Chapter 85: You beat me up, I beat you up, thus friendship (?) is born

Part 1

3rd person POV

At a speed that would put to shame most racing cars, a figure was advancing through the air using invisible footholds. Her suspicious outfit covered her body with a hood and a large cape, but due to her speed, the wind would allow anyone watching to peek inside. A modified female armor with a long skirt was plain to see, but what would draw people's attention were her features blue eyes that kept looking ahead with some objective in mind and carried some worry but her expression did not show any of that. Her blonde hair seemed shorter on the sides, but one failed to fully observe her hairstyle due to the hood still clinging to her.

Soon enough, amidst the clouds in the sky and the blue sea below her, the figure saw something in the distance. Despite the distance being still far, the figure failed to grasp the total size of the island ahead. She marveled in wonder at the sight in front of her, but she shook her head to focus and raised her speed.

"The barrier is down already..."

Biting her lips, the figure felt somewhat anxious. By no means she should be going towards the island, her actions were against what was expected to happen, but she could not ignore it.

Once she was close enough, she noticed that she was not the only one trying to reach the island. Another party that should've noticed her at the same time she noticed them had just arrived riding wyvern-like creatures. They were far bigger than what those lesser dragons should be and lacked eyeballs, but these wyverns did not have trouble flying and followed the orders of whoever was riding them.

A volley of magic attacks headed her way, or it could be said that she was heading straight toward it, dozens of magic attacks of all elements failed to injure her or even graze her a little. With graceful movements, she evaded each attack headed her way without breaking a sweat.

The closer she got, the figure had to move more and more to avoid being hit mid-air. The other party kept increasing the number of attacks but the figure only acted differently until she had stepped on the island floating above the sea. With a wave of her hand, a large polearm with a frag attached at the end appeared, the flag was not unfolded but that did not impede the figure from using it in a different way than what was intended.

Upon a closer look, she briefly observed her attackers a confirmed her next course of action.

Barely looking human, there were vestiges of their previous appearance on their faces as a blackened shell was growing all over their bodies. Noticing this, the figure regretfully close her eyes and offered a prayer for her enemies. It was brief and she was soon swinging her polearm with a force unbefitting her frame. A dull sound was heard each time she hit her enemies despite theirs. struggles, they were soon lying on the ground with their heads destroyed. The wyverns still retained a small part of their instincts intact as they fled the scene once the young woman glared at them.

"If small groups such as these are boarding this side already, the shrines must be crawling with monsters. Cutting their path should be equally beneficial, but the area to cover is wider than what a single person can cover."

Pondering briefly, the young woman noticed the sound of rustling leaves. She would normally notice presences that could endanger her or pose a problem, but regardless of the slight animosity directed at her, the figure found it refreshing. After all, the person heading towards her was under-

"...who are you?" Akiko asked in a strict tone.

Holding a katana in a lowered stance, it would take only one second to attack depending on how the situation developed.

"I did not mean to come as threatening to you."

The hooded young woman raised her hands after stabbing her polearm into the ground in a sign of not wanting to fight. This action did not cause Akiko to lower her guard since she was inwardly sweating coldly. The person in front of her was not normal to have arrived at the location they were and she was obviously aware of the island even before the barrier was released to have arrived just moments later after the barrier was down.

"Answer my question." Akiko said plainly.

"...you might not believe me, and perhaps you will doubt me even more after I answer you, are you sure?"

With a wry smile on her face, the young woman asked.

"Tell me who you are and what you are doing here. You are already a suspicious individual to me." Akiko spoke.

"Haha..ha... I guess I am. Would you believe me if I said I was here to sightsee? No? Haha... It was worth the try."

Chuckling awkwardly as Akiko glared at her sternly, the young woman inwardly reproached that certain person who told her he could always get away when he acted suspiciously by saying random things. The excuse she mumbled was one of his favorites already.

"I have a reason to be here and that is because I believe my abilities will be of use. Please let me go."

There was a strong conviction in her tone that ultimately made Akiko sheath her weapon.

"...do you believe me?"

The young woman asked hopefully.

"No, there is no way I can believe your words. However, I have been gauging your abilities and I am unable to see a way to suppress you. I cannot stop you thus I will simply follow you. Regrouping is more important, but allowing you to run rampant is a danger I cannot ignore. I can also lead you towards my comrades as you wish." Akiko nodded.

"...so you can join hands and deal with me?"

Still with a wry smile on her face, the young woman added.

Without feeling any shame, Akiko nodded again.

"Haha... Very well."

Shaking her head, the young woman lowered her hand once Akiko approved and grabbed her polearm. She walked past Akiko before glancing back.

"Do you think you will be able to deal with me even if you all try your best?"

Sounding a little playful, the young woman taunted Akiko.

Tilting her head, Akiko pondered briefly what to reply before chuckling.

"My lord is an extremely abnormal being. He can say the strangest things or act timid when one can least expect it. Despite wielding considerable strength, he can underestimate what he can do or can do. Nonetheless, he is aware of how to deal with tricky situations no matter what he has to do." Akiko smiled. "It must be the influence of his teacher, but even if the situation is despairing and we all know that he has reached his limits, he would often smile and say... 'Wow, hitting my limits again? Yosh, let's do my ultra best. There is no way I will die here. I still have my arms attached to my body, my legs can still move and my head is not rolling on the ground far from my torso. I can still move, I can still fight.'"

Confused over what Akiko was trying to say, the young woman did her absolute best to act like that and not react to those familiar words.

"My point is... I still have my arms attached to my body, my legs can still move and my head is not rolling on the ground far from my torso. I can still move, I can still fight. What if you are strong? Unless we reach the absolute peak, the pinnacle of this world, we will always face someone stronger than us. We will always struggle. Yes, you are strong, I am probably helpless against you even if my comrades and I join hands. However, can you confidently say you will not lose? We will absolutely stand up as many times as possible to stop you if you happen to even show the slightest ill will against Milord." Akiko raised her katana to the young woman's eye level. "Are you willing to try? Whether you will survive or not is not set in stone."

Unable to help it, the young woman smiled fondly. The wind happened to blow strongly and the hood came off, her blonde hair shone brilliantly when the sun rays landed on it. Akiko was briefly baffled why after hearing all she said, the young woman reacted that way.

"Your loyalty and attitude never changed."

Pondering briefly, the young woman concluded that she could allow this given how much she has decided to get involved.

"My name is Jeanne D'Arc, I have decided to aid N- your lord on this occasion." Jeanne spoke.

Part 2

3rd person POV

Stepping back, Nora avoided a spinning kick that landed on the ground. The strength behind it caused the ground to be destroyed as cracks spread from the point where the kick landed. They reached several meters.

"Fufu, I guess you are not so tough now. The only thing you can do is barely avoid me." Baobhan Sith giggled.

There was excitement in her tone as she looked down on Nora.

Smiling at her obvious taunt, Nora just backed away, even more to gain some distance as he observed Baobhan Sith. The overflowing power kept pouring out of her body with no end in sight, it was like aura was protecting her body and he had tested that his fairies were unable to hurt her with low-level magic.

"Aren't you the same? Speaking all high and mighty but you can't even hit me." Nora smirked.

Irked by that, Baobhan turned into bats and approached Nora at high speed. Before he dodged like before, she caught his arm by making her hand turn solid while the rest of her body remained in the form of darkness shaped like bats. This prevented Nora's automatic reaction of punching where her face would be. Despite fully avoiding the hit, she felt some damage reaching her, but Baobhan Sith ruled out that possibility since she could not be harmed physically in her intangible form. Instead, she focused on holding onto Nora's wrist with a tight grip. Tightening her grip slowly, Baobhan Sith was disappointed when Nora's face did not twist in pain, but he look rather amused as he continuously punched the darkness that formed her body. Baobhan Sith felt some pain each time he did that and the more it happened, she could feel like something was surrounding Nora's figure yet she did not care about it. Annoyed by his lack of reaction, she simply crunched his wrist using her newfound enhanced strength. It was a simple matter for her, but she did not pay it any mind. Her grip was so hard that she acted on impulse and literally pulled off Nora's hand.

The blood dripping from his destroyed wrist was extremely alluring and she once again felt an uncontrollable desire to consume his blood. However, all that disappeared as soon as she felt a chill running down her spine. There were several scalp-chilling killing intents directed her way. From a distance, the blonde young woman that resembled someone she could not put her finger on seemed to be one of the owners of it. Baobhan Sith was curious how she could spare enough time to see what was happening on this side given that she was dealing with Barghest at a distance away. Another surprising thing was how the others aiming such a thick killing intent were the fairies hovering around Nora.

The fairies were small and they mostly looked like floating lights of different colors but they caused her to be surprised by the level of animosity they displayed. Until just now, they had hidden inside Nora's body.

"Hmmm... not a bad grip." Nora light-heartedly commented.

When she pulled away, Baobhan Sith had dropped Nora's hand, and he picked it up without any hurry with his healthy hand. He slowly checked to see the state it was in and even Baobhan Sith, the one who caused the injury, found it unnerving. His blood continued to spill in the ground and Baobhan Sith was forced to watch the tasty blood to be wasted just like that. Nonetheless, a strange scene happened briefly as she focused on the small pool of blood forming below Nora. Baobhan Sith clearly remembered that the same position had been scorched due to a spell not long ago, but the grass was growing wildly again.

"Ops." Nora looked down and tapped the ground.

After his actions, the growing plants stopped. The same seemed to happen to his arm which no longer bleeds. Nodding to himself, he just put his hand over his wrist.

"What are you doing? Only a vampire can..." Baobhan Sith was prepared to mock the youth but she had to fall silent.

The regenerative abilities of vampiric creatures were without a doubt among the best among supernatural creatures. Even without the buff she got from drinking Nora's blood, Baobhan Sith could regrow limbs easily. It was a racial advantage that could not be matched easily. After taking in the blood, Baobhan Sith could regenerate body parts at an even faster rate than before, regardless of their size of it. Yet-

"What are you...?" Baobhan Sith could not help but ask.

As soon as the two body parts came in constant with one another, the tissue, the blood, and the skin all came together and regenerated Nora's hand.

Like it was not a big deal, Nora gave her a middle finger when he noticed her staring dumbly at his hand.

"I am a cat, you moronic girl." Nora said.

Shaking her head in denial, Baobhan Sith could accept that fact so easily. For most people, they can just wrap it up since they could not understand in depth what happened, yet Baobhan Sith was aware of how abnormal what she just saw was. Patching up the skin and tissue was not the most pressing issue when regenerating from an injury, the nerves were. The way vampires were built made it easy for them to fix their bodies. Their ability to control their blood played a big part, but knowing their body was just as important. That said, just because you knew your body did not mean anyone can fix it. Baobhan Sith came from a long-standing clan and they had many books that talked about humans who used to worship them and tried to replicate a vampire's healing factors. However, none of them were capable of doing it without becoming one themselves.

"You will never stop annoying me, will you?" Baobhan Sith scowled.

"Hehe, I pride myself in my ability to cause others to lose it." Nora smugly said.

