"So, this is where all the constant noise has been coming from. I have to say, don't you think it a bit in bad taste to be holed up here while your comrades fight for their lives?"
The man spoke with confidence, and a self-satisfied smile on his face. It seemed like he believed himself to be the greatest in the room, without exception.
He had both of his hands wrapped around Yuri's neck, holding him in the air. "No response. Tch! Tch! It's only proper to respond when someone's speaking to you."
Despite the fact that he was choking Yuri so hard that he couldn't reply even if he wanted to, the man in the white suit still blamed Yuri, as if it was his fault for what would happen next.
However, before the man in the white suit could make any other moves, Nova stepped up, firing a lightning spell directly at him.
The spell hit directly; however, the man wasn't phased in the slightest. His grip didn't loosen, and he simply turned his head towards Nova with annoyance comprising his visage, instead of any actual shock or pain.
Despite the lightning spell she used being grade B, there wasn't even a spot left on the man's suit from it. He was completely and utterly unfazed.
"You do know that it's beyond disrespectful to interrupt two people having a conversation, right?"
He spoke condescendingly, with undisguised distaste in his voice. His glare pierced straight through Nova, and she unknowingly took a step backwards from the pressure of his gaze and presence.
Just as the man in the white suit turned to continue his conversation with Yuri, he realized that Yuri wasn't their anymore, and instead, he was holding a piece of debris.
Crushing the debris, he turned-
And was caught head on by a massive beam of mana.
His head snapped backwards, and he took a step back from the force behind the blow.
However once again, he took no damage. His impeccable white suit and looks remained perfect, without a single sign of damage.
He still wore a smile on his face.
"With that aura, you must be the leader." Yuri spoke coldly; both of his dual pistols aimed at the man's head.
The man shook his head, his white hair bouncing. "You're mistaken. I cannot claim to the lea-"
"Bullshit!" Yuri cut him off before he could eve finish speaking.
The man dressed in white didn't like that very much, as the smile on his face transformed into a sneer.
"You just don't seem to have any respect for your superior's, do you? I hate people like you. Those who idolize themselves."
"You can cut the crap, because I'm not listening." Yuri snapped back, with just as much heat in his voice. "What is your motive, your goal in coming here? Who are those tattooed men outside? What happened to the barrier?"
Yuri fired off questions rapidly, his voice rising octaves with every inquiry. He began to charge up mana, preparing to fire off another blast if he didn't like what he heard.
"Why should I answer your questions? You haven't even given me the resp-"
He was shut up by a kick to the face delivered by Yuri, which launched him into the air.
Yuri immediately followed it up with two massive blasts of mana from his guns, that sent him crashing through the wall of the P.A system outdoors.
At the same time, a massive rumbling rocked the entire magic academy, before a pillar of light could be seen rising in the distance.
Seconds later, the rain stopped, and the clouds were blown away completely. The world shook violently once more before subsiding.
Nova stood along with Cath and Brennan in momentary shock. However, she regained her bearings quickly, noting the fact that the sun was now shining down.
She turned towards the two shell shocked students. "You guys have to stay here and make sure the P.A. system stays working. If our communication falls, this entire thing falls apart. As for that guy, me and Yuri will keep him away from here as best we can."
Both Cath and Brennan nodded their understanding, and then Nova jumped out to follow Yuri.
As soon as she entered the sunlight, her entire body felt rejuvenated, as if someone had doused her in some sort of magical healing elixir.
Her bones felt stronger, her limbs felt more powerful, even her mind felt better.
She landed along a large metal awning, still slick from the rain that had just faded. From where she was standing, it didn't take long for her to see where Yuri and that man were fighting.
BOOM!
CRASHH!
Magic spells were flying around violently, and explosions and smoke were rising into the air all along her field of view.
One explosion to her left, then another along the far right, and then one directly down the middle.
The battle was violent, bouncing from section of the magic academy to section without pause.
Damn, is that guy an idiot? He's already running low and mana and yet he's trying to have such a large-scale battle with a powerful opponent.
Nova began to move, jumping from section of the magic academy to the next, attempting to keep track of the battle as best as she could, however it was futile, as once she got close, the battle would just shift to another section of the magic academy.
