhouette of four people appeared in front of him.

Three men and a woman. One of the two was a pretty boy with a skinny posture, with his black hair which was supposed to be hanging up to his shoulder tied in a ponytail.

The other was a handsome, well-built man. He treaded his legs with his companions full of caution. He was dragging along a person both the man and Paul know too well, Kouji.

The last is the woman. She was a god sent beauty with her enchanting body, caution and slight frustration are evident on her face.

“Shiori!”

The woman screamed as she saw the bound girl—Shiori.

Not now… I need to stick to the plan…

Just as she called her friend the creepy man—Paul stepped to Shiori’s front, covering his hostage.

“Ah……” She muttered as she saw Paul.

“Is he someone you know, Asya?”

“Asya doesn’t know him, But Asya knows of him.”

“Haru-san, he’s a wanted criminal responsible for kidnapping and killing civilians for the past 4 months. It was only a few days ago he was suspected as a culprit, and all the cases connected to one person so it was a shocking development.”

“By the way, he was the strong enemy I told you about.”

“Okay. We’ll be cautious.”

Sensing it’s time to cut to the chase, the handsome man started to speak.

“I am honored that you’d consider my request as something unable to be ignored.”

“What sophistry. After kidnapping my comrade, you dare say such things?”

As Asya took a few steps to the front, Burning Aura covered her surrounding razing nearby soil blazing red.

“Everything was a plan.” The man answered as he closed his eyes halfway. “You do know that all is fair in war, right Miss Anastasia?”

“So you are Apate Aletheia’s user.”

Realizing that Asya’ll rampage if left alone, Haru cut in and changed the subject.

The man widened his eyes towards Haru’s words.

“Not only hindering my plans, you also discerned my Seele’s name… I am impressed. I see that the rumors I heard about you three weren’t wrong.”

“Then I assume you have gathered intel regarding all of us...”

Reiji-san cut in.

“Quite a bit.”

The man chuckled as he said that.

“What are you saying? Of course I would’ve done that before anything.” His face seemed to say.

“Well then, how about we cut to the main point?”

“Not so fast. You haven’t given us your name yet.” Asya forcefully inquired, not letting the conversation stray from her objective.

The man chuckled again.

“I didn’t know that you have the knack for finding out your foe’s name over anything.”

“What can I say? I need to write a name for your tombstone to bury you under it the next time we meet.”

The man chuckled even louder.

“That was one hell of a problem, in its own way.” the man said, “Nice to meet you. I hail by the name Radiath Draigg. You can call me whatever.” The man elegantly bowed like aristocrats introducing themselves as he named himself in front of them.

“This operation of yours is a big one. Who is backing you?”

“I wonder who that is……”

As Asya tried to dig deeper intel about his collaborator, with a shrug Draigg just played it off with a vague answer.

“Asya, we can find out about that next time. Shiori is top priority now.”

“Fine……”

Heeding Haru’s words, she took a step back.

“Then, we’ll release Shiori the same time you release Kouji. To make it safe and no falsification, the hostages will walk slowly. How’s that sound?”

“Not bad.”

It’s according to plan.

After a short brief, the hostages--- Shiori and Kouji were released of their bounds, and started to walk slowly to their respective comrades.

If the hostage walks slowly during exchange, target the moment when the two pass shoulder by shoulder.

Step by step, Kouji and Shiori walked to their respective allies.

And as Kouji and Shiori passed each other,

“Guaaaa!”

An electric current flowed into Kouji’s body, electrocuting him as he screamed in agony, rendering him paralyzed.

It was a mudra activation sequence unique to Kouji, which had been imitated by Asya and set with delayed cast.

Responding to the success of the first step, Haru immediately charged with Asya to cover Shiori, and Reiji with a dash aimed at Paul, a scarlet katana-shaped Seele in hand.

“Heaaa!!”

Responding to the situation, Draigg immediately charged to the front, starting to exchange blows with Asya with his sword tightly gripped in his hand..

Just as that was about to happen,

When he’s going for a brawl, snipe. But him being an expert in detecting prana, limits us in delivering the decisive firepower to incapacitate him, so----

As Asya rammed his body, rendering his balance disturbed, immediately a shot from the flank, originating from 250 meters away was shot, aimed at the ground where he’s standing, and rendering him of his focus.