Anything more and Nora could perhaps annoy Baobhan Sith enough to make her faint so Baobhan Sith changed her tactic and dropped her intention of torturing him as she slowly killed him.

Spreading in a wider form, Baobhan Sith covered Nora and began attacking him. Her nails which could grow at will became as sharp as razors and would not even bend after she absorbed Nora's blood. Digging her nails in Nora's flesh, she tried not to enjoy as she inflicted pain in the youth. A prickling sensation made her wonder what was going on since it was the first time she felt like that while attacking someone in a current manner. To her disappointment, Nora did not seem interested even in evading her or trying to do anything. He crossed his arms with a bored expression as she continued to attack. His blood leaked and the fairies were oddly quiet after Nora whispered some strange words in a language she did not know.

A couple of minutes went by and while blood was being drawn out from Nora with each attack, no wounds remained on his skin. The rate at which he was getting injured was slower compared to which he regenerated.

Founding such a thing absurd, Baobhan Sith added more of the power she gained from Nora's blood and it was then that the wounds grew in size and depth.

"At least spare my clothes, you perv." Nora's fed-up voice was ignored. "I like to pay back two-fold."

His upper torso was bare to see in a matter of seconds and Baobhan Sith paused slightly when she noticed his body.

"Never seen a man naked?" Nora sighed. "This is why virgins are..."

Inwardly blushing at that comment, Baobhan Sith would never admit he was correct. He was unusually buffed compared to how he looked with clothes and the muscles looked incredibly hard. Baobhan Sith was surprised by the fact that she could pierce his skin so easily despite that. She reckoned that the muscle lover Barghest's mouth would water if she saw him and would make several comments about it. Nonetheless, Baobhan Sith only stopped briefly. Her attacks looked vicious, and in fact, anyone else would find themselves in. A predicament if they shredded their backs as she did to Nora, but as annoying as it was, she had to admit that Nora was not simply taking damage. He would not let her attack his neck despite aiming at it on several occasions.

Given that he would avoid critical damage, Baobhan Sith materialize behind and kicked the area behind his knee. She expected some sort of resistance, but his left knee bent forward smoothly. His balance was lost and Baobhan Sith sank her teeth in his neck again. Faster than before, a large amount of blood was drawn, she felt more power coursing through her body plus the invigorating and slightly intoxicating elixir gave her the feeling that she could do anything. Even the world around her began to feel in slow motion and just a small movement caused Baobhan Sith to understand that she was breaking her limits fast enough to notice it in plain sight.

Nora's arm was reaching towards her and the pink-haired young woman only smirked. Swinging her hand towards the arm with her elongated nails made for a sharp blade that cut off his arm from his elbow. Before she got any drunker from her actions, she felt a pain in her guts and was sent flying, the strength from the blow left her frozen for a second and only after slamming into a tree that she was certain was not there a second ago.

Her eyes widened and she had to duck fearfully to avoid Nora's fist that went through the tree like it was made from butter. His eyes locked onto her as he pulled out and caused her to shudder. She changed shape and flew away several meters as she formed herself again.

"Don't you regenerate pretty fast? Why did you avoid me? Even if I crush your heart, you can still live to tell the tale." Nora asked. "As far as I am aware, not only you can put your body together through that darkness of shadow form, but you can take a bloody form as well. I once saw a vampire lady turn into a mash of blood, with all her innards all spread in a hundred-kilometer radius actually forming herself again."

Speaking in a curious tone, Nora gazed at Baobhan Sith confusedly. On the other hand, the young woman looked at Nora like he was a madman. That information was not recorded anywhere, the way to kill a vampire usually revolved around using sacred weapons so no one had bothered to study that sort of limits before.

 "I was honestly surprised, I am sure her brain splattered the hardest, but she was later able to come back to life." Nora looked at the arm of his a few meters away before extending his healthy hand and making a bandage extend like an arm, grabbing the arm and pulling it closer. "She said she was a direct descendant of one of the first vampires or something, but she was surprisingly weak compared to some of her minions. She was hard to kill, I will give her that though."

"...how do you know that?" Baobhan Sith inquired.

"You know, this and that." Nora smiled.

Acting like everything was normal, he attached his arm and it was moving like it was always there as soon as it connected.

"Are you the vampire or am I?" Baobhan Sith felt an identity crisis.

"Woman, I am a cat." Nora checked his arm a few times.

Slowly regaining her calm, Baobhan Sith hesitated over using her last resort. Vials of blood from all the fairy knights that she had gotten through the years and had made sure to condense them. They would lack the effects of Nora's blood, but they could not be underestimated.

"Now everyone just ignores my comment." Nora complained. "Whatever."

Without a hint whatsoever, Baobhan Sith lost sight of Nora. She had just seen him moving as slowly as before but he has disappeared from her field of vision. No, that was impossible.

Shaking her head, Baobhan Sith denied that possibility. He would not simply vanish and escape, he had to be nearby. Her ears caught nothing, she could not see a thing and her nose-

The scent of Nora was nearby, close enough.

She raised her head but found nothing, lowering her gaze, Nora's figure became visible.

"Hi~" Nora lightly said.

In the perfect position, Nora was already performing an uppercut. The youth did not hold back and Baobhan Sith was sent high into the air. By the time her eyes adjusted to her surroundings that went too fast to focus, the first thing she was the humongous black dog that was Barghest as she tried to kill a certain blonde young woman.

The blonde woman would let out bursts of energy in the form of slashes hitting Barghest, but the dog form was tough. Baobhan Sith was not sure what kind of principles were behind it, but it seemed to be gathering negative energy around it to gain more strength.

There was something else, but the young woman only felt a force sending her straight to the ground. Her neck almost snapped from the strength of the blow and perhaps it did not since the youth had used the back of his hand. By the time she thought he was being lenient, she saw him up in the sky, using the air somehow to crouch and push himself down. Like a bullet, he shot toward her, and in mid-air, he changed positions until his foot was aligned with her stomach.

Extreme pain almost made her scream, but Nora was savage and did not allow it. His hand moved like a snake after its prey and caught hold of her throat. Her mouth opened, but no screams of pain were heard. The tight grip on her throat stopped any sound from coming out.

"This is not all you can do, can't you?" Nora asked. "Give it your all, use every single trick you have. I will crush it all. This is all part of the trashing I will give you."

Feeling the threat, Baobhan Sith changed shape again. However, she did take a distance this time. Taking a page of his book, she punched his face while putting all her weight on her right arm. After connecting, Nora's face twisted to one side.

"HOW ABOUT THAT!?" Baobhan Sith yelled. "YOU LIKE THAT!?"

Unusual for her, she discarded her way of fighting to go from a more brutish approach from her point of view.

Despite continuously receiving her punches, Nora had a wide smile on his face.

"That's more like it! Throw away all pretense." Nora stopped Baobhan Sith by holding each of her hands with his own. "Shall we do this!?"

Showing an excited face, he pulled the pink-haired woman and slammed his forehead with hers.

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3rd Person POV

"Who in the world are you...?" Melusine held her injured shoulder.

She had no physical wounds whatsoever, however, ominous energy covered her like chains. A terrible curse was used on her while she killed a group of people that called themselves believers in a cult from some sort of unusual deity.

"You were quite troublesome. Despite preparing in advance against you, you have been keeping a strange level of resistance, far more than what I expected. I guess it cannot be helped when one deals with dragons. These kinds of illogical creatures are an eyesore for any plans you might have."

Snapping his fingers, a hooded figure called several of his minions standing obediently behind him. About ten people stepped forward as a large opening close to a creepy shrine was made. The opening had a circular shape around Melusine that covered a 100-meter radius. The man and his minions were standing just outside that zone, but as soon as the minions stepped inside, Melusine swung one of her hands, and a flash passed by. The minions were slashed in half without any sort of resistance. The upper parts of their bodies slide down but before they could touch the ground, they disappeared and in their place, human-shaped strips of paper remained. Those strips of paper fell down into a pile that had formed already from previous attackers.

"I guess I should be thankful for your ineptitude in using the abilities of the divine diving that Albion had."

"...what do you know about him?" Melusine gritted her teeth.

"Nothing I am willing to share."

Snapping his fingers again, several of his minions pushed through again. The result was the same and they were soon falling to the ground as pieces of paper.

"Who are you?" Melusine asked.

Instead of answering, the man formed several hand signs as his minions surrounded the area around Melusine. Their form changed and the human-shaped strips of paper floated in a circle. A reddish barrier began forming as the man lowered his hands.

"I am someone who has faced mystics countless times. Humanities greatest Onmyoji. Abe no Seimei."

Summoning a skull-shaped tome, the man recited the contents in a low tone. The barrier pulsated and Melusine slowly lost consciousness. The last thing she saw as everything turned black and her body got cold was darkness emerging from the man's shadow ready to engulf her. Her limbs would not respond to her and in her mind, a small wish had appeared.

"...it's cold... Nora, let's cuddle again... I hate cold..." Melusine called out.

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

3rd Person POV

"Make sure to capture them alive."

A man wearing a hooded cape spoke.

In front of him, dozen of men with similar outfits were listening to him.

"Can't we just kill them? Taking live prisoners is a hassle."

"The necromancer only needs their corpses."

"Do you think he would mind if we tasted a few of those fairies? I heard that their meat is tender and sweet like no other while their blood makes a perfect wine..."

As the last man chuckled creepily, the other men did not seem disturbed, gulping sounds were the most common followed by smirks. Nonetheless, the man who spoke found himself unable to laugh anymore as he saw everything spin. The last thing he saw was his own body as large amounts of blood spilled from his neck.

The leading man had only snapped his finger and the creepy man had been beheaded.

"Do not forget what you have in your neck."

Snorting, the leading man gestured towards their necks. The ones gulping a second ago gulped again but out of fear this time.

"The living has their uses, do not concern yourself with matters that are not of your business. Failed products such as yourselves can only live another day by following orders. Disobey, you die. Think of disobeying, you die. Irritate me, and you die. The moment you proved to be a failure and a waste of resources for the cause, your fate was sealed. However..."

Pulling a small pill, the man held it so everyone could see.

"Even someone like me was able to overcome being a failure."

Removing his hood, dark spots on his skin looked like they were alive as they moved. He had no shirt, perhaps because he could not get one that fit. Half of his body was deformed. He had form arms, the pair of extra arms were extremely small though, child-sized but crooked and thin like branches, his whole skin had a gooey texture except for an area that looked like normal human skin. The man took the pill and there was a change as the area of the normal skin grew.

"Defective products can become useful ones as long as you get these. You can raise the chances of you turning into a proper follower of our God as well as getting great amounts of power."

The people that heard that did not dare to express their excitement, but it was hard not to notice as their faces showed it.

"Go. Catch 'em all."

At those words, the men ran past the leading man with enthusiasm, the inside of the hoods could be seen as they each displayed different deformation such as numerous mouths dripping with saliva on their stomachs or eyes that would not stay still.

The march came to a stop, an abrupt one when a doll, about the size of a chill, floated until she was shielding the fairy city from the men. She carried a shield and an oversized lance used in calvary.

