Chapter 6 : The Most Absurd Fight Ever

"Aleystria, are you okay? You seem distant," said a girl with red hair, her laugh forced and her face filled with sorrow.

Huh, where am I?

"What’s going on…" I utter these words unintentionally, but my tongue speaks others on its own, without me being able to stop it.

"Elvi, sorry, I was lost in thought."

A tear falls, then another. I start to cry. The scene around me greatly resembles the one from my last dream. In front of me, a girl who looks like Elvaria stands there, with about fifty swords embedded in her body. As for me, a lance is stuck in my chest. I was dying… such a familiar feeling.

"Aleystria, take my hand one last time. Soon, we won’t be anything anymore, but we’ll..." Her final words, I could no longer hear them.

Suddenly, I feel a weight against my body. I open my eyes, pulling myself out of that dream.

"Elvaria, get off, you’re heavy."

We were in the inn room, and once again, Elvaria had fallen asleep on top of me. It had been two weeks since we were offered the dungeon exploration quest, but because a group of adventurers had recently died inside, we hadn’t been able to go due to a safety inspection. In the meantime, Elvaria and I had completed a series of D-rank quests, and sometimes even a few C-rank ones, to the point where we had become somewhat famous. We were on the verge of moving up to C-rank, but whatever.

"Elvaria, get off!" I gently push her to the side so I can get out of bed.

"Uwaa!" she exclaimed, surprised by my sudden movement, before adding, "Aley, that’s not nice," she said, trying to make an upset face.

But of course, our sweet and adorable Elvaria couldn’t maintain that expression, making her face so cute it was impossible not to melt.

But there was indeed an event that seemed particularly strange to me. It was a few days ago, after we returned from a goliath extermination quest — monsters that look like oversized guinea pigs. What happened next was, well, surreal.

Let’s go back five days: “Phew, finally done with this quest, Aley,” Elvaria said, clinging to my arm, her head resting limply on my shoulder as we walked down the street that connected the guild to the inn. We had just completed a rank C quest, hunting goliaths, and we were promised a promotion soon, rewarding our services to the kingdom.

That’s when I saw them: a girl and two men standing at the corner of the road, staring at us like statues.

“It’s them… madam… Iveralmn,” they murmured as if we were some kind of attraction.

I raised an eyebrow, puzzled. The girl was absurdly perfect: long, blonde hair cascading like golden silk down to her waist. Her deep blue eyes were mesmerizing. She looked like a princess straight out of a fairy tale. She wore a white gown, shimmering in the last rays of sunlight, undoubtedly a sign of her noble status. As for the two men beside her, they were clad in full armor, an emblem emblazoned on their chestplates.

“Oh, it’s the royal family’s emblem—IT’S THE ROYAL FAMILY’S EMBLEM?!” Elvaria exclaimed, her voice a mix of surprise and suspicion.

The silence that followed was heavy, almost ridiculous. We stared at them, and they stared back, as if the universe had frozen in this absurd tableau. Finally, the blonde girl broke the silence with a soft voice:

“Gerald, I think they’re looking at us,” she whispered to one of the armored men.

The man, thinking he was being discreet, leaned in to whisper back — but without any sense of subtlety: “…They are powerful adventurers, famous in the capital. If they try anything, I will crush them…”

I stifled a laugh. This was a pitiful show, like a scene from a bad play. Turning to Elvaria to share the absurdity of the moment, I noticed she was tense, looking behind us.

“Aley, draw your sword!” “You too, guys in armor, draw your weapons immediately!” she shouted, adrenaline spiking. Something was approaching. The sky was painted in golden hues by the setting sun, but that beauty didn’t ease the tension.

Suddenly, a voice emerged from the shadows at the far end of the plaza: “I see you’ve sensed our presence, heheh…” A man fully dressed in black, his face concealed, holding an enormous sword, stepped out. Then another. And another. There were twenty. Or a hundred. Or a thousand, who knows?

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“We are the Black Cats, former members of the assassin’s guild. Today, we serve a powerful master, and you will be our example, heheh,” one of the men in black announced with the conviction of a second-rate villain, advancing towards us, sword raised like a baton.

“What a bunch of weaklings! An army just to kidnap one little girl,” grumbled one of the assassins.

“Orders are orders, you fool, and she’s not just anyone!” retorted another.

“Shut up, both of you! Our mission is simple: kidnap the girl, and kill everyone else.”

“This’ll be easy,” added another with a grin that was supposed to be sinister but looked more like an awkward grimace. Then, one of them, who should’ve kept quiet, blurted out:

“If we have to kill everyone, c-can I… keep the red-haired girl for m-myself, eh heh heh—”

-Access granted: Aleystria’s Reinforcement.

Elvaria turned her head towards me, ready to tell me to ignore what they were saying, but... “Aley?” She looked around. I was already gone. The blonde girl pointed her finger:

“He’s over there….”

