"Don't you think that was a bit much?" Ado asked, cautiously standing. Andromeda held the invitation in her other hand.
Vince stared at it. "Well I guess if it solves the problem..."
"But we should at least give her a proper burial." He concluded.
Andromeda stared at the space the girl was.
"She- she vanished!" Vince exclaimed when he looked too. The crystal remained however.
"Do we still have to bury her?" Andromeda asked.
"it's too bad I didn't learn her name..." he remarked instead.
"I don't have any way to mark her grave." he lamented.
He picked up the crystal about to dig a shallow hole and bury it but much to his horror it began to vanish into his body.
"WhAAAAAA?! WHA-- WHAT IS THIS?!"
"Silence! if you stop and think for just a --" Andromeda scolded.
"Vince don't panic! It doesn't appear dangerous!" Ado insisted.
"The thing that came out of that girl is going inside me!" he interrupted waving his arm as though that would make the crystal come out.
"Surely you know a way to -" he stopped seeing her expression and silence.
Andromeda didn't say anything at all, clearly this was beyond her.
He gulped nervously and stared at his hand.
He didn't seem any different he thought as the last of the crystal completely vanished, presumably somewhere inside him now.
"Since you wanted to go to the Killing game so badly perhaps someone there can have it removed if it bothers you that much" Andromeda mused finally.
"Maybe," he paused, "or Maybe it isn't so simple as I wish," he muttered.
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"This place looks an awful lot like a dead zone. There's no one around," Vince remarked walking through the empty streets.
Andromeda simply hummed.
The Virus they stole the invitation from, whatever her name was acted as a guide glowing their way to the objective which looked to be a school.
"Hey that's --" Vince started. 'a strangely modern looking school?' he wondered.
Andromeda raised an eyebrow. As if to say "it's what exactly?"
A little awkward, Vince changed the subject.
"Speaking of which, why didn't you fly like before when you were destroying area around my home?" Ado asked suddenly.
"You both can't fly, and even if that fragment you absorbed was of any use to someone like you, you can't control a mage's powers." She said harshly poking Vince in the shoulder. Vince wisely closed his mouth.
"uh c-carry Vince? Maybe??" he asked stupidly.
Andromeda scoffed, hiding her wince at Ado's unintentional command. 'I don't wish to waste my strength. I will need it for the game should it be worth my time,"
"yeah that's fair," he sighed as they walked through all the empty hallways, passing many equally empty classrooms.
"Wait mage?" Vince asked.
"Correct, many people are mages or have potential to be a mage. Of course a lot of people are not good at honing that ability. But to think people are blatantly wasting their time in killing games when there are strange new monsters running around is odd."
"I'm guessing that Viruses are a new concept to you?" Ado asked nervously.
She stopped. "In the past I have heard of this race being a problem for many factions known as guilds.. they have never been so common that civilians were affected," she remarked thoughtfully with a curious head tilt.
"Huh- how old are you?" Vince blurted.
"What a rude question," she remarked shoving him. He fell over quite easily and embarrassingly.
Ado just deadpanned at his friend. "So naive,"
"What did I say?" He asked as Andromeda walked past.
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"Ugh what room even is it?" Vince blurted and kicked down the nearest door.
"...that one .." Andromeda remarked as the invitation disappeared upon entry.
Vince looked inside, nothing but girls as far as he could see. And being a sensible person he could also see the sense of bloodlust in the room.
"I'm in hell" he remarked.
Andromeda appeared behind him.
"Your enthusiasm before seems to have vanished," she remarked disinterestedly. "much like the invitation, I assume that is because it has fulfilled its role." Andromeda stated calmly.
"with that last invite, all participants are present it seems" the blonde haired boyish looking fairy said shutting what looked to be a large box.
"took long enough," a girl in the back of the classroom muttered.
"very well we may begin, " the fairy said simply.
"Participant Number 1 Akai Makoto."
"Subdivision Mage: Summoner type, Akai Makoto . Weapon is my blowtorch," she said proudly "the Hephaestus 0.2," her eyes seemed to glow with energy. However the weapon she held looked like a scary cross between a cannon and a blowtorch.