Comical as it looked, the men had warily stopped moving. Many began sweating coldly, not because of a single doll.

Looking past the small doll, hundreds of dolls kept appearing as they formed an actual wall.

"Oji-san, I did not expect you to play P*kemon too."

A giggle was heard as a young girl with blonde hair and a colorful dress appeared. She had a book fastened to her waist using a leather belt and she held a small pink fox in front of her chest. The small creature looked bored and it lazily dozed off.

Everyone turned their heads toward the voice and saw the young lady with a smile on her face. Beside her, a pair of dolls slightly bigger than the ones blocking the other side, were floating. Compared to the weapons the other dolls carried, one only held a shield divided in each hand that would form a larger structure while the other one held a two-handed sword about the size of the young lady. Both weapons seemed to be far from ordinary.

"...you are?"

The leading man sent a suspicious look toward the young lady.

"Ah, my apologies. Nora-nii-sama has properly instructed me everything regarding manners all the time, but your comment caught me by surprise and I forgot to introduce myself. I am Alice, a pleasure to meet you." Alice raised the helm of her dress with one hand as she did a courtesy bow.

On her face, a smile was plastered as she spoke and only made everyone besides her feel unsettled. Her appearance was that of a well breed young lady, but she did not fit the environment at all.

"Attack."

Without bothering to ask or question anything else, the man ordered.

The group of men hesitating until now were wary, but rather than facing the absurd amount of dolls near the city, they found easier to attack the lone girl.

Two men were the fastest, they were nimble and they each pulled their own weapons. One of them had a butcher knife full of dried blood while the other pulled a crowbar so rusty that you could smell the scent from the distance. The pair of men did not hesitate, the man with a butcher knife aimed at the throat while the crowbar man swung from above his tool with the intention of crushing his skull of Alice. Their actions were vicious and without considering how Alice's mind up after the attack, but the young lady did nothing to move, her dolls, however, acted. The wielding shield one stood in front of her ready to take any blow in Alice's place while the one holding the sword swiftly met the attackers. One swung of her sword and the butcher knife was on the ground and we'll as the arm of the man. A second later, a headless body dropped down as well. The crowbar man hesitated for a second and felt a chill when thanks to stopping due to that causing the doll to miss his neck. He sweated coldly as a second attack came over, but his first reaction was not to flee but rather to block the sword, nonetheless, his actions led him to his demise. From the upper left shoulder, the man was split diagonally. The sword cut through the crowbar easily and cleaved the man.

The rest of the men felt their necks being gripped tighter as the collar around their necks worked to signal them what the man leading their group would do if they faltered.

Without any other choice, the group braced themselves. The collar was impossible to remove and would not give them time to resist, however, they still had a chance against the girl given their numbers. Their minds consoled themselves with that despite feeling dread when looking at the girl's smiling visage.

A tacit understanding thanks to their time 'working as a team' made them split up into 3 groups. The first group immediately stopped and pulled firearms. This made Alice's expression shift slightly but just at that time, the small fox sneezed cutely and Alice put back her left hand that was going towards the book in her waist. The ones behind pulled smoke bombs and threw them towards Alice and smoke of different colors soon covered the area.

Narrowing her eyes, Alice immediately noticed that the 'smoke' was not simple as it looked.

The remaining groups each began shooting, bullets rained on Alice's position but due to the smoke, the men could not see a thing. By the time the smoke dissipated, six dolls were around Alice, four holding shields and two holding large swords in their hands.

The men were baffled by appearance of the dolls, they recalled perfectly the number of dolls that were originally beside Alice and the group observing from afar could not when the dolls entered the fray.

Blinking confusedly, Alice's body swayed from one side to another and the dolls began losing altitude. The men from afar smirked and one of the whistled to signal the others to resume the attack. Unfortunately for them, only the dolls holding the swords had come to a stop after falling to the ground while the ones holding shields were covering any of Alice's blind spots. Without any other choice, each of the groups took a different approach. One decided to go around her and attack from the back while the other group stepped closer slowly.

Despite looking at the girl who failed to keep her body still and had to use one hand to not fall, the group felt tense. Their backs were drenched in sweat and a chill running down their spine kept getting worse with each step. Their instincts told them to flee, but that option did not exist for them.

Once the group that tried to get closer upfront was a few steps closer almost about to reach Alice, an agonizing scream that was could short could be heard.

"AHHHHHHHHH-."

The first group hastily turned their heads just in time to see dozens of small dolls about the size of fist attacking their comrades in arms. These dolls viciously stabbed their comrades with only their arms that had sharpened fingers. The other group could not even ask for help before being overwhelmed by the dolls.

A small giggle almost made the closest man to Alice wet himself. He shakily looked towards the girl and saw her standing straight like the symptoms she displayed before were a lie.

"Run-"

The man could not warn any longer as his head was easily detached from his body thanks to one of the sword-wielding dolls that had grabbed her weapon at once.

Only one doll had easily taken care of two people, but two were not efficient. Alice had not opened her mouth to give orders, but the men could tell that she was the one giving the orders. Not only the sword-wielding dolls attacked the group, but even fist-sized dolls had joined the fray. The only group that remained threw more 'smoke' bombs towards Alice but she just smiled at that action.

"That kind of gas could put to sleep an elephant with just one drop of the liquid, and the dose is ten times more powerful! How are you still standing!?"

Perhaps knowing that fighting would be meaningless, the man throwing 'smoke' bombs spoke. As the one had thrown anesthetic bombs and even poisonous ones mixed in the gas, he could not accept that Alice remained unharmed.

"Oh, that? Nora-nii-sama has carefully nurtured our resistance to that kind of concoction for years. I would not have a face to look at him if I felt into this sort of trick." Alice muttered.

With his expression twisted unsightly, the man continued to see his companions being chopped in pieces. Their screams of agony and pain could not be registered in his head.

"...what is the point-"

A defeated expression end up plastered on the man's face and the sword from one of the dolls cut him in two from head to toe.

"...we are still lacking compared to him though." Alice added.

Adding the small dolls to the two sword-wielding ones, the rest of the men were swiftly defeated. Several pools of blood formed from their remains, but the man who led them just stood in place with his arms crossed and a neutral expression.

"Oji-san, your people died, you can stop pretending." Alice giggled.

Snorting, the leading man began to change slightly as his skin no longer looked blemished. The two small arms decreased in size until they disappeared and soon his face, as plain as it could be, appeared. His complexion was rather large and rough despite his plain face.

"...I am only 18."

With eyebrows furrowed the man spoke.

Blushing slightly, Alice embarrassedly looked down.

"Sorry." Alice honestly apologized.

"...those dolls, they came out of your shadow."

Not bothering to accept the apology, the man crossed his arms and gestured with his chin toward Alice's feet.

"...what makes you say that?" Alice chuckled.

"I can't say to be the best at sensing my surroundings or detecting auras, but I have confidence in my conclusion. I watched from the beginning how everything happened. I had scouted the area before these guys arrived and I had definitely not seen any of these dolls, not to mention sensing them."

"I could've been concealing their presence using magic or some kind of artifact." Alice muttered as raised her left hand and displayed several rings on each finger.

"Child. Even talent has its limits. You could be the most talented individual of all the time, but you are far too young. Assuming you could conceal a random number of these dolls good enough for me to miss it, the sheer amount of dolls present here makes that unlikely."

"Am I being looked down upon?" Alice asked.

"Hardly. However, concealing is not simply hiding a presence, since you leave a suspicious spot. You can't find an enemy there, but it feels like something is there. Just like this!"

Suddenly, the man used his right leg to kick something while his left arm was swung horizontally. A dry sound was heard as two dolls were thrown away viciously.

"Even if I cannot tell what is there, I can still trace the empty space you concealed."

Hugging the fox tighter, Alice narrowed her eyes.

"...would you consider ending this here?"

Raising an eyebrow questioningly, Alice scrutinized the man. Before stepping away slowly with a cautious look.

"I have legally prepared already a marriage certificate for me and my sister to take on the surname Shiki in the future, I am sorry, but I will most definitely decline." Alice shook her head. "Things like 'I cannot continue fighting you because I fell in love with you' are too cheesy to be used by anyone other than Nora-nii-sama."

"...I would like to avoid a confrontation from a walking disaster like you if I can. After it was split into different fragments, the Annihilation Maker weakened considerably but even then, the danger it poses cannot be dismissed."

With a serious expression, Alice snapped the fingers of one of her hands and the dolls forming a wall near the city moved towards Alice and the man, they formed a humongous dome while floating in a fixed location. They soon joined hands as a magic circle shone above their chest, and immediately a barrier sealing the space was formed.

"Your people tried to get your hands in these fragments in the past, why would you avoid me now?" Alice inquired.

"There is no need to go after all of our goals all at once. We are aware of your existence and we know where to find you, for us that is enough."

Walking forward, the man picked up a gun lying around. Belonging to one of his men, the gun had not even been shot since it was a secondary weapon.

"Aren't you awfully honest?" Alice raised an eyebrow.

"As things stand, only of us will survive and walk away. We both have techniques that could kill each other if aimed at the right spot..."

Confirming it was fully loaded, the man removed the safety of the gun.

"You would probably try to capture me and interrogate me to obtain information but having received a certain level of information already you will not desperately try to capture me as you would   without knowing anything."

"Isn't that wishful thinking?" Alice asked.

From her shadow, small dolls about the size of a fist emerged.

"Don't we all have wishful ideas? You, for example, wanted to capture me 'alive'."

"'Wanted'?" Alice's dolls were about to follow her command to attack when-

A dry sound was heard, a gunshot coming from the man's gun made Alice widen her eyes. Blood splattered as the man's brain matter was blasted to one side.

Instead of being surprised, Alice clicked her tongue.

"Go." Alice spoke in an urgent tone.

Several of her dolls moved at once to cover the man, but before they could reach him, his body started to melt and a pool of darkish and repugnant liquid was left in place. Slowly the liquid  went down to the ground. By the time only a small amount of liquid was left, the dolls arrived and exploded. The shock wave was enough to destroy the inner organs of a normal person three times over, but the man's remains were not there anymore.

More dolls holding shields had been summoned as well as a barrier to protect Alice and the small fox, but despite staying unscathed, Alice did not seem happy.

"...are you aware of your mistakes?"

A light-hearted voice spoke in a tone that did not fit the moment.

"I should've attacked without trying to have a conversation." Alice replied sulkily.

"No, I believe the result would've been the same."

The small fox that Alice was holding struggled to escape from her grasp and did so after Alice loosened her grip.

"Liking him has made you copy him partially. While he can recklessly charge forward and kills his enemies, he also knows when properly bind them or knock them out."

"A little advise beforehand would've prevented him from running." Alice complained.

"Worry not, my dear. I already accounted for your little mishap and had some people who would appropriately catch him."

Ending her sentence with a laugh, the small fox shape shifted and turned into a beautiful pink-haired woman with a severely modified shrine maiden outfit.

Smiling meaningfully, she stood taller than the blonde-haired girl. With a side glance, she seemed to enjoy how the younger girl pouted. Her fox ears were tucked down, but she did not let out her tail to show.

