Chapter 76: Epilogue

Epilogue

Part 1

3rd Person POV

Standing idly with his eyes closed, Nora tried to calm his beating heart. The rest of the group was also trying to calm their nerves, but the fact that a large amount of ki continuously leaked from Nora in bursts made it hard, however, no one said anything to the youth.

Suddenly opening his eyes, Nora glared in a particular direction. Soon enough, from the trees two figures came out, Musashi's figure made Nora inwardly sigh in relief and it would've made the youth dash toward her and greet her if the situation was different. This time, he limited himself to give a subtle signal arranged beforehand by crossing his arms. The one that had to pay attention to it did not show any reaction outwardly but got the message. After checking on Musashi's safety, Nora turned his gaze towards the other figure and he clenched his teeth so hard that you might think he will break them, nonetheless, he resisted the urge to start the fight immediately. In fact, Nora suddenly furrowed his eyebrows and opened his eyes to gaze at the man who had come with Musashi.

"This is interesting, I did not expect it at all..." The man, N'gha, looked visibly surprised as he stared at Nora. "Two of the four reunited so soon..."

Looking confused, Nora ignored the man's nonsense.

"Are you meant to use her as a hostage?" Nora asked.

Waking up from his state, N'gha simply smiled at the sheer ill will that was directed at him.

"No need to get like that, I am not here to fight." N'gha said. "This body might desire to tear you to pieces, but my will is not that one. I came here with an offer and I hope you consider it seriously."

"Musashi, are you ok?" Nora looked at the young woman.

From his side, no one interrupted his actions. They just quietly followed his lead.

"Sorry, I tried to help you out but got checkmated instead." Musashi bitterly said.

Shaking his head, Nora did not mind but decided to console her later.

"What is that you want? You people would not extort me for money since you can get it easily through other means. Working as an assassin and selling dubious drugs would get you more money than I can get you." Nora muttered.

"Indeed, we do have several money entries so I would not ask you for that." N'gha chuckled. "I want you to join us. It is nothing hard to do."

Already aware of the guy's desire Musashi did not react, but even Nora simply stayed silent, however, someone spoke out.

"There is no way he will join you. Did you seriously believe he would just nod along?" Natsume said. "Your place has nothing to offer him."

"Oh? You think so? Even though we can allow him to reunite with his dear mother? I don't think you guys can do that..." N'gha smirked.

Trembling slightly, Nora lowered his head and his face was hidden after hearing that. The rest of his allies felt like tearing apart N'gha but none of them acted.

"Is she alright?" Nora asked.

"That is a good question." N'gha shrugged his shoulders. "I can take you to her to see for yourself so you can get the answer to that particular question. That said, I can tell you that she is alive."

"I see. She is alive, that's good." Nora sounded relieved. "Ikuse-san, go."

Those words confused N'gha and he had to jump away because blades made of darkness sprang out all over the ground around him, except where Musashi was standing. He tried to grab her and jumped backward, but a large black dog emerged from the shadow between the two while holding a blade with ominous carvings shining in red.

The danger he felt when the dog made its appearance caused N'gha to abandon the idea of grabbing Musashi. However, his dodging came to an abrupt stop when a black-haired youth also emerged from the shadows.

Holding a large scythe, Tobio had emerged from the shadow of a tree located in the place that N'gha had dodged towards. He swung it downward, but the hit never connected because N'gha turned into black smoke. In his new form, N'gha drifted away but the attacks were not done yet. Blue flames in the form of fireballs began raining on him and his instincts warned him to avoid the attacks so he took even more distance.

Taking solid shape, N'gha glanced at Nora who was shielding Musashi behind him, and Tobio who was at his right while Jin was on his left.

"That's some scary bodyguards you have." N'gha shrugged his shoulders. "Even though I came here peacefully..."

Furrowing his eyebrows momentarily, N'gha felt something strange behind him. An odd-shaped tree that looked like a cocoon made of roots was located in a strange location. He looked at the trees around him and noticed that they looked different that the ones surrounding the place.

Just then, the cocoon broke forcefully and pieces of wood flew off. The bloody figure of Kamiya emerged as he angrily dashed out. A pair of large horns had grown on his head and he seemed to have grown taller. His first movement after escaping was hitting the first thing that stood in his way and that was N'gha who looked surprised by what he saw. The blow sent him stumbling but N'gha only walked a few steps away.

"Wait, it is me. Stop it." N'gha dodged the frenzied attacks from Kamiya.

Bleeding all over, Kamiya's aggressive stand did not stop when N'gha spoke. On a closer look, Kamiya's eyes had suffered some damage they were half-closed and his ears had root pieces sticking out.

Clicking his tongue, N'gha was about to put Kamiya to sleep but as he raised his hand to knock the other guy out, an arrow he did not perceive pierced his hand and several others followed, but N'gha was able to swiftly escape the attack.

Sighing heavily, N'gha waved his hand, and a golden fireball formed in front of him. The fireball was sent flying toward Kamiya who kept randomly hitting whatever got in his way. Nonetheless, he raised an eyebrow when a gust of win directed the fireball away.

"I see." N'gha nodded. "I shall play for a bit to amuse you."

Waving his hand again, N'gha pulled a scepter (?) from his storage space.

The scepter (?) seemed to be made of stone and the tip was round, similar to an eye with some floating stones shaped like eye drops.

N'gha grabbed it and tapped the ground.

"I might lack most of my strength but... I was still known as the strongest magic user before any of you were even born." N'gha commented. "This should be enough to get you to calm down..."

Mumbling in an inaudible tone some strange words, the scepter (?) shined for a moment before a magic circle materialized below N'gha, it continued to grow until not only covered the area surrounding N'gha but went past Nora and the rest's location.

First, there was a small tremor, but it kept getting stronger and stronger until it was an earthquake of great magnitude. However, the spell was not done even though the earth began to crack and the terrain constantly changed. As several trees lost their ability to maintain their place, they all fell and from the ground, several stone pillars emerged.

Kamiya was lucky enough to be saved by one of those pillars, otherwise, he would've been caught in the destruction.

Smiling faintly, N'gha watched in amusement as the group emerged unharmed.

A loud cry was heard and the figure of Griffon, in his true form, appeared, the upper body of a falcon and the bottom body of a lion with four wings, much like a Griffon in the legends should have. On top of it, there was a sulking Natsume and Sae, while Nora with his crystal-like wings was flying while carrying a restless Musashi in a princess carry. Tobio calmly emerged from the shadows with Jin when the earthquake calmed down.

"Oh? Never seen wings like those before, although one of them seems to be broken..." N'gha mumbled.

"She refuses to acknowledge me so I am stuck with this." Nora said. "You are quite the Spellcaster. That guy never had such an ability as far as I recall."

"I don't mean to brag, but back in my days-" "Natsume." N'gha tried to talk but Nora's voice cut him short.

With just hearing her name being called, Natsume knew what to do. Tapping Griffon's head, Natsume seemed to order it to do something. Griffon flapped its wings and strong wings began to blow. The more it flapped its wings, the stronger the winds. Following that, Sae released a stack of ofudas that she had prepared. As they flew with the wind, they soon scattered everywhere, but when Natsume tapped Griffon's head again, the wind began to follow a new path. Instead of just blowing forward, it began to follow a pattern similar to a circle.

"Oh?" N'gha's feet left the ground.

In the air, the ofudas began shining and activated. One was shining in pale blue while others were in yellow. The blue ones began producing water in great amounts and it quickly reached a large amount while others discharged sparks causing a chain reaction and electrocuting N'gha. The electricity, however, was not able to cause him enough harm since N'gha waved his scepter and caused the electricity to stop harming him by creating a spherical shield around his whole body.

Each of his actions was caught by Nora who did not miss a single detail, although it caused him to ignore the restless Musashi that wanted to get down from embarrassment. Nonetheless, Nora signaled Sae with his hand and continued to ignore Musashi's attempts to get down.

Nodding, Sae searched among the stacks of ofudas that Nora had handed her before and took one that had a small drawing of an X over a wand on the back. She felt like she might need to chide Nora about his choice in distinguishing his gadgets, but it was not the time.

Throwing the ofuda, flew as sharp as a knife would if thrown and got stuck on N'gha's shield. The ofuda activated itself and caused the spell, the shield, to get interrupted.

N'gha was slightly taken aback, but he grabbed the ofuda and tore it apart. One chant later, the shield was back.

The wind slowly decreased as the flying ofudas no longer had the energy to produce anything.

Clicking his tongue, Nora lowered his flying speed and landed on the ground gently before releasing Musashi who got glared at by Natsume who also ordered Griffon to go down.

"Those were quite amusing for party tricks, do you have any other act to perform?" N'gha smiled.

"Don't you know? The Shiki Household has 108 nasty tricks to harass their enemies to death." Nora took out a vial from his storage space as well as a strange-looking syringe. "Don't worry, a tough guy like you would not have an issue with missing one."

Using the syringe to absorb the contents of the vial, Nora simply threw the mechanical syringe, however, his aim seemed to be off since it went to a completely different location until it landed in the hole of a bunch of rubble and rocks that had been flying seconds ago.

"Oh? Your aim is pretty bad for the daughter of that woman." N'gha mumbled.

"Is it?" Nora asked.

Suddenly, the rubble flew everywhere and a hulking figure emerged. Kamiya (?) or what it looked to be him had no longer traits of his handsome appearance. His skin had turned red and rugged, his teeth had grown larger enough to peak out his mouth. His previous garments barely held together due to the quality of the cloth, but the muscles were testing the limits of it.

"Hmmm, worked better than I expected. A red one huh." Nora mumbled. "Those are bad news."

"Oh? We were never able to produce one of these even after working for a while on the special 'medicine'." N'gha said.

"Oh yeah? It seems you guys don't have capable people on your side." Nora sneered. "Well, I will give you a trial quest for you to test how effective a grown one is!"

Picking a pebble, Nora threw it towards N'gha but before he could strike it away, Nora moved his hand and the pebble seemed to ricochet mid-air, but the lack of anything visible made it questionable if that really happened. The pebble ended up hitting Kamiya and enraging him. Growling angrily, he dashed towards N'gha with a greater speed than before.

N'gha raised his scepter and a stone wall was erected between the two. However, Kamiya destroyed it with one hit. N'gha continuously created new walls and Kamiya tore them down until they were at arm's reach. Kamiya attacked N'gha who was about to step away before noticing that his feet had been caught by a root.

"Ops." Nora mumbled.

Clicking his tongue, N'gha created a transparent shield to guard himself against the impending fist aimed at him, nonetheless, he heard a snort and an ofuda hit his shield just as the fist was about to hit it. The shield disappeared and Kamiya's fist struck N'gha with nothing to stop it.

The damage was greater than he accounted for but it was not over yet. From the distance, he was shot by a gun and the light-based ammunition distracted his chants.

Irritated, N'gha received more damage as time went on, so swung his scepter and it shined in red before a wave of cold air spread in a circle. Kamiya was affected the most as his feet became covered in ice and got stuck in place. He tried to escape, but the ice just kept freezing him again after he escaped. This gave N'gha some breathing time to make the tip of his scepter glow in red and touch the roots with it, causing them to burst into flames, no longer keeping him in place. His timing could not have been better since he perceived an incoming attack and jumped away just to avoid several shadow blades raising below him.