"Participant Number 6 Sumire Kiara." the doll said.
"Subdivision Mage: Elemental Summoner type, Sumire Kiara. My Affinity is Wood. Thank you for your consideration,." She looked bashfully at the other girls who rolled their eyes in irritation.
"Ay .... " he half remarked half mused.
"This one is too nice. She scares me more than Andromeda does," he muttered. If Andromeda heard him she didn't show it, too busy examining her opponents. In her eyes most of them weren't even worth fighting.
"Participant Number 7 Kozue Megan ..."
"Right here! Subdivision Mage Elemental type! I'm Kozue Megan and my Affinity is Fire!"
The list droned on and on, so it was understandable that Vince started to doze 'ever so slightly'.
His head rested on who he hoped was Ado's shoulder.
For a moment Andromeda saw a flash of a memory but then it was gone. She let him stay that way hoping the memory would come back. It didn't.
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After a time passed Andromeda took note of an extremely interesting opponent. Her shift in position caused Vince to wake up, they both ignored the fact that he'd been asleep as now was not the time to address such a matter.
"participant number 49, ..... Neptunite?" the fairy asked.
"Neptunite. Subdivision Mage Category: Berserker. My Weapon is the halberd Meltryllice. Alignment Ice." The pink haired girl explained, her deep indigo eyes scanning the people around her with intrigue. Her white battle armor was decorated with translucent blue spikes at the joints. Her emotions seemed guarded but her stare lingered too long on Andromeda.
'This one... something tells me she'll be a problem in the future.' Immediately Vince dismissed his worry. 'nah! Andromeda can handle it.'
"participant Number 50. Kawachima Mami" Andromeda's head swiveled blankly, wondering why Mami hadn't stepped up.
"Ah that must be the one whose invitation we stole." Vince decided.
"clearly," muttered Ado realizing that as well.
"I'm not like you," Andromeda stared them all down, a few girls flinching nervously at her cold tone.
"I'm not this manner of being you consider a Subdivision Mage, rather I am a True Berserker. My name is Nyx Andromeda. My weapon is the Vorpal Blade of Calamity, Alignment--"
However before she could finish speaking over the chorus of gasps at the word "Berserker", someone interrupted.
"Pardon me, but how did you replace Kawachima?" Kiko asked.
A glance at Vince as if weighing a decision.
"She opened a possibility for me to become closer to something I want, to gain that effectively I'm fulfilling someone's selfish request," her gaze hardened on Vince who pretended not to notice.
Ado had occupied himself with looking for a different glare, coming from a different girl hidden by the myriad in the room. He didn't find her but would have like to know why she was glaring at least.
"And what of your companion?" the boyish doll who has been quiet up to this point asked.
I have a strange crystal thing... From a girl we ran into earlier...
"A magic CircuitCore?" A girl spoke up. She had a dress decorated with shiny gold leaves. Her expression was more amiable compared to some of the openly disdainful or bloodlust in the others.
Ado had an odd look on his face.
"Eh-?" Vince asked. "Um I guess??" He tried.
"You managed to claim a CircuitCore all on your own!?" A different girl asked.
"Are you sure you aren't participating?"
"No! I want to get rid of it!" He insisted. "I was asking if you knew how to remove it!"
"There's a way to do it. It's easy. Hand it over," a girl with plants all over her body held out her hand expectantly.
Vince blinked owlishly at the poisonous plants made to look like jewelry. He recoiled as he recognized some of them and wondered how she was still standing.
"Outside of protecting my friend. I will be away from the battles observing, my job is to be very quiet and unnoticeable to the point of invisibility." Ado said evenly.
Then he laughed "I'll also make sure Andromeda doesn't wipe out your home should her temper flare inconveniently." the other girls looked as though they doubted Vince could do anything to stop a true Spirit. But they also wanted the prestige and title that would no doubt come with defeating the real Berserker before their eyes.
Andromeda looked at Vince and Ado.
"so then- we should split up. I will take the brunt of the work while you look for that person," Andromeda stated.
"Saddling the girl with the fun task are we...?" Ado glanced at the myriad of girls around.
"....! G-Good point even a small clue like a name will help," Vince remarked, looking self conscious.