"Miko-nee-sama, even if it is to teach me a lesson if he escapes..." Alice reproached the fox lady.

"Hmmm, you shouldn't doubt my abilities like that. I put several people on the job of hunting that man, or rather, waiting for him. 'THAT' child is also here." Miko smiled.

"Shinkaku..." Alice mumbled.

"Pack your dolls, there are others. Oh...?" Miko suddenly tilted her head. "This is interesting..."

Noticing how a smile formed on the fox lady's face, Alice inwardly face palmed and prayed for the people who will become entangled in the plans that were forming on the pink-haired woman's head.

"I guess this one is on him, asking for help so blatantly... so many women came." Miko chuckled.

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

3rd Person POV

"It was a mistake to engage in a conversation with her for so long."

A large with a plain face was walking through the woods. One of his hands was slightly charred and caused the man to grimace in pain.

"Undying body, heh, I guess this still needs some modifications. This is what I get for being a guinea pig from that crazy man."

Halting his steps, the man was forced to smile wryly.

"You have to be kidding me."

Standing with a slightly absentminded expression,  a young woman stood there looking at the sky she slowly chewed something.

A black body suit accentuated her voluptuous figure and had openings in her hips. A white vest covered her chest and it matched long her white hair that was in a side lock and a bang covered one of her eyes. Only one of her blue gradient eyes could be seen and she turned her head to see the man.

One look and the man understood. He would not be able to exchange words with his new foe.

"...freeze."

Muttering softly, the young woman pulled a talisman. The man tried to pull a collar full of black beads, and they gave an ominous shine, but it was useless. A burst of cold air was directed at him, this caused his body to freeze immediately. The surrounding area was frozen as well.

"...was that is?"

Tilting her head, the young woman asked but did not get an answer.

Knitting her eyebrows slightly, she shook her head before snapping her fingers.

Out of nowhere, several women with bountiful figures wearing bodysuits of different colors appeared.

"Take him."

Giving a simple command, the young woman glanced at the frozen man.

"Yes, Shinkaku-sama."

The oldest among them spoke and all the women moved to take the man away.

"Should we take him with the others?"

"No, Miko said that he is different. Put him on B2."

The young woman replied to the other's party question.

After hearing that, the group disappeared with the man.

Left alone, the young woman closed her eyes and waited for new orders.

Part 3

3rd Person POV

"What's with you?" Mordred asked.

Facing a green-haired young woman that appeared out of nowhere, Mordred looked confused.

"Fufu, I found her first."

Reason being that the bloodlust coming from the figure in front of her was beyond normal for someone she had not seen before.

"You are not going to speak? Then I guess I will just chop your head." Mordred spoke.

Leaping towards the green-haired young woman, Mordred swung her sword towards the other party's neck. However, she had to hastily put a stop to her actions when the young woman lowered the fan that was covering her mouth, and fire breath was shot from there.

Her armor had a certain level of resistance to fire and other elemental attacks, but she still decided to step back. Her actions were dictated by instincts rather than logic and they were on spot. After the fire, a large tail swept into her earlier position.

"Now that is something you do not see every day." Mordred whistled.

Looking at her attacker, the lower body of the young woman had changed shape until only a large serpentine tail was left while the upper part still remained the same as before.

"We have met a couple of times since I arrived here, but I never introduced myself."

The young woman seemed to be in the mood to chat.

"I am Kiyohime, my master's beloved and cute snake, Kiyohime." Kiyohime smiled.

"Huh? I don't recall meeting you." Mordred tried to recall anyone with her description but she failed to do so.

Shrugging her shoulders, Mordred smiled.

"You should've stayed in your previous form, now it will be easier for me to chop you up." Mordred laughed.

A darkish hue seemed to be imbued in her aura as she summoned it around her body. Pushing herself forward, Mordred repeated her actions, but this time, she did not back off during the breath attack, but instead jumped over Kiyohime as she spun in the air to gain momentum. This caused her to spin at a considerable speed as she fell toward Kiyohime's tail. However, just before her attack connected-

"Huh?" Mordred let out a stupid sound as her blade struck the ground.

Kiyohime's tail disappeared in an instant as she changed back into a human form.

A considerable hole was made in the ground but Kiyohime seemed unimpressed as Mordred left hole.

"You can change forms pretty fast." Mordred muttered.

After saying that, her blade began to get covered in red lighting.

"That's neat!" Mordred laughed as she attacked.

In human form, Kiyohime evaded Mordred's simple-minded swings of her sword with small movements and showed rather remarkable flexibility when Mordred swung her blade horizontally at close distance and Kiyohime just bent her body backward all the way back from her knees. Her actions surprised Mordred two times since Kiyohime easily stood again without relying on her hand, but rather the muscles in her legs.

"Aren't you something!?" Mordred stepped back a little to avoid being incinerated alive by Kiyohime's fire breath.

Keeping her eyes on Mordred all the time, Kiyohime abstained from answering no matter what the knight said. She seemed to be taking seriously Nora's wish of not killing Mordred so she severely limited her movements.

Nonetheless, even if she limited her movements, her natural abilities were relentlessly trained by Nora who made sure that Kiyohime reached a basic level of physical fitness was nothing to scoff at. However, Kiyohime could give Nora all the credit since Mordred looked off. Her eyes easily caught the change in her aura and the subtle change in some of her actions. Actions that required complex thoughts became sluggish midway.

"...natural reaction is scary." Kiyohime whispered in a low tone.

Mordred was mostly relying on her instincts to evade Kiyohime's attacks as well as going on the offensive. Rather than giving the order to her body, she seemed to be letting everything go with the flow, allowing her body to counterattack. That seemed to be how she was coping so far, nonetheless, Kiyohime noticed that as the fight dragged on, she saw more of the darkish aura and red lighting being used.

"...no, I guess there is something else." Kiyohime held an opened hand fan and swung it.

Fire shot from it and it hit Mordred, but she seemed unaffected. Already expecting such a thing, Kiyohime stepped back and easily got unscathed from Mordred's strike. For Kiyohime who was always with Nora, she had seen him facing scarier people. His teacher being absurd in every sense of the word, but some of his other training partners such as Amagi, Kasen, and even Sirzechs were beyond his level in basic stats alone, and the people belonging to the organization he had joined not long ago. Each of those individuals had skills far superior to Mordred. Nonetheless, rather than looking down at the knight in front of her, Kiyohime was reminded once more how abnormal were the people Nora usually dealt with.

Taking a note from Nora's book, Kiyohime kept her eyes glued to Mordred's figure. Wild slashes that carried tremendous might as well as a rhythm that did not allow anyone half-asses to counter. While her initial assessment was that the fairies were people whose power levels did not match their skills, their accomplishment in the magical department was high enough to cover for their weak points.

"That said... people back then were capable of cornering me just with skills alone, I guess even though they try to cover their weakness, it is not enough." Kiyohime muttered.

Tilting her head, she wondered if she could try to disarm Mordred. Jumping towards Mordred who swung down her blade at her, Kiyohime's form changed into that of a small snake. Barely avoiding being damaged, she landed on Mordred's right wrist and started to change shape slightly. Instead of a simple increase in size, her length grew as she circled around Mordred's arm. While she grew, her body tightened around Mordred as she circled the arm, the chest, and the other arm. Kiyohime was surprised at the degree of strength that the knight had at her disposition. Despite Mordred having her movements restricted and Kiyohime tightening her grip to an extreme degree, Mordred still continued to put more strength in her arms.

"DO THINK THIS IS ENOUGH TO STOP ME!?" Mordred yelled.

A bright red light covered Mordred as lighting cracked around her. In response, Kiyohime could only release the other party unwillingly. A few meters away, Kiyohime took a human shape again as she narrowed her eyes and hid her expression behind the hand fan she had opened.

"That does not seem like it will be decreasing anytime now." Kiyohime commented.

Staying in place, Mordred seemed to lose focus on the battle as the aura around her kept increasing by the second.

"This is why muscle brains are such troublesome people. They only think of how to charge forward." Kiyohime sighed. "Rin would've been a better choice here... but she left before I could stop her."

Recalling the unique ability of the small spider, Kiyohime grumbled. Nonetheless, she had followed after Mordred to teach her a lesson so she could not abandon her task. Still, the armor prevented any regular damage, and using a larger form could cause her to suffer heavy damage from the sword Mordred carried. Using her last resort was an option that would go against Nora's wish so she would only use it as a last resort.

"Die!" Mordred yelled.

With the aura proper of a berserker, Mordred did not have to gather aura to shoot a sword slash full of red lighting covering her body. The speed was beyond any of her previous attacks, but Kiyohime did not bother to do any grand movements to evade.

"You are there, right? Then join the fight instead of watching from your position like you are enjoying the show." Kiyohime grumbled.

The sword slash swallowed Kiyohime... or not. A large sphere of sheer darkness and malice suddenly showed up from the woods and swallowed Kiyohime before pulling both away.

The sphere of darkness fled the scene and left Mordred alone who kept throwing aura-filled slashes randomly.

After she could no longer see Mordred, Kiyohime was thrown away from the sphere of darkness and could only land in an unladylike manner with her face first as she ended up with her behind raised up.

Angrily standing up, Kiyohime pointed at the mass of darkness.

"Did you have to do it like that!?" Kiyohime reproached.

"Tsk, you are right. I could've acted like it was an accident and let that woman beat you up. Then, I would console him when he weeps at your inevitable doom." The mass of darkness and malice, Miyako, said.

Holding back the urge to teach her 'ally' a lesson, Kiyohime stood up and undusted herself.

"Why did you take us this far?" Kiyohime asked.

"Unlike me and MY beloved master, Youkais are weak against the kind of energy surrounding that child." Miyako explained.

Raising an eyebrow to that, Kiyohime did not recall anything unusual.

"It is truly a shame, didn't MY master start teaching of us all about different topics? This one was covered in lesson 77, on his self-written book for beginners about sacred and cursed swords." Miyako sighed in disappointment.

Nonetheless, given that she remained as a mass of darkness and malice, her expression was not shown.

"You are talking about the sword Mordred carries?" Kiyohime inquired.

"Within it, all the hatred and negative emotions from the original Mordred are contained. If you add that to the fact that she will not be able to keep it under control as well as the strange spell surrounding this land... I would say there is a chance for you to begin rampaging as you did back then." Miyako replied.

Briefly recalling the time she met Nora, Kiyohime shuddered thinking what would've been her fate if Nora had not extended a hand to her.

"Then, what do you suggest we do?" Kiyohime asked.

"I say we use one of the tactics of MY beloved master's book and have her go nuts." Miyako chuckled.

Without looking at her face, Kiyohime could imagine how crafty and twisted Miyako would be smiling. However, she could hardly blame her ally since she immediately did the same as she understood what to do.

"Then we lead her around to kill the cultists..." Kiyohime giggled.

Sharing a common goal the two young women looked (?) at each other meaningfully. A peaceful cooperation was underway-

"By the way, don't you dare to think I forgot what you said... he is NOT YOUR master, but OUR master." Kiyohime added in a strong tone.