It was only an instant, but---

When he’s off balance, Asya will aim for the escape route he might take should he retreat with his unbalanced stance, and Haru will deliver the killing blow.

Just as Haru was about to deliver the killing blow with his peculiar skill, following up after Asya—

Contrary to expectation, Draigg escaped the binding, unsteadily moving to Asya’s predicted line of fire, and parried the bullet.

But that is also within expectation. Should he escape while parrying the bullet, blow him off with a strong linear-type attack mudra.

But should the enemy parried the bullet, then Linear-type attack mudra will pose no real threat either. So the choice of attack will be--

“[Macropyre]!”

A line of everlasting flame tore and raze the ground, burning everything in its wake.

At the same time [Macropyre] is cast, Asya will engage Draigg while Haru assist Reiji. The first squad will retrieve Shiori and cover our escape route should the plan fail, the second and third squad will pin Draigg together in close combat. The fourth squad will assist Reiji and Haru, while the fifth squad will join the battle with long range support.

Starting with the first squad stationed 100 meters behind, they immediately moved and retrieved Shiori, and retreated soon after.

The same time the first squad moved, the respective squads in charge of assisting the combatants started moving to enter the battleground from the flank.

Even so, assume hostiles have discovered our numbers from the beginning. If he’s calling allies, intercept. If he didn’t do that, then---

70 meters before reinforcements reached their respective battlefield.

Flailing his glove-covered hand towards the sky, using no chant at all, Draigg---

“[Berserker Gale]!”

Invoked Asya’s prided mudra.

“I won’t let you!”

Haru will intercept the mudra.

Unlike other AOE mudras, [Berserker Gale] gives the user a necessity to sustain and control it.

For example, when one uses fire, before the fire itself reached the target, the fire would need to be sustained by pouring prana into it.

Should elements which can disrupt its sustenance, like velocity or the like appeared then more prana needs to be injected.

This is why [Berserker Gale] is one of the hardest mudra of the wind system.

Even so, when dealing with such mudra,

Just aim for the user, disrupt its sequence, and with a fwoosh it’s cancelled.

With a slight surprise drawn all over his face, Draigg stared at Haru who disrupted the mudra invocation.

Noticing the opening, Asya—

The mudra disruptor disrupts all mudra within a certain radius. So the next step is—

Unsheathed [Adrammelech] clad in jet-black flame, and slashed at Draigg.

The effect of Haru’s technique was apparent, seeing even the black flames had its temperature lowered by far. If it were normal flames, it might not come into existence in the first place.

But that was enough.

Towards Draigg who has no means of defense using prana, a slash is all she needs---

*****

A minute before the slash.

Reiji who unsheathed his scarlet katana-shaped Seele [Merazakura] confronted Paul, clashing his sword with the twin purple scythe.

The intense brawl between the two renowned void slayers in each respective side continued, clashes of their weapons become the rhythm and their respective maneuver become the dance of the opera known as their battle.

Reiji using his katana as a weapon, logically gains the advantage of range over the twin scythes. This provides more chances for Reiji to strike first, and to make the slashes hit the enemy. And his weapon being a sword itself, gave him more ways to attack than his enemy who uses twin scythe.

But Paul being an expert in his own way, parried each speedy maneuver of Reiji’s and countered with exquisite timing and accuracy, forming a deadlock between the two of them.

It’s not long that both of them had gone to a stalemate, looking at each other.

The role Haru gave to Reiji was nothing complicated, just to kill or at least incapacitate him for ease of fatal blow delivery.

Haru had already pointed the crucial facts that his enemy—Paul, has the ability to invoke mudra without chant, and that was what makes Haru think he’s not someone to overlook.

But as the battle goes on,

Reiji understood one thing.

The fact that he’s not using mudra while in close combat means, he’s still at the level where he needs to use all his concentration to invoke mudra without chant in the middle of progressing intense battle, be it close range or whatever.