As N'gha landed, he felt like he stepped on something. The ofudas scattered activated and fire spread in his surrounding as it engulfed him.

Seconds later, N'gha emerged mostly unscathed, but there were some burn marks on his skin.

Trying to strike up a conversation, N'gha opened his mouth but instead, what came out was almost a curse. From the distance, Nora began throwing whole trees at him. He was about to create a shield, but he saw Sae preparing to throw a familiar-looking ofuda. His only choice was to evade by leaping away, nonetheless, he felt two pairs of eyes on him. Tobio and Jin seemed ready to take advantage of his landing. Clicking his tongue, N'gha turned into smoke and avoided the rain of trees.

The loud sound continued and N'gha emerged in his smoke form from the piles of trees. He took a look around and belatedly notice that he was missing someone. Natsume had been shooting at him at every opportunity she had, but his formless body made it so she was unable to harm him. Tobio and Jin only attacked him when he avoided attacks in his physical form while Sae focused on using ofudas to attack using different means. Nora only sporadically used his blue flames and N'gha avoided them like plague given the feeling they gave off. Yet, there was one person he had neglected since the very beginning. By the time he noticed this, the instincts engraved into the very body he was controlling kicked in. He channeled magic power toward his scepter and cast a certain spell. A spherical light shone above him and Musashi's figure which had remained invisible until now was revealed. Holding her katana with both hands in the hair, she jumped slightly to deliver a diagonal slash. A ring gleamed for a moment on her hand, but it was an unnecessary detail to point out.

Unfortunately for her, N'gha discovered her before it was too late. Yet, he was unable to escape unscathed. He raised his free hand and tried to ward off the attack as he sidestepped to his right. The katana had an ominous shine and N'gha was certain that it had the same enhancement to hurt those with formless shapes. However, he underestimated Musashi. Even if his body belonged to a powerful youkai, it was not enough to stop her blade. Her katana sliced off his arm with no resistance.

Musashi did not want to stop there and follow with another attack, however, N'gha was ready to retaliate with his scepter.

"Musashi!" Nora's yell was heard.

Just having her name being called made Musashi abandon the idea of attacking. Although, just that was not going to be enough to escape. From the tip of the scepter, a red sphere shone, it seemed to suck the light around it, and even the dirt and leaves light enough were sucked into it. Musashi got a chill just looking at it at a close range like she was and cold sweat poured from all over her body. Her feet backstepped but she noticed how N'gha would move his scepter so that the angle would always point at her. There was no way she would move toward her companions and endanger them so she fled in a different direction. Nonetheless, N'gha was not the only one who was reading the path she was taking. Nora had dashed forward as soon as he yelled and his body left after images as he ran.

By the time he caught up to her, the attack was fully charged and an attack that would easily swallow a five-story building was shot in their direction. The red beam vaporized everything in its path and there were multiple gasps of horror. Yet, before the sacred gear users went berserk, they spotted a figure amidst the destruction.

"...I am honestly speechless." N'gha spoke in a rather surprised tone.

He was dumbfounded enough to desist from attacking further. His eyes were directed to an absurd figure that had smoke all over due to the heat from the beam. A humongous axe-sword made of material similar to stone was facing him. Surpassing three meters in length, it boasted a wide body. It had a crude edge made by sharpening one side and it was uneven until the part where you would hold a sword that was covered in bandages to give a better grip. Black all over, He felt like it suck even the light directed at it.

A hand could be seen holding it in place and another one was peaking from one side of it. There were obvious injuries around them with even bones showing, however, you could easily see how they recovered in real-time and it took them nothing to be without injuries.

"How many times have I told you to not run off like that?" Nora's voiced sound angry.

"But you would get hurt!" Musashi's voice sounded angry as well.

"Who cares about that!? I can easily recover from something as minor as this!" Nora spoke.

Lifting the weapon, he easily rested over his shoulder by holding it with one hand.

"It is not about you being capable or incapable of recovering! I don't want to become a reason for you to get hurt! It pains me, even more, to know that I caused your injuries!" Musashi said.

"*Sigh* And you think my heart will not break if you die? Be a bit more self-aware about how much you mean to me, you dense lady!" Nora faced away.

"Ah!? You of all people will tell me that!? Argh, Nora-kun has lost all self-awareness!" Musashi lamented.

"We will talk about this later." Nora concluded. "We will see if not eating udon for a week will not help you to understand my point."

"Noooo, anything but that!!!" Musashi desperately clung to Nora.

Without caring for her image, she clung to Nora's waist and cried pitifully.

"...anything huh." Nora smirked.

"...crap, I mentioned the words I should not." Musashi coldly sweated.

Slightly regretting her actions, Musashi stood up and took her distance, but it certainly had nothing to do with the deathly glare that Natsume was giving her.

"I guess we bought enough time?" Nora raised his head just in time to see the moonlight get obstructed by black clouds.

Concentrated on the zone they were in, the clouds began making ominous sounds.

Distracted by the numerous antics that Nora and his group did, N'gha came to realize that the clouds were not a natural phenomenon.

"This is quite a complex spell, but... it was not you who prepared it." N'gha raised his scepter and began chanting.

His efforts were cut short when Jin leaped from the shadows and tried to attack him. N'gha clicked his tongue, but he refused to get slashed by the large dog's blade. He parried the attack with his scepter and he frowned when a nick was left on his weapon.

He did not have time to complain because Tobio put his whole attention on trying to create openings for Jin to exploit.

His gaze lingered on the sky and the clouds were noisier by the second. Arcs or lighting danced freely and they seemed almost alive.

Changing gear, N'gha accumulated as much magic power as he could on the scepter. Every time he parried Jin's attacks, the energy he prepared would leak in great amounts. Afraid that he would not be able to gather what he had in mind in time, N'gha dispersed his magic power like a wave and the density of it was enough to push back everyone. N'gha studied everyone's position and noticed that Griffon had left while he was assaulted by Tobio and Jin, but did not mention it or show any signs of noticing.

He kept Nora and Musashi in his point of view given their lack of involvement in attacking him. Nonetheless, his focus turned towards Sae, whom he considered the weakest. He tapped the ground gently and spikes grew in line toward Sae, however, Tobio intercepted the attack with his scythe. Jin attacked again but N'gha did not stop trying to send attacks in Sae's way. Natsume's covering fire was distracting, but N'gha used raw magic power to protect his body.

Calculating his movements, N'gha tried to get a breather, but Nora's blue flames would come just in time to take away any.

The lighting in the sky was getting louder and louder and N'gha began feeling like he should stop pulling his punches. Trying to keep them alive was beginning to become troublesome, but killing them would mean that they would lose what the cult was most interested in, Sacred Gears with unique properties.

Suddenly, a loud cry was heard and Griffon came back again. N'gha became extremely alert but Griffon did not attack him, he hovered over Nora and dropped a small object. Jumping, Nora caught it midair and put it on his neck at once.

Sighing after tapping the stone hanging on his neck, Nora snapped his fingers and his outfit changed. The usual hakama was again and below you could see a black body suit with green lines running across. His left hand was covered in bandages even though no wound could be seen.

Stretching slightly, Nora raised his hand to signal everyone.

Two light orbs descended from Griffon as he lowered his height, one pale blue and one purple, they both got closer to Nora and he nodded. The purple one got very close to his ear and the blue one tackled it away.

"Is it finally time for you to step in?" N'gha asked.

Ignoring him, Nora looked at Tobio and gestured for him to leave. The youth was confused until Nora pointed upwards.

Getting the message, he carried Sae in a princess carry and dashed away.

Natsume walked briskly and grabbed Musashi by the nape of her kimono, all while glaring daggers at the young woman who tried to pull away a ring that had been coincidentally placed on her ring finger.

"Keep it, I won't be using it for now." Nora sighed.

Obediently letting herself be dragged, Musashi whispered something and Nora nodded.

Griffon descended and a certain young woman dressed in white was seen sitting there giving Nora a worried look. It did not take long for Griffon to take off and only N'gha remained alongside Nora.

"What kind of game are you playing?" N'gha asked.

"Game? Hardly. I was just bidding my time." Nora stated. "I am certain that once I start fighting you for real, I will be unable to keep a cool head. Regardless of how much I try to channel my ki to cool my head, I am barely holding it together. If the fight gets too heated or you push the correct buttons, I am going to forget about caution and that will be a bad situation."

"Oh? You made the right assessment, however, even though you know that you still have chosen to step forward." N'gha looked around. "I am not that good at finding presences without using magic spells, but I don't see anyone around. Have you put yourself in the same situation you had described that would be for you?"

Snorting, Nora pointed the tip of the sword toward N'gha.

"I am an idiot." Nora proudly declared. "Have you seen an idiot do something rational?"

"Hahaha, is that really your reason?" N'gha could not help but laugh.

A large amount of ki began covering Nora all of a sudden and his form changed. His cat ears and tails finally appeared, however, his two tails split into another one, forming three before transforming into three fox tails paired with his new fox ears along with a slight increase in height and his build. The early spheres of light grew in numbers and they all hovered around him.

"By the way, I have been meaning to ask you... Are you some sort of ghost or undead? You are clearly not the asshole who owes that body." Nora glared sharply at N'gha.

Without feeling intimidated, N'gha just smiled.

"Follow me back, and I will tell you all. Not only that, I will tell you about what our goals are, and what our duty is. However, I guess the thing that you will like the most will be to be reunited with your mother, and I certainly have the authority to make it happen." N'gha offered.

Instead of answering, Nora leaped towards N'gha at an incredible speed despite still holding the sword in hand. Reading the air, N'gha enhanced his body with magic and met Nora's dash with a swing of his scepter. Magic power flowed wildly and it worked like an aura and produced a strengthening effect. The sword met the scepter and a shock wave exploded. N'gha became surprised when he was pushed back a few steps from the contact. However, he adjusted his magic power with the strength of the blow. Just in time to meet a downward slash from Nora, would he once again became surprised when he was still pushed back. Not only that, but the purple light floating around Nora sent a lighting strike at him and he briefly became numb. The power behind the light was beyond what he calculated. N'gha had accurately judged the origin of those spheres as fairies, but given their size, they were still not at the level of an elemental, creature with immense strength and unusual abilities. Nonetheless, they were still small, and while on a closer look, you could see a tiny person, there was no way she could add that much energy to one of her attacks unless she properly chanted a spell.

Gripping his scepter stronger, the stone-like surface began to crack under Nora's continuous attacks. Nora looked to be wildly swinging his weapon, but every hit only got heavier and heavier.

Making his magic power go berserk for a second, N'gha managed to push Nora back, but he failed to even cause a scratch as the fairies all moved in front of him and created shields of different elements.

Nora's pursuit was not going to end easily and N'gha was going to understand how much someone who aimed for a one hundred percent completion rate in games could persist.

Taking a stance with both hands on the grip of the sword, Nora dashed again. Surpassing his earlier speed, he swung the blade in a vertical direction. His foe reacted by changing how he gripped his scepter and instead of using it like a magic wand, he grabbed it from the base like you would do with a sword. N'gha tried to redirect the sword and parry the attack by twisting slightly the angle of the scepter. Nonetheless, his idea was unable to help him this time. Nora equally changed the angle of the descending sword and the brunt impact sunk N'gha into the ground until his knees. There were some breaking sounds, and Nora finally backed away after glancing upward.

