"Lucille, grab my paw and transform!"
Lucy who was already darting through the streets nodded, hiding her immense excitement.
'I'm gonna do it! I'm gonna transform!' She cheered inwardly.
She had already done it once sure but once again, she was very out of it at the time.
Nell jumped off her shoulder and the two met at each other's hand.
""Operation! Start!"" Both shouted in unison, causing a thin layer of light to expand into a circle with Lucy at the center.
In an instant, Lucy's very being began to change. Her eyes and hair became amethyst in color, the latter of the two elongating and becoming much more chaotic, her sportswear completely vanished and was quickly replaced with a black and white dress with gold accents and purple innards, topping it off both metaphorically and literally with a black hat and a pair of flowers around its rim which matched the entire outfit.
Now that she was calmer, she had far more control over what her vest looked like. Unfortunately, once a vest and foci are chosen, the amount you can change about them is limited so she simply replaced the golden stopwatch with a nice pair of flowers.
Leaping out of the light, Lucy's speed immediately shot up by nearly triple
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Operator Chronos couldn't possibly care less about that notification. In fact, she felt a large margin stronger than during the fight with the snake. Most likely because of her entering a higher realm of being a Magical Sentinel.
Well, that and the fact that her stats without the Sentinel's Source buff were already higher than what they were with it before by a considerable margin, even if the Sentinel Source was only increasing her stats by 30% instead of 50% right now.
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"Chronos. Remember, this one won't be injured like the snake."
Operator Chronos nodded in acknowledgment while a metallic black broomstick appeared in her hand before she took one final sharp turn and cut an extremely sharp tongue of an Invader straight in half before it could harm the woman and child it was going towards.
While it wasn't an ideal method due to her lack of control over all her mana in this state, what she used there was something called [Falsity]. A fake version of a technique that Mystics unlock after reaching a certain level, specifically at the king rank. No matter what item you had in your hands, it could become a deadly blade if you delicately shaped your mana into one around it. This increased your power by a considerable margin but the good ends there.
As this version is nothing but an imitation, it’s fragile and takes a large amount more mana than the real thing. Luckily, the tongue of this Invader wasn’t particularly durable and the large mana pool of Magical Sentinels circumvented both these downsides in this situation.
In reality, Chronos probably could have gotten the same effect without using it. She just wanted to use it once because it was cool.
"Run! Now!" Chronos shouted, turning her broom into a bo staff.
The mother and daughter had no issues with that, running as far as they could. Without magic, it was impossible for them to leave the Shadow World but the woman knew being near the danger would only make it harder for them to get out.
"A... Humanoid Invader?" Nell questioned.
Rather than just a humanoid, it was identical to humans in height and shape.
It was like he was made of charcoal, texture and all with 3 massive eyes protruding from different sides of his face along with 5 different tongues not including the one Lucy slashed off with a Mana-enhanced strike. Not to mention, it was wearing a suit and dress paints!
"First it was an intelligent snake and now it's pretending to be a human? I assume this one isn't normal?"
Nell nodded. "Be extremely careful."
"Obviously."
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“Huh… Next, I’m gonna be fighting a werewolf.” Chronos chuckled.
Twirling her staff around, Lucy dashed forward and slammed it into the skull of the Invader without blocking or retaliating.
She wanted to question why but decided she could question the alien species being weird at another time.
Slamming it into the wall, it let out a cry of pain as it finally decided to retaliate, trying to stab Lucy with its still intact tongues which she blocked with her staff and got sent flying back several meters.
"Okay then. Did it finally wake up?" Chronos mused.
"Its signature is far weaker than the serpent. Mana-wise, it should only be a foot soldier but I've never seen an Invader like this before."
Chronos was strong when transformed. Really strong. Because of how Magic Armament worked, Her weapon was basically just a metal pipe that weighed somewhere over 15 kilos without magic. That strike she used was meant to completely crush its skull, not weaken it or test the waters.
The fact that a mere foot soldier, the lowest of the lowest rank was this durable worried Chronos
The Invader began a reckless charge at Chronos which she responded to by running backward. It was slow but she was still losing ground because of her backward stride.
'It's actually faster than me? That's worrying.' She thought when a lightbulb suddenly turned on in her head.
'Wait, since I have more Mana I can probably try that.'
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Chronos's eyes widened as she saw that notification.
"Oh, that’s not good. I really hope I don’t screw this up." Chronos continued to chuckle, this time nervousness could be heard.
While it was slowly closing in, 3 magic circles began to form in the air behind Lucy, following her as she ran.
The circles rapidly became more intricate as several glyphs began to be engraved on each.
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As this second notification appeared, Chronos felt Mana rapidly leaving her body. Dual casting. She understood the theory behind Multicasting but actually doing it seemed to be another story. Her head was spinning. If it wasn't for the fact that she could use her mana as a sort of echolocation, she would have certainly run into a building at this point.
The Invader who finally got into range after about 5 minutes of cat & mouse, once again tried to attack with his tongue.
This time, unfortunately for him, Chronos was double prepared.
As its tongue shot out, Chronos's magic circles finished being drawn.
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Not even half a second before the tongue would collide with her, she smiled wildly
"RAMPART BREAKER!!!"
Arrows made of some translucent gray material with sparks jumping around it manically fired at the Invader, completely destroying his tongues, a part of his head, and both his arms.
Black blood splattered everywhere but Lucy wasn't done yet. Despite all that damage she dealt, the core was still intact meaning the Invader still lived. Further, she didn’t know if all Invaders were capable of regeneration or if that snake was just unique.
Alas, Chronos didn't have any sympathy for something that tried to kill a child and their mother. No matter how human-shaped it was, she simply couldn't see it as a person.
Revealing the new form her staff got for reaching level 2 in Sentinel's Source, Lucy's bo staff split into two and shrunk slightly, becoming a pair of Tonfa with its already existing handles as the base.
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Holding the Tonfa to her side and infusing Mana into them, gray translucent blades formed which she used to cut open the Invader and destroy its core, a green oval about the size of an egg.
It wasn't time for them to relax yet though. Without giving her a chance to breathe, the Invader's form began to change, shrinking and!
Wait, Shrinking?
Indeed, it was losing what little it had of its several tongues and its skin was returning to that of a human, a man of Asian descent specifically.
"W-w-what?!" Chronos shouted in terror, seeing the transformation of the Invader into a human.
Nell however seemed less shocked. Granted, she was hiding her confusion and other negative emotions but still, less shocked.
Jumping off of Chronos's shoulder, Nell checked the man's pulse while also grabbing the crystal that was cut into two.
He was alive! Well, barely. He didn't have any of the damage Lucy dealt to the Invader but his pulse was weak and he was having trouble breathing.
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"Chronos, let's get him to a hospital!"
Still very shocked that the Suitman turned into just a man, Chronos nodded while returning her armament back into its base form and flying off.
“Oh thank… Everything that I did not kill that guy…” Chronos let out a sigh of relief.
'Humans are being turned into Invaders? Or are all Invaders originally human?' Chronos wondered.
No, now wasn't the time for questions like that. For now, she needed to get this man to the hospital.