Through The White Fox's Eyes Volume 2

by Kratos 57 naruto

"The stars have fallen, blade of the dark moon. Downed like lightning, our endless night became noon. Our beloved fell god, come back soon? Your legacy embraced our lives, like a boon. Your home here has been hewn so come back soon, our fiery god of the black moon." The folksong of Daedalus calls to him... The boy, who despite casting aside his mantle of heroes, saved them. Harem.

3. May These Flames Take Thee pt II

Hey guys. First of all, I understand this is becoming common but quality dropped yet again. Reason this time is beta's computer got short-circuited, resulting in the lose GB worth homework, study mats and of course, this chapter. This happened a few days ago as he was about to send it... meaning I edited the entirety of this chapter myself.

Of course, I should be working on it tomorrow, which is the 25th, but my father is forcing me to acknowledge the holiday and wants me to chill with niggas I want nothing to do with. I am not shy and can be an excellent conversationalist but I just don't like talking. I mumble to myself a lot, sure, but I don't like talking. I don't like being around people for too long. I just like working on my shit. But hey, I'm being forced to do it because "Fuck you Kratos 57 Naruto."

Guy shouts about shit he doesn't understand. He claims I'm wasting time gaming when I have won 400 bucks in tourneys with very shit device, appeared on television 5 times, as part of a crowd of players, like live stream kind, lol but qualifying is hard. Played T1 scrims with some of the best in the continent, I'm very serious, and impressed them. Refuses to understand. It's fine. I don't want to have phone for the next few years, other than to continue playing this game, so no one will bother me.

My device dead by accident and he still raving. I gave up on my dream of globals when it died and all that and him talking about it upsets me continuously. Man. The other day I was studying and got hungry and I decided to eat and study and he shouted at me so I simply put the food in the fridge and went back to studying. Yesterday he tells me he told me politely to not do it and I prioritised studying. Not my fault OOP is hard. Shouts at me yet he accuses me of not being serious. I will repeat, I don't understand anymore.

He can't even save a word document yet he still talks this. Oh man.

Father, if you see this in the future, just know that I will remember this. And I remember everything. I will not have vengeance, I have better things to do. Your words are yours. If I, by some miracle get a talent and succeed, then don't expect anything from me. Don't expect to see me either, and all that.

Digression aside, I already told you about my other skillsets in previous chapters... so yeah. I am really annoyed. Moving in a couple of days. Only got wifi back recently and I'm moving again. Imagine! Well, enough ranting I guess.

I think I implemented what you asked for, Guest.

Brachiosaurus I'll try to be more clear and descriptive.

Tr1vium Quit capping chief! That Hawaiian bullshit tastes wack, and how dare you! Few things slap harder than chicken intestines with liver and heart. I will concede ham is heavenly but with pineapple? What the hell?!

Anyway, you know why chapter might be worse than usual. I think I did a good job but removal of tomorrow from my schedule really hurts the chapter because the day after and so on, I gotta pack. Sheesh. Lots to complain about. Lots of scenes will be cringe cuz I didn't work much on them on account of grammar and all that.

Anyway, enjoy.

Tags: Humor, Romance, Dark Humor, Harem, Gore, Friendship

Formatting

"Speech"

"Thoughts or hearing someone from a distance." -Someone saying something in between someone's words-

"Inhuman speech"

"You get the idea."

"Jutsu, Attacks, and Magic"

-Flashback of someone's words(Note, only applies if italized)

-Telling a story

Chapter 3: May These Flames Take Thee Pt II

Dungeon Floor 18 aka Under Resort

"Hah…" Warm mist bloomed from his mouth, and it surmounted his mask, wiggling into expansion like mycelium. His ice magic, Absolute Zero, was a component of his Storm God's Veil, and it had yet to return the heat it had stolen.

His exhalation drained his bicep's contraction, reeling his arm from its raise, and narrowed the gap between the sword–flaming, gesticulating crashing waves and winding rivers–and ashen earth. It bore the colour associated with wealth as a tint and one associated with the sky as a core; its blade was like crystallized lightning, continuously shifting the skylights stored within like a fizzling carbonated drink or a star shower to romanticists.

There was nary a howl. The conflagrations effervesced to reticence as the overhead crystals releasing a comforting blue that contested with vermillion darkened into a noiseless chill. It was as if the warrior towed twilight's veils over the 'sky.'

Goliath's slayer had unfurled the period of slumber and stars.

His hip revolved on a pivot, bringing his torso to line up with the green centaur-like spider woman. Pressing onto Floor 18 was an odd silence akin to a stadium of bated breaths, but like slice jelly, it splotched apart from looping, cracking palm smacks.

The spider woman's corners beamed sky-high while joy rolled out in waves from her lips.

"WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW!" She cheered. The prum and amazon twins prepared themselves, their expressions baffled, awaiting a signal their comrade had assured them they'd know. He couldn't be it because their time with Riveria assured them the black one wasn't it.

A kowtow-invoking voice hammered out his lips.

"Dance."

Ten curving and frayed beams of light heralded blades identical to the wielded Claiomh Solais. Erect-like pillars, the faux swords raced skyward in a revolving decagon formation before suddenly stilling as if an invisible force beguiled them. Outstanding in the night of the sky, the downward pointed tips pivoted like hour hands to orient to a cardinal that they would subsequently fly toward.

They then did, retrenching twinkling auroras.

Without flinching, his muscles kept him erect amid dust suddenly inflating like popcorn under the influence of nature's breath. Golden blonde hair tresses settled as the sword princess used his larger frame to guard her visage. "You need me?" she soughed amiably, stifling a flinch from the revolting aetheric meandering in the air.

"Feed the blade your power and look upon it for the chant," the black one responded in his typical monotone. Like time inverting its course on a statue, his charred flesh slowly bloomed, lathered, and wiggled over his bone.

"Got it," she responded before reaching for Claiomh Solais, who pulsed in recognition. It would not allow any curse to assail this one.

Ais' eyelids were welded alongside a sigh, and she grasped the azure sword whose blue aurora was rapidly infected by gold. From her depths, she welled her aetheric and trenched it toward the blade of saints and heroes. Her eyelids twitched to part to gaze up the blade, then…

"Aretu predusema kharan ghika."

She felt or rather heard her winds scripting into her mind, knowledge she had no clue of. Her mind could discern any up or down of unknown words as scripts dragged neurons to connection. Ais' heart fluttered as her winds shivered. Her lips pried open, and everything flowed from her heart to throat.

Her heart sonorously careened, keeling her breath's tempo.

BA- DUMP

"M-m-mom?"

BA – DUMP

Hsssss!

Her winds churned like her roiling blood, becoming the crucible of her resentment. The call to her mother was the last thought diffusing through her consciousness before urgency dumped itself at her focus. There was far too much at stake for her to waste time.

"ΑΣΚΙ ΚΑΤΑΣΚΙ ΛΙΞ ΤΕΤΡΑΞ ΔΑΜΝΑΜΕΝΕΥΣ ΑΙΣΙΟΝ(aski kataski lix tetrax damnameneus aision)-" her lips blurred into a chant that roused her winds into a whirling gyre that did nothing to deracinate her companion omen. Her eyes stayed closed as the winds directed her lips, heart, and magic power.

The direction and link of each word seamlessly transitioned to the next, halting the spirit's constant clapping and trapping its upturned lips in a still image. The amiability now seemed contrived, and sweat glazed the truth of its feelings.

Ais' lilting voice marauded at despair rooted in the distraught and refined the swathe of comfort and safety brought about by the night of the darkmoon. She sang a song of hope like one in fantasies. Her efforts stayed true to her surrogate mother's teachings; her magic power was kept as level as her intonation and legato.

Then suddenly, as if the words were synthesized into luminant ink, dots of light manifested in the sky above the spirit. Linear and parallel mapping snapped into existence multi-layered geometric shapes crested with numeral-looking letters, ancient runes, and symbols sympathetic to ancient figures.

The unnatural night was a bastion that cornered the vermillion polygon receptacle and prevented it from dyeing the sky to shade foreign to navy blue and twinkling dots of white. The pale particles of the ceiling fell into the magic circle and catalyzed the invisible elements within.

Devised with a combination of Anor Londorian Numerology and other systems, the magic circle was like the sun but under the control of night; it resembled a blood moon.

A reflection into the demi-spirit's gaze sharply reeled its dorsum to a paralyzing crook while its muscles spasmed, rattling out showers of orange, dew-like droplets. Wide eyes tore down her grin as the arachnid below her torso shrieked; its legs jerked into twitches that prodded blade molds to the earth as its thorax collapsed like a heeled dog.

Howling and tensing its leg muscles, it crumbled and ejected the molds into molehills as it forced itself to the preliminary stages of springing away from the circumference's reach. Its throat rumbled out a horde of grizzly bears and pattering roaches.

The sound barrier raptured to pave the way for a purple and gold blur. A small cloud of dust puffed like yeasted dough from under the weight of the spider's body. If reversed and slowed, one would see a gold flash and the spider's well-forged legs tumbling inwards like a tripod, ironically positioning themselves like wood in a campfire.

"NNOOOOO! BAD! BADD!" The demi-spirit yowled choler as her fists and claws whizzed at the childlike figure who slid to empty spaces. A shaft of brown and gold acutely reoriented each curving and linear vector with pitched cracks and smacks.

"LEAVE ME ALONE!" A brimstone sword resembling an insect's leg blazed, only for Finn to swat it away from her hand.

"Okay," Finn replied before shafting his pole to the ground and flipping himself. Like he designed, the demi-spirit instantly yanked her gaze to the runes of blood hanging above her, leaving her vulnerable. Her sweat careened to the floor and fizzled to white smoke as her pet howled in pain, screaming at her to destroy it, yet…

She hesitated. "ARRGGHHHHH!" She shrieked, cradling her temples with her clawed hands. The bastard's flames roared into a monolith, and the flame pillar was pulverized to embers and drawn to the magic circle overhead.

Its arms lurched skyward while parting its lips for a counterspell, only for its brain to mush from being rattled like a ping-pong ball battered by a high-powered lever. If its glare and snarl could amount to flames, then Tiona, who was retracting her leg from the roundhouse, would have carbonized.

Presented with aloft arms and a dorsum, Tiona's other half, Tione, canon balled and compressed the spirit's wrists together and swung her legs over its taut bellow to perform a bear hug grapple. Tiona stomped on the entity's face to a front flip that gifted its cranium an axe kick.

Like an arrow, the demi-spirit's body shot an imprint into the heated ground. Efforts of restraining the beast were divvied when Tiona discarded Urga with a clanging thump and locked onto an arm. Amidst the song of the wind spirit, a chant was invoked, but no magic circle appeared as the gallant she-warrior's path was not of mages.

"My desire that was sunk into the sea, my longing that was nurtured in the sea – the time has come. Shape yourself, bare your fangs and become a snake. Escape the sea, cross the land and cover the world. Capture time, stop time, and trample over time!

List Lorum!"

Tione raised her free hand to receive coalescing motes of light. A flick of her wrist forced the writhing, screaming mass to pause as if jolted by electricity, cresting the bountiful amazon's delicate features with a savage grin that wouldn't have been off on a lottery winner.

The whip of light had slithered over and around the spirit. It also glided and coiled over the severely mutated juggernaut with the speed of a bolt and wrapped as numerously as great river deltas.