"Do you know why was it that I stayed? I am the only one who can survive that among my companions." Nora smirked.

Pointing toward the sky, the arcs of lighting had been focusing on the center and were ready to attack.

"I am a little scared of Lisa asking me something exaggerated, but I should be thankful that she only requested two things in exchange for her support. How is it? The power of one of the witches of directions..." Nora happily asked.

N'gha wanted to reply, but the area was engulfed in lighting and a deafening was heard. The lighting struck down the surrounding area mercilessly and nothing was spared.

The blinding light brought by the lighting stole the sight of N'gha and while he tried to use defense magic, Nora used more ofudas to get rid of it.

After the attack, lighting arcs lingered in the zone and two figures stood up with difficulty. Their bodies would spam and tremble but one of the two recovered faster and soon began stretching as his body began glowing white now and then.

"How did that taste? As*hole..." Nora muttered.

Opening a closing his hands, he had dropped the sword at some point. Looking around, he spotted it. He briefly checked his appearance and noticed his hakama slightly torn apart on his left side revealing his black body suit below and the bandage covering his left arm. Swinging his arm, the bandage stretched until it caught with the grip of the sword Nora was using and he pulled it toward him.

With sword in hand, Nora carefully observed the figure of N'gha as he struggled to stand up.

"You know, there is a problem that undead who get used to not having flesh have. The same can be applied to ghosts- I mean, stands who possess people." Nora widened his eyes suddenly and began to look around.

From his body, the numerous colored spheres emerged and it was then that he sighed in relief.

"You guys want to scare me to death?" Nora grumbled. "Where was I? Oh, yeah. You guys tend to forget about taking care of your body. I am not sure what kind of method did you use to take over that body, but it still has a beating heart and the rest of the functions a regular body would. You still bleed, you still receive damage and that causes you pain, however, in your cause, you have either disabled your ability to feel pain or you have a screw loose like me and can withstand a lot of it."

The colored spheres did not seem to reflect on their action and simply floated playfully around Nora. Not bothering with them anymore, he threw the sword towards N'gha, barely missing his head from a few centimeters. On his left hand, an emblem made of ancient runes shone in deep red and from Nora's open palm, the tip of a spear began emerging. His left hand was pointed forward and N'gha maintained his eyes glued to it while his right hand was hidden behind him. In an instant, not only the tip but the rest of the spear had been revealed. Taking a hold of it, Nora swung it hard and the tip created a sharp sound and a red afterimage.

His whole attention was on the spear and N'gha seemed to feel a great deal of danger from it. His knowledge was limited given his incomplete state, but the body he was in could recognize the weapon.

"Gae Bolg." N'gha said.

"Correct." Nora muttered. "Well, I can't praise you for guessing since it is a pretty famous weapon."

Nora stood in front of N'gha and stabbed his shoulder.

"Shishou can be a bully, she made this one from the remains of a foe I defeated long ago at my request, but she could not honestly give it to me. She sealed my Touki and said, having both make it too easy for you so go test your limits without the Touki you have relying so much to not get killed. I feel like your weapon techniques have been too sloppy lately so you better fix that..." Nora grumbled. "Now then, that aside. Are you finally willing to answer my questions? I doubt your muscles will work anymore. Not only the lighting was specially made to have anti-youkai attributes and anti-evil attributes, but I did also ask that woman to make it extra charged so it could fry your nervous system."

"Heh, I guess you have been very careful to plan such a thing." N'gha did not seem worried.

"It seems I was not prepared enough if you are that calm." Nora twisted the spear.

Blood leaked in quantity but N'gha just smiled.

"Have you forgotten where we are?" N'gha spoke.

A large magic circle materialized below the two. Nora simply raised an eyebrow at the composition of the spell.

"You used him quite viciously, right? Let's see what he has to say in response." N'gha spoke.

Amidst the rubble, a scorched figure stood up slowly. His hulky figure had half regressed and he looked like an abomination with a hulking left half and a normal right half. Kamiya's skin had been mostly burned but the parts that were not had a pale color.

"Ah... Ahhh! Ahhhhhh!" Kamiya's voice sounded strange.

"Revival? No, I guess it is necromancy." Nora frowned. "What of it? He can't do much in that state. Not only he is unbalanced due to his body, but he also cannot see anything with the damage I did to his eyes."

"He is no longer a living being so he does not need eyes, does he?" N'gha explained.

Just like he said, Kamiya's eyesockets were empty of flesh, and now two glowing orbs of otherworldly fire burned with a pale blue flame. He looked at his hands and his expression distorted. Shaking his head, Kamiya turned towards Nora.

"It is because of you!" Kamiya dragged his body towards Nora. "You ruined everything! You! You! You!"

"Oh? So you plan to pit him against me now?" Nora looked unimpressed.

"You!!!" Kamiya dashed towards Nora.

Without caring too much, Nora grabbed the nearby sword he threw earlier and threw it again. His target seemed too into dashing toward him to care or even think of evading.

"You say that undead are weak because of what you mentioned? I cannot refute such a thing, but their usefulness depends on two aspects. How they are built will determine their toughness so necromancers will usually look for stronger bodies since it would make for stronger soldiers." N'gha smiled. "That can be somewhat bypassed by using catalysts or using magic to strengthen them."

Befitting the size of the sword, it had a large weight the collision sound was unnerving, but instead of getting thrown back, the sword passed through Kamiya and got stuck far away in the distance. His mangled figure was gruesome, but Kamiya single-mindedly rushed toward Nora.

"Undeads can be pretty obsessive with their behavior so I would not dismiss him as your regular one. Hatred can be one of the greatest fuels that drive them." N'gha smirked. "Do you know what the second aspect is?"

Clicking his tongue, Nora realized too late the trap that N'gha had planned to use. Kamiya was a few steps away and his body began to swell and his figure to turn unrecognizable, before he-

"Boom." N'gha laughed.

An explosion swallowed Nora and N'gha whole.

Part 2

3rd Person POV

"H-How!?" Shirone dropped to her knees and sadly wept.

"To think they would attack this place while we bitterly fought." Yume patted Shirone's shoulder.

"A cowardly move, yes." Ayanami tightened her fists angrily.

"No, isn't it strange that the kitchen is the only one on fire? The rest of the residence is perfectly fine..." Charlotte retorted.

The group was watching how their home (only the kitchen area) was burning, they all (Charlotte looked skeptical and Kanna was sound asleep) felt their blood boiling.

"That aside, the enemies we are facing keep spreading and multiplying... they are also looking more like... plants." Charlotte said.

"It is getting strangely creepy to walk around, I see almost no one." Yume commented.

"If things go south, we have... THIS!" Ayanami pulled out a piece of paper with a magic circle on it. "Nora Summoning ticket! Use one and your problems will go away! Yes!"

Raising it high, Ayanami looked at Shirone for approval.

"Not yet. We can still fight." Shirone stubbornly said. "We have to use all our strength to solve this."

"Eh..." Yume looked clearly disappointed. "Getting saved by a dashing Nora seems nice though..."

"Ahem, putting aside Yume's nonsensical reason. I believe it would be wise to ask for backup." Charlotte recommended. "Right now, the strongest fighting force is not here. Raiko-sama has left and we have not heard of Ei-sama. Yasaka-sama has made clear her stance and Sora-sama is missing along with Shion-sama. We checked their places and they are empty. In that regard, Urakyoto seems to be lacking many people and this is starting to look like a ghost city."

"There is no ghost anywhere though." Ayanami tilted her head.

"Ayanami-chan, I think she meant that figuratively." Yume smiled wryly.

"Enough. I permit all of you to go all out." Shirone said. "Anyone who gives less than their 111% won't get their puddings."

"...that is an oddly specific number, wait, it was you who took my pudding? The nerve! Nora finally made it after I beat him in rock paper and scissors." Charlotte angrily grumbled.

"It seems we have to make our stand." Kanna stood up full of energy. "Let's show them what we got!"

Taken aback, Ayanami, Charlotte, and Yume looked like they had seen a ghost. Only Shirone nodded reassured by when Kanna began to fight her own shadow.

With a subtle atmosphere of confusion, the group left the scene.

As they did, a small fox emerged from the shadows.

"...I am astounded. I took my eyes off you for a second and you blasted the kitchen." Yae reproached.

Creatfallenly slumping her shoulders, Ei did not dare to retort back.

"He is going to get angry." Yae sighed. "He might even take your Sweet's rights."

"...please kill me. I can't live in a world where sweets are no part of my life." Ei offered her sword to the small fox.

"...how do you want me to use that dangerous thing like I am? No, even if I change back, I do not know how to properly use a katana so keep that on your waist." Yae's eyebrow twitched. "She is an excellent warrior, but her passion for sweets is her weakness."

Mumbling to herself, Yae was not sure what to say.

"Cheer up, I will talk to him in your stead if it reaches a bad point. Besides, this place is-" Yae suddenly stopped talking.

From the distance they saw the group leave, an aura had burst explosively.

"We better leave." Yae said.

With a serious face, Ei nodded. Picking Yae on her shoulder, she leaped with nimble steps.

...

...

...

"What are you?" Shirone asked.

Holding her sword with both hands, Shirone looked rather irritated.

In front of her, the boy from before was smiling (?) at her.

Standing behind Shirone, the gang had their weapons equipped as well.

In their surroundings, vegetation had grown to the point of swallowing the buildings that were once part of a lively street.

"I am just a friendly cat who would like to meet some girls."

The boy continued to smile.

"My goal is to revive my race! You are a nekomata so you surely understand how important is to save our race from disappearing."

The smile on his face looked out of place as one of his arms had been blasted off. Normally people would feel incredible pain and would at least show it on their faces, but the boy just kept a creepy smile on his face. The place of the injury looked odd as well. Instead of blood, a green gooey substance dripped from it.

"I don't care." Shirone muttered. "If our race is in trouble, Nora will deal with it. Onee-sama said so."

"I don't think you understand how severe this is. You will need more than one guy to revive the race. I heard you people have numerous women here, I believe if we all work-"

"Shut up." Shirone said. "I said I don't care, didn't I? Onee-sama said Nora will do it. I believe in her and him. There is nothing Nora-onii-sama cannot do."

The normally calm Shirone was emitting an explosive aura and her ki was relentlessly released.

The words of the boy were the source of her anger and discomfort. She could not stand it when he first began talking so she attacked him with all her strength, but Shirone was shocked when her attack only destroyed one of his arms instead of turning him into a puddle like before.

"Ayanami." Shirone called out.

After saying that name, Shirone dashed towards the guy who only kept a smile on his face. Following her, Ayanami held a sword as big as the cat girl, but hers had an edge. Their attacks caused severe damage to the boy. Shirone used her sword to blast him away while Ayanami leaped and struck him down with one blow. The boy bounced a few times and his body came to a stop a few meters back.

"Charl, can you take care of the surrounding vegetation?" Shirone asked.

Nodding at that, Charlotte pulled a shotgun. It was a short one with an antique design and runes engraved all over. Charlotte easily wielded it with one hand and each shot would destroy anything it touched. The ammunition was not your regular bullets, but instead, before each shot, the shotgun would absorb the power of destruction from her hand.

