"It shouldn't be far from here!"
Haishi could be seen leading his group throughout Ryakudatsu. Sona, who was still immobile from sustaining leg injuries, was passed over to one of the assisting warriors as they ran to their destination.
"The local warriors should be flooding the place! We just have to slip in and look for the little kid!" Haishi yelled out to his group, continuing to navigate through different pathways.
As the group was running, audible destruction could be heard just a few blocks down. Once they eventually arrived at the scene, staying back to observe the situation, they had front-row seats to what seemed to be a fight just in the middle of one of the pathways.
Haishi gasped at the sight before him, "Nozomu!?"
That name had instantly caught the attention of Tanjo, as well as Akogare and Naderamu. "What?" Tanjo rhetorically asked in a tone that only the people near him heard. The jet-black-haired teen then pushed forward, attempting to get a glimpse of what was occurring. To Tanjo's surprise, the sight of a very familiar man came into view as he stared in shock. Tanjo's eyes widened as he nearly lost his breath and struggled to contain his befuddlement. "Old man!?"
Sona perked up from within one of the assisting warriors' arms, joining in on the surprise. But instead, she immediately noticed another person at the scene. "Mizuki! He's over there!"
From where they all stood, they could clearly see Kaminari Nozomu and the younger Mizuki standing in the middle of what appeared to be a quarrel.
XXX
'Damn it!'
Kaminari Nozomu's eyes flickered in every direction, analyzing all of the people present. The white-haired man then glanced at Mizuki, noticing him shaking erratically.
Nozomu scowled as images flooded his mind.
—Memory—
"Don't let them escape!" Two small children were running away from an angry mob of villagers, both wearing brown cloaks. One child had white hair with black tints, while the other had black hair, brown eyes, and discerning red sideburns.
As the duo fled from the belligerent crowd, they could still hear them chasing after the both of them.
The white-haired boy who still had his hood hiding his face kept his hand clasped around his brown-eyed friend's arm, attempting to successfully escape the mob of villagers.
'Why us!? Why did they subject us to this kind of treatment?' The white-haired boy questioned mentally, quite possibly directing his angry thoughts towards the seemingly negligent gods up above.
—Memory End—
'I was right,' Nozomu broke out of his memories. 'It really is impossible to achieve true peace.' It was a sad realization, but a realization that Nozomu had to live with throughout his entire life.
Suddenly, a root that was horrendously familiar to Mizuki shot out of the ground, separating Nozomu from the child. A secondary root emerged from the ground, finding itself wrapped around Mizuki, much to Nozomu's dismay.
Yuso, who was still standing off to the side, tracked Mizuki as he was entangled with the roots from the ground, prompting the redhead to give chase once more.
As Nozomu centered his attention on one of the roots, a string of lightning shot out from his hands, wrapping around one of the roots and allowing the white-haired man to yank the string firmly, bringing the large root over in his direction. Nozomu immediately dashed atop the large wooden root that separated him from Mizuki, attempting to prevent Yuso from reaching the child once more.
From one of the rooftops, Gimu focused on Nozomu, hunching over in preparation to engage with the white-haired man, but first, he glanced over to the green-haired brothers and said, "Itami, Doryoku, stay focused on the brat we're after. I'll prevent the red-headed bastard and whoever the white-haired warrior is from reaching him." And with those words, Gimu hopped off of the rooftop.
XXX
*FWOOSH*
Turning away from the chase after Mizuki, Imawashiki could be seen setting a huge building ablaze in a different part of the huge village—his hand extended out as he shot out barrages of fire. Around the building, local Ryakudatsu warriors were taking cover either behind magical barriers they had formed or behind any structure nearby.
Each of the warriors that were clad in light-blue armor struggled to get past the Fiery Butler, also preventing them from arriving at any of the fights occurring near the destroyed Montgomery Church.
"Come on, is that all you guys have to offer? I've destroyed smaller villages and they put up better fights than this!" Imawashiki boasted, ceasing his barrage of fire momentarily.
