Chapter 54: Fixing the Situation
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Since I was a bit tired, I took the very last seat on the bus and decided to take a nap. The other kids were chatting still about the bizarre incident of losing a day of their time and maybe even memories, while I placed a Sherlock Holmes book over my face and slept. I brought it to this trip to read in my spare time but never got the chance, but at least it served some purpose.
It took the bus a few hours from Fujinomiya back to Tokyo, though I was deep in slumber throughout the session. It was for the better, really, I couldn't afford to get dragged into the kids' conversation.
Honestly, this trip was quite the harvest. I was hoping to reach Underlord in the next two to three months, but I managed to do it in no time thanks to this lucky encounter. In the end, accepting to come to LoveMy was a great choice. I am even acquainted with the local Gods of this region now, and I'd soon get my hands on some great herbs that would help me pull off a plan I have.
Now that I am finally Underlord and have Soulfire, I could do a great level of Alchemy. Even the ones from my 7th life, where the technology was very advanced and one would need high-level technological help to brew drugs and potions. Now I can do that with not much difficulty, and awaken the latent talents of human blood of myself and my Sect.
Psychic Powers. It's time for [Psykers] to make an appearance in this world.
I'd have had trouble gathering these herbs since I'm not really connected with the supernatural factions of this world, but now that's different. This trip was a godsend.
'Ahh, everything is going so well.'
That was the thought I woke up with, it seemed we were near Tokyo now. I slowly sat up from my lying position, and then the world paused.
My entire body trembled.
The hair on the back of my head stood up as I sensed my [Lightning Seal] that I had on Ai's body activated.
A bit later, my senses heightened further when I sensed an explosion of stellar mana, with the radiant of a purple sun.
"Stop the bus!" I yelled and ran to the door, as the driver hastily stopped it in confusion. I had no time to explain, I just shot Mem a look and then rushed off.
The kids called for my name, but I didn't look back. I rushed behind a few buildings near us, and once I had the cover of the walls I took off to the air with a coating of cloud Qi around me.
I used [Electromagnetic Propulsion]— an Underlord movement technique that was an advanced mixture of lightning and wind, which manipulated electromagnetic forces to propel the user for high-speed travel and also grant maneuverability like the wind. I practically blitzed across the sky, even if my Qi pathways burned in pain as they weren't even used to my Gold techniques yet.
From an outsider's perspective, I was just a white blur in the sky that normal humans wouldn't be able to perceive, let alone question.
Not that I cared currently if people noticed; I only had one question in my head.
Which ant dared to attack my home?
* * *
The situation was worse than I thought; the entire neighborhood was in chaos because the stellar beam that Ruby must have used had gone through all the buildings half a kilometer from the starting point.
Thankfully, it hasn't been long since this happened. I could calm the situation.
I dropped from the sky to the gate of our home and didn't care that people noticed me land. They would soon forget about it, anyway.
What irritated me was the guards, they were out cold with foam coming out of their mouths. The attacker must have dealt with them; they were just normal humans after all. I'll need to fix this later.
I ran into the front yard and paused right in front of the door. Outside the door, there was a sword lying down.
"...This world's Excalibur?"
A Holy Sword. The Most Famous of All Holy Swords.
And it was calling out to me, that the sword recognized someone worthy to wield it even if it didn't have a restriction where it needed its wielder to be worthy. But how could it pass up the opportunity to not be wielded by a hero? If this situation wasn't so urgent, I would have chuckled at that. How funny that the universe still considered me a hero?
Due to the situation being as it was, I put the sword inside my Void Storage to think about it later. Then I ran inside the house through the door that had signs of suffering from the beam too. I rushed in further and there they were, in the living room. Four girls, with one of them sitting on a couch and three others facing her on an opposite couch.
Ai sat alone and faced three girls; Ruby, Tsubasa, and… what, Asia? 'What the hell is that girl doing here?'
"A-ah, there he is! Aqua!" Tsubasa noticed me first, making the girls turn to me as they all looked at me with different expressions.
Ai's eyes locked with mine, her expression was odd. How much did Ruby tell her?
"Ruby, come here," that's for later, I had to calm the situation first.
Ruby hesitated, unsure why I was calling her, as she rose and ran to me. The other three girls exchanged glances but I raised a hand to stop them from saying anything.
"Give me a minute, we'll talk after I fix the destruction. Now, Ruby," I said to them and held Ruby by her wrist, pulling her closer and looking into her eyes.
"I- I am sorry, I-"
"You did well, you must have had a good reason for this. I'm not blaming you. But we need to fix this." I told her, ruffling her hair gently and pulling her to the spot where my [Copper Sight] marked the start of the beam, that was the spot she had been standing when she cast it.
"It was Blaze of the Scintillating Quasar, right?" I asked her as she stood on the spot, making her nod. "Annoying to fix, then. It will be greatly draining to your reserves, but you should be fine otherwise. Follow my movements."
I showed her a hand movement, it was a spell she didn't know so she had to copy it with her Kagemimic eyes. I also moved my Qi in a certain manner within me, but only until the spell would cast itself. I couldn't cast this myself, otherwise, my restriction would tear me apart from within.
"That's as far as I can show you. You have to do it to fix both the direct and indirect destruction caused by the spell. Sadly, it can only bring back inanimate objects that have been destroyed, so if a living thing is caught in the blast it won't return. After this, you circulate your mana through the 128th and 132th pathways points, and the spell would be cast." I instructed as she nodded and her eyes glowed.
