"P- Please punish me, mister Cultist. I- I'm a naughty bitch for daring to go against you!"
Unexpectedly, Erals halted his steps upon hearing my words.
"Wh- What's wrong mister Cultist? Don't you want to p—"
"You're not fooling anyone." Erals said icily. "However good Alchemer's potion is, it can't change your personality to a depraved bitch instantly, heretic inquisitor Aryl Myrsky."
Hearing this, I muttered as I slowly stood up. "You got me good... But for your information, I'm a Saint now. Still, you can call me inquisitor if you want."
There were no tears flowing from my eyes anymore and my face was back to its normal color.
Seeing that I was looking at him expressionlessly, Erals smirked. "I knew it. Now I'm going to thoroughly enjoy breaking down that expressionless face of yours down until you beg me for mercy!"
As he was babbling on and on about how he would make me scream in pain and pleasure, I unsheathed the purple katana from my scabbard and muttered.
<[S - Monarch of the storms]>
Instantly, Wind and Lightning mana surged around me, boosting my rank up to
Sensing this, Erals stopped talking and looked at me with more caution than before.
We stayed in complete silence, eyeing each other for the slightest of movements until...
<[Splice]>
As the world around me turned bright red, I found myself standing right in front of Erals. I slashed his right arm, catching him by surprise. However, my blade merely sprayed sparks into the air as it failed to carve a single scratch in his skin.
'Looks like he's covering his body with his
Erals swung a counter punch with his left arm, his fist screamed death as it aimed to knock my head cleanly off my shoulders. However, all he managed to hit was thin air as I had already sprang back a couple of meters.
With Erals now afraid of approaching me, I sheathed [sword of Gravitasis] back into my scabbard and assessed the situation.
'It doesn't look like the security is coming anytime soon. Celi is still recovering. And the Greater black wyvern will soon run out of bidders to maul to death... This is not looking good.'
As such, I decided to—
"If I can't fight you all alone, I'll have to make this everyone's problem then."
—Rush toward Erals while placing my right hand on the handle of my sword.
Seeing this, Erals reinforced his entire body with Mana and positioned his arm in an X shape in front of him, aiming to block whatever I was planning.
Despite knowing full-well what he was doing, I still rushed toward him nonetheless and used all 3 charges of [Distorias]. As soon as I got close to him, I bent my body and hook kicked him in his chins, sending him flying.
Of course, he wasn't harmed. However, the fact that he was now in the air meant that I had now completed my goal.
I then unsheathed my sword quickly and slashed.
A thin line of Space mana traced the arc of my slash and shot toward the ceiling.
Erals, with his mana-reinforced body, wasn't harmed one bit—
"Hehahah!" He laughed. "Is this it? You didn't even leave a scratch on me—"
—But the same couldn't be said for the ceiling.
As the ceiling was split in half, cobweb-patterned cracks began crowing wider and wider. Soon, the concrete ceiling turned into heavy debris and came crashing down onto Erals.
Although the dust hasn't settled, I could vaguely see the silhouette of Erals breaking out of the debris and throwing large pieces of the ceiling at me.
As I dodged a debris, a gust of wind coming from above temporarily settled the dust, giving me full view of Erals somewhat bloodied face.
Despite being in such a state, he was still smirking at me.
"Crushing me with concrete? Your plan failed, heretic inquisitor! Now what are you going to do!?"
In response, I merely stared at him with cold eyes and pointed my finger above.
"Above us is the main stage of the Pyriaville auction house, and the 'barrier' that you Cultist have set up most likely won't prevent anyone from going out."
"So what? What does it have to do with my question?"
"Haven't I told you?" I said as I held the purple katana in a reverse grip.
Stabbing it firmly into the concrete ground, I spoke with a calm tone.
"That I will make this everyone's problem."
<[Sword of Gravitasis]>
As soon as I uttered those words, the auction house turned dead silent. After a split second, everything started to float. Cultists, monsters, the wyvern, even the flames from inside the warehouse. Everything floated.
"Floating? Really?" Erals laughed. "I can vaguely guess what you're planning. But how are you going to force me out with just this—"
Before he could finish his sentence, gravity reversed. Everything were sucked through the hole in the ceiling as if a spacecraft's hatch had just been opened.
And I was no exception. Despite still being able to hold onto the purple katana's handle, I could tell that I would also be sucked out before long. However, I still wanted to delay the inevitable.
