Although it was a high-risk mission, it should've been a relatively easy one with Stralit setting off the majority of the traps prepared for her. Their group even went ahead and cooperated with their sworn enemy just to confuse everyone from the Luxeux Clan and the Luxato planet.
It was supposed to be an easy task and everything prepared for his rise to greatness, yet, '...H-how?'
His body and soul were one with the earth surrounding him and yet a blade suddenly reached his throat out of nowhere, '...Impossible...'
It might have been a grievous wound, however, it was by no means a fatal one. What snuffed the life out of him was the betrayal of his beloved 'earth'. He could have escaped but the 'earth' he trusted with his life had suddenly rejected him and even turned his insides into mush, including his head, causing a near-instantaneous death. If he was not fused with the earth, he might have lived longer, but even then, it'd only be for a few minutes more.
As his leaking Spiritual Power dissipated into the earth, Kisuke pulled back Tiamat and reviewed what just happened, 'The range of activation is good. It's also silent for the most part so it could easily be used for a surprise attack. However, I doubt I can do that in a head-on battle and as a blade, Benihime is way sharper.'
'From using Tiamat just now, I can tell that she's more suitable in manipulating the surroundings on larger scales. While Benihime is specialized in duels, Tiamat could take on an army better. I want to use them both at the same time, but that's going to be hard, I guess?'
Kisuke then made sure that the Etoulde was dead by stabbing Tiamat into the wall multiple times and cutting his body apart. Since he wasn't sure of his tolerance to 'death', he had to do this drastic and disrespectful gesture.
After he was sure that he wouldn't be coming back to life, he turned his attention back to Stralit who was staring at him with a tinge of curiosity, surprise, and fear.
Kisuke crouched down to her eye level and could see that with every movement he made, there was a corresponding reaction from the way her muscles moved. But obviously, she couldn't move much. Ignoring all of this, Kisuke took care that he wouldn't accidentally show any hint of hostility, "Are you ready to go up? Now that that guy's aura has disappeared, numerous individuals are trying to go down to this level. If we were to encounter them, I can't promise that I'll be able to keep this place intact."
Stralit swallowed saliva and nodded. She was able to calm her nerves but there was still one question she wanted to ask, "...Before we go, do you mind if I ask you who you are?"
Kisuke smiled and stood up while offering his hand, "I already introduced myself and it's up to you if you're going to believe it or not. For now, I'll lend you my shoulder. Let's get out of here."
Stralit hesitated for a bit but even with her busted senses, she could feel many individuals trying to navigate the tunnels to reach them. She first looked behind and saw that there was nothing left of 'John Smith' aside from the debris of the capsule and the dust, '...More importantly, I could actually feel my mark on him.'
'How is that possible?' Stralit wanted to know, but sure enough, this wasn't the situation for that.
Stralit took his hand and Kisuke pulled her up to his side, "Thank you."
Kisuke fixed her position and replied, "No. I'm the one who's grateful. You saved my skin and I'll forever remember that."
He didn't wait for her to say anything else and swung Tiamat, creating a hole directly on top of them before jumping in it.
Stralit wanted to say that this would mess up the formation but stopped herself when she saw that the earth behind them was being filled up while the earth in front of them was moving out of the way. Essentially, they were flying through the ground.
Meanwhile, Kisuke was talking to Tiamat as they approached the barricaded surface, 'Can you take advantage of the [Shadow]?'
[You could potentially manipulate everything and anything with a 'body' as long as you understand them and have enough power to do so.]
'So that's a yes.'
When they were about to break through the ground, Kisuke muttered, "It was nice meeting you in my original body, Luxeux-san. Please give my regards to Seraselbes-san."
Confused, Stralit asked, "...What?"
But Kisuke kept his mouth shut while he concentrated and for a few seconds, Stralit could feel the familiar [Shadow] pooling around his sword.
Kisuke then thrust the sword upwards after gathering an enormous amount of [Shadow], breaking through the barrier that was blocking them and calling the attention of many, including Stralit's brother and his forces that were locked in battle with the enemy Evie.
'Tiamat, change my Shihakushou and the color of my hair. Give me a mask too.'
As soon as she received the command, Kisuke's pale blond hair grew longer and straight while also turning black. His green Shihakusho transformed into a white suit and his bucket hat turned into a white fedora. After all of that transformation, a blank white mask without any holes appeared on Kisuke's face.
Kisuke continued flying upwards until he got out of the dust cloud that he'd created, presenting himself and Stralit in front of everyone who was currently at war. Stralit was under the ground for more than a week and she never knew that the conflict had escalated to this degree, 'Thank goodness that my brother arrived in time. If not, we might have lost this world.'
Meanwhile, Kisuke observed the surroundings and understood that the 4-feet tall Elf-like Luxatos are at disadvantage against what looked like Beastmen with parts of their body converted into robotic counterparts, 'That's the Abtors? I doubt they all originally looked like that.'
Kisuke then let go of the Stralit and let her float with his Magic while also stabbing the air with Tiamat. The top half of Tiamat instantly disappeared and when it reappeared, it came out of hundreds of places at the same time, striking around a hundred invading Abtors fatally. Many tried to dodge, but the numerous blades were nigh impossible to avoid and only those fast enough or durable were able to survive.
'...You're unexpectedly very fuel hungry.'
[Nobody told you to do something like that.] Tiamat immediately replied while Kisuke was trying to hide that he was very tired just from that.
For the time being, the battlefield became quiet while they all processed what had just happened.