Looking a little restless, Yume kept her spear in hand as she awaited instructions. Shirone was not going to say anything but the look of 'I want to be of help so I can get praised later' was too intense.

"Eh... Why don't you check for nearby enemies?" Shirone suddenly said. "I am getting some strange feeling. I see no one but there seem to be many enemies close to us."

Patting her chest reassuringly, Yume jumped towards one of the buildings. Nonetheless, it was one covered in vegetation, and as soon as she landed-

"Kya!?" Yume yelped.

A root of the plant tried to entangle her but Yume swiftly reacted and struck it with the blunt side of her spear. Her attack followed after she twisted her hand and spear spun. The plant was cut easily but it was time for the other plants to attack. Yume had to abandon her idea of confirming possible enemies and head down.

"...that was a cute sound you made. Don't worry, I will give Nora a detailed description of your heroic exploits." Shirone teased.

"This is not time for that!" Yume retorted but was secretly happy that her efforts will not go unnoticed.

"Hmph, easy." Shirone snorted at her friend's simple mind, however, just the image of getting praised made her tail wild.

"The plants have a mind of their own." Charlotte said. "I can reduce their numbers but their numbers are increasing."

The fallen boy suddenly stood up despite having broken limbs.

"Hehe, are youn't getting too worked out?"

The boy mumbled.

"Just stop resisting. They will be gentle."

His characteristic creepy smile still hung on his face as he spoke and the boy's skin began turning green and sprouts grew out of his body while a flower bloomed on top of his head. Slowly, his appearance changed from a boy with cat ears to a human-shaped plant.

"Kanna likes to eat the flowers that Nora has in his garden, but this one doesn't look tasty." Kanna bobbly stepped forward.

Staying on their back until now, she fought against... her sleepiness. A bitter struggle that no one but a certain someone could fully understand.

"It is the turn of the main character to shine." Kanna took a pose.

A little dissatisfied by the lack of a grand explosion to mark her words, Kanna nonetheless began making a series of hand signs. Each gesture of her hands made a symbol to lit up in a magic circle below her. Once the circle was fully activated, Kanna underwent some changes. Her sleepiness was gone and a surging aura surrounded her.

"I do not know what you are." Kanna took a step forward.

Her simple gesture startled the boy because he missed how in one movement, Kanna had disappeared from his point of view.

"Kanna dislikes those that disturb her sleeping time." Kanna muttered.

Standing behind the boy, Kanna kicked him and sent him flying toward Shirone. Despite having her mouth open in an unladylike manner, Shirone still reacted by swinging her weapon and hitting the boy.

A swing that would get praise from the best baseball players, sent the boy flying until his figure was no longer distinguishable.

"...it is but a small-time villain once I show what I am capable of." Kanna smugly said.

"Wait a moment! You were acting all this time!?" Yume asked.

"To think we have been carrying you everywhere all this time." Shirone lamented.

"Yes, I always followed the 'leave no man behind' policy that Nora always has, yes." Ayanami muttered.

Seeing how things were not looking good for her, Kanna immediately pointed at one of the plants that began acting up. It soon changed shape until a flower bloomed. The flower released spores as it bloomed before the flower began transforming into the boy while it decreased in size.

"That was a little rude. I just want to get along with all of you."

The boy just sulked as he crossed his arms.

"Creepy." Shirone spat out.

"Ayanami, can you use 'that'?" Charlotte asked.

"...Nora confiscated my sword so it is a big no, yes." Ayanami replied.

"Wasn't that supposed to be an important weapon for the Kishins? Why would he take me away for no reason? We could use that firepower here." Charlotte grumbled.

Looking away, Ayanami refused to answer.

"What did you do?" Charlotte asked with narrowed eyes.

"...I did not accidentally cut one of his favorite plants when I was showing what it could do to Shirone, yes, it has no relation to that event." Ayanami poorly lied.

Face palming, Charlotte decided to give her an earful later. At that moment, Kanna began engaging the boy rather aggressively without pulling any punches, or in her case, kicks. Like most bunny Youkais, she had swift footwork and powerful kicks. Nonetheless, despite bringing destruction anywhere she landed, Kanna had problems with the boy. He would get his body blasted or turned into minced meat, but he would always appear again. He could reappear through the process where a flower bloomed or after his body turned into the gooey liquid, a new plant would grow from there and he would soon appear on that spot again.

Watching the pattern, Charlotte got a bad feeling.

"Shirone... have you been keeping track of how many enemies are surrounding us?" Charlotte asked. "No, could you tell me if their numbers change?"

Pulling out her shotgun, Charlotte shot toward a nearby plant. Part of the stem of a small plant got blown away. Having held back on her power, Charlotte turned towards Shirone.

The cat girl had a grim expression as she kept her eyes on the parts that were blasted off and not destroyed upon the impact.

"We've been had." Shirone bitterly said.

While Shirone and Charlotte chatted, Yume was covering them and preventing any plant to advance too much.

"A little help would be appreciated!" Yume stabbed a root that wanted to entangle her. "I am too young to end up like in that doujinshi!"

Covering her mouth at once, Yume sighed in relief when she saw that no one seemed to react to her words. Unbeknownst to her, they all heard her, they just decided to tease her later.

"All this time..." Shirone gazed into the distance.

"We have been helping him to spread, yes." Ayanami finished her friend's words.

Groaning, Charlotte felt like they had reached a dead end.

"Are you girls going to leave all the work to me!?" Kanna spoke.

Nodding in unison, the rest of the group agreed on that.

--------------------------------

3rd Person POV

The ominous sound of flesh merging was all that could be heard after the explosion.

"Using the flesh of undead to fix your body is a little against the rules." Nora pointed out.

"I don't want to hear that from a weirdo like you." N'gha retorted. "Even though those fairies softened the damage by creating elementals shields, you received enough damage to turn your internal organs into meat paste."

Being covered in blood, no wounds could be seen on Nora's body, however, from the way his hakama had been destroyed, you would be able to guess how much damage he had sustained. On the other hand, N'gha had made a full recovery his severed arm was back in place and no visible wounds could be seen on his body.

"No, no, I am nothing compared to you. Using a corpse to that degree... I can't even call you a lich." Nora undusted his body. "That explosion had way too much power."

"Aren't you even more absurd? I saw your injuries heal in seconds. Your arm was blasted away, wasn't it?" N'gha said.

"It is nothing much. I am used to it so I became rather adept at it." Nora chuckled. "I put together as much as I could and fixed it."

Despite his origins, N'gha felt a chill after hearing with the ease that Nora spoke about it. He sounded as crazy as many of the people in the cult. People that were bad news. However, N'gha saw Nora's value and felt more interested in making him join the cult.

"That said, you are out of tricks. From beginning to end, none of your methods have worked out the way you want." N'gha shrugged his shoulders.

"I am honestly surprised that I am still alive." Nora mumbled. "By the way, how does your shoulder feel?"

Grinning, Nora used Gae Bolg a pole and leaned forward.

"Are you worrying about me? No need, I took the flesh of that man's corpse, and all my wounds have disappeared." N'gha said.

"Really?" Nora chuckled.

Furrowing his eyebrows at that, N'gha put his attention on the state of his body and-

"Blood? How...?" N'gha noticed that the stab wounds from before were opening again.

"Not everything was useless, don't you think?" Nora smirked.

"Here I thought you were the careless one." N'gha nodded. "Noted."

Straightforwardly charging forward, Nora swung his spear horizontally using his right hand while his left hand held ofudas ready to use. Nonetheless, N'gha did not use any of his former methods to defend himself. This time, he tapped the ground and an ancient chant was heard. Emerging from the ground, bones formed a wall between Nora and N'gha. Furrowing his eyebrows, Nora used an ofuda, but the piece of paper did not dispel the shield this time.

"As expected. It was something like that." N'gha muttered.

Not giving up, Nora jumped and tried to stab N'gha from an upper position but as he passed the wall, N'gha tapped it and it sent the bones flying like rockets.

Dozens of bones were launched in close range, but even so, Nora was able to avoid most of them with bizarre movements mid-air. He twisted his body as much as he could, however, one bone pierced his shoulder and that made the spear miss his target.

Clicking his tongue, Nora put some distance between N'gha and him. He pulled the bone and covered his wound with his hand for a second, he recovered from the damage instantly.

"Another trick you will be unable to use." N'gha chuckled. "Ah, scary, scary. Don't glare at me like that. I suffered more than you thanks to your tricks. However, I must say that it is an ingenious idea. To dispel magic using an integrated spell in the piece of paper, my apologies for saying this, but this was not your idea originally, right?"

"I met a strange cadre who is fascinated with villains from Japanese tokusatsu hero programs. He had some interesting ideas about Anti-magic so I began learning from him." Nora honestly confessed.

As he spoke, his breath became visible but he did not act any differently.

"I see." N'gha nodded. "I believe that the idea is far from being complete since it failed you."

"I don't think I have read about a spell in the language you used." Nora muttered.

"Oh? You were able to understand me? I don't think there are many records of it and if they do, they would not be a good material to learn the language." N'gha's breath also became visible.

Tapping the ground, N'gha created multiple magic circles and bones emerged from them. Once they were on the field, N'gha waves his scepter (?) and the bones flew towards Nora at once.

The youth avoided them by dashing forward and using his spear to deflect any bone that crossed his path. The floating lights reappeared again as they left his body stuck to him to not be left behind. Once Nora closed the distance, each of the lights used a spell to attack N'gha. 

"Spirits. Now that I take a close look at them, they were really fairies." N'gha summoned more walls of bones to stop Nora. "However, your way of using them is interesting. They provide support by themselves whether it is attacking or defending while you can focus fully on combat. That said, I don't think they are that useful against enemies of a higher caliber."

"Do you think so!?" Nora did not stop even once, he would leap across the walls, step in the air to change course, and continue. "I think they will change your mind after the fight!"

One last wall separated both parties, but Nora was not going to get cold feet after he arrived at this point. He took a stance close to the wall and thrust his weapon at the wall with all his strength. The bone walls were leagues above the previous shields that N'gha had been and despite using something akin to a legendary weapon, Nora still failed to pierce the wall. Nonetheless, the muscles of Nora's arm swelled slightly, and the ground where his feet were sunk. The amount of strength Nora put in was not small and soon the wall showed signs of breaking. Yet, N'gha saw this and dispelled the wall of his own volition. Nora lost his balance briefly and felt that it was strange but he still pushed forward.

Ice, lighting, wind, and the like, attacks created by the fairies aimed at N'gha. Nonetheless, N'gha ignored the approaching attacks and wielded his scepter with both hands. Holding it in front of him, N'gha sharpened his senses to the limit before adeptly blocking the tip of the spear with the shaft of his scepter (?). The numerous cracks that ran across the scepter increased greatly as both weapons collided, revealing bits of what was below the stone. For Nora, that was not something he had his mind on, he twisted the spear with a small movement of his hand and he managed to pierce N'gha's chest. He pushed his spear as much as he could, but N'gha kicked him to pull him away.