"Tir na Nog!"

A golden-tipped spear nailed itself into the corrupted one's united knuckles, gutting out an affected wail. It was the fastest projectile of the day.

[-]

Hooded figures pulled themselves up to the summit of char-crested Rivira, and before them was a young woman with the beauty of a goddess and an adventurer divested of his divine arms.

He garbed in a brown fit and stood a pace away from the sword princess as if vowing to be her knight. Reckless screaming welled in their guts, and crashed into glaciers. The reticent, typically unobtrusive teenager with white hair roared a fighting spirit so lurid that he was practically on fire, yet a graveyard silence loomed.

They froze. False images rendered the ground at his feet producing, sweating dew that quickly undulated to frizzled cotton-like shapes bearing a sharp crystal glint.

"Is this the world of the living, or is it one beyond? An endless expanse of corpses, more than the eye can see and more than the horizon can devour. The boreal winds of Lucifer's crystalized tears in Cocytus settle upon our very souls. We… we cannot win. The looming night. An endless journey that will amount to nothing, like the glory of those foolish gods. Mother, birth me anew and grant me a new fate. Anything but this."

But she still moved forward because cowardice in the Evils brought a fate worse than death.

Kamikaze was gutted like a petulant fowl. Their blitzkrieg fell apart before it could even start, and the instigator was none other than the inactive boy.

The chill was not physical, yet their souls felt their fingers blackening and tumbling off. Frost departed from fantasy, and ground scorched by the demi-spirit muffled itself in flakey cotton. Their enemy's sky-blue eyes shone like polished steel, and he uncrossed his arms.

His left, thought to be his preferred, was still in shambles, but they still couldn't see their chances erecting.

His arms then dangled at his sides; he took no stance indicating readiness.

None dared approach for but a moment.

Woosh!

Naruto's arm whipped into a semi-circle, clutching an arrow. His fingers unlocked, and a small clunk echoed. Shifting his eyes away from the steel-tipped projectile, he found a boulder-like fist trundling at his mask. The meteoric force suddenly crashed with the pace of an obese fish, whishing a dry crack. Like a pickaxe, the boy's electricity-wreathed foot had sunk into the man's temple.

Lightly jerking his foot back, he spilled grey matter. Crimson-doused white sharps and a pink vein gelatinous object settled on his black boot, causing death's omen to wave his foot like a napkin.

There was silence.

"Thunder - Abraq Ad Habra(May Lightning Follow You Unto Death!)"

Naruto announced, driving an open palm skyward to fountain a clamoring torrent of crackling magic power. The ground at his feet shattered, and objects in his proximity crumbled or contorted – if they were magnetic and weak alloys–to splinters, dust, or metallic orbs.

Naruto pulled his shoulder down slightly, then jerked his arm up. A hive of torrents of lightning flew out of his palm like birds of prey and zipped across the Rivira's crumbled streets, triggering lines of explosions, courtesy of inferno stones on their persons.

His upturned hand dove, caught a kick flying at his temple with a thump and jerked back to parry a behind-coming fist with his elbow. His foot, like a yoyo, extended and swiped his leg against his attacker's leg like a bat while his foot, displaying unnatural flexibility, wrapped around the man's ankle and plucked him off balance.

A crunching nose distorted at a hammered cranium as its owner's heel cracked against a pair of nuts. With an explosion from the offending foot, the man didn't get to howl as an Ignis Fatuus rocketed his entrails over the street.

Naruto suddenly waded to his right, away from a savage overhead cut, and heard a sharp crunch indicative of a blade splitting a skull. His agitated palm tackled the man's lower jaw and crunched his teeth as an impatient child would to a lollipop. The man's longsword whizzed to the sky.

With a frightful and finessed pivot turn, he caught the undecorated long sword and forked up sparks with a pair of slashes to diffuse some knives' velocity. As he did so, half a dozen shadows hurtled at the chanting sword princess and found half a dozen knives buried into their temples, each fizzling with bundles of lightning.

"Lorentz Gun."

A swathe of heretical adventurers lept directly at him while others converged from his flanks to initiate blindsides. Naruto swayed back, then hopped, raised his stolen weapon, and simultaneously deflected dozens of stabs with a slash possessing a horrifying arc.

He swayed and kicked tufts of dirt at their eyes before gutting one, stabbing one end of the exposed colon. "Blink. In an instant, the omen sped to the side, extending it. Because the woman had a falna, it functioned as a strong rope, tumbling the others by the dozens.

Before gravity could bring them to the ground, Naruto waltzed into a frightful dance, flicking his swords between their spines' joints and severing their heads. He spun into a roundhouse while a cloud appeared beside each head.

Eyes wide, the live heads shrieked when lightning struck them, and they combusted into flames and hurtled at their allies. The shrieks… oh, the shrieks. The monstrously talented individual dragged fences shaped like briars and coiled them around some unfortunate soul, trapping them in briars of their sins.

The pain. The blood. No puddle rippled as he smacked and spun upon it. Mushy grapes formed from vitreous mulched into the crimson splotches. He didn't stop. The pain and suffering erected pillars of blood to the sky as if offering to the dungeon, but he didn't stop.

The ravenous sword crumbled from strain and was promptly replaced. He dashed inwards, then out, without taking a single life before lightning suddenly erupted from his body. His movements shepherded and lined them up like sheep.

Streaks of blood and trailed closely behind flashes and lines of silver as the Fell fed the dungeon's depths more souls. To them, it was as if he had eyes at the back of his head, making it seem like they were drunks swatting at mischievous flies.

Whirling clangs wrested their swords before their hands were lopped off. Widened eyes encouraged mouths to follow suit as terrified heretics lept back, and Naruto manifested knives with his right hand and casually swept them in their direction. That happened before he shifted his focus to halberdier, who suddenly lost his polearm's head and half of his body.

Naruto's technique was just beautiful. Faced with overwhelming numbers, he took advantage of the fact he and his enemies were superhumans, meaning that they had more options to attack from – such as the air – giving him more space to slide his form to.

His lightning magnetized their weapons, deviating their blades' trajectories into each other while others correctly judged the distance of his cuts only to be beheaded by winds whose subservience to the boy exceeded even that of the chanting maiden of winds.

Moving from his root was something he did not do. Not once. His hops, leans, and sways flowed with the flurry of silver that bit with the vigor of a hurricane. They split like papers compromised by wet scissors.

There was another pause. The allied Evils ceased their attempts to evaluate the threat in brown properly.

A premiere of Naruto's step undulated his glacial fighting spirit. Nary a ripple wiggled away from his foot as his body secreted puffs of black clouds. His right hand's thumb and middle digit pressed and slid over each other with a snap, and a vulpine hound of black and zipping lightning morphed from the descending clouds.

Naruto's second step fizzled his body with a flash of lightning, arresting him from sight. With his quickstep's acceleration, Naruto blazed at his enemies like he was speeding down an incline. He moved his arm and sword as one, shrieking sparks from a parry against three blades before flicking his wrist and jerking his fingers to perforate through gaps in one's guard.

One member moved to cleave diagonally, only for a trailing vulpine to tackle him and explode into a vigorous explosion of wind and lightning. Naruto raised the sword, successfully blocked an overhead, and denied a stomp at his belly by raising his knee.

Overpowered momentarily, Naruto raised his right hand to press against the blade's flat and grabbed it before shimmying the enemy's sword aside and penetrating his neck with the Northen half-sword technique. Seemingly ignorant of his bleeding hand, Naruto jerked it forward, and a shower of kunai and shuriken left blue streaks in their wake like shooting stars, burying each in fools that took chances on Ais.

As silver tips grooved into his breast and shoulders, his brown outfit shimmered out of existence to retrieve his half-destroyed black outfit from storage. Naruto accelerated with blink, rallied his health, and did not divest time to witness slabs of meat tumble to cobbled pavement.

Zipping back and forth threw puddles of blood and tattered fabrics to the like floor wedding flowers. He had long switched back to his brown outfit for better protection. Each pause from his blistering speed was followed by curving wailing hails of crescent and linear cuts.

Clang! Clang!

"This one is strong and good." He evaluated as his heels nuzzled into the ground, smoking up the ground from friction as his body was dragged back at great speed.

Naruto was repelled by one in weighty armor and of considerable talent. He was dressed in typical knight armor and wielded a morning star and a shield. "Put down your sword! For my Robert!" the knight cried, hoisting his morning star above his head.

"I cannot," Naruto replied clearly and succinctly. Sympathy shimmered in his eyes, and then it was utterly crushed by his battle spirit. Like him, the man was tied by harsh circumstances. The man's alignment to good was certainly perplexing, but he, too, had something to lose so the man had to die.

A swishing thud and scraping metal tore a pair of shockwaves into the background, blurring the figures. Feinting left, Naruto's grip on his sword slipped as he ducked under a bat parallel to the ground and caught the blade with his right hand.

His down-facing fist slung the blade at a diagonal with a curve perfectly aligned to the warrior's neck.

PLANG!

Stinging vibrations communicated truth to the omen's evaluation. The blade chipped against the morning star's handle – the man dragged it back in time, displaying his ability to read blade trajectories.

Naruto continued to be underneath the man and again switched hands with his sword before launching a torrent of spinning kicks and slashes at him. All of them aimed at armor gaps, which the guy denied. He stomped past some and simply realigned his armored parts to the curving trajectory before stomping into a lunge, sending a shockwave through the air with his shield, which Naruto dove beneath in time.

A rapidly creeping crater caught Naruto but not in time to throw him off balance. The omen managed to push off the ground to the sky with a single hand. Several shooting stars bounced harmlessly off the man's kite shield.

"Tch!" Naruto narrowed his eyes before his form exploded into ominous thunder-pregnant clouds. He took to the skies and disappeared, yet the man did not let his guard down for a moment, unlike the dozens of fools who charged at Ais.

The cloud appeared elsewhere, dove at them, and their heads tumbled before it disappeared again. It re-manifested behind the man and carted at him, compressing into Naruto, who was denied another armor gap by a timely dodge.

Clouds manifested, and he disappeared again. The valiant knight was pestered from all sides by a sentient cloud, slamming and jostling into him only to produce unsatisfactory sparks. It was almost like he was dodging a swinging hour hand.

"THERE!" The man thought as he dropped his mace at the cloud that manifested before him, and it parted, snaking to paths past him, and rejoined at his rear. The knight swung his body around to meet the omen and found nothing, only for his instincts to suddenly pull him to the side.

The morning star, dragging a pail of air, discharged for Naruto's ribs and met nothing as the boy spun and allowed gravity to yield him to the earth. Pressing his right hand to the earth, Naruto threw his leg for a sweep, and the blaring of the man's instincts drove him to leap away to witness the shin that unleashed a directed Ignis Fatuus.

A pair of stardust kunai, blessed to shine like lazulite, forced the knight to flex his waist to slant his body as they were too close to be counter and wiped his left hand to collide Naruto's blade to the air.

Exceptional in the art of linking attacks, the knight zipped his morning star, forcing the boy's micro-second intuition to pump; the dynamism was of a hummingbird and a tiger battling rendered.

Blink carried Naruto to the man's front, then carried him away from a shield bash, placing him at his rear. Without attacking, the omen blurred away as Genos Valum crackled and flared to life, crackling as sharply every time Naruto found a new stronghold.