At this rate, he's going to completely burn out. Nova began to rack her brain for any way to reach him and get him to stop. Shouting probably wouldn't work. Neither would be using a spell to disrupt their battle. She'd run the risk of hitting him that way.
Her mind began to flow to the cryptic way that Yuri had spoken and acted from the moment they broke away from Suijin to now. It was obvious that he had come to a decision. Was this it?
Had he resigned himself to the fact that he would most likely die today? Is that way he fought so wildly, and without care.
Nova stepped out of the way of a stray explosion that blew away part of the magic academy behind her.
Nova began to consider the idea of just brute forcing her way into the battle, however she immediately shot it down.
And then she looked up. The sun was shining down brightly. It was in full view, smiling down at her.
Nova smiled.
Brute force was the only option. She would just have to get in the way of their battle herself and break them apart.
Holding her wand high into the air, she allowed the sunlight to shine on her ring.
Nova's ability [Nebula Queen] worked similarly to Erika's. In both of their abilities, the mimicked plants in a way, taking int he sunlight and using a magic sequence to convert the light into mana. They could then use that as a constant supply of mana to strengthen themselves. While Erika focused on that aspect of her ability, Nova added on to its functionality.
She also added the ability to be influenced by constellations. If she could imagine it, she could essentially copy it, using any star shining down at her to supply her with the mana to activate her ability.
So, in this case, Nova began to imagine the mythos of the constellation named after the Greek hero Hercules.
Of course, her ability would have been more powerful under the actual constellation, however, thanks to the freedom of magic, it wasn't limited to only being useable under the right constellation.
Nova could feel the strength coursing through her veins from the mana that she used to fortify her limbs.
From her ring, a sword made out of flame appeared. Not wasting a single second, Nova charged up power in her legs, before jumping towards the currently ongoing battle.
The ground she jumped from was cratered and vaporized.
Nova shot through the air and an insane speed, jumping from parts of the magic academy to glass walkways, and off of the ground. Everything she jumped off of was left with a large burning crater.
She moved so fast that she looked like a shooting star bouncing off of surfaces.
Finally, when she arrived near the luncheon off the magic academy, she saw them.
Yuri was constantly shooting from his gun, flame, wind, lightning, everything.
He did not let up.
And despite the fact that nearly all of his attacks landed, they did nothing to the man who was keeping up with him.
The man was fast, able to keep up with Yuri's speed even when he used mana switching. No matter what, Yuri was hard pressed to catch the man off-guard. And even when he did, the attacks that landed did nothing.
To put it bluntly, he was wasting energy.
Yuri was just about to dash forward and enter close combat, when Nova arrived.
Like a comet, she crashed straight the man in the white suit, using her sword like a bat.
She hit Hims o hard that he smashed straight into luncheon, causing a massive explosion and creating a large crater.
Yuri paused in shock at seeing her. "Wha-"
"You're an absolute dumbass man." Nova mercilessly insulted him, and Yuri took a step back.
"Just what the hell were you planning to do? Your already low on mana and you decide to burn even more, even though your attacks are clearly doing jack shit!?" Nova pointed towards the crater, where the white suit man walked out.
Once again, he was perfectly fined. Unharmed in anyway. Not even a speck of dirt.
"Clearly, he has an ability we need to bypass."
Yuri stared at her in shock for a few moments, before nodding. "Yeah. I get it." He said unconvincingly.
Nova was about to say something more when they were interrupted by the man in white speaking once again.
"I seriously can't believe it. Who raised you children? Is this what's become of future? All of you completely engrossed in yourselves that you can't even be bothered to pay basic respects towards those clearly your superior?"
The anger in his tone was evident. He was about to explode.
"And yet even when given multiple chances, you continue and continue to do the same. How much hubris can one possess, to the point they can't see anything past themselves?"
He began to approach them, his hands clenched into fists.
"It seems you're in dire need for a lesson of humility. So, I'll give it to y-" As he began to raise his hand to cast some sort of magic spell, he was cut off once again.
"It seems you're the leader."
Those words were spoken by a familiar voice that caused Yuri and Erika to both look up.
At the same time, someone fell from the sky and landed.