Her entire body shared the light, pulsing like a heart that let out ripples of mana in a circular motion throughout reality. Right before our eyes, the world began to shift, and everything that had been torn apart, shredded, and erased from reality from the beam of a superheated sun that radiated the hottest of violet light, began to return. The door frames itself, and at the same time, the holes in the buildings in the far began to stitch themselves back to whole — even parts that vanished were filled up as the world provided a history of what was on the spot before.
In under a minute, the spell did its job as the world regained its former state as if it was never harmed at all.
"[Restoration Magic: Restorative Pulse]. Remember the name," I patted her on the shoulder she stared at the scene that she had caused herself. A deep weight of worry left her face, the same as the faces of the others.
However, we weren't done. There were too many people who saw it. I also won't be surprised if there were a thousand pictures out on the internet already. The pictures won't be an issue, though, if the real site looked normal people would label the pictures as mere edits. What was the issue was the eyes that saw this happen.
"Ruby, cast another spell for me. Follow my gestures," I told her and watched her nod, looking much more confident now as she followed my movements.
I instructed her, told her what the spell would do, and warned her to be careful, to not use this recklessly as she nodded with a gulp.
I explained, "This spell actually falls under your Cosmic Magic, it's light magic. It would bring forth a small artificial sun in the air that would cast a light to erase the memories of everyone beneath it, even if they were taking over. Ah, make sure we don't forget anything though."
I turned to look at Ai, who was about to say something about losing her memories but stopped when I mentioned the part. How that it had come to this and she had indeed found out, there was no point in hiding anything.
"[Cosmic Magic: The Neuralyzer Sun]. Remember this name too." I told her as she cast the spell, causing a sun to rise in the sky above our house. We couldn't see it, but its light blinded the entire area and we could see that through our windows.
The light shimmered down at the world for five seconds, until it vanished and a sense of calmness descended upon the world. The neighborhood was loud until now, people were confused about what was going on, how the holes fixed themselves, but now they were all confused but calm.
—Why were they gathered outside, what was going on?
Questions filled their heads before the spell did its outlasting charm of buying those questions. The confused crowd simply left the scene and returned to their homes, which we observed from our windows.
"Phew," Asia Argento sighed. "Looks like there won't be any trouble. So this is your son, Ai-san? He is so reliable! All problems got fixed when he arrived."
Indeed, the problem was dealt with. This could have grown into something serious if I wasn't in time, I'm glad I was. A sense of relief spread through not only the girls but me too. Everything was fine now.
"Haah," Ruby's body gave in and I held her by the shoulder, hugging her by the side and carrying her to the couch. The two spells on their own aren't that costly, but it's hard to restore something that's been erased with Cosmic Magic. So she was tired. I put her down on the couch and stood in front of her.
Ruby, the other two girls, and Ai turned their attention to me, all wearing different kinds of grateful expressions. Sadly, I had no time to return that with an appropriate reaction.
A question begged to be answered in my head. I looked at Ruby, "What happened? Who was the attacker?"
The expressions of the girls grew dark, and Ai got nervous all of a sudden. Sweat beads formed on her cheeks and she shook her head. "It's nothing serious. Ruby don't say anything; I'll talk with him first."
"..." I stared at her, and then back at Ruby; no, I looked at Asia instead. "Tell me what happened, now. I found a Holy Sword in the yard, was it someone from the church? Because of you?"
"Erm…"
"Aqua, don't look at her like that! She's not the one at fault." Ai quickly reprimanded my look, so I looked at Ruby. "Tell me how the bastard looked."
"Aqua, let's take it slow…?" Tsubasa tried to calm me too. But why? What were they doing?—why were they not telling me which little fucker attacked my home?
My eyes met with Ruby, and I was not surprised to see our desire for revenge matched. Despite Ai's request, Ruby yelled out from the bottom of her heart. "I-it was a white-haired bastard with red eyes, he tried to kill Mama! I didn't have time to think when I blasted my magic, but he's dead now."
Ah.
I see.
If that Excalibur wasn't a hint enough, the appearance was. Freed Sellzen, that bastard.
"Ruby!" Both Ai and Tsubasa yelled; why were they acting like that? It's not like I'm that angry.
"He might destroy the church if you tell him that," Ai said, her expression strained as she seemed to recall the first time she saw me enraged. Tsubasa too, who had seen me get a little angry before when I saw Ruby with her eyes gone, nodded to Ai's blunt guess. "We need to consider things first, let's sit down and talk about things first."
I stared at her. 'She's not wrong about the first part.' Because yes, while Freed was dead, his 14 generation and faction were still out there. Especially his leader.
"Kokabiel," I muttered. "How dare a mere fallen angel send his minion to my home?"
That insignificant crow. Mark my words, I will decimate that wretched scoundrel.
"Aqua," Ai wrapped her arms around me. "I'm safe. Don't do anything rash."
"..." I looked down at her. She must be so confused right now, but here she was trying to console my anger. Such a lovely woman, and someone dared to try and hurt her.
"Yeah," I sighed and hugged her back. I'll fuck him up later, for now I need to talk with Ai and explain stuff to her. "Yeah, I won't do anything rash."
She found things a little rough, but the timing wasn't bad. I will use this chance to make sure that she can protect herself on her own if such incidents occur again.
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