If he’s using his seele already, high chances are accurate that he might not be able to use mudra, like how he attempted to prevent Haru from escaping.

Of course, there’s also the possibility he might have planned to make me to have this assumption………

Thinking so, Reiji leaped erasing the distance to 2 meters in an instant.

At that place, he raised his concentration, perceiving every little information he received with five senses, and raised his heartbeat to an astounding rate.

With an instant burst of prana, he activated his signature move.

[Demonic enchant: Baalskra]

With his Seele in hand, he intentionally made his prana channel overflow with his prana, resulting in short interval of physical power up.

Using a mudra which doesn’t fall under the three basics mudra, with a blast of his prana he sent dust and stones flying away from him, striking slight fear in Paul’s heart.

“Haaah!”

Rotating himself while charging, Reiji unleashed a slash, stronger than ever to cut Paul’s Seele and his entire being into two.

A moment late in responding, Paul hurriedly parried the strike, resulting in him blown away a fair distance. In midair, Paul rotated his body and with an acrobatic maneuver he tried to fix his stance.

But noticing what he’s trying to do, Reiji didn’t let him and dashed with a huge burst of prana--

“[Hiryuu Kaen]!”

--he unleashed a slash, accompanied with scarlet flame of his seele to cut Paul once and for all.

The strike was so strong, Paul’s seele was thrown out of his hand as he parried Reiji’s strike. Noticing Paul has no weapon in his hands, Reiji immediately followed up with a diagonal slash to Paul’s shoulder. Paul being an experienced fighter himself, immediately retreated and got off with a huge, yet shallow diagonal cut on his body.

Predicting that Reiji might not let him escape, he casted [Tidal Wave] in panic to buy time while retreating his thrown seele.

But to no avail, Reiji easily cut the tidal wave while vaporing it instantly with his slash, giving almost no time for Paul at all.

“Are you for real!!”

Having only five steps away from Reiji, Paul swung his hands as he casted various offensive mudras, as he retreated to where his weapons flew towards the charging Reiji. But as he retreated, he felt that reinforcements aiding Reiji is only fifty meters away, and started to shoot offensive mudras towards him from behind.

Crud, I’m sandwiched!

At the same time he felt he’s finished, he sensed Draigg casted [Berserker Gale], nulled by Haru’s peculiar mudra.

Time to counterattack!

Unexpected to everyone surrounding him, Paul abandoned Reiji and suddenly charged at the reinforcements as he casted [Tidal Wave]. As the sudden surge of water made its way towards them, they frantically countered with [Saint Interruption], a defensive mudra of the support system only to meet Paul’s next move as he concentrated, giving intense pressure towards the water forming a small water ball, raise its temperature suddenly and blast their barrier with directed steam explosion.

Seeing such a scene, Reiji spare no effort to chase after Paul’s back, when suddenly…

As he charged, he noticed that all the reinforcements that was supposed to support Haru and Asya, and the long range support team are no longer functioning….

Wait. Draigg is facing off with Asya and Haru, Paul is in front of me, then who is--

“Crud!”

Noticing it a bit too late, he turned his body around only to be stabbed in the heart by a sword.

Violently coughing up enormous amount of blood, he touched the blade stabbing his heart,

“I see…. So everything…. Is already…..within your plan….”

With darkening vision, he stared at the one who stabbed him in the back.

Part 9

The strike, which Haru and Asya were sure to kill was calmly and effortlessly dodged in a hair’s breadth by Draigg, followed with a ram of his shoulder to break the pair’s offense.

Haru being the mastermind of the whole operation started to notice the anomaly in their formation as he sensed long range supports team ceased its firing, and the reinforcement’s prana covering their retreat path can no longer be detected, evident of something unknown to him happened and cutting their retreat.

And as he battled Draigg while using hit and run tactic, he analyzed the situation, which made him sure there is something happened unknown to him to the formation.

And, the most unexpected happened in front of their eyes, as the two of them felt the last dim of Reiji’s prana, whose heart was pierced by a person who was the least suspicious to commit such an act.

“Shiori??!!”

Upon Reiji’s fall, the vanishing prana from his body dissipated bit by bit, finally disappearing for eternity gave Haru and Asya an indescribable shock.