While they were still babbling, I had already activated Aleystria’s Reinforcement, a power I didn’t fully understand, but it didn’t matter. Using Quick Step, I had darted towards the first idiot like a bolt of lightning. He didn’t even see me coming.

“What the—?!” he cried, just before my fist slammed into his face like a divine meteor. The impact was so violent that his body seemed to melt into the ground, leaving behind a vaguely human-shaped crater in the street.

“Attack him, guys! He can’t fight all of us!” one of them shouted, trying to rally his comrades.

What a bunch of fools.

I slid across the ground using Quick Step. Five of them lunged at me, swords raised, screaming. Despite my speed, they seemed able to track my movements — but not for long. I dodged their attack by leaping into the air, as if I were dancing. But this would be over quicker than I’d thought.

I vaulted off the side of a nearby house. “...Aleystria’s Reinforcement,” I muttered again.

Bouncing off the walls of the alley, I shot into the sky at a ridiculous speed, as high as I could. I turned back towards the ground, ready to strike. Using Quick Step, I accelerated even more, hurtling towards the earth like a furious comet. The men in black stared at me, frozen in terror, unable to comprehend what was happening. And who could blame them? Even I didn’t fully understand the power of this thing.

I struck the ground with such force that the street shattered on impact, creating a smoking crater in the middle of the plaza. The shockwave rippled outward, knocking everyone off their feet. The men were thrown like leaves in the wind, dazed, blinded by the dust that filled the air.

And while their eyes were closed, trying to shield themselves from the devastation...

It all happened in a fraction of a second: I launched myself towards one of them, delivering a kick so fast and powerful that the very sound seemed to explode. The resulting shockwave sent him flying so high into the sky that his body would probably never be found.

I grabbed another by the head and—

..... -Hello, I’m Elvaria Ofcroft. I’ve spoken to you before. Currently, I’m standing beside a blonde girl and two armored men. In front of us, a surreal scene is unfolding. My guildmate, Aley, is moving at an unimaginable speed. There were about twenty men laughing and preparing to attack, all armed with long steel blades.

Now, all that remains are their screams of terror and their tears. “Mercy, this monster is too—Aaaargh!”

For your information, my eyes can’t keep up with what’s happening. Aley is moving way too fast. The only thing I can see are the shockwaves he’s creating with each blow... Oh, here he comes.

“Elvaria, I’ve finished dealing with them. I hope you didn’t take too seriously what one of them said about you.” Ah, he fought for me. He’s so sweet. I love him. I adore him.

So yeah, that’s the weird thing that happened a few days ago. I just crushed some idiots. Nothing more, nothing less. Elvaria seemed pretty happy too.

Meanwhile somewhere in the world :

"Master Macrinis, Master Macrinis!" A servant, kneeling, had been calling for his master for almost twenty-six minutes.

"I've heard you, stop calling me over and over!" Macrinis responded, irritated.

"But Master, it's important, really important. Have you heard of Novus Orbis?"

"Novus Orbis, yes, of course, the second fastest group to rise through the guild's ranks after our little pet Valentin," Macrinis replied, completely uninterested in the situation as he gazed out the window of his massive castle, perched on a cliff. He was seated on his throne. Everything about this room, like the entire castle, screamed "evil genius." Nothing here was welcoming.

"They're strange, Master. They encountered some of our spies... and defeated them without any difficulty!" the servant cried, clearly alarmed and panicked. But his master's expression didn't change; he remained as disinterested as ever.

"So what? Those spies were probably just weaklings," he sighed, failing to grasp the seriousness of the situation. But once again, his thoughts were interrupted by the servant.

"They were all... e-each of the spies... were ranked A," the servant stammered. At those words, Macrinis suddenly froze.

"R-Rank A?! That's i-impossible! The Kingdom of Iveralmn wasn't supposed to have adventurers that strong! Are you sure these people you're talking about are ranked D?!" Macrinis stood up from his throne, a cold sweat running down his forehead. He was panicking, panicking a lot. His hand trembled, and yet, Macrinis wasn't just anyone.

Macrinis, the "Prince of Demonic Blood," was a nickname he had earned due to his strength as an S-rank sword mage, as well as his appearance. At first glance, he looked like a man in his thirties. However, his elegance — evident in both his attire and his manner of speech — gave the impression that he was much older and wiser than his appearance suggested.

He had long, smooth white hair, slicked back, and blood-red eyes. His body, as well-built as Aley's, was leaner. He always wore a large white high-fashion suit, adorned with pure gold patterns. His pants, as white as his jacket, were magic transmuters, designed to regulate Macrinis' power so his mana wouldn't become harmful to ordinary villagers. Although, in his cruel nature, he wouldn't hesitate to kill one or two, he wore it only because it made him look "classier."

His boots, black and made of fine leather, were of modest height and had no practical function, but they were, according to Macrinis, "very stylish."

- Access granted: 350 days remaining before the annihilation of all life, as initiated by Project Aleystria.