"Vakra!"

The fierce warrior was roughly mid-level 3 in strength and was superior to his peers in talent. He was not one Naruto could topple with speed if he didn't take him seriously.

The man suddenly wheeled at a 180-degree angle. He cast a diagonal sweep, mounting his attack's vector on a lingering sizzle behind him, only for Naruto to zip to his dorsum yet again but committing to a weighty swing with exceptional alignment. The omen's blade was thwarted when the knight squatted at the last possible second.

"RAAAAHHHHH!"
Shockwave manufacturing pounds nearly stumbled a swaying and ducking Naruto, whose sword's ripostes would either be deflected by the man's shield or armour.

"Well, thou art of passing skill. Warrior blood must truly run through your veins, knight," the omen taunted while upside down. "I can see why it would be a pity for thine genes to be extinct. Regardless, dear Rober will suffer for thy failure."

"SHUT UP!"

"Knight, knight, when will you learn? The knowledge you'd gain won't let you burn. Come, come, have a turn in this gorgeous and hearty crimson life's spurn. In my notepad, fates are written because a certain knight didn't listen. Time will march, and here with me; this beat's the last you'll ever hear," Naruto mocked again, raising his finger and jovially wagging it. "I can finally afford to use my lightning's full power."

"SHUT THE FUCK UP, YOU BRAT? WHAT KIND OF WARRIOR ARE YOU?" The knight howled and then hammered to a vacant spot, erecting massive stone and dirt mounds. A posse of swipes and booms buried some erected pillars. It produced new ones while simultaneously unleashing shockwaves that pulverized the ground – their area of effect was so expansive some of his 'allies' tumbled off the cliff.

Smashing off the earth erected by the knight, Naruto lighted to the air and produced several shooting stars that harmlessly bounced off the previous immaculate piece of armory.

"YOUR ATTACKS CANNOT PENETRATE MY ARMOR!"

"…" He chose silence as he reached into his cloak, hiding his hand.

Like a converging ripple, space warped, and a dagger flickered to Naruto's right hand and met the approaching morning star at an angle. Naruto then brought his sword down again, and to no one's surprise, the knight deflected it, but none of the man's allies dared dart after the sword princess. There was no such thing as distracted for their demon of an opponent.

Recognizing an opening, the man hammered his helm into Naruto's hand, relinquishing the sword and forcing his shield forward like a battering ram. Palms thudded against the shield, and fingers clamped over its top rim.

The knight's eyes widened when a foot planted itself to his chest plate before an explosion rocketed him partly through the plaza, surrendering his shield and morning star. As the knight pushed himself to his feet, a cloud suddenly manifested at his feet.

"Vakra."

A great attraction prevented him from rising. His armor, though possessing lightning resistance, was still magnetic.

"…" Naruto muted himself before manifesting his brown and grey war hammer. Lightning charged and polarized it before its wielder spun his body, then bashed its head to the knight's chest, forcing a strangled choke out of the man who suddenly found himself admiring an aerial view of Rivira.

Gravity finally took control of his flight, and the plaza rapidly zoomed as his polarized armor accelerated him back to the cloud. A twitching head looked up to Naruto, who was without his hammer.

The wind above him howled.

The father closed his eyes, and his mouth was inverse to the action.

"This beats the last you'll ever hear," Naruto remarked, repeating a line from his crude poem before turning away. He said it as if he was asking the man a question.

The knight chose to die on his own terms.

"ROOOOBBBEEEERRRRTTTTT!" he howled.

"Farewell," Naruto said, offering a mental prayer.
Like a meteor, the hammer fell from the heavens, and then a screeching munch hashed pattering of debris and splashes of blood-soaked gum. Like the crunch didn't happen, Naruto unreined his muscles to advance his body into a dashing posture.

His neck volte-faced to his right, narrowing his eyes as statistics from his sixth sense buried his calculations.

Crouched behind a crumbled wall, as if prepped to pounce, was a man masked by a goat-esque skull. Yellow-green orbs, saturated with experience, suppressed waves of death arousal.

"You… are quite the piece of work, aren't you… Bravo! Even though I suppressed my killing intent and presence, you still detected me. You aren't some decorated loser; you are a genuine threat. You killed so many of us. I never thought I'd see the day Evils act like pussies. Fucking useless all of them," the man conveyed as he stood himself from cover, revealing the rest of his body. His speech was laced with a deprecating laugh.

Naruto's lips tensed slightly at the insult to the talent he had just defeated.

Complimenting the man's mask was equally pale hair that dropped to rib height, and pale robes split at the bottom like a qipao, showcasing his toned and chiseled legs. The rob's torso was form-fitting, lining out carved abs of 4 pairs and a hearty, broad chest.

Ais, with her eyes closed, suddenly slanted her head to turn toward them

"I can handle myself. Focus," Naruto remarked with an even tone, knowing her level 5 status would easily catch his oration. And her chant continued, but the swordswoman's muscles remained contracted as if prepping to pounce.

"Hoh? Think you can take me? Fine, you were pretty impressive, and I've been bored lately. Let's play, Nameless," the man's legs parted at shoulder length. Naruto's left arm concluded its regeneration, confirmed by his grip properly tightening around the sword, and his left hand was in a diagonal ascent toward his right shoulder.

His wrist twisted such that the back of his fist was pointed at his shoulder. This was while the tip of the sword was directed at the enemy. Naruto then turned his body, aligning his left shoulder with the sword, and brought his right hand's palm to levitate behind the blade's pommel while the gap between his legs equalized his shoulders' breadth.

"…" Naruto's fabled response shifted no ears; a breeze licked his wiggling coat.

"Hmmm," the man nodded, froze, and whispered, "Good. Good. A pity you won't develop further as you will die here. For helping me with my boredom, I'll use my full strength against you!" The man announced with a vicious glint in his yellow-green eyes

WHOOSH!

As it hurtled toward the ground, the sword was replaced by lazulite kunai and shuriken that trailed their signature fluoresce when they vied in a curving plunge to the Sword Princess' perimeter.

With pace none except the sword princess would think the omen could keep up with, the man's shadow swallowed the omen's as it mirrored an uncoiling appendage reflected on the man's sudden shift in posture.

"You noticed, but you are far too late!" The pale fist resembling a stone statue bowled a vacuum of air; it headed at Naruto's head as a black and pink blur zipped toward the sword princess. It was a woman with pink hair dressed in a black outfit, wielding a crimson longsword poised to slice at the sword princess' neck.

Spirit words would have choked in her throat had Claiomh Solais not drenched her in a wave of calm. It was like the sentient sword knew there was another presence. The hands of human instincts that jerked at her spine to convince her body to move perished under a deluge of blue flame-like water.

SCLHIT! CRACK!

A slicing slurp echoed through the plaza, widening the woman's eyes with horror and surprise. A split-second duration elapsed before a massive shockwave, with enough force to down a first-class adventurer, bloomed on her cranium and was conducted by her body to pop a crater into existence, like iron with lightning.

Not giving the accomplices time to comprehend what had just happened, Naruto used his magic, Dimension, to conjure a pair of ornate long swords; one was crimson, while the other was a fading jade.

Naruto crossed both swords before him and raised them as the pale-skinned man yelled, "YOU FUCKING BASTARD," and dropped them simultaneously, unleashing blooming, coiling, gale-fed conflagration that dyed the entire area in a familiar crimson.

The shiver-inducing raiment of burn overwhelmed memories of Black Goliath's affected roars, causing glass to crumble to dust and buildings to blur as they vibrated in place.

With a sigh, Naruto's fingers uncoiled around the magic blades, and they fell. Before they hit the ground, the space they fell toward warped for an instant, and they disappeared. "Close… too fucking close." He contracted his arm's muscles to cull their quivering.

While he couldn't move his body as quickly as them, as long as they were in his line of sight, they could be tracked by his eyes which is how he was able to continuously advise alterations to Ais' combat approach during their bouts.

He didn't manage to kill them despite wielding Crozzo Magic Swords. Their survival, or more specifically, the woman's survival, could be attributed to the enamel-haired man stretching his arms around her for a protective embrace. The man had high magic resistance.

His possession of Crozzo Magic Swords resulted from Welf seeing him shopping for some. The boy had some errands to run, and like any mage, he had limits to his magic power, and overdosing on mind potions is not a good idea, even for him.

Without giving Naruto any reason, Welf dumped the wind and fire magic swords on Naruto after receiving an explanation.

The regalia got conscious for some reason but got into a good mood when their father took them from Naruto for the rest of the day.

Dimension – derived to Gate by the skill, Sage – is a magic that creates a pocket dimension for Naruto to store items in. It has a short trigger meaning the skill Omit practically erased all of it with its anti-four lines ability – trigger included.

The pocket dimension created by the magic doesn't erase weight; it alters it by a certain degree. The smaller the item and "less important," the less the constraint, which is why Naruto can't carry more a few hundred starlight/lazulite kunai and shuriken.

The magic evaluates the power value of an item and its original weight. It will then increment exponents by one repeatedly, weight as a base, while using the power value as a percentage to severely nerf its weight.

The power value is a scale that evaluates an item's effectiveness in battles, hence why Naruto can carry many throwing knives and stars. Would that change anything against a horde of monsters? This severely decreases their weight, allowing Naruto, as an average person, to sprint like he has a backpack with a small stack of papers.

This scaling's purpose is to relativize weight for an ordinary person to his falna. The incremented exponents will increase until Naruto feels like he is holding a 25 kg weight, for example, as an average person, assuming the power value is ignored.

This doesn't affect his actual weight; it just reduces his status and, in more extreme cases, his body so he can't just shove a cart of goodies in storage without collapsing.

Therefore, Naruto carrying his hammer, kunai, and potion amounts to sprinting with a bag full of books. It is fortunate the magic scales to normal people instead of fit people, so even if Naruto didn't have a falna, he'd be fine-ish.

It reduces his speed to that of/lower than his typical peers, but that effect is mitigated by his Drift, Blink, Aero Vartin, and Genos Valum, which all increment his speed.

Recap-

Blink grants him instant acceleration and a decent increase in top speed, but at the cost of curvature – his movement is linear. Its attribute is lightning.

Drift grants him the same effect as Blink, except the result is weakened but is promoted by a massive increase in mobility. Its attribute is wind.

Genos Valum – Genos = beginning and Valum combines Indra's Vajra and Caelum(sky) – shrouds him in a lightning cloak that stimulates his nerves and muscles to produce higher speeds than Blink. This is without the acceleration and the linearity but compensates with great defence against magnetic weapons and lightning-based attacks.

It and any of Naruto's Thunder-based techniques are amped by the keyword Vakra (Indra = Sakra, Indra's weapon, Vajra).

Aero Vartin – Aero = winds, and Vartin = turner of wheels which then means the turner of winds – shrouds Naruto in gales similar to Ais' Ariel but without the aetheric and the overall power. It massively increases his defensive and offensive power while increasing speed, though not to Genos Valum's level. Still, it boasts superior agility, which is so wild he can step on air and ride nimbus.

Its amping keyword, along with any wind-based attack produced by him, is Vayu, the god of breaths.

Storm God's Veil = Basically a combination of Aero Vartin and Genos Valum glazed with frigid mists from Absolute Zero.