Only by that time did the two realized, that the long range support team which is led by Iori, and the others responsible for combat support had already been done in by someone. And that someone, can only be the one who killed everyone including Reiji, the two’s best friend---Shiori.

But, noticing such a thing, and being shocked while in front of Draigg, is a fatal mistake.

In a blink of an eye, Draigg charged at the startled Haru at full strength, decisive in trying to land the killing blow once and for all with his downward diagonal swing of his sword. Haru being a pathetic excuse of a void slayer for almost his entire life is absolutely oblivious to his moves and can only wait for death.

But having been constantly protecting Haru for all her life, Asya by reflex covered for him and parried Draigg’s slash clumsily, proof of her being careless due to shock.

Just before the two blades of Adrammelech and the unknown western sword started to clash, the slash Draigg unleashed disappeared, and appeared aiming for her from the other side.

Shocked beyond belief, Asya moved her hands, fixed her posture and aimed to parry his slash, with the hilt’s edge of her sword.

Slightly surprised with Asya’s godlike precision and reflex in the middle of a fight, with a fluid and flowing movement as Draigg’s second slash clashed with Asya’s sword hilt, it disappeared again and appeared aiming for her throat, horizontally bringing death with it from the other side again.

Isn’t this the swallow strike! And he used a western sword instead of katana and nodachi at that!

The swallow strike—or more famously recognized as tsubamegaeshi is a triple strike seemingly attacking at the same time; a seemingly impossible strike, invented by a certain swordsman of legend, Sasaki Kojiro as he attempted to kill a swift-flying swallow with his sword.

Finally opposing the very technique firsthand herself, she finally understood the danger it represents as she parried again, for the third time unable to even break Draigg’s offense.

Heavy sound of sword clash rang out, as Asya parried Draigg’s last slash--- his supposedly last strike.

But unexpected even to her, Draigg stepped to the front, and as his blade stood still with her sword--- he nulled his strength in the sword and attacked Asya’s face with the hilt of his sword.

Perfectly having his hit went in, he immediately slashed again towards Asya, not allowing her to even fix her stance.

“Haru, fall back!”

Hearing her frantic scream of concern for his well-being, wasting no single second Haru immediately fell back, running to the escape path he devised in the operation briefing with everyone before.

Noticing the disadvantageous situation upon her, she unreservedly used her secret move, and with a blast of enormous amount of prana and black flame covering her entire body into a full body armor she charged at Draigg, going all out.

But seemingly anticipating this very moment, Draigg’s glove covering his left hand shone with right emerald light, and turned him into an afterimage at the most exact and perfect timing possible not only to avoid Asya’s onslaught but charged past her, and leaped towards Haru.

Haru being shocked and finally revealing all possible openings while running with his back towards him, Draigg spared no single second and thrust his sword as swift as possible aiming for his heart from his back.

I’m… going to die here?

Only those words comes to mind, as Draigg’s western sword mercilessly, coldly and ruthlessly thrust his heart, intending to end his life once and for all.

A sound of despair, rang out from Haru’s stabbed chest as Draigg’s sword pierced the heart, creating a gaping hole in the chest.

“HARUUUUU!!!!!”

Being thrown to the side as she watched her beloved stabbed at the heart, Asya frantically charged with fury towards Draigg whose sword is firmly planted in Haru’s chest.

But carefully being on guard, Draig calmly pulled his sword and parried her strike.

“WHAT DID HARU EVER DO TO YOU!!!”

Sparing no effort to strike him down for eternity, she called forth Adrammelech’s flame to her maximum output, and slashed at Draigg’s direction, paving a linear area of eternal burn in its wake. Tremendous fire razed the surrounding, burning everything to ash.

But already expecting such moves from her Draigg immediately evaded with huge steps to the side, unharmed by her attack.

“[Divine Interruption!]”

Thinking that he will chase to the end if left alone, Asya trapped Draigg inside a barrier of mudra of the highest rank. The yellowish transparent barrier of mudra trapped Draigg, not letting even a dent form in its surface as Draigg attacked it with full strength.

