"Did you forget about me?"
Janet spoke but Ayato ignored her. He had no interest in fighting her. Not yet, at least. It would be better to deal with the ones he knew first before dealing with the unknown.
However, it wasn't as if Janet would let him be. She charged in from behind—she unleashed a kick, only to be countered with a punch from Ayato.
"Gwah!"
Saliva leaked from Janet's mouth. Ayato grabbed her arm and waist. He spun around, tossing her into a building across the road.
Without wasting time, the chimera closed in on Ayato. It opened its mouth, snapping at him. Ayato leapt backwards. He kicked its nose; Ayato and the chimera were at a standstill. As the chimera pushed, so did Ayato.
Marinus didn't attack since he wanted to see the outcome of such a battle. Their goal was to buy time. Killing Ayato was simply a bonus.
"Let's see... Around 30 seconds have passed. Mjölnir."
He clenched his fist. It sparked with electricity. He jumped away from the chimera, which swung its wings at him. Ayato lunged forward, hitting the chimera with an uppercut. Due to the power of the punch, it was launched into the air.
Marinus stared anxiously at the chimera. Blood splattered onto the floor as it was airborne.
"Oi, are you serious? That chimera has magic resistance."
"Resistance, not nullification. Besides, it's not dead, is it?"
Ayato looked up at the chimera as he came down. He flipped around and kicked its chest, sending it flying into the store.
"I could fight you but you're not much of a fighter, hm? I'm guessing you kill most of your opponents by catching them off guard. If I don't attack you, it'll be fine."
Marinus clicked his tongue.
Flames shot toward Ayato. He used his left hand to block it, but...
"Ah!"
Ayato jumped away from the flames. The skin on his hand peeled off from the intensity of the flames. He gritted his teeth.
The man smiled while reaching into his pocket.
"Not so tough now, huh?"
He took out a gun. Marinus fired twice. One hit Ayato and the other missed. The bullet lodged itself into his left shoulder. Except for his pained expression, Ayato didn't react.
For him, a bullet wound wasn't much of a problem as long as he had mana.
The bloody chimera rushed toward him with its mouth gaped open, ready to devour its prey. Ayato chopped the chimera with his hand. Its jaw split in two. His chop was like a blade.
The chimera grovelled onto the floor, bleeding out helplessly.
"That took less time than I thought. Only 1 minute and 20 seconds or so. So, 1 minute and 40 seconds. I'm sorry that my calculations may be slightly off."
Ayato said, casually gouging his finger into his bullet wound. Marinus watched in shock. He gritted his teeth and began sweating, digging into his wound.
"This guy... He's..."
He took out the bullet, causing the wound to bleed even more. His left arm was unusable. Removing the bullet was illogical since Ayato would be at a higher risk of bleeding out.
"You're crazy..."
Marinus said, holding his gun shakingly.
He brought his right hand to his left shoulder. Touching it, the wound repaired itself. It was as if he hadn't been shot. He then held his left hand. The skin around his hand healed.
This was the power of his Reconstruction. Ayato hasn't used it much but, as far as he knew, it couldn't heal a life-threatening injury but it could heal anything else. Compared to Deconstruction, the mana that it used was twice as much.
Since Ayato had a large mana pool, it hindered him only slightly. He had approximately 75% of his mana remaining.
Ayato ran, swerving around.
'He's fast!'
Marinus attempted to get a shot at him but he couldn't. Ayato stuck him with his palm—his hand was deflected off of Marinus' reflective barrier. The boy fell.
From behind, Janet attacked Ayato. Her attack missed due to Ayato falling to the ground. He put his hands behind his head and pushed himself off of the ground, kicking Janet's stomach.
The woman was sent flying toward Marinus. He couldn't activate his Reflection since it would hurt her. Marinus caught her body at the same time, he couldn't use his Reflection.
"I guess I was never good at maths."
Ayato straightened his hand. Like a spear, he pierced through the two of them. With the use of martial arts and mana, Ayato mercilessly cut through the two of them.
"Finished before 3 minutes. Tell me, where Eunithus is taking Ashley."
He took his arm out. The two of them fell onto the floor bleeding. Despite being torn through first, Janet was doing better than Marinus. She caught her breath while holding her stomach.
"I-it's fine, y-you're t-t-too late."
Janet squeezed her wound for whatever reason, causing her to stutter. The two of them looked ready to die.
"Too late?"
"Ashley... she's already ours. With her... her curse, we'll destroy it... London."
"Shit."
Ayato turned around. He couldn't track any mana signatures. Ashley was teleported away. Teleportation generally left little residue. Eunithus' one was a slight exception, but he still couldn't track them.
"Die... you piece of shit."
"Ngh!"
From behind, an arrow of blood grazed Ayato's back. It didn't get too deep into his back, but it still hurt. It was the type of wound that couldn't be regenerated by Reconstruction.
He turned around, grimacing.
"I was going to let you bleed out but you want to attack. Sorry that your death will be painful."
Ayato put his hand on Janet.
"I don't know how your Magic Seal works but it seems to use blood. If I overload my mana into you and activate my Deconstruction, you explode from the inside out. You can guard against it but I won't tell you how. If you curse anyone then curse me since I'm the one that killed you."
He used Rupture. Janet was brutally murdered. Ayato stood up. His back ached. It took most of his strength just to stand straight.
"Shic, call Akari."
[Calling Old Hag.]
His phone buzzed as he waited for Akari to pick up the phone. Ayato looked at the bleeding Marinus.
"Tch, I should treat you for information. Killing you is a bad idea."
[Hello, Ayato? I'm kind of in the middle of something.]
Ayato looked at his phone in relief. He screamed into the phone.
"No time! Ashley has been abducted by Eunithus! I killed the woman escapee and I'm keeping the other man alive! Request Anti-Magic to look out for her!"
[Ashley?! Don't worry, I can do something even better from here.]
"Something better? Ah, just do it! We need to find Ashley ASAP!"
·———·
(Buckingham Palace)
"What was that about, Akari Chiori?"
Alice Ilistria asked. She was drinking tea with Akari and Morgan was by her side, as usual. Akari put her Seeker in her pocket.
"Can your attendant track faint mana signatures, Your Majesty?"
Alice set her teacup down, confused about what Akari was implying. She looked back at Morgan, who appeared unfazed.
"Can you, Morgan?"
"I can try."
"If so, then could you track the mana signature of Ashley Renthral?"
The Queen's eyes widened. She set her hands on the table and stood up. She looked troubled.
"You mean, Ash has been..."
"Yes, Eunithus has taken Ashley Renthral."
Secretly, the Witch behind the Queen had a thin smile on her lips.
"It seems that Janet is dead and Marinus is being captured for interrogation."
"Morgan!"
"I'm on it, my liege."
Morgan tapped her staff against the ground and closed her eyes. She searched for Ashley.