Nora received considerable damage given that N'gha used magic power to strengthen his body, but the youth had received a considerable number of kicks from his always caring Shishou so he adjusted his body to the best of his ability to take the hit and let most of the force of the attack to travel freely through his body and redirect it gently to the ground. His actions had become something akin to an instinct and he did not give it much though it caught N'gha off guard since Nora hardly moved. Instead of the desired outcome of N'gha, Nora stepped forward to grab the scepter. The pale blue light that floated around Nora, an ice fairy, acted as soon as this occurred and froze Nora's hand once he caught his enemy's weapon, bounding them together. There was a small reaction when Nora made contact with the weapon, but the ice was flashier so it went unnoticed by him.

Not wasting his newfound position, close to N'gha, Nora pulled his spear back and stabbed again. Using movements that left after images in the regular folk's eyes, Nora felt like he was too slow since N'gha did not stay without doing anything. Even though he could still drop his weapon and take distance to avoid the cursed attacks, N'gha did not do so. He refused to let go of his weapon and his voice continuously chanted numerous spells. Magic circle after magic circle began to surround Nora but the youth turned a blind eye to that. No doubt, he was beginning to lose control as the fight dragged and his mind became clouded. That much, N'gha concluded so he would use it to his advantage.

Ommninous amounts of magic power gathered on the magic circles and the fairies desperately tried to form a defense that could protect the youth.

"It is ok. I will give it to you so..." Nora briefly stopped his actions and stared at the fairies that concluded that escaping was the best choice. "<Link>"

A simple word, four letters. For a magician's point of view, it lacked a profound meaning or a great origin. There were not any hidden tricks to help anyone cast a spell or to help anyone visualize what they were about to use. Indeed, it was an ordinary word. However, because it was one word instead of a particular sentence that would usually define what the word was supposed to mean, it could be used in diverse ways. Nonetheless, N'gha was skilled in magic and easily understood what meaning Nora had tried to give to that word. The fairies he had underestimated before went through a change. Their auras grew and they no longer tried to escape. They orderly surrounded Nora as he was bombarded.

A loud explosion was heard and N'gha suffered damage as he escaped. His scepter got released so he did not stay close to Nora. Nonetheless, his expression was not bright despite being capable of hitting Nora with powerful attacks.

"I don't mean to brag, but my girls are the best." Nora walked slowly from the area that still had dust and smoke scattered in the air. The floating lights were giving a stronger signal but they remained faithful to their role of guarding Nora. "You know, no matter how much you try to fix your body using corpses, I doubt you will be able to take care of that."

With spear in hand, Nora pointed at N'gha's torso.

"Heh, I guess that I have underestimated you. You have an interesting spell, although I must say that I never expected that someone who wields 'his' abilities would have something like it." N'gha touched his wounds. "Even though the curse is not affecting me fully given your lack of proper use of that weapon. Bleeding this much is bound to cause irreversible damage if I don't fix it soon."

Irked somewhat that N'gha did not even seem angry or altered about his situation, Nora had the feeling that this fight will go south eventually. Even if he did not like it, numerous variables could turn the tide if he got into an advantageous situation.

It was when N'gha was playing with the blood on his hands that he noticed a certain detail he had been ignoring until now as the blood began to freeze. The clouds in the sky still looked black despite the previous spell being cast but above all, the temperature was lowering to frightening degrees. His lack of senses had prevented him from noticing as well as Nora's unusual chatty self.

"Sure, you can mend your body." Nora shrugged his shoulders. "Sure, your magic skills and spells are leagues above me. That much cannot be denied. I am certain that you are even hiding even more abilities and are probably holding back since there must be some use or value you see in me."

Scribbling on the ground with his spear, Nora repeatedly drew the same runes. As he did so, snowflakes began falling. They seemed to be falling slowly if you raised your head and saw them in the air, but one look below and you would notice the ground being quickly covered by it. N'gha summoned several bones to act as a roof and avoid being touched by the snowflakes. Observing his every movement, Nora walked around N'gha and continuously drew runes on the ground.

"I believe that this is nothing more than a friendly sparing session." N'gha nonchalantly said. "The four of us will always belong to the same side and we are fated to serve only one. Regardless of your current attitude, you will seek us out at one point and we will finally be complete."

Furrowing his eyebrows at N'gha's tone, Nora briefly paused.

"Sorry, world destruction ain't on my agenda for the next ten thousand years or so. Let's talk this over once that much time happens and I could make a small appointment in my schedule to talk it over." Nora ultimately said.

Even N'gha with his immense patience found Nora's words a little too much. Nonetheless, he simply ignore what he replied while inwardly looking for a countermeasure against the situation he was put in.

"How about a little shower?" Nora said.

Tapping the rune in front of him with his foot, it began glowing in a deep blue color, and the other one followed along. Water poured in a great amount and flooded the ground soon enough. However, after reaching a certain distance, it would not be able to hold it and freeze. As such, it began forming a thick formation of ice around N'gha.

"I am not getting wet though?" N'gha retorted.

Snorting, Nora spread his wings and flew above N'gha.

"Tell me what you know. Tell me where she is. This will be your last chance before I use my last resort." Nora muttered.

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"Oh? That sounds scary." N'gha smiled. "Making one of your companions deal the finishing blow, I have to say, you would make a great necromancer."

Chuckling, N'gha felt amusement as Nora's expression briefly twisted in anger.

"That said... Do you think I would stay here without doing anything?" N'gha pulled out a book from his garments.

Filled with stab holes, the book had seen better days. Nonetheless, his state only served to increase the grim appearance it had.

"Did you know? I was the one that filled the head of these villagers with all you saw. All for one purpose." N'gha showed his book.

"The book of rituals... no, I guess it was a copy all along." Nora bitterly said after watching the book.

"To even know about it, your reading materials must be dark in nature." N'gha mumbled. "I should correct you though, it is the real deal."

Even as he chatted, Nora drew runes in the air.

"The book of rituals contains forbidden knowledge, something that mortals must never get their hands on. That is why it cannot be any ordinary book." Nora said. "The appearance is also different from how I heard about it."

"How can you be so sure it is a copy?" N'gha asked.

"One of the most defining features of these types of books is using human skin as the cover." Nora stated and activated the runes he drew. "A book that has survived for thousands upon thousands of years would also not get stabbed that easily. I felt no resistance back then and I can't feel anything about it."

"Would a regular book be capable of controlling this!?" N'gha held the book high and a magic circle appeared below what was left of the nearby shrine.

There was a loud sound as the pieces of debris resulting from the attacks from the fighting parties affected the surroundings. From deep between the shrine, a grim aura emanated without control. A rattling sound became apparent along with the sound of dragging something heavy across the ground. A figure close to ten meters in height dragged its body toward the fighting duo. It ignored the snow and it would barely land on it. Its skeletal frame made it hard for snow to pile up on top of it. Lacking moonlight or another proper lighting to see in the dark, only those able to see in the dark could afford to witness its figure. A giant skeleton made of bones from different people with protruding reddish eyes. The clattering sound made by its teeth was unnerving as the vile aura surrounding it.

"Did the villagers know what sort of 'God' they were worshipping?" Nora gave it a sidelong glance. "No, I guess not all would know. The shrine maiden probably had no idea."

The temperature dropped every second but around Nora, a blue flame below his feet forming a circle was keeping him warm. N'gha felt a terrible chill while looking at those flames and despite trying to imitate the fire trick, the cold would extinguish it before it fully ignited.

"How boring, is that how you react to a god?" N'gha asked.

"Not the first time I see a so-called god. These types of creatures have appearances in a diverse number of mythologies." Nora spoke in a disinterested tone. "There is one of this locked deep down in Urakyoto too..."

"Even if it is fake, this creature absorbed the remands of a god thus it took its divinity." N'gha said. "Taking on a god..."

"You can't call the corrupted divinity that it stole and greedily devoured something with enough value to turn THAT into a god. Maybe if it received worship from the villagers for a couple of centuries, it could turn into a proper god. They were too few in number and you made it hibernate. A brainless creature will never become a real god... but you already know that." Nora spoke. "Gashadokuro, that is what we call it here. Back in the days when war ran rampant, they would manifest from the battlefields. That said, the most deadly about them is their pseudo invincibility."

Taller than the ice surrounding it, the Gashadokuro peeked at the two people and slowly reached for both.

"Indeed, they cannot be destroyed. They enjoy the gift of an indestructible form." N'gha exclaimed. "Now, such a thing is under my command. It is a shame that it is lacking since the sacrifices were few in number."

Stopping the hand that was towards N'gha, the skeleton only grabbed Nora and raised him in the air as he pulled him towards it.

"Hundred people and you think that is a low number? I am speechless." Nora shook his head. "Not only you made a pathetic counterfeit. You were also wasteful in the process. The starving skeleton, the Gashadokuro, has always been known to attack and eat humans. The records from exorcists from the ancient express their terror for this creature that could never be defeated and would at most be repealed using their arts, although I just consider it nonsense. The fact that they used to run rampant at night back then and you cannot see them today is proof that they can be defeated."

Pulling Nora toward his mouth, the skeleton suddenly stopped to N'gha's surprise.

"Why are you stopping?" N'gha called out.

Magic circle after magic circle shone below the skeleton, but it refused to budge. Just before N'gha got angry, it moved the hand that it was using to hold Nora and-

"Putting aside your so-called status, using that fake in this situation was a mistake." Nora said.

Putting the youth on top of its skull, the Gashadokuro's teeth clattered incessantly in mockery.

"I do know my way a bit on dark arts." Nora snorted. "If you want to steal the control of your 'God' from me, pull out the real deal. Otherwise, you have no way of controlling it since I previously made arrangements."

Tapping the blunt side of his spear on the skull, it reacted by throwing a punch toward N'gha. At the risk of getting hit, N'gha escaped his refuge. The cold that kept lowering the temperature made it awkward for him to move but he did it nonetheless. The refuge he built was blown away and N'gha had to evade again due to the following attack.

"Getting cornered? Pull out the book-" Nora stopped talking.

"Hahahaha, this is, hahaha!" N'gha began laughing all of sudden.

"You lost your mind?" Nora asked.

"No, it is just... Not only you can use his abilities, but similar abilities to my own as well. This is just perfect. I can't help but wonder if that body of yours could even use the other's two abilities." N'gha looked pleased. "I am sorry, I just wanted to play some more to test how much you were able to do without fully acquiring his power, but I just saw something I cannot quite ignore. I won't be playing it nicely anymore. However, you are quite durable, I bet you can handle what I am about to do and not die, can't you?"

This was the last time Nora was able to see the face of his hated enemy fully. A bone-chilling aura spread and the ice surrounding N'gha melted, no, given that Nora observed closely what N'gha was doing, he noticed a great change in his aura and what exactly happened. The hand holding the scepter (?) remained the same, but N'gha had raised his other hand and the skin on it began to melt off until only bones remained.

"<Wither>" N'gha said.

Part of the skin on his face suffered the same fate as his hand but Nora felt the alarms on his head go off so he had no time to focus on that. A gray fog spread from N'gha's hand and it was aimed at Nora. The fairies tried to create a shield in front of Nora to protect him despite shaking uncontrollably but Nora grabbed them all and escaped to a safe distance.

"Don't try to block it. It will not work." Nora said with a pale face. "That is... the opposite to what I can wield, that is death."