Or perhaps not so peaceful.

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

3rd Person POV

"If you think this is enough to deal with me, you have just underestimated me." Morgan muttered.

With a swing of her arm, magic circles of all sizes appeared behind her and shot down her flying enemies.

After leaving the castle to meet the attackers of the city, Morgan spread her troops to go and save as many fairies as possible. The attackers that came by land were fighting the guards and as soon as they got busy dealing with them, a new threat arrived. Riding something akin to wyverns, this new group dived and grabbed any stray fairy. Morgan had no other choice but to join the fray.

So far, Morgan had struck down dozen of wyverns but that did nothing to decrease the number of the creatures flying around.

The scared screams of her people and the angry yells of her guards mixed together with the cries of the creatures to create a maddening scenario, but Morgan refused to let them do as they pleased. This was her land, and she would not allow anyone to trample on it.

It was just after she had cast magic to strike down a batch of wyverns as well as a spell to prevent it from crushing any of her people when they fell. The next batch of wyverns was larger than before, over ten times larger, it was not a scale that could be handled by her alone given the scale of the city. She had been intercepting them before they actually arrived at the city, but they entered the city, Morgan would be unable to deal with them without a casualty occurring.

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Her only choice would be to use one of her trump cards, but doing so would leave her open for attacks momentarily. None of her knights were with her and Nora had just sent her a message telling her to guard her position and do not move. The young woman was not sure how he was able to bypass the protection that her castle had to prevent that kind of magic transmission, but she could not simply let her people suffer.

Before the wyverns could enter the aerial zone of the city, something happened. Without casting any magic, the sky was covered with magic circles. Morgan furrowed her eyebrows because those had a totally different origin. These magic circles had a varying degree of power but they all served their purpose and that was to annihilate the wyverns. The problem came with the dropping bodies and Morgan prepared to intercept those as well but whoever had taken them down followed up and applied magic to reduce their falling speed, lower their weight and float magic. Morgan found nothing to nitpick but did not lower her guard. Squinting her eyes, she caught the figure of her until now unseen allies. Riding winged white horses, about a hundred figures descended towards her.

Carrying shields, spears, and swords, the figures looked every bit more intimidating than any armed force. However, the fact that they were all women of great beauty.

It was just a hunch, something that she could not quite put her finger on, but Morgan understood what this was about.

The leading figure had a rather risky uniform of a Valkyrie and Morgan was surprised that they did not feel ashamed of wearing that in public. Her knowledge of Valkyries was rather obsolete given the date of the books she read. Nonetheless, she could recognize their ride, an Aragorn.

Her guards were alarmed and hastily took take off the enemies nearby to protect their queen, however, Morgan waved them to stand down. Albeit unwilling, they obeyed.

Noticing that their presence made the guards wary, only one... or not, two of the figures went down followed by two others. The first one saw this but only sighed. Landing near Morgan, the Valkyrie removed her helmet and her long and flowing white hair was free.

"Greeting, we were looking for a young man-"

"Nora Shiki, I assume you arrived here because you are looking for that man." Morgan cut her off with some irritation in her tone.

"...so you have met Nora-kun, I mean, I assume you have met the young man in person. My name is Rossweisse, I am unable to properly give my affiliation and rank given the nature of our entry, but I will say this. We are not enemies." Rossweisse spoke.

"Where is Nora!?"

"Nur, calm down..."

"He is Nora, he must be perfectly fine wherever he is..."

Sighing at the sight of her comrades following after her, Rossweisse facepalmed.

"Nur, Hilda, Eira, I told you to wait for me to speak with this lady." Rossweisse gently chastised the trio.

Seeing how Rossweisse did not seem angry, the trio sighed in relief. Initially, it was Rossweisse who hurried all alone at full speed without getting permission and everyone else just tagged along believing that an emergency had happened. Given the urgency Rossweisse displayed, few possibilities came to mind. However, once they heard her mutter Nora's name, almost all the Valkyries wanted to follow after her. It was then that Rossweisse understood what kind of mess she caused and arranged a party to come with her.

That gave her time to cool down her head, but this did not apply to everyone.

"Excuse them, like me, they are worried about Nora-kun, I mean, him. Would you happen to know who is in charge, we would like to get clearance to move without causing any misunderstanding with the local forces and avoid engaging in meaningless fights." Rossweisse muttered.

With an amused expression, Morgan raised her chin as haughtily as possible and spoke.

"You speak with Morgan Le Fay, the queen of these lands." Morgan said.

Inwardly nodding, Morgan admitted that seeing how the young woman froze and began sweating was rather interesting.

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

3rd Person POV

"How is it!?" Nora smiled.

Planting one foot forward, he followed with his arm delivering a mind-blowing punch. Baobhan Sith's head felt like it would snap but the damage was recovered instantly. By mimicking Nora's movements, she stepped on his foot to prevent him from escaping and covered her hands with the power she absorbed from him as well as her magic power. Continuously hitting his chest, Baobhan Sith was certain she heard bones being crushed and organs rupturing. Nonetheless, Nora calmly responded by raising his right elbow as high as he could and brought down her head. The pain almost made her blackout, but she held it in her consciousness by sheer willpower.

"Haha, that face tells me you are enjoying this!" Nora's smile was ferocious.

"Who would enjoy getting hit so much!?" Baobhan Sith replied.

Her body had sustained more damage in this one fight than in her entire career as a knight. Each of Nora's punches would at least break a bone or snap the joints of her arms and legs. The youth in front of her was extremely ruthless and efficient in his movements. Dislocating one of her arms would give him more breathing room.

"Sadly, I know way too many perverts who enjoy getting beaten!" Nora grabbed Baobhan Sith's from her chest and pulled her-

A dry sound was all she recalled as Baobhan Sith felt everything turn white for a second. She persisted and her reward was a terrible pain in the forehead and blood dripping from it.

"You either adapt and enjoy pain, or just avoid it all together." Nora put both hands on Baobhan Sith's cheeks and pulled her again.

Receiving two continuous headbutts in the head was enough to make regular people to drop on the ground, but Baobhan Sith was tenacious.

"Too bad, my dear Shishou is the time to make sure that pain will always be pain, you can never enjoy it and you can never avoid it." Nora mumbled.

For some reason, Baobhan Sith felt some pity after hearing his helpless tone and shuddered to think of who could make the youth like that.

Grabbing Nora's wrists, Baobhan Sith sank her nails and grew them inside his skin, her hands were bathed with his blood and only when she cut the nerves was that Nora let her go.

Rather infuriated with his actions so far, she pulled him towards her. Baobhan Sith wanted nothing more than to bite him to death when he blushed shyly and pushed his lips like they were going to kiss. Her fangs were immediately sucking his blood as she tried to recover the expended energy.

"This is getting annoying." Nora muttered.

Baobhan Sith widened her eyes in surprise for a second. Not simply because Nora pulled her closer as their bodies glued to one another, but rather to the fact that she felt a bite mark on her neck. Nora had bitten her, his teeth were deep in her neck and a crazy amount of her blood was spilled. Nonetheless, it was far from mortal. Absorbing blood of such high quality was enough to let her body replenish her own blood. She continued to drink even faster and tightened his grip as his arms pushed their bodies closer... as well as letting his teeth sink deeper.

Baobhan Sith had to admit that until now Nora had left her completely baffled. His put of norm actions and ruthless choice-making could make anyone's blood run cold. However, even now, she could not feel it. No matter how much she despised him or hurt him. No matter if ripped off his hands, tore down his leg, or twisted his leg. No amount of damage seemed to trigger 'that' reaction.

"What is wrong with you!?" Baobhan Sith could not help but ask.

It was too abnormal, too strange.

"I just thought of an eye for an eye. No hard feelings." Nora jokingly said.

Despite being a joke, his appearance would make anyone's scalp turn cold with his bloodied mouth of his.

Noticing how he did not seem to let her go, Baobhan Sith tried to kick his crotch but he made her lose her balance by falling backward. Nora finally released his hold and she sat on top of him in a rather compromising position like she was the one who pushed him down.

"What's your problem?" Baobhan Sith felt unusually exhausted.

Her body was still beaming with energy but she was mentally tired. It was not every day she would usually have to receive so many injuries and recover from them.

"Well, I am against global warming." Nora said.

"Who gives a fuck about that!?" Baobhan Sith retorted.

"You should, one detail that people fail to notice is how the rising level of water doesn't only affects coast cities..." Nora tried to explain in a serious tone.

"Shut up!" Baobhan Sith raised her tone.

"So, are you going to throw a tantrum now?" Nora sighed.

"I don't even know how to begin with you." Baobhan Sith scowled. "You have to be insane."

"We all are, to what degree is always the question." Nora shrugged his shoulders.

"Quiet, you." Baobhan Sith ordered.

"Are you one of those freaks who goes on about saving everyone, an ally of justice?" Baobhan Sith looked down on the youth coldly.

"Haha, surely you jest my lady. I am a total thug." Nora chuckled. "A scumbag with no redeeming quality other than being handsome, rich, and very smart."

"Erasing you from existence is going to be a blessing for all the women in the world." Baobhan Sith narrowed her eyes.

Feeling like he should not fool around too much or part of him will receive damage he might not recover again.

"I am not after something grand. A friend just told me a little something and I used my means to dig for more info about it." Nora said. "I am not a hero, but you can perhaps take upon that role, Miss 'Ally of justice'."

"Don't call me that." Baobhan Sith placed one of her hands on the youth's neck.

"Or what? You have already damaged this body in so many ways." Nora chuckled. "If you think your threats will be scaring me, you really need to learn how to inflict terror. Well, in my opinion, you could just drop your whole act."

"An act? Is that how you see my actions?" Baobhan Sith inquired.

"Sorry to burst your bubble sweetheart, but I read your diary already. I believe some details have been omitted but from the information I had been gathering, I have a rough idea of how everything went." Nora replied.

Griping Nora's neck, Baobhan Sith lowered her head somewhat.

"You know nothing." Baobhan Sith gritted her teeth.

"Perhaps, or perhaps not. I know a bit." Nora ignored the and on his neck. "I am well aware that this queendom is not as wonderful as Morgan and Habetrot have made it to be. Morgan did a pretty good job in trying that everything looked peaceful and bright, but... yeah, I will just say I know enough to pick up the darkness underneath."

Extremely annoyed that Nora mentioned her name so lightheartedly, Baobhan Sith thought of snapping Nora's neck, but even though she had tried before, there were things she could not accomplish.

"I am not saying that she has not tried hard. That much, I have to acknowledge, however, Queenie is not as ruthless as her mother was." Nora muttered. "Isn't that right? Ally of justice."

"...she was indeed ruthless. Compared to her, mother is a Saintess." Baobhan Sith said.

"She is pretty attractive so she could pass as a goddess. If we play the cards right, we can even build her a temple and have people worship her. Just show them a picture of her mind-blowing outfit and she could start a religion." Nora chuckled.

"...even though I loath it, I have to agree with you." Baobhan Sith spoke.

"...for you, Morgan is innocent, isn't she?" Nora asked.