Recap end-

The derived spell, Gate, allowed Naruto to connect a network of spaces to his position and shift toward them or swap them at short range. He is allowed to teleport to Dimension's storage for short periods before the space forcibly ejects him, which is how he makes it seems like he can transform into a cloud.

For a space to be registered, he has to be aware of it – which can distract him in battle as he has to memorize - and any type of magic barrier must not surround it; this doesn't mean he can't jump out of barriers, he just can't jump into them. A person counts a space. Speaking of persons, anyone that is not him increases the magic power cost.

Magic cost varies depending on distance but is typically higher than Genos Valum, meaning he can't teleport much, especially when it registers all the items in storage.

The magic is customizable in that Naruto can fisheye, twist, fade, and much more out of existence. It's enchantable also, with lightning or winds, meaning that space around him somewhat becomes solid, giving the weakness it can be stopped if the attacker times properly; it can be cut through.

This makes it difficult, if not impossible, to teleport spells away, especially if they are large. Despite Naruto's ridiculous control of his magic power, it also carries a high risk of neutralizing warping.

Leaving the flames-ridden debris to approach Ais, Naruto's gaze peered toward the demi-spirit restrained by the amazons. A light rope also fastened it, and a golden-tipped spear nailed its hands.

" KRISHEWW MRY WINKEIL DRAFA!" she shrieked.

Archives of magic circles formed under the spirit's body as she uttered shrieks, thrashing violently as chains budded from circle centers. The chains veered off their seedbeds and moved to constrain the spirit appropriately.

Taking this as a signal, the rope of light faded as the twins threw themselves from the spirit's body. Numerals and glyphs revolved in the circles a few times beneath the spirit, and the circles disappeared, taking with them the spirit's fetters, yet she remained constrained.

The sword princess's eyes snapped open as she hurriedly tossed the holy sword to its master before coiling winds around him.

"Return to light," Naruto muttered, briefly summoning Ryumon and then returning to Claiomh Solais. Light unfurled from the dungeon's horizon at his command. Ryumon was a legend/relic class weapon tied to the night and capable of conjuring it in patches during day time.

"Gather their fate and grant them blessings. Reduce their suffering to its conceptual form and banish it from this realm," he chanted to the sword, inciting to hasten its feast of faith and hope. Naruto's machination was to use Goliath to stimulate fear to fortify Ars Goetia before making a dramatic entrance that would stimulate hope to feed Claoimh Solais.

Anarchy and faith scaling.

Ars' duty was to wipe present monster threats while the holy sword's was to purify.

"In the name of all that is holy.

For the sake of all that can be blessed.

For the cessation of endless conflict.

For the lost and damned.

By your sacred decree and your master's law of absolution, I command thee to free that which cannot be unbound.

Those lords whose names beguile evil, they shalt be exterminated by our own golden blade

Awaken, o- venerable hand of heroes, chalice of champions, and scourge of the wicked

You who hast sworn against the abyss and journeyed the hell of a thousand nights

Become their moonlight, holy blade of guiding light, and become mine golden blade.

Rend all which obfuscates justice.

Cliaomh Solais - Sacred Blade."

Naruto chanted again – the first time after he destroyed Goliath – switching to Ryumon and deactivating its nocturnal powers had deactivated Claiomh Solias' second key.

Like a man burping after a hearty meal, Claiomh Solais bled away the color of the sky and became a golden gem as radiant as the sun. The insane force emitted by it strangely did not harm the environment by quivering it in a bold display of its power; instead, all in the vicinity felt like the entire place had become a sanctuary.

Naruto crouched into a racing start position and coiled his muscles back like a primed spring, orienting himself at the spirit. The bleeding sword inverted its hero's blood to rise, making it seem like a creeping paint splatter was attached to a sword's handle.

Unlike the typical posture, only one hand was on the ground, his left, and the other was parallel to his spine, pointing his sword back.

CLINK! THUD! THUD! THUD! Everything in Dimension cluttered beside him. "Do it," Naruto commanded his beloved before his muscles tensed, causing the ground he was on to suddenly fracture.

"Understood," she called out after he shot at the spirit. Her uncoiling winds had battered him to accelerate his dive.

Across the field the twins and Finn were standing Lefiya charged past ashen heaps, carrying a waist-height urn over her head. Riveria, a pace behind her, trained her eyes on Rivira and observed the golden glow complementing a figure dressed in brown flying toward the spirit.

Calculating his speed with the intent of meeting him at their target, the princess began singing while sprinting, concurrently chanting, and raised her staff to the heavens, pointing at a distant horizon.

"The heavenly sky which dyes all in its perfectly clear blue light" Unlike Claiomh Solais' calm display, Riveria immense magic power rumbled the dungeon as she charged toward the spirit in accordance with her glare. Her legs and form had blurred like gales, dragging a slipstream that bashed debris to crumbles and flats.

The invisible horizon where sea and sky are one. For only this moment, that boundary lies within my hand. Sever the blue sky." On the horizon was a strange path that was oddly at high noon. Ryumon can reverse or forward day to night, meaning Naruto had optimized Riveria's spell, which was most effective at noon.

It was a powerful holy magic typically esoteric to arc druids and elders. Upon her appeal to the horizon, the distant patch turned dark as streams of translucent raiments, the sky's blue spectrum, coalesced at Magnas Alf's tip. A green magic circle deployed below her darting figure.

"Its name is the dazzling blue! Azure Engraved Beheading!" The woman's speed peaked as she cocked her staff back like a sword to facilitate the sky's blue light, which had taken the shape of a blade at its tip.

Two aurora trails married upon the screaming spirit's form, blasting the arachnid to dust, granting the spirit human legs, and dying her skin a healthy pink pigment. Naruto's lazulite gaze embraced Riveria's jade eyes as they extended staffs – Solais transformed to Ars – and clinked them like comrades having a drink, and aetheric was charged in Magnas Alfs.

Like Ars was capable of storing curses for Naruto to utilize Claiomh's Omen Reversal, the same was true for the holy blade. It could transfer curses and magic power to the Staff of Sealed Sins for consumption or output strengthening. This was done the other day when the boy cursed the heiress from the East.

Claiomh Solais taking in a substantial amount of Ais' aetheric, sponsored the catalyst with the remainder. The staff's effect on low-level catalysts was degradation from its tendency to ruin low-quality magic crystals – monster drops included – via absorption. With its quality counterparts, however, it could reverse that effect, allowing for the transfer of aetheric from it to Magnas Alfs.

If Ais was a spirit who had mastered her powers, the pair wouldn't have to complete the ritual and spell manually; the remaining magic circle would have manifested automatically. It was a spell for spirits, so it would only work if produced by aetheric, which was why Naruto and Riveria did not pre-make it – it was pointless.

"My left, runes and glyphs, " Naruto announced, and Riveria responded, "My right, structure, and channels." Like reflections, the pair flipped their catalysts, whose points were pointed like pens, earthwards and kicked into separate runs of matching pace; Naruto moved counter-clockwise while Riveria moved right.

With their catalysts emitting concentrated aetheric, the pair began the realization of the last component of the seal. Naruto's stenography stood no chance against his calligraphy and dexterity. He scribbled letters that appeared to be an odd mix of numbers and shapes, each character being something even scholars would be hard-pressed to recognize.

Geometry was clearly something Riveria practiced endlessly as she built perfect and complex shapes without tools with just the flick of her wrist.

The circle was double-layered and compact with revolving letters and numbers. With each criterion filled, the markings on the ground started glowing and emitting a light representation of them, creating an identical magic circle whose contents continuously shifted, especially when more information was appended.

The pair paused.

"Lore. Anor Londorian numerology." Naruto reported.

"Liturgical reduction," she responded.

This time, they did not part and stayed close as Naruto began writing and Riveria started rewriting. Given the gravity of the situation and the haste required to lessen the strain, it was difficult for even studied and practiced geniuses like the black one and the princess to fill important criteria of a magic circle.

You cannot shove Patricia into Stacy's house without repercussions. "Patricia," who was immobilized in front of them, tethered by the magic circle overhead, had bloodshot eyes and bulging veins as she violently thrashed her shoulders and frothed at the mouth. Finn, the twins, and Lefiya all had their hands gravitating towards their weapons due to the sounds leaving its mouth.

Sealing magic, by nature, required information about the creature about to be tethered. Where is it from? What are its origins? What effect does it have on the world? Who created it? Like the numbers on an ID, it separates Bob. A Fart from Bob. B Fart.

Anor Londorian Numerology is a system of magic known for taking the world's matter and phenomena and interpreting them as catalogs of numbers and formulae. This is especially important because Naruto is NOT a spirit, so there are some things he wouldn't be able to understand, and one cannot manipulate what one does not understand.

If one looked at the water strider pair, one would notice the black one writing scripts that wouldn't fit in the magic circle, yet he never ran out of space because of the green one. Liturgical reduction is similar to mnemonics, meaning it's a method to shorten magical information without compromising it.

Iron. Wood. Carbon. Aluminum. Beryl. Nickel. These items are what I need to purchase from the shop.

W(wood), I(iron), C(carbon), B(beryl), A(aluminium), N(nickel). WIC BAN.

The world and magic understand and validate these inputs as valid.

Liturgical reduction is not as simple as explained above, but this provides some context. This method is one of the bases for Riveria's chant connection technique.

Naruto's photographic memory captured the spirit's magic circle in all its complexity and used ALN to convert to something more comprehensible, while Riveria reduced its contents with her Liturgy.

"ΣΙΑ ΚΑΕΤ ΤΑΣΚΙ ΛΙΞ ΤΞ ΔΑΜΝ ΑΜΕ ΣΙΟΝΕΥΣ ΑΙΝ-" the spirit screeched but was ignored by the pair, who moved to conclude their calligraphy and geometry.

""Braver/Finn, your dagger,"" the pair called out in unison, and a golden flash was deflected by Magnas Alfs' shaft, spinning it into the air, allowing Riveria to snatch it and slash at her palm in one fluid motion.

"I, Riveria, child of the progenitors, implore you to take this vessel and rest, oh guardian of Dragon Valley," she whispered while descending to her knee and moving her hand to her right, dripping royal elven blood over the appropriate criteria, ending the ritual.

The spectral copy of the ground magic blared to blood's likeness and muted the shrieking from the spirit. A shirt-clad arm whipped then coiled around the princess' waist, suddenly taking its owner and her place was the urn brought by the group's other elf.

"A-a-ah," the white noise parted for a serene voice to slip through. "Thank you…" Like water, her words quenched every pillar of flame in Under Resort.

Riveria blinked, failing to recall turning and grabbing the boy before running out of the magic circle's perimeter. Finn and the others were only half a dozen meters away, while they were dozens away a moment prior.

The crimson light bled white suddenly, and the howl of gale and an inferno hissed into the ears. The magic circles, both in the sky and on the ground, were nowhere to be seen. Instead, their representations manifested as etching on the previously unmarred container.

"So, like? Do I rub it and get three wishes?" Naruto thought, and Ars' white crystal flashed as if it was snorting. The container had transformed into an oversized teapot which wasn't surprising considering Anor Landorians were notorious for being tea fanatics.

Ars' form was awash with sludge as the pair dashed at the teapot again. If they had remained in the magic circle during that moment, things would have gone wrong. This was why they had to step out for a moment because they registered as elements.