"Eh? How bothersome, I wanted you to underestimate it and get hit." N'gha muttered. "The more I use it, the more this body will get destroyed. I kind of took a liking to it after all."

This time, his arm got his flesh destroyed and N'gha attacked again. Nora evaded continuously, but N'gha did not stop attacking. The skeleton attacked N'gha as Nora ordered but that did not stop the attacks either.

Feeling his ki reject N'gha's attack with all it could, Nora did not dare to get hit. Closing his eyes briefly, he changed for a moment and a different orb of light appeared.

After whispering a few things to it, it disappeared and the snow began to fall more violently. However, not only snow fell but even chunks of ice. The skeleton got hit but his sheer size could still handle the damage without a problem. N'gha had to change his focus to handle the new threat.

Biting his lips forcefully, Nora briefly considered making an escape. He could not allow his allies to make a direct confrontation with it, and his initial goal of collecting information about his enemy had been accomplished. It was a rare chance to face someone who had so much information about his mother or at least, he claimed such a thing, but during their fights, Nora found his enemy weirdly composed and he had a feeling that even if he won the fight, there will be huge loses. Until now, his companions were itching to join in the fight and that was initially the intention. Nonetheless, his guts were telling him to keep his friends away. The odd friendliness that he was enjoying was not going to work on his friends if they got in N'gha's way.

The most sensitive choice here was to escape. The book turned out to be fake and it was not worth the risk to recover a counterfeit. Yet, the only matter that kept Nora in place was not easy to shoot down.

"What a shame~ I bet your mother would love to see you." N'gha suddenly said. "Aren't you being a terrible son? How many years has it been since you have last seen her? You finally have a unique chance to reunite yet you are hesitating, aren't you a little too cold-"

Even N'gha understood it at that moment. Some words must never be said in front of Nora, otherwise, enmity will be a small word to describe what he will feel towards you. The fairies surrounding Nora did not dare to stay present when Nora's ki wildly spread around and hid inside his body again. While the snow was always falling everywhere, the chunks of ice were avoiding him. Now, however, everything was blown away.

The spear in Nora's hand responded to the killing intent he directed at N'gha and shone in a bloody red color. There seemed to be something on the ground doing the same, but N'gha had to use the scepter to block Nora who lunged at him dangerously.

The attack was heavy, and the rest of the scepter was finally revealed after the stone was broken. Nonetheless, N'gha had no time to rejoice since his body was flung away, and even before he could regain his footing, Nora's eyes filled with hatred were right up on his face. No words left his mouth before N'gha felt his body crashing on the ground. Creating a deep crater.

Unsteadily standing up, N'gha spread the gray fog evenly around him and made Nora retreat. His body decayed more, but it was not an important issue. The flesh that fell off was one already cursed by Gae Bolg so it was only dragging him down so without it, N'gha would-

"*Cough*" N'gha coughed some blood. "...it seems that the curse is not simply about my physical flesh huh."

Sounding half-impressed, N'gha observed Nora.

Walking around him, Nora held his spear in a tight grip and looked for an opening.

Feeling a chill all of a sudden, N'gha did not find anything strange in Nora. His eyes did not seem any different, but there was something unsettling about the way he was looked at. He felt like his eyes were not like before. However, the feeling he got disappeared soon and N'gha noticed a detail on Nora. Around him, there seemed to be floating fireballs. Nonetheless, unlike his fairies before, these seemed to be purple in color and the youth did not pay attention to them.

Growling angrily, Nora began pulling nearby trees and throwing them at N'gha, but the grey fog caused them to wither in seconds. Yet, Nora did not seem discouraged and he only repeated his actions, and then changed tactics. He pulled a small bag from his storage and spilled the contents in front of him. With a wave of his hand, the seeds grew into large trees and they directed their branches at N'gha. However, for some reason, they were not withered at once.

Evading, N'gha avoided getting hit but he left the gray fogs' area and Nora attacked him. With Gae Bolg in hand, Nora pursued N'gha. He thrust his spear toward N'gha's head, yet the other party used his scepter (?) to block the cursed weapon. However, the force behind it did not disappear and N'gha was flung away.

Nora continued his actions and he seemed to have the upper hand, however, N'gha did not show signs of getting any weaker or receiving damage.

"Back here again huh." N'gha created the gray fog again.

Not only trees but chunks of ice were thrown his way, yet N'gha only paid attention to the trees that Nora personally grew. They were infused with a great amount of ki so they resisted the withering enough to pass through the fog.

Watching his surroundings, N'gha saw that he had been sent flying all around the area but he ultimately ended up in the same place he began fighting Nora. No matter how far he went, the snow would continuously fall. The range of it was too large to be a spell cast by one person or a dozen regular magicians. Thinking back, he recalled an individual capable of such a feat and that was a Longinus user, however, it seemed that Nora had placed her far from this location.

Nora did not give him much time and he attacked again, but N'gha reacted differently this time. The scepter he had used to block all this time had gone through some changes after the stone was broken. Fully black, the scepter had what looked to be a floating eye at the tip with floating spikes made of light. Eight in total, more than half of them disappeared and in place, the weapon changed. An edge appeared in the place of the missing spikes and the scepter turned into a scythe and he swung it downwardly. By the time Nora noticed it, he was too close and N'gha had swung his weapon. The best he could, Nora tried to meet the edge with Gae Bolg, but his awkward movement only gave him time to put his hand in the way and N'gha slashed it.

A couple of fingers were cut off and Nora dropped his weapon due to the direction of the attack.

"<Silence>" N'gha chanted. "I know about your little trick of summoning weapons from afar."

Using his free hand, N'gha held Nora's throat.

"You will come with me." N'gha said.

It was at this point, that Nora gritted his teeth. His voice did not come out, but his lips moved, his will was conveyed, and 'it' responded. The purple fire that continuously floated around him exploded.

Compared to all the attacks that Nora did before, N'gha finally felt greater damage. Engulfing them both, the fire mercilessly charred their surroundings. The piled-up snow was vaporized and that was buried revealed itself again. The skeleton that had been deprived of movement began moving again. Using one of its hands, it swung it at N'gha.

Escaping, Nora looked at his hand briefly, and looking at his severed fingers, he clicked his tongue. His head managed to cool down a bit but the situation did not improve for long. N'gha managed to get away without getting hit although his body was covered in purple fire.

"I must admit that I never saw this one coming." N'gha's face had completely melted and now a skull without expressions remained. "One of the hardest to please Longinus ended up in your hands, along with all your other characteristics makes me wonder what other secret your body hides. Necromancy should be the farthest thing a user of life energy would have to do with... yet you control that creature better than me."

"Your skills are just lousy." Nora spat out.

Using the bandage to fill for his missing fingers, Nora copied a certain someone. His self-healing abilities kicked and the purple fire surrounded his hand for some reason.

N'gha saw the skeleton attacking him again and while he felt regret, he waved his hand.

"<Decay>" N'gha said. "It is a shame, but you are an eyesore."

The gray fog he had been using spread again but this time it was darker. It reached the skeleton's arm and soon the bones began to fracture and break apart.

The destruction of the skeleton caused earth-shattering screams to be heard and from the other parts of the skeleton, smaller skulls began screaming in pain. They could not form any words but their voice alone conveyed how much they were suffering.

"Sorry, but I need you to hold for a little more." Nora looked regretful but he ordered the skeleton to throw itself at N'gha.

Not expecting the skeleton to react like that, N'gha did not try to evade it at once and instead tried to destroy it faster by increasing the potency of his attack.

His body had already been turned into nothing but bones, a skeleton holding a scythe, N'gha looked every bit of what his name was. However, Nora still gripped his spare tightly and enhanced his body.

"If liches are only bones, how do you kill them?" Nora muttered. "They always have a heart or a core."

Aiming carefully, Nora threw Gae Bolg. Like a bolt of lighting, it easily arrived in front of N'gha.

"Pierce, Gae Bolg-" Nora said.

Using one hand to spread the fog, N'gha used his scythe to clash with the spear. His body was nothing but bones so an attack of that class would normally pass through, but this time it was stubbornly aiming at a particular place. Embedded in his chest, there was a purple crystal covered in ancient runes. N'gha was pushed away and he prepared to be sent flying to use that chance to evade. Nonetheless, at that time, the skeleton finally fell and the hand spreading the fog was the only thing preventing being buried by it.

"Alternative." Nora finished his word.

Having dug up something he had left on the ground when he first pulled his weapon, Nora had another Gae Bolg in the throwing position. Just as N'gha had no way to escape, Nora threw the second spear.

--------------------------------------------

3rd Person POV

What she saw as soon as she arrived was a chaotic scene where Urakyoto was being overrun by plants. The young lady wearing a black kimono reacted by puzzledly rubbing her eyes.

"Nya?"

Having grown in the past years, Kuroka had developed quite a bit, or so Nora would say, and stopped her when she tried to bathe with him. Nonetheless, the cat girl still kept a certain trait.

"It seems I entered the wrong Urakyoto-nya." Kuroka mumbled.

She could be quite silly at a times.

"There is no way that is the case!"

Her traveling companion cried out. Wearing Valkyrie armor, Rossweisse spoke.

"My Urakyoto should not look like this though? I believe we entered the wrong one-nya." Kuroka spread her arms.

"Don't talk like we entered the wrong apartment!" Rossweisse tiredly said. "I feel some kind of interference when we teleported but to think we would end up 'here'. Coming here after all that training, I wanted to soak in the onsen..."

The duo each had a different reaction but both still turned their heads when they noticed the sound of battle nearby.

"My cat senses are tingling-nya!" Kuroka said. "Shirone-nya needs me."

Without wasting any time, Kuroka ran off.

"Ah! Wait, this place is...!" Rossweisse did not get to warn Kuroka. "...and she is gone. Why is it that the only trait that she learned from him was to rush off without listening to others..."

"I think it is a lovely trait, and he loves everything about her so he will never seriously chide her about it."

A sudden voice spoke, but Rossweisse only furrowed her eyebrows without looking surprised.

"He should do it for her own sake." Rossweisse said.

Appearing beside Rossweisse, a certain pink fox sat beside the Valkyrie.

"Oh my, is that jealousy what I just heard?" Miko smirked.

Snorting, Rossweisse did not answer that.

"What is going on?" Rossweisse asked.

"Oh, nothing much. Just a cultist invading and causing quite the stir. The white cat gang is taking care of it... or not, they are being pushed back since a while ago." Miko mumbled.

"Isn't that a big deal!?" Rossweisse asked and was about to rush but she was stopped.

Biting her boots, Miko held her back.

"It is ok. The enemy this time is a bit unique." Miko said. "Our role is to observe."

Inwardly rolling her eyes, Miko did not mention how Rossweisse also picked Nora's reckless trait.

Suddenly, they both felt a summoning, a particular one and a five meters figure appeared.

"Gaooooo~"

A rather cute yell could be heard before the figure proceeded to destroy her surroundings.

"...so, we should observe?" Rossweisse asked.

Looking away, Miko whistled.

"...I will go." Rossweisse muttered.

"Take me with you." Miko mumbled.

---------------------------------------

3rd Person POV

"This is it huh." N'gha muttered. "I never heard of a second spear."

