Grauzauberer main building.
An old 5-story building that resembled a castle with a very large and spacious size.
From the outside, it looked like an abandoned building, but inside, there were many rooms with various things.
There was a huge library that contained many books on magic, ranging from elemental magic, sealing magic, even black magic.
This building could also be called a magic school, because some wizards who had retired became a teacher here for children who joined their organization. Ryota was a bit different, as his teacher was Mephisto Pheles, so not only did he get the knowledge normally taught to magicians in Grauzauberer, he was able to learn some pretty rare magic.
In this building, there was also a main hall used by magicians to share opinions about magic, and many practice rooms, to practice their magic. At least in that room, a failure at using a magic could be minimized because the room was filled with strong barrier magic.
Ryota and the others greeted several members while walking towards Mephisto Pheles' office on the top floor.
Most of the members were humans. However, a minority were from different races, elves, valkyries, devils, or the rarest of them, dwarves.
As long as one got a recommendation from higher-ups and had a talent in magic, they could join the organization. For example, Ryota was able to join because Gondul was friends with Mephisto Pheles.
They stopped in front of a large door, Ryota knocked on the door and waited until someone's voice was heard from inside the room.
"Enter."
"Hey Mephistocchi!"
Osakabehime, who was being carried on his back, was already standing behind him when Ryota opened the door.
Inside Mephisto's office, there were many bookshelves on the side walls. There were two long leather sofas facing each other with a table in the middle.
There were many magic circles on the floor and walls, and near the window was a black office desk, with a high-back leather chair, Mephisto sat there staring at them with an unreadable face.
Meanwhile, someone sitting on the sofa looked at Ryota while giving him a sweet smile.
"Hello, Ryo-kun."
A young woman with long blonde hair and sapphire blue eyes. She was wearing a witch robe with a cloak and a pointed witch hat, Lavinia Reni, Ryota's partner after joining the Grauzauberer. These two are a famous team, rising from unknown magicians to earning nicknames for themselves.
Ryota was nicknamed The Golden Prince, while Lavinia was nicknamed Demise Girl and Ice Princess because of her sacred gear Absolute Demise, 1 of 13 Longinus, a rare type of sacred gear that has the potential to kill gods.
Absolute Demise, an Independent-Type Longinus, with a 3 meter tall doll in the shape of a woman. Her power was manipulating ice on a large scale, being able to instantly freeze entire areas into a frozen world and creating walls of ice to trap her opponents. So basically, Lavinia could freeze the entire world, if she had enough magic and stamina. Combined with the type of use of her versatility magic on different magics, that was the reason she got the nickname Ice Princess.
He heard from Lavinia after she gave that woman a nickname 'Demise-chan'. They got along really well, and she was somehow able to use the balance-breaker version after fighting a magician from other organization.
He and Lavinia, with the added power of Tamamo, Shuten, and Osakabehime, made them popular in the magicians' society.
"What happened, Mephistocchi?"
Ryota looked at Mephisto curiously. He said Lavinia was starting to irritate him, but she didn't seem to be doing anything.
Mephisto sighed and explained.
"This girl won't let me do my job and keeps asking about your whereabouts."
"Because I miss Ryota." said Lavinia innocently. She still had a smile on her face.
"...Well, I also miss you, Lavi-chan." said Ryota while smiling back at her.
The last mission they did together was last month, and Ryota didn't really come to Grauzauberer every mission like Lavinia did. They also lived in different places. Ryota was in Kuoh Town while Lavinia was in the apartment complex for her Slash/Dog team which was 2 stations away from Kuoh Town.
He rarely went to the apartment because Vali also lived there, and Ryota didn't want to meet him.
"Okay then. So what's the reward for today's mission?"
Mephisto looked at Ryota with a strange glint, then at Ryota's summoned 'heroes'.
"A Miracle☆Levia-tan photobook including Serafall autograph..."
"...Miracle☆Levia-tan?"
"Deal! Deal! Deal!" suddenly, Osakabehime who had been silent from earlier became excited.