Ryumon appeared, and Naruto manifested a pair of pens. He was quick to enchant with Thunder to vibrate the engraving tips while igniting them with dragon flames and controlling their proclivities with Ifrit.

Naruto handed one to her, and both sat across from each other, pot between them, and began additional work. Ryumon found itself in the pot's spout and transformed to Claiomh Solais, who began drizzling its auric water/fire.

Muttering amongst themselves, their hands began moving, reenacting a scene typically seen in stories depicting mages, apostles, and seers conducting a ritual. The mystery they exuded was palpable, yet the sociable amazonness could not catch it.

"HE-MPGGFFF"

"You idiot! Can't you see what they're doing is important? Read the room." Her sister's voice was led by sibilance, making gods lose the opportunity to make snake jokes. Tione's adventurer name was Jormungandr.

"O-oh…" Tiona looked like a kicked puppy. Her expression suddenly lit up like a lantern, "Oh, we can say hi later!"

"Hmmm," Finn hummed softly, lightly cracking his polearm's shaft against his shoulder. His gaze angled to Lefiya's jaw-dropped expression and pointed his mind at a premiere clue. "Lefiya," he called, snapping her eyes to him.

"Do you recognize what it is they're doing?" He inquired.

"I-I don't know." Her ears dropped as her fingers parted her tresses and nuzzled her forehead before her mouth moved, "whatever it is they did and are doing now is… complex. It's sealing magic likely devised by lady Riveria's family or… those traitors, but that would mean he is either related to her or…"

"He found access to their archives or is in cohorts with these traitors… who are they?" Finn muttered in conclusion then followed up an information request, twitching Lefiya's request.

"I don't know much but… the heretics are a subset of druids whose powers dwarf the crowd's. The gap is equivalent to a random level one mage that isn't that guy and lady Riveria. They are known as Arc Druids-"

"Oh! I know! Those super old elves who were caretakers for greater spirits a while ago! And use a type of magic that is similar to spirit magic!" Tiona announced with a face-splitting grin, tugging a soft giggle from Lefiya's lips, erecting her ears slightly, and undoing her brow's furrow.

"Yes. I'm surprised you know that," Lefiya remarked before turning back to her captain. "Yes, what Tiona just said is true. At one point, the once esteemed Arc Druids were the caretakers and servants of spirits and ferociously defended our forests from intruders. This led to their relationship with my lady's family, but…" Her expression darkened to a degree beyond the former night.

"They betrayed the Alfs and ran off into hiding, taking a massive chunk of information. Because of them, a large part of our culture is fragmented; numerous spells, practices and rites we once knew are gone – can you consider a patty without buns a burger? – rivers of elven blood marr our lands. Since time memorial, our more complex rites were usually passed orally, but some were recorded.

Those records were destroyed, and because of that, elves who had assisted in the ritual could only provide mere fragments of that information… I… don't know how to feel about this. Those people exposed us to Rakia and Crozzo's magic swords" Her forlorn gaze trailed to Naruto, who was writing and communicating to Riveria in OLD ELVISH, a speech rare even among elves and was preferred by the royal family.

"Captain… he is speaking Old Elvish," she squeezed out. Her heart thumped uncomfortably against her chest at the thought of the person who was so kind he provided knowledge equivalent to a scholar's life's work being allied with her race's black sheep.

"I see…" Finn paused before approaching the elf and pressing his hand against her shoulder, reeling her eyes into his. "Hey… I know and frequently communicate with the worst of scum. I hate every moment, but the information they provide is invaluable to us. Case in point, that administrator pig," Finn said, lightly massaging her shoulder while giving her a gentle looking.

"I see," Lefiya said, her darkened eyes lighting up again. "Oooofff," she puffed when she was suddenly embraced by Tiona, who promptly pressed her cheek against her. "S-stop," Lefiya moaned with pink-hued cheeks.

"Don't wanna!" Tiona replied, tightening her hold on the she-elf.

"It's that bad, huh?" Tione muttered before striding back and forth.

"He is quite an interesting character," Finn mused in rumination. "Quite interesting indeed… He cannot be ignored. What are his goals and vices? What drives him? Can we get him into the familia? Will he-" Finn's peripherals dyeing red and gold fractured his pensiveness.

The Fell Omen, with an elbow, cocked back in extrication of his holy sword from the oversized tea pot's spout, turned to leave with so much as a word to them. The motions of his departure halted under the warm atmosphere cooling rapidly.

"I would have words with you, Black One," Riveria addressed, rising from her seat on the ground. Her regal voice pitched slightly in a fracture as her eyes narrowed. Her pupils flickered all over for an instant, cataloging and simulating counters to potential escape routes.

A sandaled foot paused mid-motion, facilitating the dull response, "And I have none for you. Someone of your caliber can handle the proceeds." Riveria's nostrils ballooned in a frightening flare, twitching her ears, crinkling her brow like a wrinkled shirt.

It was unlike her, but the weight of her desire crushed any reservations and social conduct she'd constructed over the years. Momentarily, she wasn't just Riveria but Her Highness Riveria Ljos Alf.

Priorities unwrinkled her brow and sturdied her heart to flow alongside her cognition – she was dealing with an individual who could turn to clouds instantly and was infamous for his unsociability. "Who are you? To know such an esoteric rite… no, that is wrong – where are they? And how many more do you know? How many of my people's arts does your mind house."

A moment of silence trotted by, and Naruto, unperturbed, peaked over his shoulder to gaze at her focus plainly, "That is not your concern."

"You know that is not true," she pressed, rubbing her molars together. Her body's posture oriented to slant as her muscles tensed slightly.

"Then allow me to rephrase, Your Highness. I am neither an elf nor your junior; I do not answer to you. What I am privy to is under my jurisdiction," he communicated, tugging his foot up and down to tap at the ground.

"Surely we can make an arrangement," she offered, opting to evade violence. While she could defeat him easily, Riveria didn't think Ais would ever forgive her if she took such action, so she comported herself. It was better to offer something in return.

"You have nothing of worth to me," he succinctly answered.

"You-" Riveria snarled, motioning her body to encroach onto his personal space. Lacking the instincts of deer watching a tiger approach, he tightened grip around his weapon, breathing its blade with aurora.

"Stop! N-n-no fight!" Lefiya stuttered in a broken form of the language. "W-w-we a… friends… no figh-"

"…" Naruto had no reason to answer, nor did he want to.

"Silence!"

The high elf's rebuke and the chilling, abyssal silence of the warrior in brown flinched the young she-elf.

"What did you do to them?" Riveria's voice octave like gas leaking from a tiny crack. Her eyes, the mirrors to her soul, were on fire, seeking an opportunity to wreath the fabled 'Black One' in orange, fluorescent embers.

"What could I do to them, I wonder? A teenager without a falna against elves who are thousands of years old. Your family betrayed and tossed them aside long ago, and you are a century old, so you couldn't have met any of them. As I see it, your agitation is rooted in them trusting a human instead of you," Naruto answered coldly.

He had a point. His level of Elder Speech was almost on the level of natives, and the dialect he used was ancient, meaning he had to have been sat down and taught. Books on the language were scarce, and they didn't refine pronunciation which Naruto did just fine. His accent, too, though monotone, sounded distinctly regal when speaking the language.

It was the high elf who was in the wrong.

"I advise you to hold your tongue." The speech Riveria cut him with was so weighty the ground would have been reduced to a crater had it been physical. Her narrowed eyes concentrated a frightful amount of power, enough to freeze most first-class adventurers, yet his gaze resembled a grumpy old man addressing a petulant child.

"Very well. I will take my leave." His clothes shuffled, causing Riveria's expression to jolt along with her body. "Hold it," she demanded, not trying to be cordial. Sweat bled down her staff's shaft, something Finn didn't miss, as her arms shivered.

Etiquette and refined behavior brought with age spun on the edge and were one breeze away from plummeting.

"What do you want Vice-Captain of Loki Familia? In case you do not understand, the individuals you failed to destroy those years ago have returned, and it has fallen to me to clear them. For what purpose would you risk the lives of millions, I wonder?" Lightning briefly fizzled through his hair while his eyes darkened.

"Now's threats may be prevalent, but they do not invalidate guaranteed disasters in the near future. If we solely focus on one, then the other will be unavoidable. Please be so kind as to cooperate," she reasoned, opening a hand in a gesture toward him.

"I have already iterated you have nothing that interests me." Had he been more expressive, the boy would have snorted at her and her veiled threat. They both had convictions and duties and clashed, resulting in a verbal altercation. Two hard heads are equivalent to putting two bulls in a pen.

"You could prevent disaster from befalling an entire race, though. Is that not worth interest? Perhaps a relationship with the royal elves. Your merits alone are insurmountable, so I doubt xenophobia will erupt any protest," Riveria said.

"You have nothing that interests me. Actually…" he trailed off, glaring into her eyes.

"I cannot do that!" she exclaimed, perfectly reading his drift. Naruto shook his head.

"You have done nothing to correct the fallacies of Manas Jar-Eel Ljos Alf II when you have had many an opportunity to," Naruto said, shrugging his shoulders. It was as if he wasn't essentially being held at knifepoint by a woman whose power greatly dwarfed his politically and physically.

"You know what will happen if those happenings were exposed," Riveria hissed, pining a blazing glare on his frame.

"Regardless of your indignation, it doesn't change you have no authority over me and my offer. Do you think I am so generous I'll grace you with my backstory, Your Highness?" he inquired, observing Riveria's eyelids wrinkle.

Naruto then shook his head before continuing, "What? Do you want to finish what your family started? I am young, not stupid, not naïve, and certainly have no patience for you. You will surely come after me later, so let us finish this now." She inhaled and then exhaled.

"Yes, let us. Allow me to preface this by stating my intentions are not aligned with my family's…" she relaxed her brow's furrow. "I truly do apologize for my aggression. I have no reason to lash frustrations at you, despite it being obvious you didn't harm them. Truly, my intentions are not aligned with my family's."

"Your lack of action isn't favouring you, and you hide behind fear. The Arch Druids were attacked and slandered by your golden king. Your family alienated them, and your lack of action incriminates you. It is like believing in a god of morality and having evil proclivities," Naruto explained while slightly tilting his head.

To simplify Naruto's point, someone claiming they believe in someone yet never let them do anything themselves in fear of them messing up doesn't believe in that person. In other words, hypocrisy. He didn't trust the high elf because actions spoke far louder than words.

"But," she choked, her face burning up and her teeth mashing, fettering herself to where she stood. Suddenly, looking him in the eye correlated to getting pepper sprayed. He continued.

That is the truth. No one helped them. Not the so-called elder clans, not your family. Not one. No one. And then there's the present. Still no one. Those who whisper for change are the first to scatter like roaches when it shows itself." The monotone in Naruto's voice latched onto her spine as if it had just escaped a blizzard and found a warm surface.

Under the accusation, Riveria shrank. "You and your family are old, both in lineage and individual age, and if there's one thing us young people understand, it's that grudges fester with age," he remarked, observing her cast her gaze to her boots.

"Yes. Now, to breeze over your actions, people ignore the expatriation of Zeus and Hera familias, but I will not. And for what reason? To feed that scheming prum's agenda? They were powerful familias, and your actions doomed numerous lives to oblivion. I will not allow you to stain my ears with drivel," Naruto coldly remarked.