Pulling the two spears lodged in the crystal on his chest, it had cracked a little but the crack was growing in size.

"Dual wielding is a man's romance." Nora muttered.

"You know that I will not go just like this, don't you?" N'gha asked.

Two large magic appeared in the sky and they cast a large shadow.

"That is what you call, a sore loser." Nora muttered.

"You can escape, that is true. However, the shock wave will reach the city." N'gha said. "You cannot hope to save anyone. Your last chance, come to us. I will spare their pathetic lives if you do."

Smiling bitterly, Nora looked depressed for a second before struggling to decide.

"...did you know? Even if my spears could not reach you. I always had another blade that would deal with you." Nora said. "You can no longer use that dangerous ability so I thought of calling them."

Before he could ask, the crystal in his chest was completely shattered. An ominous blade had pierced it from behind.

"You should've called us from the beginning." Tobio complained.

Covered fully in darkness, Tobio had emerged from the shadows and broken the crystal in one thrust.

"This trick could've cost your life if he had used his ability." Nora explained.

"And your life was not in danger?" Natsume angrily spoke.

Riding Griffon, she brought Sae and Nanadaru with her. Coming on foot, Felis, Nanami, and Musashi all warily glared at the crumbling skeleton. N'gha had not fully disappeared and was just silently appraising everyone.

"A meteor?" Lavinia's voice was heard and she arrived by air.

"Wait!? A meteor? Eh? Seriously?" Musashi looked at the humongous rocks leaving the magic circles.

"Nanamin is in a pinch! Master! Save me~" Nanami ran towards Nora.

Throwing herself at him, she was intercepted mid-air by Felis who had jumped behind her to restrain her.

"Read the mood, idiot." Felis exasperatedly said.

"How troublesome..." Nora sighed.

"Hehehe, now you have no other choice than to run, there is no way that you can-" N'gha spoke.

"I don't think we can hide this from the public using hypnosis like before." Nora sighed. "Ikuse-kun, I entrust this matter to you."

Giving him a thumbs up, Nora washed his hands on the matter.

"No, no, no, shouldn't the leader be the one to think of a way to solve the problem." Tobio retorted.

"Are you really expecting a cat to solve a grown man's problems? Don't you find that a little strange?" Nora replied.

"Your words sound very logical but at the same time I can't quite accept them." Tobio slumped his shoulders.

Chuckling at that, Nora looked at the falling rocks.

"How nostalgic. I remember the first time Shishou threw a rock that big toward me and told me: It is do or die, break through so you can go to make dinner." Nora sighed.

No one could say a word to follow up.

"I had exhausted myself and was laying with my chest facing the sky with no energy whatsoever to move, but it was then that I learned that... rest is not the true way. Only through moving non-stop is that you can survive in this world." Nora spoke in a sagely tone.

Everyone felt like they had to retort but the falling meteorites were getting closer.

"Alrighty, let's do this." Nora raised his hand. "<Aport>"

Following his words, the oversized sword was summoned in his hand.

"Master, if I might be presumptuous to offer a way out of your conundrum, Nanamin could-" Nanami managed to escape from Felis' pinning technique.

"Rejected. Nanamin is just an overly mischievous maid, right? Nothing more." Nora shot her down. "Just watch. It is too unstable to be used in a life or death battle, but I have an interesting technique that I spent training the last few months."

Smiling wryly at his words, Nanami backed away obediently-

"I believe the right phrase should be 'Nanamin is just my beautiful and charming overly mischievous maid' but Nananmin shall forgive you because she is aware that Master is actually a shy boy at heart." Nanami sighed.

Doing his best to ignore the urge to retort, Nora looked at his companions.

"I will strike first. The rest is up to you." Nora chuckled. "This was just a crazy idea I had, but to think the technique I once read in a novel actually existed in this world."

Gripping the sword tight, the muscles of Nora's arms expanded briefly and the veins of his arm marked until they exploded.

"Nine Lives." Nora said and he jumped towards the falling rocks.

What followed, was sheer destruction. For both the rocks, and Nora's arm.

...

...

...

The surrounding landscape had turned into a wasteland. Pieces of rocks lay scattered through the ground. Surrounding Nora, everyone looked at him in worry.

His right arm was completely covered in blood and bent incorrectly, Nora just smiled wryly.

"Was that your smartass idea!? What were you trying to do!?" Natsume fumed.

"Nora-kun, bad." Lavinia chided him.

"...you have to take care of yourself more." Tobio sighed.

"Should I get you some painkillers?" Sae asked.

Felis did not say a word but his narrowed eyes were proof that she was pissed at Nora.

"Master, as I thought, I should've stepped forward." Nanami looked regretful.

Without saying a word, Nanadaru was working with Musashi to bandage his arm. The swordswoman calmly worked and did not offer any comment.

"You guys exaggerate. I am unable to follow with the nine blows and just could do four. The pieces of the meteorites were mostly taken care of by all of you and I barely did anything." Nora waved his hand nonchalantly.

The group paled when his hand ended up touching his elbow because his arm bent in a position that it should not.

"Ups." Nora put it back in place like it was not a big deal and everyone felt a chill running down their spine.

"Argh! You! Are you not going to say anything to him?" Natsume pointed at Musashi.

"Me? Not at all, he and I will talk later and by ourselves. What I have to say, I will say it only to him." Musashi muttered. "I will have to report back, but we will talk later ok?"

Obediently nodding, Nora stood up. Signaling Tobio, the youth turned towards the remnants of N'gha.

"Have you seen enough?" Nora spoke in a cold tone of voice.

"...you were holding back during our fight." N'gha said.

"Not at all. I cannot use that without losing part of my combat abilities." Nora said. "You were also holding back to take me back alive. Otherwise, you could've killed me when I was unaware of your abilities and take back my dead body. I bet a necromancer like you would find a good way to make use of it."

"I guess I felt too much kinship towards you and I could not kill you. We are the same so I could not dare to kill you. You won't fulfill your role otherwise." N'gha muttered.

"How moving, I almost shed a tear." Nora snorted. "Sorry to burst your bubble, but I have no plans to go with you anywhere."

"Heh, it is just a matter of time before you find yourself forced to do so. We still have your mother." N'gha mocked. "Keep that weapon for now, I will come to pick it up soon enough."

Before N'gha completely vanished, Nora created a blue flame.

"Did you think I would just let you go like that?" Nora smirked.

Unable to even scream, N'gha disappeared after being burned down by Nora's flames.

It was only when he made sure that they were truly alone that Nora stumbled forward and showed a tired face.

"As expected, I went a bit overboard this time." Nora almost fell down but Tobio caught him.

"It would've been easier for you if we-" Tobio said.

"He would've killed you if you got in his way any longer." Nora muttered.

Watching as his companions almost ran to him in worry, Nora sighed.

"You are a special case, and... Shigune-san's sacred gear is also unique, but the others would not be so lucky. Toujou-san is your lover, did you want me to put her at risk?" Nora said.

At those words, Tobio could not muster a comeback.

"Nora-kun, are you ok?" Lavinia asked.

"I didn't think I would see you getting exhausted. It seems that even your ki has its limits. Using all of those shikigamis must take a toll on you." Natsume muttered.

"He has been using hundreds of those shikigamis from earlier so it is to be expected that my master is tired. Normally people would be tired just by using a pair of shikigamis for a couple of hours, yet he had been doing the same for several hours and the amount is bigger." Nanami pulled a folding chair out of nowhere and had Nora sit on it.

Felis followed her and pulled an energy drink for Nora. Other than Nora who naturally accepted their treatment, the others looked bewildered by what they saw.

"No, I am not exhausted because of that." Nora shook his head.

"Is it because of the fight?" Musashi asked. "I had been observing and following what was happening through your ki and I felt how much you spent."

Scratching her eyepatched eye, Musashi looked away when Nora stared deeply at the eye patch.

"That is not it either. Putting aside the whimsical purple flames that come and go as they please, my stamina consumption was very low. I was unable to use Touki and even the amount I linked to everyone was just minimal." Nora shook his head again.

"...eh? Then what caused you to get tired?" Nanadaru shyly asked. "Is it the barrier you erected to avoid the damage escaping the mountains? I saw many shikigamis acting as barrier limits."

Not only her, but even the usually aloof Felis was curious. They were all aware of Nora's absurdly big pool of ki and had never seen him complain of getting tired since they met him.

"No, that is not it either." Nora shook his head.

Pushing away the hands that wanted to remove his destroyed pants, Nora took Nanami's hand a bit them as a punishment for not reading the time and place.

The young-looking maid yelped cutely and backed away while holding both hands together.

"It is a pocket dimension. I have been keeping it together and all the shikigamis that were acting as its inhabitants for a while now." Nora confessed. 

"Oh, that is amazing, cutie." Lisa's voice could be heard as she slowly made her way toward the group. "It is almost impossible to usually create a place like that alone and most of all, to maintain it, most people use the ley lines to place large scale pocket dimensions and maintain them."

Furrowing her eyebrows, Lavinia hugged Nora and glared at the arriving witch. Giggling at her actions, Lisa did not try to provoke her.

"How long have you been keeping it together?" Lisa curiously asked.

"The distance is making the consumption to be quite tough to bear, but I guess it is the time I have been doing it nonstop that is making me get tired." Nora sighed. "One year."

Stopping midway, Lisa tilted her head and like everyone else, they confusedly looked at Nora.

"...One year is the time you have been practicing? Like, you started trying to keep it working all by yourself?" Musashi asked. "Hahaha, there is no way... right?"

Gulping, Musashi foolishly laughed and even considered her words nonsense. Everyone else was about to chuckle at those words until.

"Yes, I have been maintaining it for one year nonstop." Nora tilted his head. "Is there something wrong?"

At those words, the group was not sure how to tackle what he said.

...

...

...

After a long time of uncomfortable silence from Nora's comment. He asked everyone to leave since he wanted to be alone. The group descendent the mountain and made a camp amidst the ruins of the village.

"Is he ok?" Lisa asked.

"...he is not." Lavinia shook her head.

Nodding at that, Lisa had not mentioned anything in his presence and decided to ask after they parted briefly.

"Shouldn't we accompany him...?" Nanadaru asked. "If he is tired, we should watch over him."

Shaking her head, Musashi, Nora's ultimate ally, was the one to shoot down that idea.

"Sometimes a guy needs his time alone." Musashi said. "He is usually surrounded by people and he has to maintain a strong front. The fact that he relaxed after the fight is already a big deal."

"Wouldn't this be the time we should be with him?" Natsume asked.

"No." Musashi said. "This matter is a bit different from anything else... and you should be aware of that since you choose to remain here."

Groaning at that, Natsume crossed her arms uncomfortably. She did not like that Musashi spoke like she knew everything about Nora, but she was not wrong.

"This and that are different matters, un-hand me senpai. A man always needs their cute maid to be by their side..." Nanami tried to wriggle away.

Being tied up completely, the tough maid tried to escape toward Nora.

Clicking her tongue, Felis wondered if she should shoot her with a tranquilizer.

It was at this point that they heard it briefly before it was cut off. Angry yells and the sound of destruction. They felt a barrier being erected not far away and even Nanami stopped what she was doing.

"It has been years, right?" Tobio asked.