Ryota looked at her weirdly.
'What is this Miracle Levia-tan?'
He decided to ask her about this later.
"50 bottles of Saint-Emilion wine..."
Shuten didn't scream like Osakabehime, Ryota could see her happy mood as she smiled widely at him now.
'Is this wine very good?' thought Ryota.
"And 1 litre of ambrosia. How's that?" asked Mephisto while smiling at Ryota.
Ryota knew about ambrosia, a legendary food commonly consumed by the Gods of Olympus.
This should be a very rare item, because the Gods of Olympus usually didn't want to share things from their faction with other races.
Ryota, glanced slightly at Tamamo. She looked like she was in ecstasy, dreaming about a certain scenario where she and her beloved husband were feeding each other ambrosia.
He sighed. Even though this seemed like a bribe, all the items were still great rewards for them.
"I want an additional reward. I would like permission to purchase or exchange special attribute crystals from Agreas."
"It needs Ajuka's approval before I make a decision. Why do you need that crystal? Do you want to make your own pieces?" asked Mephisto curiously.
Special attribute crystals were rare crystals that were used to produce Evil Pieces for the devils.
Ryota thought this crystal should have a rare or unknown effect as it could create something great like the Evil Pieces.
Mephisto said before, this crystal could only be found at Agreas, so he needed to ask this.
"No, even when I didn't do anything to those crystals, they were still considered treasures. Maybe I could decorate my 'garden' with them. Even though I'm not Gilgamesh, as his descendant, I also like collecting treasures, and added the treasure collection inside the Gate of Babylon is also good." Ryota said with a shrug.
Mephisto nodded.
"Agreas is also a popular tourist resort, so you can wait for news while enjoying your holiday. I'll give you 4 tickets at 100% discount during your stay."
"Mephisto, I also want to go on vacation." said Lavinia while raising her hand.
"You heard Meptocchi..."
"Alright, 5 tickets then. Hurry up, you still have the Kraken to fight for."
"Yes, yes..."
'Gate of Babylon: Golden Kimono.'
After he thought of this item from within the Gate of Babylon, a golden light surrounded Ryota's body. The lights went out after a while, and Ryota was seen wearing a golden kimono. An armor similar to this, the Golden Armor granted the wearer magic resistance and nearly indestructible defense, while the Golden Kimono strengthened the wearer's magic output and the items the wearer wields. So this kimono was more suitable for Ryota as a magician. Even though he sometimes still used the Golden Armor, but only on rare occasions.
He looked at his companion.
Tamamo also released her ears and foxtails, while Shuten released her horns.
Ryota, Tamamo, Shuten, Osakabehime, and Lavinia stood inside the prepared magic circle, waiting for Mephis to teleport them.
"Good luck. This Kraken is really tough for our magicians."
Mephisto Pheles then used his magic to teleport them to their destination at the Keem Beach in Ireland.
---
Clean white sand gently sloped into the blue sea. A beautiful beach with a grassy area around it.
There were no buildings in this area, so magicians could use their magic more freely.
Ryota looked around, it seemed there were no ordinary humans on the beach. The magicians had put up a barrier to repel them.
Many magicians were tired and injured, while others were still fighting the Kraken at sea.
"Tamamo, use your blessing."
"Yes, Master!"
Ryota transferred his magic with his soul connection to Tamamo, while she summoned his mirror. He couldn't use any magic at the moment because this was the weakness of his original magic.
"O gods of Izumo..."
A pink aura released from her mirror, surrounding her body.
"Let this be the proof of your purity..."
An enormous magic circle appeared under her, the mirror flew to the sky.
"as this mirror becomes your sacred treasure..."
The mirror concentrated all Ryota transferred magic to the center, as a few seconds passed, the pink aura became gigantic, while Tamamo raised her hand.
"Eightfold Blessing of Amaterasu!"
She swung her hands down, and the aura exploded, targeting all injured magicians. They instantly healed, the pain went away, some people with missing arms or legs grew back, as if there were no injuries at all.
