Several minutes earlier.

Father Daniel sat in the room, rocking back and forth on a bench. The room was large enough to hold most of his men's beds comfortably. His men were dead however so this information only served as a needless reminder of what happened.

“Yes, lord I shall do my best to serve you.” He said to himself with a hoarse voice. He pulled something out of his pocket. It was the divine powder he kept in a small sack. He warily stared at it and placed it on the table.

“Sigh If that woman does overpower me…” His mind went back to the pink-haired woman who stabbed his hand. “And I still haven't seen that blonde-haired woman yet.”

He was stuck in a dilemma, he wasn't sure he could solve it. If the pink-haired twit managed to overpower him, he'd have to use the powder. But if he used it before meeting the blonde woman, he imagined the strain it'd put on his body afterwards would make him easy pickings for her.

But there was a bigger problem for him to worry about.

“Would they even allow me to use the powder?”

If he didn't happen to find himself in a situation he required the powder would he be able to reach it? He heard Saito absorbed the powder through contact with his blood, so the idea of leaving the sack open didn't rest well with him. The thought of accidentally using it when unnecessary left him with a tight chest.

So that was out of the question. How would he easily access it would disadvantage himself in combat?

An idea quickly came to his mind. He took his weapon out and began cutting up the sack.

He created a small square with the powder firmly in the centre. He used the drawstring of the original sack to tie it up into a small tube. He then stuffed both open ends with the excess material of the sack and tied the ends closed with some extra string.

He didn't tie the strings into a knot and the sides were unrivalled when his hands left the string.

“This can work.”

He tied the tube once more but used his magic to stop the string from unravelling and the square from becoming slack. He did the same when he tied the ends of the tube.

He breathed in deeply before putting it into his mouth. He managed to swallow it after several moments of choking on the leather.

He waited for what felt like centuries but nothing happened. He rested his head against the bench table and wiped the sweat that had formed on his bow in the time waiting.

“It appears to be watertight in its current state.”

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If it wasn't he would have wasted his time doing this and the powder as well.

He pulled out of his other pocket, the crystals he took the time to collect from his men. It was enough he had to use both hands to make sure none fell to the floor. His bloody hands had stained the crystals when he initially created them.

“It seems my only hope if I do encounter someone of note after using the powder, is praying these will be enough to recover myself.”

The amount of mana they restored was pitiful but it was his only option that wouldn't cripple him afterwards.

He placed one in his mouth and started chewing. Then another. And another.

He soon spaced out doing this action and blankly stared at the wall. His body was begging for a more proper break like a nap and he struggled to fight against it.

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After stabbing him with her spear and blackening parts of him with her magic, Tina assumed this was it. She pulled her spear away and watched as he fell to the floor.

In the moment after his death, Elizabeth regained her movement.

“That was stronger than I expected.” She commented.

“What an annoying magic,” Tina stated. She dusted herself off and picked her spear up.

Agatha was busy catching her breath. (“I know that killed him but could you give me more of a head-up before you shove that between my legs, Tina?”) She weakly thought with her hand on her chest.

He deactivated his magic on the leather inside him.

All the women nearby were stopped. How?

Only Elizabeth and Agatha were staring in his general direction, with Agatha’s eyes pointed too high to see him.

“Ah, I'm alive.” He stated. He still lay on the floor and parts of his flesh had been blackened. Maybe this was a death throe?

“I'm sure you've never seen what the powder does when it's used properly. That knave Saito overdid it and learned something quite interesting, I will admit. But this is how it's meant to be used.”

Although motionless, all three were struggling to start moving.

(“What did he do!?”)

(“This bastard!”)

(“The powder? When did he have the opportunity!?”)

Blades flew from the shadows but he easily stopped them as soon he saw them. From metres away.

(“What!?”)

All the women present thought in unison.

He rested on his knee before getting up to his feet.

(“Thank you, boy. For the inspiration.”)

His body still showed damage but some of his wounds started to recover, such as his hand.

His hair turned a deep black, a drastic change compared to the blonde.

(“Now that I think about it, the only reason I have a full serving left is because I only gave Leo a quarter. I hope he wasn't too mad about it.”)

His eyes turned red and he pulled up his chain. Yet despite his appearance, there was an odd calmness to himself.

The women regained movement.

His movement was sluggish. He couldn't even swing his chain forward fast enough before they sprinted away.

(“It seems I can stop them for about seven seconds now… hmm?”)

He noticed something odd. The blonde woman hadn't regained movement yet.