In the throne room, Mekari and Akrila are sitting next to a small table, sipping tea.
"Sorry to imply this on you, but I'm amazed to have first seen what's behind that helmet," said Akrila, staring at Mekari.
"Oh, I see... Am I scary?"
"No, my lord, not at all. I would describe you as unique."
"....."
Underneath Mekari's helmet is a grayish-white skull with small dark yellow glowing orbs in the eye sockets and a faint, transparent dark flame that engulfs his entire skull.
After taking another sip, Set enters the throne room with a bearded barbarian named Roda, who is unconscious.
He bows. "Lord, I am done with my part of the plan."
"How was it fighting him?" asked Mekari.
"He was quite strong against most of my skeletons and kept holding on when fighting my giant ones, but was overwhelmed and just collapsed."
"I see he has potential. Set, put him in one of the rooms," said Mekari.
Set bowed slightly and exited the room.
"Signal the others to do the same."
"Yes, my lord," said Akrila.
Mekari's plan at hand wasn't only to show but to hide the existence of the Empire unless it was necessary to reveal it.
Vire received the message as he heard Akrila speak through telepathy, and she touched her left ear in response.
"Huh, what are you doing? Having a headache or something?" said Lana with a sarcastic grin.
"Don't worry, just speaking with my superior...well now don't mind that. Let's just begin," Vire said with an expressionless face,than proceeds with a fighting stance.
"You don't seem frightened. Fine then, I'll show you true fear myself." With tremendous speed, Lana launched herself forward with her short daggers in each hand. Closing the distance between them, she struck a downward slash, cutting her head off.
Lana lands behind vire's body, looks back, then chuckles with confidence, "Hahaha... look at you being headless. I told you it would be easy to kill you-"
"Huh!" Her instinct kicked in, and she jumped backward, dodging a punch that connected with the ground, breaking the floor beneath. This was all Vire's headless body.
"What's going on? She's supposed to be dead, or did she hide that?" thought Lana in surprise, on her guard.
"I'm impressed. You are fast, but your biggest mistake was underestimating me," Vire's head said as she reattached her head to her body.
"Underestimated? Of course I did! You are just a zombie... plus i have to give you credit, about having regenerative abilities, so it would be more fun to kill you ten thousand fold."
Lana vanished from where she stood and appeared in all directions. Was it an afterimage? That was not her intention; they were clones sprinting around Vire at great speeds,as if looking for an opening to strike.
Sooner or later, the clones began slashing Vire in all directions,Vire kept on blocking each attack, with others able to cut some of her skin.
"In speed, you have a good skill in that; however..." Vire spots the original Lana, and Lana panicked in response to Vire's intimidating gaze and ordered the clones to finish her off. "YOU ARE JUST A ZOMBIE!!"
"It's time to get serious..." At that exact moment, the clones were closing in on Vire leaped to strike the final blow, but as Vire clapped her hands together, a powerful gust of pressure and wind slowed them down,pushed them back.
She leaped and then moved forward towards the original Lana, while destroying the copies with her punches and kicks,as swiftly as she could.
With a spin kick, Vire reached her, she thought she could block it, but Vire switched positions from in front of her to behind her and delivered a left hook chop to the neck.
Lana collapsed, unconscious, and after Vire stopped to check the area for a moment, then carried Lana on her shoulder like a sack of potatoes. "Thank you for the warm-up fight," she said, then headed to the mansion.
At the inner border of the mansion, Medra and Pendlum were continuing their battle.
"I'm impressed you lasted this long without losing stamina," said Medra.
"Huff... I would be lying if I said I didn't, but fighting like this is not all I can do," said Pendlum, before they began trading powerful blows with each other at tremendous speeds.
From one single slash, they distanced themselves, then stood in the defensive.
The atmosphere was intense; Pendlum was covered in sweat while Medra just stood there with a playful grin.
"Sir Medra! Allow me to show you my true strength!" Pendlum held his sword close to his face, stood in a fighting pose with both legs apart from each other. He took a deep breath, then launched himself forward, breaking the ground beneath him and creating a sonic wave which pushed large amount of dust.
"Oho~"medra just smiled.
A greenish aura began to accumulate around him. "DRIOT: BOOST!!!" The aura grew larger, making him ten times faster, and then he reached Medra in little to no time wasted.
Upon making contact, Pendlum stabs Medra in the chest, which letting out a pressure wave that bursts from behind. "Give up, Medra; I've won."
"Oh, really...."
"!?"
Pendlum realized that the Medra he stabbed was only his afterimage. "What? How is he faster?" thought Pendlum in shock.
"You pass." Medra ducked from below and landed a powerful uppercut to the abdomen. The force then pushed him away and he fell onto the ground. Then fell unconscious in a blur.
"Well done. Hmm.... I guess I went a little overboard. OK, let's go meet my superior." Medra's hand grew larger since he is a glutton slime and grabbed Pendlum like a doll,then heads into the mansion.
A few hours passed, and as Pendlum woke up, followed by Lana and Roda, they looked around in confusion. "Where are we?"
"Sir, it seems that we all got captured by those monsters."
"I can see that, but why us? The commander raids."
A female shadow servant who works for Sora and the emperor appears out of the shadows left in the room.
She looked like a beautiful young lady in a dark dress with long sleeves and a cloth covering her face, which has a crossed symbol on it. She approaches their beds, "I advise all of you to please follow me,"she said.
They looked at each other for a moment but followed the servant anyway. As they kept walking, they were surprised by what they saw inside comparedto the outside"Amazing! It looks as if the mansion is brand new from the inside," said Roda.
They reached the door to the throne room, and she let them pass by her into the room with a bow.
Behind the doors, the three were even more amazed by what they saw inside, taking in the glorious sight,however....
"Sir, from my guess, I think that is their superior," said Lana with a serious look.
"Yeah," Pendlum replied, also with a serious look, but he was agitated since he has a skill that senses aura; he could see Medra's tremendous amount of dark magic surrounding Mekari.
"What we are really up against in this world, salvation for us is to not let it kill us," Pendlum thought as they nervously approached the emperor.