With the appearance of a sudden red shine, a familiar crimson-red pentagram became visible. Shortly after the appearance of the pentagram came the redhead, Yuso. After making a decisive retreat from the battle on top of the Montgomery Church, Yuso was transported into what seemed like a building.
Yuso proceeded to look all around, familiarizing himself with the place surrounding him. The notable interior design features of the building were the huge, stained glass windows with designs that represented various people. Toward the back wall of the building, underneath one of the stained glass windows, was a wooden platform–presumably made to be stood on–with a tall, decorated church pulpit.
Suddenly, small amounts of debris fell from the ceiling of the building, indicating that something had occurred from the outside. "How interesting," Yuso drawled. "...It seems that I managed to transport into the famous Montgomery Church."
True to Yuso's words, the stained glass and the pulpit were all obvious indications of where the redhead currently resided. The House of Gods and Goddesses. This must also explain the fallen debris, most likely caused by the fight at the top of the church.
Then, without any warning, Yuso suddenly formed a pentagram in a matter of seconds, launching it at blazing speeds toward the front of the church. Surprisingly, the pentagram had instantly halted in mid-air, as if it had struck an invisible wall.
Yuso narrowed his eyes in the direction of the halted, floating pentagram. "Are you here to challenge me, too?"
Shortly beyond the floating pentagram, stood an amethyst-haired man, wearing the familiar black cloak with the name Furusato imprinted on the back. To Yuso, the man was another hindrance. But to the Furusato Unit, he was known as Heiki Shototsu. Shototsu currently had his hand extended outward, his palm facing the pentagram that had halted mid-air, revealing the reason behind the floating pentagram. Compressed wind had surrounded the crimson-red circle, appearing to be successful in preventing the pentagram from clashing with Shototsu.
Shototsu opened his mouth to speak, "I'm not particularly interested in fighting you," The amethyst-haired man replied, waving his hand off and sending the pentagram flying in a different direction. "...But I don't really have a choice in the matter, either."
Yuso only appeared to be standing placidly, his eyes trained on Shototsu. 'I have to be careful with this one,' The redhead warned himself mentally. 'He hasn't exemplified his strength much, but from what I've seen so far, I shouldn't be frolicking around just to find out.'
"However," Shototsu suddenly exclaimed, slowly extending his other arm in preparation. "I don't think that we should be fighting in such a confined space, right?"
*SWOOSH*
With those final words from Shototsu, the Montgomery Church was immediately filled with an incredibly strong, compressed wind. The amethyst-haired man had made it abundantly clear that the wind was his ally. "Perhaps this will make up for our previous fight?"
Yuso was completely caught off guard by what happened next. The entire church began to split, with sections of the walls and ground detaching from their original locations and swirling in the intense gusts of wind. Suddenly, the ground around Yuso fractured, forming a small platform and propelling him, along with the rest of the church's wreckage, into the air.
With the intense winds nearly blowing Yuso right off of his newfound platform from which to stand in the air, the redhead could now clearly see the rest of the village and all of its beauty. However, one thing appeared to be puzzling to Yuso. 'Where has the church gone?' Looking down, the wind still as ferocious, Yuso could no longer see the tall, white church; instead, only various sections of the church as it was blown around in the tornado of wind caused by Shototsu.
"Is this more suitable to engage in battle!?" Across from Yuso, Shototsu could be seen standing on his own platform, calling out to Yuso as he continued to manipulate the strong and violent wind that blew all around them. "You can even use those weird magic circles again!"
Yuso subtlety glared at Shototsu–His expression still remained as neutral as possible. The redhead then parted his lips to speak, "I swore to myself that I'd kill you after our first encounter; you're not going to make it out alive if you continue to trifle with me."
Shototsu remained unmoved. 'I only need to stall, right? I didn't lie when I said I wasn't interested in fighting.'
Annoyingly enough to Yuso, those wretched roots from the green-haired man returned, slowly rising up to where Yuso and Shototsu stood. Itami and Doryoku appeared on the rising roots, seemingly returning to finish their previous battle–proving to be even more of an impediment than before.
Once Itami and Doryoku were nearly leveled with Yuso and Shototsu, Itami called out to Yuso, "Hey! I didn't think you'd be the type to flee in fear! We still have our fight to finish!"
Yuso narrowed his eyes at the current predicament. This really was all very troubling—yet very, very dangerous. Yuso will need to be mindful if he wants to make it out alive.
With the crimson shine of his eyes, Yuso ominously spoke, "Come, you will submit by the end of this quarrel."
XXX
Off in the distance, Haishi and the rest of the group could be seen staring in shock as they observed the current state of what used to be the Montgomery Church.
"Holy Hell…"
With a tone full of bewilderment, Kou eyed the remnants of the pinnacle of Ryakudatsu being flown around in what seemed to be a stationary tornado.
"The minister!" Another one of the aiding warriors suddenly yelled out, making everyone else's eyes widen. How could they forget? The church was most likely where the minister resided–being the prominent pastor of the Montgomery Church.
Behind Haishi and the warriors, the first-year students stood still, potentially in a state of even greater shock than the warriors.
"Tanjo," Akogare turned to face Tanjo, his voice barely above a whisper. "Do you think those kids are alright?" If his expression was anything to go off of, Tanjo could say that Akogare felt worried about the three children they interacted with earlier before Gabriel arrived and took them away.