Albeit reluctant, Baobhan Sith nodded.

"And you think that by playing the bad guy, you can kill the remaining bad apples of the incident her mother took part in?" Nora raised a question.

"...not only them. So many useless and ungrateful fools take advantage of Mother's kindness. They cannot help but fall into depravity. Dirtying their hands and corrupting others..." Baobhan Sith gritted her teeth.

"...so it was for people like those huh." Nora sighed.

"Don't you dare to look down on everything I have done!!!" Baobhan Sith used both hands to choke the youth.

"...I am not trying to do that. I just have an idea of what kind of people you are talking about since I got engaged with some of them." Nora said.

Snorting at that, Baobhan Sith was not willing to believe what Nora said.

"That said, your methods are too extreme." Nora shook his head.

"Now are you going to try to convince me to change my ways? Aren't you naive?" Baobhan Sith scowled.

"Nah, I am good. Feel free to do as much evil as you want. Someone, as twisted as me has no right to tell you to straighten up." Nora smiled. "That said, I was going to say that your methods are also stupid and dangerous."

"...you are annoying." Baobhan Sith muttered.

"It is one of my best parts, be sure to enjoy it." Nora said. "That aside... I was talking about how you plan to become the greater evil and have Morgan take you down."

Doing her best to strangle Nora, Baobhan Sith was certain that she had cut his air intake but did not know how he could still continue talking for so long.

"Yes, you would take the chance to kill as many of your targets as you could. In the end, you would be slain by Morgan and her people would see her in a new light. Not only as the benevolent queen but as the person who could protect them. The finer details are missing but that is the rough idea, isn't it?"

"...and? What does it matter if you know? You are unable to stop my plans." Baobhan Sith snorted. "Even now, you have no idea how I will archive that and are tied with me."

"Dear, I am pinned on the ground against my will, not tied, and while I am enjoying the feeling of your thighs on me, I must say I would rather this happened in a bedroom. I mean, it is not like I am a stranger to outdoor activities such as these, but this is hardly the TPO, wouldn't you agree?" Nora calmly spoke.

Feeling her irritation going up with each word, Baobhan Sith wondered if the guy under her actually wanted to defeat her by causing her to go mad.

"I will be blunt. You have made a huge mistake." Nora said.

"Because I did not use the good guy method and talked it over to solve it?" Baobhan Sith smirked. "You think those guys have any hope of getting better?"

"Nah, they are messed up." Nora shook his head. "However, there were tons of ways you could've taken them down. Methods that did not involve joining hands with the cultists."

"Our interests aligned, it is not like I had my full faith in them, yet, so far they have done things as I expected." Baobhan Sith said.

"They like to screw you over at the end. You think they will just obediently let the fairies alone after causing a certain level of damage? Compared to other creatures, the fairies are currently easy prey to hunt." Nora looked uncomfortable. "In particular, the Queenie is a very tempting prey to just let it go due to some silly agreement."

With veins popping from her hands, Baobhan Sith gripped Nora's neck tighter. Her weight was added and that made Nora's head and neck sink a little in the ground.

"Was that... a sensitive point? I am... pretty good about... finding those in a woman." Nora chuckled.

"Do you think I do not know that? They appeared one day all of a sudden and offered such a good deal. One had to be stupid to mindlessly believe them. They offered help in reviving a certain being, that was a task I could never accomplish alone. However, I know that they want to revive it to take its powers. A deity of such a caliber might not be the strongest, yet it is still a god. I have no doubts that it is tempting to imagine all that power under your control." Baobhan Sith said. "To control a god and do their bindings... I have read many stories regarding that scenario. Yet, humans are foolish, their hopes are ultimately destroyed when the very same power they covet annihilates them."

"Heh... Who is the foolish one here? You... *Cough* have left... that bastard, alone..." Nora coughed. "He will corrupt... that thing... He will make it... go out of control..."

"Lies! That is one of the gentlest gods. It was out of the trickery of that witch and her people back then that it was stripped of its body!" Baobhan Sith angrily sank her nails into the youth's neck. Being used as materials to create the perfect utopia for fairies after our previous land was ravaged and destroyed by the red and white ones!"

"Heavenly dragons..." Nora mumbled.

"Yes! It is because of them that my family, long-time protectors and worshippers of Cernunnos, allowed Morgan of the past to get involved with it." Baobhan Sith spoke in a saddened tone. "Cernunnos happily agreed to lend a hand when it learned that it was for the greater good, but what did they do? They stripped it of its body in the most gruesome way as they used it as a catalyst to create this land."

Bitterly looking at Baobhan Sith, Nora's eyes were filled with pity. This action, completely unconscious, only caused Baobhan Sith to twist her face in anger.

"YOU ARE AN OUTSIDER! YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO JUDGE ME!!! YOU PITY ME!? DO YOU PITY CERNUNNOS!?" Baobhan Sith began shaking the youth and slamming him on the ground. "IT IS NOT YOUR PLACE!"

"I know... *Cough* if someone... Out of nowhere came... and began pity for me... I would be royally pissed... as well..." Nora's tone began decreasing. "Hehe... although if the person who spoke is me... I guess I could make you angry... no matter what I say... Heh... they say... I have a way... with words..."

Finding it incomprehensible how the youth could still spout bullshit as his body weakened due to the lack of oxygen, Baobhan Sith still did not release his neck. This man was, after all, like the fairies from those times, trying to gain favor with her queen, with the woman who without a second thought adopted her and put her under her wing when she learned that she had no backing compared to other knights.  Instead of the target of her revenge, Morgan was in a way the reason why she not outrightly wanted to pass her judgement onto all the fairies.

"Isn't that why you are in this position in the first place?" Baobhan Sith snorted.

"Haha... I guess that is... true..." Nora coughed. "Although I also blame... my luck... with women... only troublesome ones... get involved with me... lately..."

"It irks me that I cannot rebuke that given how I am trying to kill you..." Baobhan Sith gritted her teeth. 

Finding this ending somewhat unsatisfying, Baobhan Sith had in mind a more violent and close call considering Nora's abilities.

"You and... I are not... so different..." Nora mumbled. "Well... I guess I am not... a justice... ally like you... or rather... I am the total... opposite. *Cough* However, I can... understand... the feeling..."

Gritting her teeth as Nora spoke, Baobhan Sith used one of her hands to slap Nora.

"Can't you die in peace? Quiet? Just keep your mouth shut." Baobhan Sith said.

"I would... not be Nora... if I shut my mouth..." Nora smiled. "I wanted to... destroy everything... once..."

"Trying to earn my pity at this point is just plain stupid..." Baobhan Sith narrowed her eyes.

"There are two girls... who mean the world... to me." Nora coughed. "Back then... they were my light..."

For some reason, Baobhan Sith found herself seriously listening. Perhaps because these were going to be the youth's last words or maybe because there was something in his tone when he talked about his light that resonated with her.

"...I thought I had lost one of them." Nora's expression twisted for the first time.

It was then that Baobhan Sith understood. Up until now, Nora had changed expressions but he had been light-heartedly doing it. Even when he reacted to pain, she felt there was something off, but now she understood why. Nora, up until now, had not truly shown his emotions.

Gulping loudly, Baobhan Sith sweated coldly. One of her hands was holding his neck, but she wanted to release the youth and take plenty of steps back, yet, the muscles of her arm were tightened to the limit and her legs did not respond.

"My foolish actions and that bitch were the ones I had to blame for that." Nora said.

Each word gave Baobhan Sith goosebumps. Simply by letting out his emotions, Nora's aura affected the surroundings. The weed on the ground was changing. It was growing but taking a gruesome form as dark spots appeared around it.

"I felt like my heart was ripped out of my body, but funnily enough... Having your heart pulled out does not hurts as much." Nora chuckled. "Everything turned bleak and I just felt like nothing made sense..."

Slowly, Baobhan Sith used her free to try and release the other one, however, Nora caught her movements and grabbed her. Until now, he had not moved a muscle and let her do as she pleased.

"I let my rage take over and used something I should never have used. All to obtain power... because back then, I did not have the means to kill that bitch." Nora smirked. "I sacrificed my sanity, but for me, it was a fair trade. Never been a smart cookie so I did not see the problem. However... in my rage, I almost killed my friends. I forgot there was someone else I had to take care of."

Without a way to escape, Baobhan Sith could only listen.

"...it was Shirone herself. Amidst the maddening rage and grief, I heard her voice. It was a miracle that she survived that day... yet I planned to throw everything away." Nora said. "Are you ready for that? The risk that comes with it."

"Are you saying I should just give up? Do you think I can? Because I will commit the same mistake as you? No, because I could do it?" Baobhan Sith talked back.

"...you could end up killing Morgan because of your plans going wrong." Nora plainly muttered. "I am not joking here. Those people are dangerous."

"Shut up, who are you? My dad? I don't have to hear what you tell me." Baobhan Sith pulled her hand away.

As Nora's aura returned to normal, Baobhan Sith found the strength to fight back.

"I can always marry Morgan since she is your mother... You would have to call me, dad~" Nora laughed.

"Die, really die. Like one hundred times." Baobhan Sith scowled.

"Don't change the subject." Nora clicked his tongue.

"I will not change my ways." Baobhan Sith shook her head.

"You can always use other ways to do this." Nora said.

"...it is too late." Baobhan Sith replied.

Closing his eyes briefly, Nora opened his mouth.

"...if I were to take care of everything. Would you consider turning yourself in?" Nora asked.

"Ah? Are you saying you will deal with everything? For what reason?" Baobhan Sith smirked.

"...If I say I am doing it because of love- ok, it was a joke." Nora shook his head.

Lowering a metal spike she pulled out, Baobhan Sith snorted and decided not to stab him.

"I only want one thing. That is to fulfill my job and have the queen meet with someone regarding the possibility of joining a peace alliance." Nora muttered. "Although someone did tell me to save you."

"Heh, only Mother would care about me so you must be lying since you have not talked to her." Baobhan Sith said.

"Habetrot told me that you should be saved." Nora replied.

With an expression filled with annoyance, Baobhan Sith pointed to Nora's face.

"Don't mention her. I hate her for always hogging Mother's time. She is always acting all nice, but she must be just like the others..." Baobhan Sith muttered.

"I won't bother trying to change your mind regarding that. However, what about Morgan? Are you fine with causing her pain? Knowing that the child she had considered a daughter not only betrayed her but even destroyed what she vowed to protect? Do you think she would ever be happy, you dumbass?" Nora said.

"AND WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO? TO LET THOSE PEOPLE RUN RAMPANT? THEY ARE VENOMOUS, LITTLE BY LITTLE THEY ARE TAKING ADVANTAGE OF OTHERS AND WILL MAKE THEM MISERABLE." Baobhan Sith spoke.

"You mean those guys that wanted to mount a rebellion?" Nora asked.

"Huh, you think it is as simple as that?" Baobhan Sith snorted. "Those idiots that think they should be worshipped because they carry the hope of our race, thinking that they can do what they please to women. There is an ongoing investigation regarding the possible involvement of them in the exaggerated death of the other men back then. All so they could create a paradise to live in..."