"Around eight or nine since his mother was taken away." Sae added. "His only clue was not helpful."

Tactfully remaining silent, Lisa quietly listened to everyone talking.

"Do you think he...?" Tobio bitterly said.

"No, he would never fall to temptation and join their side. Nora is not that kind of guy." Musashi said. "Even if you are his friend, do not joke about it."

Using an unusually sharp tone, Musashi glared at Tobio.

"Ah, no, I know that. I was just curious about..." Tobio felt like he was wrongly accused. "His sacred gear manifested, but... is he able to use it as he pleases?"

Blushing slightly, Musashi wanted to dig a hole and hide for jumping to conclusions.

"No, I don't think so." Lavinia said. "It is like when you denied yours. It would be extremely hard to manifest even if you used catalysts to facilitate its invocation."

"It seems you guys want to start a serious topic but I originally wanted to talk to you about something else." Lisa interrupted.

Carrying a smile, the lady caught everyone's attention when she pulled two fox-shaped stones covered completely in ofudas with unique runes.

"These must be land gods that were sealed somehow, but what will you do with them?" Lisa asked.

"...it will be Nora's problem." Natsume spoke on everyone's behalf.

Raising her head in wonder, Musashi turned toward the direction they left Nora.

Seconds later, everyone felt that the barrier from before had been dispelled and Nora's aura was gone.

"...Nora said that he needs to go home." Musashi looked confused as she relayed that message.

"He did not let us know." Natsume furrowed her eyebrows.

"...He was summoned there." Musashi mumbled. "He probably had no time."

A little dissatisfied, Natsume wanted to say something but she admitted that Nora could leave in a hurry without telling anyone else, and that was if the ones summoning him were the black-and-white cat duo.

"I am jealous." Natsume grumbled.

"Hmm? Why?" Musashi puzzledly tilted her head.

Sighing, Natsume just let the matter go. She can't just say that she had the expectation of asking for a long ride home and turning everything into a date later on. It is not like she was afraid of expressing straightforwardly her feelings, but her idea might get stolen.

"Alright. There is a lot of clean up to do, we-" Natsume began talking but the arrival of one person made everyone have one thought.

"Oh? Everyone's here. I saw the crazy and flash techniques at the end. Did we win? I just let the parents of that brat with her before coming here. The ninjas left after saying that they will call more people to help us with the cleanup." Kouki spoke.

Riddled with wounds, he had applied first aid successfully and the grave injuries had been taken care of. His appearance was that of someone who came from a bitter fight.

"I had a hard time when a cultist who controlled golems showed up, but I managed to drive him away

" Kouki proudly said. "Where is Stray-sensei? I found the shrine maiden guarded by some shikigamis not that far from here and she was looking for him to thank him... although she was blushing when she said that. I wonder what happened that she is acting like that."

Noticing that no one said a word, Kouki puzzledly stared at everyone's guilty-looking faces.

Sharing a look, they all agreed that the most sensitive person should be the one to break the silence and be honest... or not. When Tobio took a step forward to inform Kouki of their thoughts, Felis opened her mouth.

"...who were you again? It has been so long since I last saw you that my memory is a bit foggy." Felis spoke in a deadpan tone. "Oh, right, it's mister 'I-arrived-when-everything-was-over'."

Despite suffering countless injuries through the years, the damage Kouki received with those words made him want to puke blood.

-----------------------------------

MC's POV

It goes without saying that when I arrived, I expected some sort of crisis. The trigger for my summoning was Shirone's share of summoning papers, or rather, the ones I gave her.

The first thing I saw was... nothing. I could not see anything at all, however, my ears caught many different things. The sound of destruction came from afar, but close to me I could hear some familiar voices.

"That was close, if this dome had not appeared, that annoying guy would've caught us." Charlotte's tone sounded relieved.

"I think I just heard something being torn a second ago. I hope it was not my skirt, Nora praised it the other day." Yume-chan muttered.

"That was me. I used my ultimate weapon, no, technique." Shirone-chan's tone sounded proud. "Call a friend."

Facepalming myself, I did not know what to say.

"(Hubby, at times like this, you have to tactfully act like you heard nothing.)" Tamamo advised.

Nodding at that, I felt a pair of arms hugging me from behind and rubbing her face on me.

"Who did you call!? Is it that Oni lady? She is super strong!" Yume-chan muttered.

"I recall that Rias-nee-sama, Sairog-nii-sama and Sora-sama gave you summoning slips of paper in case you needed help." Charlotte said. "I think Nora once mentioned that you also have some from Serafall-sama and Grayfia-sama."

"Dunno, I did not notice." Shirone-chan irresponsibly said.

"Hubby, take a deep breath, relax!)" Tamamo tried to calm me down.

However, the situation of the pervert hugging me did not help me and I had to say this.

"How come I am not your first and only choice!?" I angrily said.

"(Was that your problem!?)" Tamamo speechlessly asked.

What else did you expect!?

"Miyako! Stop trying to take advantage of me!" I yelled.

Trying to push away the girl made of darkness, I made my point clear.

...

...

...

Watching in the distance as Kuroka-chan was laughing as her contracted summon, an earth elemental, made a mess of the city, I looked at the four people sitting in seiza in front of me. Miyako was the first one and she now took a human form of a young girl with long black hair, red eyes, and a rather, ahem, impressive chest line. She wore a shoulder red print kimono with a pleated red skirt with a golden crow mask on her head and it must be mentioned that she has black high tights, why? Because I am a sinful man that took a liking to those.

"Explain." I said.

Some annoying plants tried to attack us, but I turned them into charcoal easily. I frowned when I noticed the uniqueness they had and how they tried to adapt to my fire when I did not obliterate it at once. Nonetheless, my blue flames were currently surrounding us while forming a circle and the plants did not dare to get close to it.

"...I just wanted to express my love." Miyako spoke with upturned eyes. "Ouch."

Holding her head, Miyako did not dare to play around.

"Nora-sama ordered me to watch over these children in your absence so I had to intervene when the smaller one got exhausted." Miyako said.

Watching the snoring Kanna, I understood what she meant. There were some remnants of her released state in her aura. Usually, her kin is a race that has high mobility and strong combat abilities without needing to put much effort. Unfortunately, they are quite free-spirited so they come and go from Urakyoto when they reach adulthood so there are not many of them living here. In this generation, however, I managed to hire a group of them and turn them into my subordinates. It was all thanks to a little help they received from Kaa-san and me back then. If I had to name an issue was that the current generation was filled with unique individuals. Kanna is among the most rare of her race since she has a unique constitution. Her usual sleepy self is the result of her treatment.

Hero Constitution, or so it is called by many. People with unique bodies have what you would call, higher specs than normal people. However, they come with the downside that they have a staggering consumption. This child had that issue when she was born and it was up to us to fix it back then. One of the treatments consisted of sealing most of her abilities and limiting her consumption before she had fully grown and could stand the burden of her body's uniqueness. Given how fragile she was when she was little, it was her only choice. That said, she is capable of releasing her limiters and getting access to all her real stats. Her amazing racial traits get enhanced and she can be quite the nuke when she gets serious.

"(Bunny girls are amazing, but not as much as foxes.)" Tamamo suddenly said.

Yeah, my Tamamo is just the best.

"(Fufufu, it is good that you know it.)" Tamamo spoke.

Praising the fox, I turned towards Shirone, Charlotte and Yume. I will ignore how the last one fixed her appearance while I was talking with Miyako.

Forming three bullets using senjutsu, I sent them toward them and their minor injuries disappeared.

"It is your turn." I addressed the trio.

Watching from afar, I located the missing one from the group. Ayanami had let the blood rush to her head and was shredding the plants easily. There was a certain level of intoxication observed on her face and it could only be that being too violent awoke one of her racial downsides where she becomes a battle junkie. A difficult to believe situation given that Ayanami would turn into a NEET if I did not drag her off her room.

"The white cat gang is defending the peace of Urakyoto." Shirone-chan seriously said.

Pulling a certain pill, I showed it to the cat and she paled after sniffing it.

"This will be your meal for a week if you speak nonsense." I exclaimed.

"I am sorry, sir." Shirone-chan apologized right away, however, she hesitated to speak. "...I wanted to protect our home."

Looking half-scared from my earlier statement and half-embarrassed by her words, Shirone-chan spoke her heart.

I was more or less aware that she would get involved somehow. We cats have a rather strange ability to get caught up in trouble so I left people watching over them. Not only Miyako who was throwing me flirty gazes, but I had a bunch of other people. Nonetheless, I did not expect an invasion from the cult just after I left.

"(However, there does not seem to be real threat.)" Tamamo mumbled.

Shaking my head at that, I took a look at the surrounding plants fighting Ayanami. They were destroyed rapidly, but they were still on the rise. Its ability to reproduce would be a terrible threat if spread in a human city. I needed to look into it some more, but I am guessing that this will become a major pain in the a*s later on.

Creating multiple fireballs, I shot them toward Ayanami and burned some plants sneaking behind her. The girl seemed to react to that and turned to see me.

Waving at her seemed to mean, come over, given that she began heading this way.

Sighing at that, I heard some loud explosions and saw Rossweisse-san using large-scale magic spells like they were low-level spells. The Valkyrie seemed too busy dealing with the plants to even notice me.

It was then that I was thankful to have created this mirror city. I did not want to drag innocent Youkais into a fight against the cultist, although I mostly did this to isolate them and cut short any information from leaking to their side. Only few spells on our side can bend that rule and work, otherwise, magic spells tailored for communication will not work. This way, we can use all our cards to deal with them and prevent them from gaining info on us.

"I get the reason, but could you give a rundown of how this guy arrived here and why you are fighting him?" I asked.

I had ordered everyone to allow him to roam free to make it seem nothing changed in the city since the last time. If they lower their guard, we can deal with them easily.

...

...

...

"(Ohoho, today will rain fire.)" Tamamo described my mood perfectly fine.

After hearing about what that thing had said, I just could observe any longer.

"ALL OF YOU! THERE IS NO NEED TO ALLOW IT TO ROAM FREE!" I yelled.

My voice had been amplified with magic, thanks to Tamamo's assistance, and it was heard all over.

"I WILL GIVE YOU FREE REIGNS TO TURN EVERYTHING TO DUST!" I ordered.

After my words were said, many people who were hidden using various means revealed their appearances. Their combined attacks hit the plants and the eradication began.

My words also made Kuroka-chan and Rossweisse notice me, but I ignored everything else and armed myself with that sword I used before.

In five minutes, we cleared Urakyoto.

Author notes

So I took a bit more since was rather busy solving matters related to the burial and what comes after. I was deeply saddened so I was not in the mood to write, although I am more disappointed in humanity as a whole given how many people take advantage of other people's painful times. Hopefully it was only an issue in the town my great grandmother lived, but damn, humans are evil.

Putting that aside, two new characters appeared. One is obviously Taihou who is named Miyako and the other, you can guess it.

The chapter might have some confusing parts but I apologize given the different times I spent writing so forgive it. That said, I hope it was enjoyable. This volume is mostly about Nora's grow and some of his friend's as well, while also touching their relationships and how he might grow.

Next is the short stories I promised and I will see if I release them all at once or not.

Any questions? Leave a comment and I will answer it.

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