"To hear that from you is ironic, hero of the Octagram," Riveria countered.

"Irony revoked. The intent to maintain peace may be the end goal, but the paths taken vary greatly. Freya's case is more digestible, with members of the Zeus familia constantly harassing them and Hera tying her to the city. You, on the other hand… you robbed him of his mo-" Naruto shook his head and changed the topic for the preservation of time.

That wasn't the time to think about Bell or vent. Hermes and his grandfather knew Bell's parents and shared the details with him. The elderly man, despite not being an adventurer or a big shot, was connected to the couple through the father. The man and old man were drinking buddies, and their relationship evolved to facilitate familial love.

"Regardless, the Arc Druids are considerably older than you, some on the verge of death. Why can't you leave them alone? The limb has been severed and is too far atrophied to be reattached. It has become its own body and developed its own life. Ages have risen and fallen… Besides, progression requires the loss of some arts, and you should know that. Is this some denial of the cycle, I wonder?" Naruto lowered his voice to cotton.

"Well, I couldn't care less, if I'm honest. I have my own matters to attend to," Naruto remarked.

"You cannot hide from the world forever, you know? Your wall of neutrality you have built around yourself will crumble. It will lead to people descending their hatred on you, such as now. You risk the elven race," Riveria commented.

"I am many things; neutral is not one of them. The side I work for pushes my agenda just as your side drives yours. For example, you and Freya can war and ask me for help, and I'll refuse. It is not neutrality; I have my own battles to fight and enemies to tend to. Regardless of my being hated, is the merchant shunned?" Naruto asked, citing an old parable crafted by an elf.

The merchant beats his wife and degrades her. He abuses his children and threatens their lives daily. He sullies himself by fraternizing with swines and hunts with raccoons.

The merchant drags riches with him. He is always on time and consistently makes good use of it. He is generous to his compatriots and friends and drives the city's waste to the sewers; the period the elf lived recently normalized taking to sewers.

The answer is no. The merchant is too useful to be shunned. The greater value one provides, the less they'll be stigmatized lest the benefitted lose their advantages.

"Do you realize you could make an enemy of all elves? Even that child you have taken under your care. Would you want her to be shunned because of you?" she repeated after listening to his point with furrowed brows and twitching ears.

"Monsters attack me endlessly with the intent to kill, so I strike them down. I am more than prepared to use equivalent or superior force against a similar or greater threat." In his systematic answer, he displayed no qualms against battling a race.

"She is my acolyte as I am her leader. She is prepared to stand at my side, whether she is labelled a heretic or not, just as I am fully prepared to defend her," Naruto responded casually before adding, "not that I need to; needless to say, she is no weakling." He nearly puffed his chest.

"Besides, she has been rejected and revoked by her kind already, bringing us back to the Arc Druids, who never seemed happy talking about you."

"Please," she lowered her head, forcing a sharp squawk from Lefiya in the distance. An easy way to get an idea of an elf's mood, especially on the younger generation, was the erection of their ears; Riveria's age made it very difficult to tell, but it's Naruto. Despondence, regret, shame and many more roiled in a storm that twitched her leaf-like ears.

"No. I understand the cultural threat to your people. However, I prioritize the Arc Druids above your people. And I have no obligation to your people," he remarked plainly. To keep it simple, people coming together to overcome something forms culture, which is a foundation for their unity.

Each culture has things that make them unique, but if you take that away… and in the case of the exceptional romantic and proud race like the elves, you get anarchy because they lost their identities.

Riveria wasn't just asking him to surrender the location of the Arc Druids but also to surrender what he knows and keep the fact that he knows such rites to himself.

"I… wasn't born back then, but I understand what truly happened to them. It was horrible and vile and not right. Thinking of it fills my being with naught, but shame, fury and disgust," the high-elf confided with a pathetic snarl, angling her body toward him, almost fanning Naruto's eyelids wide.

"You still whisper for change but will flinch away from the light-"

"I do not!" Riveria riposted.

"You do. My interpretation states you seek to address the aftermath, not the cause. The tumor will grow again, woman. What are you afraid of? Your family being exposed for being the liars they are? Them facing the people's retaliation? Is it because you are dodging your inherited sin?" he questioned.

"I think you are unfairly projecting us as malic-"

"Really now? Here's an easy one. Your people's xenophobia despite them finding other cultures are capable of and willing to respect your boundaries. If there's one thing that surpasses hatred in hold, it's fear," he swiftly shot back, twitching his muscles, recalling the kind old lady that would swat his head for working for too long.

Their talk descended into silence. Magnas creaked, and blood trickled down its shaft from an asphyxiated, pallid hand.

"… It's true. I am afraid. I am afraid of losing my family to the people and the people to anarchy but if…"

"But nothing. Don't be naïve, woman. A lie, even when sweet, is a lie, and a lie hungers; it must be fed. This ulcerating yoke is reprehensible and within it, besides its lying ilk, is a foul pride that rejects all.

It's as true as the darkness that lurks within us. Tell me, Your Illustrious Highness, Lady Riveria Ljos Alf, daughter of his majesty Larfal Ljos Alf. Will it be to your children this yoke is fed so it or will you break it?" He inquired, boxing her in his sharp and powerful gaze.

The clarity of him tolerating her for Ais' sake was clear at that moment. The conversation was a serious inconvenience in that it allowed his enemies to escape while also endangering the people who imprinted the arcane arts on his mind.

By conversing with her, he risked the old elves, but at the same time, it afforded him the ability to reconcile them with their people because being rejected sucks. This feeling is worse for them since they are old. They aren't hermits, as they are forced to hide. They wanted to return even if they held a distaste for the Alfs.

The elderly elves were what he would describe as goofy goobers. You could hardly tell they were elves once you got past their cellulose. He had to be cruel. He had to be unfair. The crucible he built for Riveria forced her to be grilled by his aggression.

The frost from the sky's blues crystallized in his eyes and was so daunting that the prum captain's fingers tightened around his spear. Riveria's box was open on one side, but she didn't dare attempt the exit, not that she could; her addressor was not even facing her, and she was afraid of what he would say if he faced her properly.

It was in there she viewed a canvass of a few hundred years from now. Each cycle weighed the lie more and more till she found herself suffocating. Masses would lose faith in everything they knew and believed and would grow to loathe themselves for worshipping monsters that perpetuated the falsehood.

Then some were wronged. Shunned and shamed by their people who would call strangers of their race brother and sister – they were like 'filthy dwarfs.'

"I… I… those who were betrayed are my people also. I cannot abandon them to misery, even if it means I have break the cycle. The elves worldwide are leaving the forests… they do not need chains that will forever hold them to blindness, so they… can… afford to lose my family… Things like this shouldn't happen," Her anger died a cruel death.

Naruto was a negative emotion empath, and though lower than his normal clairvoyance, it had improved since his level-up. Her body language spoke with a thousand pictures. His frigid muscles, communicating his agitation, relaxed.

"I don't want to harm the Arc Druids; I swear on lady Rishena and my love for your paramour. I swear on my pride as one of the heads of my people and every holy tree in existence. Jar-Eel's actions disgust me, turning against the very people that have helped us. And my family encouraged him… They wanted to ascend. You know what I mean, don't you?" she inquired.

"…" Translation – obviously.

"I hate that we betrayed our people because we wanted to ascend beyond our humility and humbleness and then surpass the gods just for greed. I want to rectify that. Beyond their cultural significance, they are people like you and me. Beautiful elves like my people and I. I detest that my family's pride refuses to let them bury the hatchet. Betrayal is painful. It's horrible," she spoke, showering him with her heart; the aspects that united the elven princess and her, Riveria, the passionate scholar and adventurer.

"I am beloved by the people meaning when I return, I can be a bridge to reconciliation. The yoke's shattering will stench us, but I will make it immaculate. They are in their last years and shouldn't die with grief. Their own people shouldn't shun them… it's unfair. After everything they did for us, we betrayed them and many spirits and catalyzed a tragedy," her voice descended to a whisper.

"The wool must be pulled…" she continued softly.

"…" Naruto closed his eyes, turned to face her, and then opened them slowly. "Hmm, that explains the zealotry towards her in particular. The Alfs are respected, but the love elves have for her is on a different scale… interesting," he noted, feeling a smidgeon of himself desiring to bow in reverence. "…I will speak to them on your behalf. If they refuse to see you, then it's the end," Naruto pressed firmly before walking past her.

At the time, Naruto and his magic mentor decided to play a game of strip poker. Naruto didn't want to see a wrinkled husk naked, and the odd, wrinkled husk was a likely shotacon–he swore he saw her leering at him once!

They agreed that Naruto would strip and the elf would 'strip' pages of her numerous tomes categorized as 'stuff the Alfs have partial knowledge of' and 'stuff they don't know of'. The former category was simply they stole from the Alfs to make them toil – the Arc Druids knew them by memory, but they took large parts of the records to spite them.

What happens when a boy capable of butting heads with Syr Flover in card games takes on a shitty elf with equally shitty luck?

Suffice to say, many pages were stripped (translation: all) from both sides – not that she minded; the elderly she-elf trusted the extremely mature child and behaved like his grandmother, much to his annoyance and chagrin. When she introduced him to them others, they did the same.

Poor Grandpa lamented he was losing his place to a bunch of fossils.

The tomes contained magic circles, information on rituals, spirits, et cetera, but those, except the first, are stories for another day.

Magic circles.

Magic circles contain runes and numerals that comprise a spell's formulae and are placed within and/or alongside precise geometry. Depending on it and the caster's origin, the structure of shapes and writing can adhere to certain rules, systems, and specific shapes, such as the four/five elements from the East or Sun Crested Cardinals from Anor Lando or Gremory's Bairn from the southern lands.

How did Naruto figure out the spirit's origins?

These rune-crested circles function as spell optimizers and enhancers and also function as mediums for activities like communicating with the world they are affecting and entities outside the realm. Digression; it normally takes one a few days to draw a magic circle, but with the mage ability, part of the magic circle is always active but invisible as it's stored in the falna.

All the user has to do is prepare the spell, and the magic circle will deploy and complete itself automatically. Remember, magic circles can contain spells, meaning that a portion of the user's spell is always active.

This means once the spell is deployed, the magic power cost is reduced significantly because… well, the spell is partially activated. It's like fixing a string onto a bow and firing; you don't have to get any wood because you have arrows, even if they are invisible, saving your forest.

Digression aside, Naruto knows spirit magic and druidism but can't activate them on his own, and they require extensive preparation. Spirits auto-invoke magic circles when they conjure effects with their aetheric-laced chants.

In summary, magic circles can contain spells. With this in mind, remember Naruto memorized numerous magic circles catering to spirits, meaning he technically knows spirit magic but can't activate it. This is why he needed Ais.

Comprende? No? Okay. Read again.

Riveria seemed out of it–wide eyes and all. It looked as if the high elf was going through a bit of a crisis. "I may have taken it too far… ugh, the urn is still tender, and she is out of it. I can't trust her so that means I have place a failsafe. Geez," Naruto thought unsympathetically. His gaze fell toward the prum. Finn stepped past the upset Lefiya being embraced by Tiona who seemed to forget he was there.