Tanjo breathed in slowly, his eyes glued to the horrid destruction that was only so far away. "I…couldn't tell you."
XXX
"Mister…where are we going?"
Returning to Kaminari Nozomu and the child, Mizuki, we can see the white-haired Nozomu leading Mizuki around, seemingly sneaking around some of the buildings that were near the Montgomery Church.
Without turning to look at the child, Nozomu responds, "Well, you want to get your siblings back, right?" The tone the older man used made it seem like he was asking the most obvious question that could be answered.
"Y-yeah." Mizuki replied, keeping his eyes on Nozomu as he followed him around.
"Then we're going to find a way to get them back," Nozomu said in a resolute tone. "However, I expect you to stay out of the way of any danger during and after the search–got it?"
"Yes, sir!" Mizuki's hasty response made Nozomu frown slightly.
"Don't call me sir," Nozomu told Mizuki, then suddenly stopped. "Also, we've arrived.
A few feet away from where Nozomu and Mizuki stood, where the remains of the Montgomery Church were, the powerful winds above them could be seen very clearly, prompting Nozomu to narrow his eyes as he observed the situation. 'There is only one person who could manipulate wind like this…'
Continuing to analyze the area, Nozomu wasn't able to spot any children, or at least any that looked like they could be lost or in search of a missing brother. "It's up to you to consider this good or bad news, but your siblings aren't here."
"Huh!?" Mizuki questioningly hollered, making Nozomu conceal his mouth with his left hand. He was apparently too loud.
"We can look somewhere else, but I'll need you to remain quiet–Understand?" Nozomu ordered Mizuki in a stern tone, a tone to which Mizuki wouldn't dare to object.
"Y-yes!" Was Mizuki's acknowledging response.
Nozomu nodded, turning back to look at the scene above them only to widen his eyes in surprise. A large chunk of stone was falling directly above them—most likely being tossed by the swirling wind. In response to seeing the incoming debris, Nozomu shouted, "We've got to move!" Without any time to lose, Nozomu grabbed Mizuki, just like when he saved Mizuki the first time, and sprinted out of the way of the giant stone chunk.
With the loud crashing noise the stone chunk made upon clashing with the ground, Nozomu held tightly onto Mizuki as he distanced them from the impact. "We need to get away from all of that wind," Nozomu informed Mizuki, who was peeking out from Nozomu's arms.
As Mizuki was peeking out, the child spotted something that caused him to begin shaking erratically, alerting Nozomu instantly. "What?" The white-haired man stared down at Mizuki questionably—almost no patience resided in him.
Mizuki slipped a finger out of Nozomu's arms, pointing in a distinct direction. Nozomu's eyes followed Mizuki's pointing, enabling the white-haired man to spot yet another incoming danger. But instead of it being falling debris, it was a crimson-red circle closing in on them at a rapid speed.
"Shit!" Nozomu cursed as he pushed himself off of the ground and hopped to the side, barely managing to avoid being hit by the incoming attack. Once Nozomu balanced himself, Mizuki still in his arms, he looked back up and immediately noticed a rampant redhead dashing toward him.
"Mizuki, I need you to trust me when I say you'll be fine."
XXX
A Few Moments Ago
Yuso quickly dodged an incoming root, hopping from the platform he once stood on to a newly formed crimson-red pentagram. Then. from Yuso's blindside, a giant green fist made itself known once more, attempting to land a hit on the redhead.
Yuso instantly blocked the fist attack with a pentagram. "Come on, that can't be all that you have."
Shototsu gritted his teeth at Yuso's words, extending one of his arms toward the remains of the Montgomery Church, and through the manipulation of the air, he launched it at the redhead.
Yuso was able to respond immediately to this assault by pushing an arm out and forming a big enough pentagram to consume the whole chunk of the church's remnants. Shortly after, another pentagram of the same size opened, sending the chunk of the church remains right back to Shototsu at the same speed.
Shototsu was forced to dodge as the giant chunk sped toward him, ultimately falling out of the wall of wind surrounding the scene and eventually crashing and hitting the ground with a nasty clash, destroying any structures in its path.
"Do you want to try that again?" Yuso asked Shototsu with a tone of mockery, glaring at the amethyst-haired wind manipulator. But, before Yuso could wait for a reply, he noticed something towards the village grounds. It was a man with white hair, who appeared to be holding something. He must've been nearly hit by the falling chunk that Yuso tossed back at Shototsu. Suddenly, Yuso's eyes narrowed on one vital thing. The white-haired man was holding onto something. 'Is that... the target?'
As Yuso was about to act on his new discovery, one of Itami's roots shot toward him, prompting him to jump to the side and dodge it. As Yuso was dodging the root, he formed a palm-sized pentagram and tossed it toward the white-haired man on the ground. Then, avoiding all incoming attacks thrown by the Furusato Unit members, Yuso dashed toward the ground, looping through pentagrams to travel down faster.
'You're not getting away this time, target.'
XXX
Hey! I'm back! I hope you enjoyed today's chapter. Stuff sure is getting spicy! How will Nozomu react to seeing Yuso charging at him? What will Haishi and the group do next? Where the hell is Father Laurence and Gabriel!? Stay tuned for more!
Have a Great Day!
Peace - Cr1ticalz_