The morale that had dropped from before increased dramatically, and they shouted towards Tamamo, thanking her.
"You can postpone thanking Tamamo for later! Everyone focus on the Kraken!" shouted Ryota.
He looked at the Kraken.
An enormous sea monster that looked like a giant octopus. It had two large eyes in the middle and powerful tentacles that had enough power to instantly kill a mid-class devil with just a swung.
This Kraken looked almost like every Kraken he and Lavinia had killed, but this one was twice the size of the normal Kraken, and Mephisto said it had a mysterious regenerative ability. Ryota thought maybe this Kraken reached around ultimate-class devil.
At the same time that Ryota and Tamamo were healing the magicians, Shuten, Osakabehime, and Lavinia had already started fighting the Kraken.
Shuten cut off one of the Kraken's tentacles with the sword in her right hand, and released poison from the gourd in her left hand into the severed tentacle. It looked like the poison was working, but the tentacles still regenerated, albeit a little slower.
Another tentacle suddenly attacked Shuten from her blind spot while she was still focused on the severed tentacle.
"Be careful Shuten-chan!"
She heard a voice and a large origami bird-shaped carrying her to dodge the attack.
"Fufu, thanks you Hime." said Shuten to Osakabehime who was flying nearby.
Osakabehime nodded in response, and began to focus on controlling her origami again.
Shuten wanted to defeat this Kraken with her ultimate poison magic, but she also needed Ryota to transfer his magic like he did to Tamamo, so she hesitated and tried cutting the tentacles like before.
Shuten attacked another tentacle, while Osakabehime used all of her origami to help other magicians, dodged the Kraken's attacks, lured the Kraken to attack her origami, and attacked the Kraken with her flying origami weapon shaped like a spear or sword.
On the other hand, Lavinia tried to freeze the Kraken, but a few seconds later, the ice shattered and was destroyed.
Suddenly, she saw Ryota, Tamamo, and the other magicians had arrived at the battleground.
Tamamo and the others started to attack with their magic, while Ryota closed his eyes for a moment and pour his magic power on to his eyes.
Then he opened his eyes and chanted inside his mind.
'Sha Naqba Imuru.'
A knowledge entered his brain. The information about this abnormal Kraken became this big after accidently eating the hidden treasure under the sea, and it somehow became strong and the treasure healed the Kraken every time it was injured.
The shape of the treasure.
The position inside the Kraken's body.
A worthy treasure for his collection, but he had to destroy the treasure to kill this Kraken.
He looked at the Kraken while still activating his Sha Naqba Imuru, then he shouted.
"Lavi-chan! This Kraken has a moving treasure inside its body! That's its weakness!"
"Then what should I do Ryo-kun?"
"Freeze the Kraken with your balance breaker. I'll destroy it after you freeze its entire body."
"Alright. Balance Break... Assoluto Argento Mondo!" shouted Lavinia.
After she finished his chant, the sea froze, a blizzard appeared around the area, and the Kraken started to freeze. the Kraken tried to break the ice like before, but other ice continuously started to close the gap.
Ryota saw this, and he started another chant.
'Gate of Babylon: Failnaught!'
He was still using the power of Sha Naqba Imuru at this time, a large bow with a bowstring resembling the strings of a stringed instrument materialized in Ryota's hand, he pulled the bowstring, the air around Ryota gathered at his fingertips on the bowstring. After he released it, a sonic vacuum arrow flew towards the Kraken.
The moment the arrow hit the frozen Kraken between its two large eyes, the arrow exploded.
Ryota saw the treasure shattered in the explosion and the Kraken died in the aftermath, and began to sink into the melting frozen sea. Lavinia had also canceled her balance breaker.
Ryota slumped on the beach sand, feeling a little tired.
"Yaay! Mission completed!"
Osakabehime shouted while twirling around, and then she ran towards Ryota.
"By the way Lavi-chan, what's your reward for this mission?" asked Ryota looking at Lavinia.
"Hehe, it's a secret. You'll find out soon enough." replied Lavinia while smiling brightly at him.