"Well met. Your reputation precedes you," Finn greeted.

"To you as well, Braver."

As dictated by courtesy, both esteemed warriors extended their right hands for a firm handshake.

"Vendetta lives, but she will be incapacitated for the near future," Naruto shot straight to the point, narrowing Finn's brows. The prum's peripherals swam to his tickling thumb and back to the one in brown.

"He is more difficult than I thought," Finn's mind concluded as he recalibrated predictions. The sniping speech roadblocked Finn's progress and halted any current pandering, which was important because the black one never makes public appearances, attends events, or even looks at letters. It was like trying to build a bridge to an island surrounded by ship-rending whirlpools.

"Vendetta? My, that's a name I haven't heard in a while… I assume you used magic swords to repel her but even so, it's quite dangerous. It's awe-inspiring for one as young as you to stick your head to matters that could compromise your life should you err," Finn commented, stretching the corners of his cheeks to a well-mannered smile.

"The dungeon is the same…"

"."

"Heh. That it is," Finn said, relaxing his blue eyes before trailing them to Ais, who made her way from the top of Rivira with a light hop. Winds coiled around the pair, the twins and the distraught elf and princess.

"On that topic, what would you do if an army of drakes invaded Orario?" Finn inquired, lowering his spear. The prum trained his focus to any incriminating body language that would betray more about him but to no avail; he only confirmed he had an ironclad grip on his reactions.

"Kill them all. Methodology will depend on what I view as appropriate. As the old adage dictates, there is more than one way to skin a cat," Naruto responded.

"Kill them all, you say?" Finn chuckled, "how large is the scale of your lightning magic?" Finn followed up.

"Not enough for an army of drakes… Talk to the Sword Saint as he can conjure massive storms with his powers," Naruto directed, referencing Genichiro Ashina, the seventh seat; order is determined by date and time of joining, not strength or popularity.

"But back then-" Finn started.

"The dragon's power summoned it." Naruto cut him off, shaking his.

"Hmmm, but you can manipulate the weather to a certain degree? I recall the weather responding to you flaring your magic power," Finn interrogated.

"Yes."

"I understand you prefer to keep away from the light, but could I request you encourage Freya familia to participate actively?" The level 6 requested.

"I'll try."

"Very well. Something about the Evils concerns me. Our interrogatee informed us there is a particularly powerful juggernaut hidden somewhere in the city; do you know anything about it?"

"It's dead," Naruto answered plainly.

"Really?" Finn's brow shot up.

"Did you kill it?" Finn asked.

"Gale killed it," he replied. "Relevant to the Evils, Ishtar owns a powerful demi-spirit, and I believe you will be a target. Herein lies most companies and individuals associated with her. Kindly pass this to lady Freya as you will have to travel to the surface to guarantee the spirit's safety; I have numerous assignments here - not really I'm just lazy, plus I have copies – so I cannot do it myself."

"Very well," Tione spoke up before Finn, stepping past her captain and receiving a plump folder. With her competency, she typically acted as Finn's pack mule for transporting work or cutting it down – she was so reliable he could comfortably take a nap while she perused headache-inducing documents; even Riveria trusted her.

"This Knossos, do you know where the other entrances are?" The prum hero broached, no longer attempting to induct Naruto into his image of herohood. His dream was certainly a priority, but his familia and their home's safety took precedence.

Believe it or not, Naruto didn't just inspire lower levelled adventurers but also the stronger ones. Schemes, propaganda, and ventures were second-guessed by Finn, who considered himself a false hero, by the adventurer in black.

One thing that hammered itself in was Naruto's amnesia to pain and inconvenience for the safety of people. With that in mind, the middle-aged prum was ready to temporarily forget his dream.

"No. Just the one you know, but I am running an investigation that yielded a series of tunnels below the pleasure quarter… wherein Phryne Jamil devours her victims," he callously replied before turning away from the group.

Naruto's shoulders relaxed, and his sword left for its inn in a void. "Further discussion of details will have to wait. I am busy… I won't broach what your vice-captain and I discussed, but understand her knowledge of the ritual is fractured, and I have filled in the gaps… Kindly transport the vessel to your home, keep it away from lesser elves, and keep it classified.

Keep monsters with a high magic quantity in their crystals at a distance.

Make sure none of the embedded scripts are tampered with lest you are prepared for its death. Allow it a spot with sunlight and if possible, have a hero-blooded elf or god from Anor Lando visit it in about two weeks," Naruto instructed, to which Lefiya, who was at the side, nodded.

"My prey is stationed in lower floors," Naruto said before part of his body faded with clouds.

"Lesser elves?" Finn muttered, to which Lefiya responded by saying, "Lady Riveria and I will handle it." She knew exactly what Naruto was talking about; it was not discriminatory but odd phrasing.

Tiona was about to open her mouth when Riveria cut her off. "If I may be forward, I would prefer every last of that scum be eliminated. With this in mind, I would like to lend you our Ais because not only is she an exceptional tracker, but is… well, to void redundancy, her reputation precedes her?"

"Hwuah?"

Riveria ignored the stupefied sound squeak from Ais.

"…" Naruto furrowed his brow for a moment and nodded. His hand shot up, catching the wrist of an elf charging an explosive fist, which he neutralized with more resistance than he thought.

"Your efforts… are commendable," Naruto said to Lefiya, who gave him a happy grin, ignoring the shocked looks on the others' expressions. "Thank you! I finally managed concurrent chanting!"

"Good for you."

"You and lady Riveria are my rivals!" Lefiya declared boldly, glaring into his eyes with fervor.

The former ignored her and grabbed the War Princess' wrist while the latter raised both brows in surprise, then brought her fist to hide her lips as she broke down into a small chuckle. The weariness pulling down her eyes was alleviated.

Hand on wrist with Ais, Naruto raised his freehand and snapped it, disappearing with her with a thunderous flash of light, that left crackling remnants of magic energy in the air.

"SO COOL! First was the woosh! And Goliath fell, then he raised his arm while the smoke cleared, and there was light and everything! Then just now with disappearing act! So incredible! Amazing. Incredamazing!" Tiona gushed while Tione whistled in appreciation. "Yup. That guy cannot only make spectacular entrances but can cool exits as well. 9.5"

"IT'S A 10, AT LEAST!" Tiona argued.

---

[-]

---

"I sense a disturbance in the force... wait, I just said it for no reason. That's another phrase crossed out of things I have to say list. Hell yeah!"

"Naruto… do we need to talk?"

---

[-]

---

"Very well, rival of mine, you have a lot of catching up to do," Riveria placed her hand on Lefiya's head and allowed a small smile to crumble her melancholy as the girl nuzzled into her palm like a pup deprived of affection.

---

[-]

---

Elsewhere and Earlier

The she-elf and human, in appearance at least, occupied their peripherals to a distinct bonfire of blue flames surrounded by golden embers. The woman's eyes left the deceased Goliath in the distance and met halfway with her former comrade's blue eyes.

"Alise… you could have come back, you know," Ryuu whispered, her speech's contents reaching the other woman's due to enhanced senses. The organ beating against her chest throbbed with enough force to crack her ribs as glands in her eyes contracted.

A sigh washed into Ryu's pointed ears. "I abandoned that name long ago, Leon," 'Alise' shook her head and unfurled her arms to raise them to ear level as embers of her spell crumbled away. "For justice to exist, everything must die," Revis added, locking her forest-colored eyes to the sky-hued ones.

Like a forest's horizon, green and blue couldn't discard each other.

The visual padlock allowed communication to exceed the body's bounds and vibrate into the astral body and soul. "I am no longer the noble girl you once knew; instead, I am a monster who serves… no, that is none of your business, and it's pointless because you will die here," she said while the corners of her lips inched upwards.

The invocation of death twitched Alise's hands, and Revis froze them before Ryuunoticed. "Stay strong. Stay strong," her mind whispered, sharpening her heart into cold steel. Faltering had consequences beyond what she was willing to pay.

It was simple. Charge down the girl and run her through. She was a monster, wasn't she? She was… but her heart demanded she give closure, and the woman relented.

"Why would you abandon what we lived for? What we all sought to achieve?! How could you ally yourself with these scum? HOW COULD YOU SPIT ON THE DREAMS OF OUR FAMILIA?" The she-elf roared, mounting hurt onto her countenance. Her voice was like fire and a like a child's hand on a stove; Revis pulled her eyes to her boots.

"What you live for doesn't matter when you die. I died but was revived by 'her', and through 'her', I learned. I heard them all…" she muttered softly, voice devoid of texture.

"!?"

"Their howls. The wordless cries of people forced to enter the depths because of injustice. The roars of monsters longing to see the sky. The wails of unborn children and the deluge of those who inherit their parents' sins. I have not abandoned our familia's dream, for what I pursue is absolute justice… Leon, join me in death so we can save the world together," Revis offered, stepping forward, arms still alight.

The answer to her heart's plight was to meet it halfway.

"You are not Alise," Ryuu said, narrowing her eyes.

"That's right," Revis admitted with a nod, "Alise, the noble girl you knew, is dead, and all that's left is me, Revis, the one who will bring about a new age devoid of all injustice."

"Alise! Please… snap out of it… it's not too late," Ryuu choked out, her arms quivering as the redhead continued her slow approach.

"Listen to me, Leon. The laws of fate and humanity should have been content to see us live and die, but to have marred equity? Utterly revolting. If what is just is decided by the victors, then it will obviously favor them at the cost of the other side; doesn't that infringe on justice's basics?. Justice has been compromised; it's put at the mercy of the darkness that exists within us.

This darkness must be purged.

She and the dungeon are right; the spirits see it too. The gods and their creations are foul. Our cruelty, even to innocent people, is unfairly called beastly. Would a tiger think of blinding its prey and sawing at its wounds like some sick game? The gods have decreed it.

Why do men arbitrarily slaughter other men, rape women, and flail children before placing price tags on them? Is it not enough to take the food and leave? Of course, not because of hedonism. Or women manipulating men and forcing them to abandon all they have worked for just to spit in their faces and go the extra mile to cement their patheticness? To take everything from them. Is it not enough to just leave?

Loss comes even when it is unwarranted. It is caused by the desire of others unfairly using their power to wrest control of what others worked hard to achieve. It's a cycle. The gods allow this despite them being able to stop it, which is unjust.

Grudges made long ago still exist despite their progenitors being long dead. The people and their children have inherited their sins, and none of these can be washed away; instead, we try covering them with the blood of others. We harvest their howls and cries to drug ourselves into euphoria to forget memories we never had.

It's unfair. It's unfair. Children who have nothing to do with their FUCKING PARENT'S SHIT GET TORTURED BECAUSE WHY THE FUCK NOT?" Revis huffed a cessation to her belabor and stopped walking, glancing with glazed-over eyes at Ryuu's muted face and wide eyes.

"Even Astrea had darkness within. Many good men applied to our familia but she turned them all away because of the actions of a few men in her past. The irony. The hypocrisy. Curses. Afflictions. Suffering. I will take it all away. No more cruelty. No more births. No more winners. No more losers. No more desire. No more pain," Revis concluded with a whisper as she restarted her approach to the she-elf.