After a while, my hands gave out and I was sucked out of the Wezardis auction house like everything else. As soon as I got forced into the Pyriaville auction house, I used [Splice] to get myself out of the area of reverse-gravity.
Now on the ground, weaponless, I reached into [Alternate storage] to take out a sword. However, I suddenly noticed something before I could do so.
"Excalibur? Has it not been stolen yet?"
The sword in the stone was conveniently right in front of me. Its majestic golden hue would have made me drop my jaw in awe if I didn't have [F - Emotionless] active.
'Should I try it? No... it would most likely not work but... just in case...'
And with that thought, I placed my hands on the handle of the legendary sword and—
***
The main stage of the auction hall was split in half. Literally.
Following the thin line of severing blue mana, the stage's floor turned into debris and collapsed into the underground section that Sylvia herself didn't know existed.
Not just that, the ceiling of the Pyriaville auction house also turned into debris and fell down too.
Since this was night, Sylvia could see the twinkling stars through the exposed ceiling. However, her thoughts were interrupted by a peculiar sight.
"[Reversal]? A- All the debris are coming up?" Arthur muttered. "Is there such a powerful Time mage nearby? To be able to reverse time—"
"No! It's not that!" Sylvia shouted. "Get down!"
As soon as she said so, the concrete debris were shot out everywhere at high speed like shrapnel. Some nobles died instantly to a rock to the face, some had their arms and legs crushed. But luckily, everyone in Sylvia's VVIP room got down in time and suffered no damage.
Sylvia and Arthur were the first to recover. With Glacia in her embrace, Sylvia peeked her head over the broken window to look at the grotesque scene of blood, gore, innards, and brain matter below. It was so disgusting that it took Sylvia's all of her mental strength to not puke on her daughter.
"Momm— Sylvie! What's wrong?"
As Glacia was about to also peek her head over to see what made her mother's face pale like that, Sylvia hurriedly covered her eyes and whispered.
"Glacia, you shouldn't look."
"Why?"
"...Momm— your daddy will be mad if you do."
Gulping, Glacia nodded and buried her head in Sylvia neck.
Seeing this, Sylvia sighed in relief. But her relief didn't last for long as she suddenly realized something.
"Amelia is down there!" She exclaimed in realization.
Hearing Sylvia's words, Arthur widened his eyes in surprise and was about to dive right down, but he was suddenly stopped by Sylvia.
"Arthur, go help everybody get up. Then evacuate as many people as possible. I'll look for Amelia and the brown-haired guy that's always stuck to her."
"But—"
"No but's. What can you even do when you find them? You don't know any healing Magic! Leave it to me!"
She then removed Glacia from herself and nudged her toward Arthur. "And I leave this child to you. But if she suffers even the slightest of scratches when I comes back..."
Her voice turned unfathomably cold as she glared at him.
"...Hero of Light or not, I'll make you regret living."
Arthur audibly gulped and nodded in affirmation.
Seeing this, Sylvia gave Glacia a kiss on the forehead and jumped out of the window.
***
Immediately after Sylvia left, Arthur rushed toward the person nearest to him - Marie.
"Marie, wake up! Everyone's in trouble—"
"WAHHHH!" Marie suddenly jolted awake and hugged Arthur tight. "I'M SCARED!!!"
But judging by the way she was smirking, it didn't seem like she was scared one bit.
Arthur was, of course, oblivious to this. He patted Marie's back with those reliable hands of his to soothe her.
Sensing that it would take a while for Arthur to continue his job again, Glacia pouted.
"Hmph! That uncie don't want to do what mommy said!"
Why don't we do it instead, little Cia~?|
Glacia immediately turned toward the owner of the voice - Wind spirit Sylph - and nodded her head fervently.
"Nn! Woooosh!"
<[Gentle windblades]>
Blades of Wind manifested and were shot toward everyone. Instead of harming them, the blades merely brushed against their cheeks, albeit with much more force than a normal gust of wind. Thus, everyone who were on the ground felt as if someone was slapping them.
This seemed to have worked, as everyone got up one by one and started to scan their surroundings cautiously.
It was then that Marie finally released Arthur.
Standing up, Arthur turned to wake everyone up but ended up being surprised that everyone were already conscious again. Coughing in embarrassment, he spoke in a loud voice.
"Everyone! Now that you all have recovered, we must evacuate the citizens!"