Asya with her fastest speed immediately grabbed Haru’s nearly dead body and fled the scene, sparing no single second and effort, casting [Divine Healing]--- the highest rank of healing mudra to heal his wound.

“It didn’t heal?!”

Knowing her highest rank healing mudra has been nulled, she put her maximum effort of bringing Haru to retreat.

But as if God demands death to the two of them, a pair of man and girl---- the living Paul and treacherous Shiori blocked her retreat. The shock Asya received was indescribable as she saw the blood trail clinging to Shiori’s very being and sword seele, proof of her stabbing Reiji to death and killing everyone.

“I HAVE NO TIME FOR YOU TWO!!!”

In a fit of rage, Asya blasted her way with her greatest prana output.

Facing a fiery strike not even a god can withstand, the two could only evade to the side and simultaneously flank her at the same time at full strength as Asya tried to run past them.

“Kill, [Thanatos]!”

“Sever, [Zantou Namakura]!”

As the two unleashed full power of their respective Seeles, purple and cyan miasma of prana covered their Seeles and attacked Asya.

Even Asya will have to spare no effort shielding herself from the two’s strongest attack.

They even thought this moment thoroughly!

But disappointing the two, Asya reflexively created two [Saint Interruption], a barrier mudra second only to [Divine interruption] and slanted it to redirect the two’s strike’s momentum, and---

[Kyou Kaen!]

Raised a burning wall of flame to cut the two’s chase and ran with all her might to the outside of the void dimension.

“Asya, cough* cough*----

“Haru, speak no more, I beg of you!”

Haru’s life force whittled away second by second as Asya brought him farther from the battle scene, at the fastest speed possible. Every drop of his blood made Asya’s expression grim, as even she knew that Haru won’t make it by the time the two got outside of the dimension.

A minute of fleeing later, she finally lost the two’s chase as she looked around the place where the two were currently at.

The two arrived at the edge of a canyon, whose distance with the other canyon in front of it would be about 25 meters. Since it was Asya it was actually a simple feat to soar treading the air to walk past the canyon.

However, noticing Haru doesn’t have much time left for immediate treatment, she spread her prana to make fake trails as if she used [Soar] to fly past the canyon and got down with Haru to the dark abyss.

“Asya, i….. i…..cough!”

“……. Haru.”

Noticing the serious expression Asya rarely displayed, Haru immediately widened his eyes.

Please don’t do this.

“Meeting Haru, and staying by Haru’s side…. Has always been Asya’s greatest happiness.”

“Asya, please don’t----

“The wound inflicted by his sword has a curse of healing intervention, and so your heart, backbone and chest can never be healed again.”

“No, Asya. No!”

“But, the curse will only affect the part where the blade touched. It will not affect any healing treatments at other place in your body, so…..”

“ASYA, NO!”

With a swift chop to his head, she made the energy of her chop to interfere with his very consciousness, rendering him in a comatose state.

“A…sya….”

He called her name as she made a fiery flame, aiming at his own chest.

With a swift movement without any hesitation, she carved the wound inflicted by Draigg’s sword to make a new wound, and attempted to heal it.

“Figures, the healing power would be diminished to this extent… but at least the curse’s effect was interfered in some way.”

Noticing the healing speed won’t recover his heart due to the curse’s interference, she unreservedly thrust her own chest, carved the organs and every parts Haru’s chest had lost, and transplanted them all without any single slight mistake.

The movements of her hands as she directly opened her chest and gouged out her heart, vertebrae and sternum was flawless without hesitation and wavering, signifying the unparalleled willpower she had to save him no matter the cost.

After having finished the treatment, with a gaping hole in her chest she pounced at his chest to revive his heart, and used her last drops of prana to accelerate the blood synthesis in his body to recover the lost blood.

His face gradually recovered its color, and vitality was apparently visible in his feeble body although somewhat weak.

“the last, would be the curse…… Haru, I…”

As she breathed the few last breaths of her life, she kissed him on the lips and then threw him into the river, carrying him towards beyond the horizon…….

“Live on….. for me….”

Only the quiet murmur of the girl resounded in the abyss, as her body limply laid on the ground, unmoving……