'Fuck, I was an idiot to think that she would believe her tactic to make me "break" out of her control worked,' Akeru instantly cursed as he activated 'Still Spectator' to give himself some thinking space.
"Ahem, your tactic really caught me off-guard. I wasn't expecting you to use it to break me free from charm magic, but let me give you some advice: the only method to break a person out of mental interference magic is to stop the foreign mana from influencing them."
Erza's cheeks reddened.
"I was backed against a wall! I just thought of the best method available. Do you know what would have happened if you had gone under enemy control?" She almost shouted.
Erza's plan had been to break Akeru out of the enemy's charm magic by using her own charm.
"My bad, I should have given you a sign that I was acting. Though, that case itself was situation-specific, so I just made use of the opportunity that was presented to me. As they say, 'to fool your enemies, you must fool your allies,'" Akeru shamelessly said.
They exited the city and Akeru landed on the ground.
A purple robe materialized on his body, and his speed increased drastically compared to before as he disappeared in a blur.
"Also, wasn't her magic supposed to be Water magic? We didn't have information that she could use Charm magic?" Erza suddenly asked.
"What do you think about this?" Akeru instead asked her, curious about her opinions.
He could understand why Miko could use two types of magic due to his meta-knowledge.
"Maybe she's like you, who could use the magic of a different affinity, or maybe she was born with two affinities?" Erza's statement almost made Akeru stumble.
'Woah, I didn't think about it like that. But people could learn the magic of different affinities if they have enough talent. This guess wouldn't have been incorrect if we hadn't taken into account her grimoire anomaly.'
"What do you think about her grimoire?"
"I didn't observe it carefully, but it gave an eery kind of feeling. Like something unnatural, felt like two grimoires were integrated into one—" Erza's eyes widened in realization.
"Yup, it's what you think," Akeru nodded.
"So, her magic is the ability to seize other people's magic if she has a part of their grimoire?"
Akeru blinked.
"Uhh, no..."
---
Time - Same Day, Space - Onyxspire
"I heard that somebody manhandled you, old man?" an arrogant voice broke the silence.
"Che, I was caught off-guard, nothing else," the bulky old man chose to preserve what remained of his reputation.
"How strong was the other guy?" an excited person asked.
This person was Vespera—one of the new generation of Shining Generals.
She was the only female among all the generals and was the same age as Mars.
However, she was considerably stronger than the latter.
"It was the same guy who killed Ragus," Yagos said in a resolute voice, seemingly having the righteous tone of one who would take revenge for his comrade.
Nobody in the room believed that was the emotion Yagos was truly feeling.
They had known the old fox for a considerable while and knew that things like remorse and revenge were not emotions this man could possess.
"Wait, how did he infiltrate the kingdom and reach this deep into our country?" a shocked voice asked.
It was Zyphoria, the same person who was taunting Broccos at the start about getting roughed up by Akeru.
"Calm down, they could have entered by sea. That person—Akeru—seems to know water magic, so it's not that far-fetched," a calm voice replied.
The one who called himself Aetheris had a tranquil look on their face.
One couldn't decipher whether their gender was male or female, but they seemingly preferred "he."
"Indeed, and I don't think he is alone. He had one more person with him, whom I think is Erza Doughnout, from her magic—one of the generals on the warfront," Yagos pointed out while passing them a piece of paper that had all the information they had on these individuals.
"Then, it's not far-fetched to assume that some other generals might have been with him. Though chances are less, let's put out an order while posting their faces all over the kingdom," Zyphoria said coldly.
"Indeed, I was going to suggest the exact same thing. With the spatial mage from the Clover Kingdom, we could transport ourselves directly to where we find them, making it quite easier to confront them," Yagos smirked.
"Though, the question is, who will be the one in charge of confronting Akeru?" a boy with light purple hair asked.
It was none other than Mars.
Though he was the weakest one in the room, he was not that far from the grand-magic knight realm. Almost nobody could defeat him other than the individuals present in this room in Diamond Kingdom.
"He can use mana zone, so we don't have many options if we're aiming to apprehend him," Yagos said with a frown.
He could be said to be multiple times older than the boy, yet he hadn't been able to reach that realm yet.
'It's really surprising that some upstart brat was able to use Mana zone. If I hadn't witnessed him myself, I would have continued to believe that survivors of the incident at the border had gone mad.'
"BUT—" Broccos shouted in indignation; Yagos said this was the same as him not getting any chance for revenge.
"From what Yagos has told me, you would have been killed if Yagos had been a few seconds late. I think the next action is clear," Aetheris said while looking Broccos in the eye.
His tone and expression clearly told the bulky man that he wouldn't take no for an answer.
Despite being part of the new generation, Aetheris was the strongest in the room—which consisted of the strongest people the Diamond Kingdom had to offer.
The others were quite aware of this undisputed fact.
It was to such a level that they were not even confident of winning if all of them fought Aetheris together.
If Aetheris wanted to, he could usurp all the power of the Diamond Kingdom without much trouble.
He had long freed himself from the control of the mage stone that once controlled him.
In fact, apart from Mars, none of the New generation in this room had any mage stones embedded in them.
This was all due to Aetheris himself.
"So, that means either Aetheris has to go after him or Vespera has to," Zyphoria said with a neutral tone.
These two were the only ones who knew how to use mana zone.
Zyphoria might not admit it aloud, but he was very jealous of these two, as despite all three of them being New generation, he was far outclassed by these two.
However, looking at Mars did stroke his ego by the same logic.
"I won't go personally as it would be overkill. Anyway, Vespera seems ready for the job."
Aetheris' logic was sound, as Vespera was so excited that it seemed like she would go on the hunt at any second.
"Don't forget, you are only to move when we get information about their whereabouts," Yagos said to the excited teenager.
"Yes, yes, I am really excited to see if he is strong or not. I want to fight him!"
"Anyway, let's discuss the matters on the border with the Clover Kingdom," Zyphoria decided to ignore the girl and move to the last topic of the meeting before he could leave.
---
Space - ???
In a room, two individuals were present, facing each other.
One was sitting and the other was standing.
The room didn't have much light apart from one candle, which seemed to be on the brink of being extinguished.
"It's about time we start moving, don't you think so?" the standing individual asked.
"Indeed, though I have received an interesting piece of information," the seated man passed the standing man a document.
"I see, so that object is now in possession of this individual. Though I don't know whether it is a good thing or not, can we trust this information?"
"Yes, we can."
"From what I see, Akeru was sent to the conflict happening with Diamond Kingdom at the border. Do you think we can use that opportunity?" the standing man asked.
"Maybe, though I suspect he has infiltrated Diamond Kingdom, which would lead us to wait for when he comes back. Anyway, it won't really affect our plan much. I want you to continue working on your current assignment," the seated man said while standing up.
"Very well, I am looking forward to our success, Licht."
***
Author's Note: Though not all the shining generals were introduced in the original, as I think three of them were unnamed, I decided to add some OCs for each, which aligns with the human experimentation trend while making things interesting. I hope you don't mind.
Also, how do you like the last part? Things might get more complicated~
Also, at the time of releasing this chapter, it was Valentine's Day, so that's where the chapter title came from. Very fitting for chapter number 69, don't you think so? (≧▽≦)
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