"...Is that all there is?" Nora inquired. "I don't think you would try all this because of that."

"Of course, there is more. What about the women who have brainwashed men to a point that it could not be discerned just so they would become their always-ready semen dispenser? Heh, it is funny. The small number of innocent men get involved with the troublesome women... while the troublesome men... well, you get my idea." Baobhan Sith smirked. "They are not just a couple of people, they number the dozens, hundreds... they all appear nice and clean, but they are rotten on the inside. You saying... YOU will dirty your hands for my, no, for the fairies' sake? You just want to establish relationships with your mother. It is easy to do, just do nothing, and when this is over, you can rip off benefits by providing shelter, food, and other necessities. Just ask your boss, she will surely agree with me here. Your foolish actions are your self-justified rightfulness."

"She will beat me up if I used an underhanded method like that." Nora smiled wryly. "Magical Girls are the allies of justice and advocators of love. Her actions would be to help those in need and do her best so everyone had a smile on their face at the end of the day."

Scowling, Baobhan Sith looked at Nora with a disgusted face.

"I am not lying. She is... a unique individual." Nora chuckled. "I am curious though, how did you know my boss was a woman? Why couldn't it be a man?"

"You are kidding right?" Baobhan Sith narrowed her eyes.

"...she is a woman with high levels of charm. She has curves in the right places, she is cheerful as well as kind." Nora admitted.

Snorting at that, Baobhan Sith crossed her arms as she gave Nora a condescending look.

"Now, if you would be so kind as to stand up? I am enjoying your beautiful legs and hips on top of me, but I cannot get to work unless I leave this position." Nora said.

"Our fight is far from over." Baobhan Sith rebuked.

"Please, we have smacked each other enough. You have seen me naked, I have seen you naked..." Nora mumbled.

"What?" Baobhan Sith narrowed her eyes.

"I mean, I was meaning that we have seen what the other one has to say." Nora looked away.

"You will do it?" Baobhan Sith asked.

"Sure, let's give it a shot." Nora nodded.

"Are you sure you should speak nonchalantly like that? I am not after something like reconciliation, they are beyond redemption." Baobhan Sith added. "How can I leave it to you? What if you chicken out? You could, by all means, just agree to me here and then forget your promise."

"We can always use a Geass, once that is set, the other party has to complete the task or they will suffer dire consequences." Nora spoke.

Doubtfully looking at Nora, Baobhan Sith seemed to find it hard to believe.

"It is a Celtic magic, although I am using it pretty much as a contract one, this had many vicious uses." Nora chuckled. "It was not until warriors began using it as oaths after doing ample modifications that this magic became more known. To the point that it was used as a way for warriors to receive rewards after heroic or courageous acts."

"Then, are you going to ask for some sort of reward? You seemed to like my legs a lot, I bet you cannot wait to get your hands all over them." Baobhan Sith took the hem of her dress and raised just a tiny bit.

"I want you to apologize to everyone, particularly Habetrot for doubting her." Nora did not bother peeking but instead gazed straight at the young woman's eyes with all seriousness.

"...are you serious?" Baobhan Sith questioned.

"I want you to honestly speak your mind to her." Nora said.

"...can't I just go straight to jail?" Baobhan Sith asked.

"That will be up to the Queenie and your fellow knights' decision." Nora replied.

"Is that really it? As much as I loath the idea, I was even going to accept any crazy request. The book I read before said men are beasts so I expected, I don't know, something more adult related. Are you even a man?" Baobhan Sith started to pat the youth until she found what she was looking for. "..you got the tool, maybe you like dudes?"

This caused Nora to grab her waist to lift her and fingers dishonestly acted, but he did not try anything funny and just looked down on her after he stood up close. The way he narrowed his eyes made Baobhan Sith feel a different kind of danger.

"You think that is not enough, well, since you mentioned it... after everything is done. How about you call me... Daddy?" Nora lowered his head and whispered in her ears.

"You!" Baobhan Sith felt tricked and attacked him or at least tried.

Catching her with ease, Nora just stuck out his tongue in mockery.

"You will need to do better than that." Nora said.

Even though it seemed like everything was just a light and gentle action, Baobhan Sith's feet were causing the ground to get destroyed. She tried to push Nora, but her actions were unable to move him.

"Why did we have to fight in the first place? You... could've killed me or trapped me since the beginning." Baobhan Sith muttered.

"Perhaps, I could, but I had a very good reason, you know what that was?" Nora spoke. "Heh, to ascertain a person's character, you need to fight them without holding back. I was going to make extra sure you were a nice girl. Glad I was right. Besides, you would not have opened to me honestly if it had been you from an hour ago, would you?"

Clicking her tongue, Baobhan Sith got irritated when she heard him talk so sure of himself.

The youth seemed to have other things to say, but he suddenly got serious. Pulling out a huge broadsword that would not be out of place killing dinosaurs, he held it in place. A bandage hidden in his body left his right sleeve as it tied his hand to the broadsword.

Baffled, Baobhan Sith felt extreme disappointment when she thought he was going to betray her and kill her when her guard was down, but instead of attacking her, she pulled her close and used his left arm to cover her as he half hugged her. On his left hand, a ring shone a shield appeared just between the broadsword and Baobhan Sith. Just when she wondered what in the world was happening, she felt a terrifying bloodlust getting close at an insane speed, but before she could say anything a flash that briefly blinded her appeared and she felt how Nora and she were thrown various meters back. The blunt impact of two weapons crashing made her ears ring and Nora's arm around her never left her, however, the shield was shattered, having properly done its job it seemed.

The first voice she heard was not Nora's, but a slightly sarcastic female voice she had heard for the first time a while ago.

"So you beat her up to submission already? How about you lend me a hand here, you heartless bastard- I mean, Milord." Artoria said.

Looking at the young woman who had sustained a few injuries, Nora raised a finger and an orb filled with ki was formed, he made a finger gun with his hand and shot it like a bullet. The shot healed the blonde-haired young woman in a jiffy she nodded satisfied.

"I expected you to have finished up by now..." Nora commented as he looked around briefly.

Still facing the direction of the previous attack, Nora released the still slightly shocked Baobhan Sith and put her behind him.

"Hey now, who was the one to instruct me to not rely on my sacred gear so much? I have only been using Touki and Senjutsu, but I have been unable to cause any proper damage." Artoria grumbled. "She also got bigger."

Whistling as he saw how Barghest was a dozen of meters bigger, Nora gave Artoria a thumbs up.

"You have earned yourself your dinner today." Nora chuckled.

"Why don't you wait right there? I will kill that oversized dog and then I will kill the cat..." Artoria said.

"Please don't, I was joking." Nora spoke. "I have too much on my plate today to have to repeat the events of two years ago..."

Glaring in the direction he came in, Nora sighed.

"...I expect this to some extent" Nora said.

Sighing once again, he watched as a small figure walked his way. Barghest, who had been fighting Artoria was unusually tame as she glared at the new arrival warily. It felt more danger coming from the new addition to the field.

"Hey, Nora..." Artoria mumbled.

"What is it? My cutie pie..." Nora replied.

"Die." Artoria retorted immediately. "I am curious, how many women do you plan to beat up in this place before you are satisfied?"

"Believe it or not, but she is kind my fiance, self-proclaimed though..." Nora commented in a light tone.

"What the heck? Is it like that self-proclaimed angel?" Artoria questioned.

"...she is a funny child as well." Nora sighed.

"This one is looking anything but holy though..." Artoria clicked her tongue.

Looking at the figure of Melusine's aura turned into a blackish mess, Nora could tell that like Barghest, the origin was deeply rooted inside them. Weakening them was going to be a requirement to turn them into normal. This made the youth have a headache, Baobhan Sith did not display much reaction so perhaps she knew about what happened to Melusine, or so he thought. However, the youth did not have time to point fingers. Melusine was getting closer even as he spoke and he was unable to fully read her expression since she was wearing the face mask she had when they met. As he was about to step forward and face the dragon girl, Nora felt a distinct change in Artoria's aura. The young woman had stepped forward without saying anything and a golden hue covered the blade she carried.

"Hey, how about we change for a bit?" Artoria said. "It is s grange feeling, now that she is closer... I felt like I should be fighting her and no one else."

"...I know the day would come. How come you ignore Vali but you jump when you see this child? No, wait, she has never seen Vali in his armored version..." Nora mumbled.

It was a strange feeling for Artoria, her heart rate increased and she felt how her heart and other parts of her body seemed to be telling her to go and fight the small dragon girl. She was certain that she had not met the girl before, but Artoria could not wait to fight her.

"...just remember. The lance is forbidden, but you can use the sword you borrowed if things get dire." Nora said. "Now, go on, just leave me here alone with a big ass dog. A poor cat, abandoned... and she left."

Speechlessly seeing how Artoria did not wait for his monologue and leaped towards Melusine, Nora inwardly grumbled. Nonetheless, he accepted the outcome.

"Is it ok? You are very powerful, but I do not get that feeling from that girl." Baobhan Sith asked.

"What is it now? Are you worrying about my people in my stead?" Nora looked at the pink-haired girl. "Don't worry, you should've felt it too, right?"

As they spoke, Barghest resumed hostilities. Artoria had blasted Melusine away with a burst of golden aura and followed after her so the one that made Barghest wary was no more. The humongous dog bared its teeth and jumped at Nora, but raised a hand and the nearby tree's roots grew excessively to form a dome around him and Baobhan Sith. The impact of Barghest's paws broke the dome, but after she raised it again to smash Nora, layer after layer of roots formed a sturdier dome.

"...you never used this kind of ability against me." Baobhan Sith scowled at the youth. "Her aura... it resembled Melusine's."

"I don't think it is worth getting jealous of..." Nora smiled bitterly. "Yes. I won't say too much, however, just like Melusine has certain ties to Albion, Artoria has ties to Ddraig. The two heavenly dragons are fated to face each other..."

"No way, is she his child as well? She looked like a human until she let out her aura..." Baobhan Sith glared in the direction Artoria had left.

"...if you want to know the truth, you should ask her in person." Nora gestured with his hand that his mouth was closed.

Clicking her tongue, Baobhan Sith crossed her arms.

"And? What are you going to do now? You want to save everyone and built a happy harem of all the knights my mother has under her, right? How do you plan to beat Barghest?" Baobhan Sith sarcastically asked.

"Your statement is so wrong I do not know where to start tackling it." Nora snorted. "Well, I would love to teach you a lesson for speaking like that, but I guess we gotta end this so we can do this and that in a place no one can see us."

"Now it is your turn to speak nonsense." Baobhan Sith retorted.

Glaring at each other, the duo snorted and looked away.

Walking forward, Nora took a deep breath. Under the darkness of the dome covering them, Baobhan Sith caught a glance of a shining symbol on Nora's back. It was a big plant with several leaves and the one at the base was the one shining the brightest in a hazel light. The other leaves seemed to react to that and began shining in different colors. Around Nora's body, the small floating orbs began hovering and checking if he was alright after leaving his body.