Suddenly, a red beam of magic shot out, courtesy of one of the local warriors, and was directed right toward Imawashiki. However, a wall of fire encircled the Fiery Butler before the beam could make contact, dispersing the beam when it collided with the fire.
Prior to this, Regashi had ordered Imwashiki to ward off interloping warriors that could potentially harm the chance of abducting the child with the Kekkan no Sosei. It was an easy task. He had been tasked with razing villages before—he wasn't a fan of these types of activities, but with certain goals in mind, it would all be worth it in the end.
'Once the Kekkan no Sosei is within our grasp, we can finally enact our first real mission.'
XXX
As Nozomu was running up the giant wooden root, he came to a halt when a particular bandaged swordsman jumped out right in front of him.
Gimu smirked, some of his confidence returning from before. "I don't know what type of freaky deeky powers you have, but you seem familiar. You're also in our way, so to make this go faster, why don't you lay down and die while I go chase the redhead?"
Nozomu didn't bother to respond, instead choosing to run forward once again. Gimu clicked his tongue in annoyance, "Fine then—Don't say I didn't give you the chance!"
As Nozomu and Gimu charged at each other, expecting to engage in a short battle, a familiar man hopped in between the two and clashed blades with Gimu, making Nozomu's eyes widen momentarily.
"Chief?" Nozomu called out to the man who turned out to be Haishi in confusion.
Haishi struggled to keep Gimu in place as he turned back to glance at Nozomu, "Just go get the kid, Nozomu. And don't just disappear this time!"
The white-haired Nozomu nodded, running around and passing Haishi and Gimu. Gimu scowled at this occurrence, shouting, "This is now the second time you've interrupted a fight of mine! Damn it!"
Haishi narrowed his eyes as he kept a firm grip on the hilt of his sword, attempting to stay balanced. But, unfortunately, Gimu managed to overpower the chief warrior of Buraun and knocked him back with a violent push.
Haishi stood back up and glared at the bandaged man. "You aren't getting past me, you rogue!"
XXX
Yuso proceeded to charge toward the child that had been flailing in the air, still entangled with one of Itami's roots. Having all of these impediments have annoyed Yuso to great lengths, an emotion that Yuso typically discards the moment it appears. But, with all of the recent events, the redhead just couldn't remove the negative emotion from his system. Besides, Yuso's master wouldn't approve of any delays.
As Mizuki fruitlessly attempted to untangle the roots around him, he spotted Yuso sprinting toward him, instilling immense fear into the poor boy as he tried even harder to free himself.
Just as Yuso was closing in on Mizuki, he spotted Nozomu traversing up the root as well, most likely going after Mizuki. Without wanting to stall, Yuso hastily formed a single palm-sized pentagram and tossed it toward the root that entangled Mizuki, slicing it in half and allowing Mizuki to fall–It isn't a very short drop.
As Mizuki was falling, the child spotted a pentagram forming on the ground, apparently utilizing Mizuki's fall as a way to capture him. "WAAH!" Mizuki screamed as he flailed his arms and legs frantically.
Nozomu's eyes widened in shock as he watched the child fall farther away from him. "Shit!"
Eventually, Mizuki got closer to the ground, nearing the pentagram formed on the ground that would inevitably transport him somewhere into Yuso's grasp. Thankfully, before Mizuki could be swallowed up by the crimson-red circle, a figure caught him in mid-air, catching Mizuki only inches away from making contact with the pentagram.
Nozomu's bewilderment increased ten-fold at the sight of the figure who caught Mizuki. "Tanjo!?"
XXX
Hey! Good news! The next chapter is the conclusion to Volume 2! How will this end? Who will come out victorious? And what will Tanjo do will catching Mizuki? Hopefully, his plot armor comes into play, or he might not be so lucky. Stay tuned for more!
Have a Great Day!
Peace - Cr1ticalz_