"Like hell we will!" Ria shouted back. "Getting securities here is priority!"
And thus, there were 2 sides.
Arthur, Marie, Lucy, Krista, and Nevih decided to evacuate the citizens and nobles.
Meanwhile Ria, Zakadon, Eileen, and Reiner wanted to get the securities.
"Okay then..." Arthur sighed. "...Let's work together. You guys call the securities, and we will try to save as many people as possible."
"Sounds good to me." Ria nodded.
Then, they all jumped out of the window and took different paths as soon as they landed on the ground.
Only Alicia and Glacia were left in the VVIP room now.
"Big sis Licia! Why didn't you go?"
Sighing, Alicia answered. "It's too bothersome. And besides, it's safer to stay here."
Glacia nodded at Alicia's answer. It would be fine for her to listen to her mother's words and play with her big siste—
-"KRIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
Suddenly, Glacia could hear an ear-piercing roar. Peeking over the broken glass window, she was surprised to see—
"Wah! Friend?"
—A gigantic greater black wyvern.
Through whatever strange thought process of hers, Glacia saw the black wyvern not as a threat, but as a... friend.
Alicia, on the other hand, was less than pleased. Frowning, she quickly pressed Glacia's head down and whispered.
"Don't be so loud! It's going to notice us... Or maybe not. It's busy mauling other people to death but still! We have to be careful!"
However, Glacia only nodded absentmindedly at Alicia's words. She was now entirely occupied with thinking about how she could play with that new friend of hers.
As she was thinking, Sylph suddenly spoke up.
Little Cia! Your mom is down there, right? You should go to her now!|
"Why?"
She's going to die if the wyvern gets near her!|
Seeing that Glacia was tilting her head in confusion, Sylph sighed. 'I forgot that she's still a child this time. She seemed much more mature last time... at least mature enough to know that she could command the black wyvern to her liking.'
Thinking for a while, Sylph spoke up again.
Erm... the wyvern's going to play with your mom. You don't want to get left out, do you?|
"Got it! I want to play too!"
"Glacia..." Alicia frowned. "...I told you to be quiet! Who are you talking wit—"
But before Alicia could finish her sentence, Glacia suddenly jumped through the window and landed on the ground without harm thanks to Sylph's Wind magic.
Glacia scanned her surroundings.
In front of her, there were several black robed men chasing down nobles. To her left was the black wyvern friend she had seen earlier. Almost every other directions were obscured by dust or smoke so she couldn't see that well.
Glacia then turned to her right. There, she could see a man whose body was crushed by a rock.
"Yay! Meat!"
As she was about to rush toward the delicious pile of meat on the ground, Sylph suddenly flew right in front of her and stopped her.
Little Cia! Don't! I'll be mad if you get close to him!|
Hearing this, Glacia stopped dead in her track. Her arms and tail drooped down low in dejection.
"D- Don't leave me Sylph! Why can't I?"
You just can't. Don't eat any sentient beings, whether they are dead or alive.|
"..."
...You can still eat animals though, like how a normal person would.|
"Yay!"
Overjoyed that she could still enjoy meat without her best friend leaving her, Glacia hugged Sylph tight. As she broke the hug, Glacia exclaimed.
"Now I will go play with mommy!"
<[S - Mana sense (perfect)]>
Closing her eyes in concentration and sniffing the air around her, Glacia focused on finding her mother's Mana. As she was looking for her mother's Mana, she could smell the scent of her aunt - Krista, the big sis Elf - Marie, and many more.
However, her eyes were shot open when she noticed a peculiar scent. It wasn't the comforting fragrance of her mother. Instead—
"Daddy's here!"
—It was the insolent stench of her father - Theodore's bloodstained hands that she had grown to be comfortable with and love.
Daddy? Theodore? He's here?| Sylph exclaimed in confusion as she heard Glacia's words. |Little Cia, ignore him! He can protect himself. Let's go to your mom, shall we?|
"But I want to play with daddy!"
Glacia ignored Sylph's words and rushed toward the direction of the auction hall's main stage with a bright smile on her face. As soon as she took a step forward, however, she suddenly felt something wet hit her nose.
"Wadur?"
Gazing upward, Glacia couldn't see the starry sky that were visible through the exposed ceiling of the auction house earlier. Instead, what she saw was dark, murky clouds releasing a torrent of rain down to the auction house.