With one boot on the man in whites face, and the other on his outstretched arm, the person landed.
Their black trench coat billowed in the wind, same with their black hair.
They held out a long black katana at their side, with a small heart on its handle.
They had a smile on their face.
Raiden Chisaki had joined the battle once more.
※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※
A few minutes Earlier.
Before I could even fully process her with my own eyes, I was being tackled down by a hug. A blur of blond and black was hugging me tightly, while patting my body looking for any wounds.
I just laid there, a slight bight uncomfortable, and a slight bit touched by the concern that she was showing me.
Did I really warrant such a reaction?
I thought to myself, however I didn't let the thought linger for long.
Turning my focus back unto the figure who was hugging me, I raised my hand in the air for a brief moment just above her head, before letting it fall down onto her shoulder.
She turned to look up at me, a mix of happiness and concern on her face.
As I racked my brain for something to say, cursing myself for still being an absolute conversation dunce, I finally decided on:
"You're an idiot." I expressed my discontent for the fact that she had yelled out and drawn the attention of 6 enemies at once.
"If I'm in idiot than you're a complete dumbass." She replied in kind. Her gaze shifted from me to Eve. "I'm sorry."
I cocked my head to the side. "Why are you apologizing?"
She then pointed to the side, at Eve's lifeless body.
"No one want's to be forced to do that. Yet you took it upon yourself."
I stared at Eves body in silence for a few moments, before turning back to Hikaru.
"Better it me than any one el-"
Hikaru punched me not-so-lightly in the stomach. "Stop. Stop saying things like that."
I didn't even argue. She was right.
She let her head rest on my chest for a moment as she spoke.
"You actually kept your promise."
"You say that like I'm a known liar or something." I joked lightly, trying to lighten the mood.
"You're an idiot who always puts everyone else first and never stops to think about yourself."
As Hikaru spoke, I shut up and listened. She had a right to say everything that she was saying.
"You constantly do stupid things and blame yourself. Every moment that I spent not knowing where you were is one, I spent thinking the absolute worst."
I took mental notes of what she was saying. Habits that I needed to break out of.
■■■■■: Habits, I will help you break out of.
Looking down at Hikaru, I felt horrible.
"I'm sorry. I really am. For everything." I apologized. I would have to do the same to Kami, to Suijin, to Masayoshi, Erika, Nova, everyone I knew.
They deserved an apology.
I heard the sound of giggling, and I saw Aura watching us.
Realizing how close we were, our bodies tangled with one another on the ground, we both separated from each other and looked away, embarrassed.
"So, where'd you guys come from?" I changed the subject.
"We've been looking for both you and Phi. Her and Aura got split up in their fight with one of the other enemies here." Hikaru explained. Her eyes widened a bit. "Thats right. You probably don't know, but we've managed to defeat Wrath and Greed. As well as another one. Along with the girl you defeated here-"
"We've done away with four out of the five." Phi finished.
My hopes soared as I heard their breakdown of the situation.
We were winning. Pushing back against what once was a completely hopeless situation.
"We need to broadcast your victory to the students through the P.A. system."
Hikaru said as she begun to stand.
I did the same, and immediately almost fell down. Hikaru rushed to catch me, supporting me with her body.
It seems like I sustained more damage from that last battle then I had initially though.
"You shouldn't push yourself Raiden. Take a rest." Hikaru said.
I shook my head. "Theres still too much to do. If we really want to win, we have to keep up this momentum all the way through. There isn't any time for rest."
"And so, the next best option is to just run yourself into the ground? What use will you be then?" Hikaru retorted.
"I'm not going to do anything crazy. I promise. I'll just head to the P.A system, deliver the message, and meet up with you guys."
Hikaru looked at him for a few moments. "You promise?" She asked softly.
"I promise." I replied.
She nodded. "Then me and Aura are going to head for there." She pointed at a structure that had been attached to the top of the magic academy, now visible due to the rain being cleared away.
"As soon as you finish, meet us up along the way there. That's where we think Phi is headed."
I nodded to Hikaru. She held unto me for a moment longer before letting me stand on my own.
"You better keep your promise." She said, her expression serious.
I smiled. "I kept the first one."
We split ways.