"You told me what I was going to do?" Nora looked back.

Slightly mesmerized by the spectacle in front of her, Baobhan Sith took a second to notice she was spoken to.

"You mocked them, but they are just starting their journey. I will make them grow even more." Nora gestures towards the hovering lights. "However, I will admit I had another one I did not use against you."

Raising an eyebrow at that, Baobhan Sith did not feel like he was bragging.

"I originally wanted this child to form a contract with Kuroka-chan, however, Kuroka-chan's vessel was not enough to handle this child. Instead, I was more than a perfect fit. I solved the issue by sharing the contract, although it is a small secret I bear all the weight."

As he spoke, Baobhan Sith saw the light on his back growing brighter and perhaps she could be wrong but the ground was... shaking. Nora's words seemed to be signaling something and she was about to find out.

"Fairies can grow stronger, even evolve into higher life forms given their origins. They are called Elementals, and this child is one of them." Nora grinned. "This is the earth elemental, Terra."

With Nora's words as the trigger, a large magic circle appeared on the ground. Barghest attacks came to hold despite the dome breaking down.

Absurds amounts of ki went towards the magic circle in real time and Baobhan Sith soon saw it. The magic circle covered a large area, and a figure emerged from it. She was 10 meters tall at first, but watching how Barghest was bigger, the figure continued to grow and grow until she was more than 50 meters tall in a crawling position.

"Gaoooo!"

In a cute voice that did not fit her seize, the figure seemed to growl, but the sound was high enough that Baobhan Sith had to cover her ears.

A giant girl with long purple hair and moss covering a large part of her body. Her right leg was covered in bandages, while the rest of her body except her face and part of her belly. Wearing a pair of green mittens covered in moss, she also had a pair of branch-like horns and in the middle of her head, a closed flower neatly rested. One of her eyes was bandaged while the other one was purple in color.

"Did you call for me? Did you?"

In an eager and cute voice, the summoned girl looked at Nora. Baobhan Sith could not help but tremble a little after being overwhelmed by the sheer size and the suffocating aura she exuded.

"Yes, as you can see, this is something only a kaijuu like you can deal with." Nora spoke in a cheery tone.

"Hehehe, leave it to me. Terra will crush any monsters that try to harm you!"

Watching Barghest with a predatory but playful smile, Terra raised one of her hands and began to... head pat Barghest.

The action itself looked almost cute if it was not for the fact that the ground shook with each head pat.

"...so? What do you think?" Nora smugly looked over at the pink-haired young woman.

"You are nuts." Baobhan Sith muttered while the corner of her lips twitched.

Grinning at that, Nora pulled out a piece of paper with Kanjis written on it and mumbled a few words.

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

3rd Person POV

"Are you sure we should escape on our own?"

A chubby man muttered as he urged his horse to go faster. However, the carriage that it was pulling was heavy.

By his side, a woman with a horrid stench of cheap perfume did not seem bothered by the question.

"Would you prefer to stay in the city and try rioting like the others? A little window showed itself and they went nuts."

Snorting, the woman pulled a whip and hit a weak-willed man beside her. The man after receiving the whipping put on a strange expression like a mix of pain and pleasure and he began urging the horse pulling their carriage to go faster as well.

Following after them, several carriages could be seen as they all rushed.

"...we cannot use magic to teleport so we are left with this method, however, leaving the city could be dangerous..."

The chubby man fearfully commented.

Snorting at that, the woman turned away from the man.

"I took everything I needed with me, as long as I have that, I can start over. Now that the barrier is down, I can finally flee from these  lands."

Similar conversations could be hard for all the carriages until they all had to stop due to the road being blocked.

Fallen trees were preventing anyone from passing so the fairies got down from the carriages to see what was going on. On a closer look, all the trees had been cut cleanly and that made the carriage's people wary.

"Would you mind coming with us without making a ruckus?"

A young voice was heard and soon a figure jumped down from a tree nearby.

The figure was rather short in height and perhaps her age was just as short. She had long black hair tied in a ponytail with a pair of bangs on her face, a Tate eboshi hat was on her head and her blue eyes filled with life held numerous emotions. She was wearing a body suit that reached until her mid thighs and above that she carried pieces of armor that only covered the most vital areas without impacting her mobility. A katana was tied to her waist. A pair of detached and mismatched sleeves were on her arms and they fluttered with the wind as she landed on the ground with a smile on her face.

"Was it you who cut down the trees?"

One fairy asked.

"Yes! Ushiwakamaru, that is my name. I get called Ushi by the people close to me, but do not dare to shorten my name even if you are lazy." Ushiwakamaru said. "I did indeed cut down those trees."

Without a change of expression, Ushiwakamaru admitted her doing.

"Do you think we should stop to talk them?"

A new voice chipped in and another figure left the shadow of a nearby tree. The fairies coldly sweated because they were not able to feel both of their presence until they made themselves known.

"Okita-dono! I told you I would take care of this!" Ushiwakamaru whined.

"There are a lot more people we have to capture." Okita muttered. "It is the first time we get this kind of order so we should finish this swiftly. Perhaps He needs them ASAP."

"Mumumu..." Ushiwakamaru furrowed her eyebrows and nodded. "I am sorry, I got excited since he is usually the one who does stuff like this."

"Are you going to fight or give up?" Okita asked.

The new addition was a short girl that was slightly taller than the first one, she had white skin and short blonde hair that reached her neck with a black ribbon on the back of her head and hazel eyes, she carried a serious expression, although an important detail about her was an ahoge on top of her head. Her attire consisted of a short sleeveless white kimono with short leggings underneath that could barely be seen, her leg had black thigh highs and her feet wore a pair of brown leather boots. The young girl carried and sheathed katana, but her sharp look was giving was enough to show that she would not hesitate to use it.

Looking at each other, the fairies were ready to fight back. One of the men at the back tried to cast magic but his consciousness was cut when something hit his neck.

A flash was seen and several figures fell. The sound cause the other fairies to turn their back to see a young lady holding a sheathed katana being used as the weapon to knock down the other fairies.

The young lady was similar in looks to the one called Okita, in fact, their outfit was only different in their theme color and the new girl had a black theme, or the fairies thought until they noticed a pair of differences. The group turned their heads a few times to compare until they were convinced they were different people. For starters, the new girl was taller, and not simply because the boots she wore had heels, but rather, she physically was taller. Her bust was more pronounced as it jiggled when she stood straight and the outfit she wore was unable to hold it in before a cleavage visible from the outside was formed. This change did not seem to bother the girl who only looked at her chest with a curious look. Her long hair freely fluttered with wind and her hazel eyes blinked continuously as she tilted her head to one side and then to another. Her darker skin contrasted with her white hair, but despite the air of innocent she exuded, the girl was capable of knocking out several people without even sweating.

"Is this the older sister?"

"This is bad, the ones in front look tough but the older one must be even more crazy..."

Such commentaries flew by and Okita only smiled, but her eyes were not laughing.

"Ruriko, didn't I tell you to wait for the signal?" Okita asked.

"...ah." Ruriko, the girl who was still staring at her cleavage, raised her head and widened her eyes in realization.

Facepalming, Okita sighed.

Thinking that they were all letting their guard down, some brave fairies who considered this an opening and tried to attack the sisters, but without much effort, they were taken down where they could even see the two moving.

"Forget it, we will not ask nicely from now on. Hit first, hit twice then hit trice, after you can ask. That is his motto." Okita nodded to herself.

"...I thought his motto was 'punch both cheeks with the same strength to practice equality..." Ushiwakamaru was about to unsheathe her blade.

"We are not killing them..." Okita said.

Pouting, Ushiwakamaru still obeyed.

The fairies tried to defend themselves, but in the first place, none of them were combatants. It took no more than a few seconds to let them unconscious.

"...for the record, I am the big sister." Okita grumbled.

Looking at the unconscious fairies, Ushiwakamaru looked slightly regretful.

"Is something wrong?" Okita asked.

"Back then, you would bring the heads of enemy generals to your lord as proof of loyalty and to show your skills, but... I cannot take their heads as spoils of the battle..." Ushiwakamaru sighed downheartedly.

"We can give him these." Ruriko, who was looking around the carriage, spoke.

Dragging a bag that was spilling gold coins, Ruriko gave her companions a peace sign.

"Treasure get!" Ruriko said.

Looking at each other, Okita and Ushiwakamaru reached an understanding.

" "What is mine is mine, and what is yours is also mine." " Ushiwakamaru and Okita both nodded. " "Stealing from a thief is not a crime, just karma." "

Tilting her head, Ruriko was unsure what her companions were thinking, in her mind, the money should go to Nora so she could eat more tasty things.

"Gaoooooo."

A loud voice interrupted everyone. Ushiwakamaru and Okita stopped looting- legally taking away illegal and dangerous products.

"We should hasten the process." Okita furrowed her eyebrows.

Nodding at that, Ushiwakamaru looked around before opening her mouth.

"Shiranui." Ushiwakamaru softly called.

With that said, a voluptuous woman emerged in kneeled position before Ushiwakamaru after her call.

"...I trust you know what to do." Ushiwakamaru muttered.

Muttering something her breath, Shiranui summoned more women dressed in tight body suits like her along with a teenage girl.

"Yukikaze, gather them all in one place. Our master will decide their fates once they all have been gathered. Leave Rinko the interrogation, none of them will escape."

After saying this, the women began picking up the unconscious fairies.

"Are they new people...?" Okita asked.

Not recalling having met the particular group, Okita could not accept people like these were hidden until now.

"Our master saved them about two months ago. Until now, they have been in our hidden village, but today is their first mission after all this time so it is no strange you never saw them." Ushiwakamaru muttered.

At the words, Hidden Village, Okita got a vague idea of what kind of individual they were.

Amidst everyone working hard, Ruriko continued to check each of the unconscious ones' pockets and take any valuables into a bag with a dollar sign.

Author's Notes

Hello there, late posting author here.

Well, can't say this one is on me. Work is quite hard so writing becomes difficult to do.

Let's talk about this chapter.

There are some characters that only appeared slightly before such as Miyako (Taihou from Azur Lane), Shinkaku (Also known as Shenhe from Genshin), Nur (Mona from Genshin), Eira, Hilda (Adm Graf Spee from Azur Lane) and made an appearance again. Rossweisse does not need an introduction again, does she?. There are characters that did cameo before such as Okita (Okita from FGO), Okita Alter (Majin Okita from FGO), Ushiwakamaru (Ushi from FGO), Miko (Yae Miko from Genshin), Kiyohime (Kiyopon from FGO) and Terra (Kingprotea from FGO).

I also added a character from FGO, my beloved maiden of Orleans, Jeanne. In my opinion, she is Jeanne. The one from Highschool DXD was never to my liking.

Anyways, I could be missing people since these notes were done in a rush.

I, however, have used names of some characters I did not describe and I wonder if you managed to guess who they are. For now, they are appearing in cameos.

Oh, on another note. I have been working on a couple of smuts. The way I wrote them will be interesting and will be the base for developments in the future.

Anyways, enjoy the chapter and leave question or inquiries below in comments.

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