"We fought for justice, and fate and cruelty had us killed for it. At first, I loathed the Evils until I heard their screams cursing their births, howling louder than the fiercest of dragons. These people just want it all to end. These good gods villainize themselves to impose true equality in death, for it cannot house corrupt concepts like life," Revis thrilled, glorifying the horrendous age of Evils.

Children and their parents were speared like kebabs and sweltered over the city's chaotic flames. What part of that deserved thrill!?

The more Revis stringed words, the more Ryuu wanted to return to slumber. She wanted to dream. She wanted to dream of taking warm baths with Alise, their goddess, and their familia. She wanted to dream of them embarrassing her while she worked at the hostess. She wanted to dream of unity, happiness, and a future but as Alise spoke, they twisted.

Both sides of the pillow were warm. Alise had always been taking on people's depression and resentment while never presenting hers, veiling it under gallantry and gutso. Now that she was free, she delved into the hole in her heart, pressing Ryuu with melancholy.

"Life is brilliant. It enchants us to the point of obsession. Some are true to their dreams, whether they are but amalgams of monsters and adventurers. Some abandon their families and duties to seek adventure and glory, while others chase love, however elusive. This makes us blind therefore, it must go. In death, you see nothing. There is nothing to achieve. No reason or motivations to step on and over others. It's a cold, comforting eternal slumber everyone can enjoy," Revis discussed while her smile escalated to a grin.

Ryuu closed her eyes and slowly rolled out a breath before saying, "These injustices are why we exist. However far the scope of light will never be beyond the reach of dark. We make sure the darkness doesn't eat away at the light and the other way around."

"What?" Revis sneered suddenly.

"Isn't it the same darkness, despite our suffering, that brought us together and forged our happiness? To quote my master, 'that which is infinite has no value.' Your claims contradict justice itself because what you say makes it unfair to death. Without life, death has its purpose stolen.

However mired our world is in torment, births continue and produce the most brilliant of gems despite their horrendous backgrounds… isn't that beautiful? Isn't it worth living to see the people smiling and appreciating the peace justice has brought them?" Ryuu asked gently.

"Is it not beautiful to see the people take up arms to defend their peace from would-be criminals? To defy the norms programmed into us to do what is right? To happily sacrifice for and see someone develop," Ryuu continued.

"It is disgusting, watching everything revolting fester like wiggling maggots on a carcass. Sooner or later flies will take to the skies and spread their blight like they always have."

"We all have free will and the ability to oppose predetermined futures with our words and actions," Ryuu countered sharply, throwing one hand to the side.

"And become martyrs that fold into hedonism at the first sign of pleasure. Even if we don't, we die for nothing to change, invalidating their purpose," Revis responded plainly.

"But that's-"

"Enough! You will join me, whether you like it or not, my dearest friend," the creature stated harshly before taking a stance. "My words do not reach you –"

"So I must let my actions do the rest," Ryuu concluded, shaking off tears and calming her quivering, then raising Alfs Lumina, her recently upgraded wooden sword. "I will not falter!" she roared at herself, prepping to do what had to be done.

"Tch," Revis smacked her lips and took a stance, acknowledging Ryu's power. "Since this is pretty unfair to you, feel free to make the first move, you prude," she offered, relishing in absolute confidence like she hadn't had her ass handed to her earlier.

"How kind," Ryuu responded plainly, veiling blooming hostility. "Veil of the skies, by the command of our elven lords, respond to our contract. Bearer of life unending and moor of death, rest upon this humble fairy's bosom. Mount my hearts pleas and provide my retinue your divine protection o' ruler of the boreal winds.

Breath. Breath wind of power, king of Fountainhead palace, and swirl the clouds into eddies. Manifest the beloved sight so I may shelter it. Spin a hymn here," Ryuu chanted, employing liturgical reduction, a fairly modern technique, to reduce the lengthy chant systemized during ancient times. Ancient elven magic was especially susceptible to liturgy because of its typical reliance on rituals.

She partook in the ritual again, except she used liturgy to reduce the length of her none falna magic.

"Gale Caelum!" she howled the congenital magic's trigger, exploding with its magic power. External magic power swirled to a light veil of wind, twitching Revis' eye. Daymares of her recent encounter with a certain goddess of winds contracted her spine, but, fortunately for her, a flex straightened and strengthened it under the immense pressure radiated by her former colleague.

NieR:Automata - Bipolar Nightmare

Alf's Lumina angled skyward in unison with the strangely immaculate and decorated landform in Revis' hands. The elf and monster's pupils narrowed as the scene briefly greyed to younger versions of themselves in the same motions, except no grin was on the humanoid's face.

Sifting dirt and shifting sandy leaves crackled cicada-like cacophonies from the miniature vortex coiling around Ryuu's body. If one looked at it, they wouldn't think it was the weak congenital magic with how feverish the coiling rings of wind rushed in streams, revolving over and across her body. As dust erected into a pillar from her winds, she and Revis crouched, holding one sword in their hand.

There was a boom, and two pillars of dust feathered to the sky. A single clash of swords, wood and earth?, was all it took to generate a gust and force so tremendously powerful it obliterated the slothful mists of earth.

"Haven't lost your edge, have you, Leon?" Revis inquired before ripping a knee up, which Ryuu sidestepped and unfolded it to a horizontal bat at the she-elf's temple. Ducking and bucking against her heels, Ryuu distanced herself with a backward leap.

Narrowing her eyes, her reflexes tracked a crimson blur chasing after her. Then a dozen shrieking buzzes echoed, each producing enough force to inebriate a Richter scale. If it were someone else, they only would have seen the aftermath, sparks, and two crisscross slash after images.

Twisting on her heel, Ryuu ducked under a slash and counterattacked with a poke her opponent swayed past. While twisting, Ryuu forced Revis to abandon a hefty cleave as the woman's legs drove for the creature's ankles. "Hmmmm!" Exclaimed Revis, raising her blade vertically and supporting it with her forearm to shield her from a flicker quick horizontal from the deft elf.

The whistling brown sword exploded into a crack when it batted the landform.

A thud crushed the ground into twin grooves under Revis' landing.

"EXCELLENT, LEON!" Called the creature before breaking into a dash. She didn't have to travel the entire distance as the equally fast elf, supported by winds, met her half way. A collision birthed embers that scattered immediately, but they were drifting away in slow motion to them.

Despite the numbing sensation cladding her arm, the she-elf's countenance printed no expression. Revis was genuinely stronger than most first-class adventurers, so it wasn't strange that the powerful melee-preferring elf could barely deal with them unflinchingly.

A chorus of thuds and scraping, slicing metal rang out over the broken expanse with the combatants, jostling for each other's weaknesses, continuously swapping out and shifting through techniques like impatient children perusing magazines.

""RAAAHAHHHH!"" Fighting spirit bellowed out from their hearts and escaped their lips as they sprinted side by side, blades still married and competing their user's physical strength, and Ryuu found herself being imbalanced rapidly. Scraping to a stop and pulling her wooden sword away, Ryuu ducked under the ominous sword that suddenly gained velocity to bite into her shoulder.

Without her sword being in a position to counter, Ryuu bent over to a downward dog and delivered a hammering scorpion kick to Revis' forearm; her target had been her face. Dragging the landform back guarded against a gorgeous attack. It resembled a carp flying out of crystal-clear water. The elf's backflipping motion supported the ascending curved slash, which landed her into a squatting stance.

Ryuu's hand blurred into her cloak, and plumes of white smoke bloomed like heated yeast. "The hell's with these tricks?" Revis complained, prepping her strength to fan the smoke away with a powerful swipe, only to tilt her blade like a grandfather clock's swings.

Throwing knives were beside her ankle.

BANG!

"What?!" Revis thought, confused as she curved in the air under an explosion. She looked to her side and noted throwing knife shrapnel drifting idly past. Inside the knives had been a compound of the inferno stone Evils immolated themselves with.

Her red and black blade descended like a meteor, parrying a wooden sword spearing at her leg. A squelch echoed before a sharp pain blazed from her right hand. The she-elf was beside her in the air with a silver karambit stabbed into Revis' free hand. Ryuu's waist twisted, whipping her booted leg at Revis.

A popping impact drew a grunt from the creature, forcing the surrender of her greatsword. Red on her face and eyes, Ryuu flails her body away from Revis' sudden flails accompanied by roars. Revis' hand slid down the karambits blade and latched onto the elf's hand.

Even though much weaker than the sword princess, the winds surrounding the elf blared and forced her into a barrel roll that dragged the knife through the creature's hand. A blurred, brown, and black-streaked hand hammered Revis' cheek, plummeting her body to the ground like meteor.

A crack was followed by a descending whoosh, visually dragging a green blur that resounded another crack on impact. Ryuu leaned away from a haymaker from the woman she straddled and responded with her own, burying the creature's face to the earth.

"You surface creatures are so affected by emotion, but you never channel it. You are doing great! THAT'S IT, GIVE IT YOUR ALL," She cheered in between Ryuu's fists shoveling into her countenance's foundation. Revis' blackening eyes spied a pair of short katana's strapped to Ryuu's waist and darted her hands at them without hesitation.

Ryuu, strangely enough, closed her eyes, and Revis suddenly screamed at the sensation of boiling eyes; her world had bleached over. Ryuu had broken jaws into the shortswords and tied string linked to a magic item that exploded into a blinding light flash. She hid the real kodachi near her tailbone.

Instinctively guarding her chest, where her magic core was, Revis forced Ryuu to grab her by the neck and sprint, wiggling her fingers to break her neck while moving at breakneck speed. Friction smoke drifted skyward as strands of crimson hair decorated a new trench shooting into existence on the ground.

Ecstatic, her old friend hadn't lost her edge, pain felt dim and distant. "Giif! Ooff! Gaah!" Ryuu tilled the earth, using Revis' head like a hoe and burying it until rocks, trees, and crystals in her mad dash.

"Ugh!" Ryuu grunted as blood welled at her hand, excavated by Revis' teeth. She could no longer throw her off as that would take a chunk of her hand off. Ryuu's finger, from her free hand, speared and shot past Revis' eyelid and the dim tickling sensations suddenly became magma, forcing a gale from Revis' lungs.

"FUUUUCCCCCKKKK!"
Her teeth released the hand, allowing Ryuu to hurl her away. The monster whipped up plumes of dust as her body plunked up and down like a skipped stone on a lake's surface. Ryuu lightly shook her left hand, discarded a bloody gelatinous sludge.

As dust clouds cleared, revealing the monster-human hybrid's kneeling form, Ryuu sipped on a dual potion that restored focus and health. The wind spell surrounding her couldn't enchant weapons, but it granted a substantial increase in speed and agility; it was unfortunate it took a lot out of her.

"Tch, where'd all that honour go?" Revis sneered, clutching a reconstituted hand.

"It lays beside you in your grave," she responded as coldly as possible, suppressing tears, retrieving Alf's Luminas, and taking a stance.

"I'm not in a grave though."

"That will be corrected," Ryuu said wearily. Despite her ascension to first class, the young elf found herself breathless. Her eyes wanted to shut themselves from reality, but her word made her fight.

-I will do what has to be done.

Revis raised a brow at Ryuu's counter before nonchalantly shrugging her shoulders.

"Man… you sure have changed. Can't say I don't like you. Wouldn't want you breaking down into a crying mess, now would we? I can't trust anyone in that group, but if you join, I'll be able to trust you. It's terribly lonely here, in the dungeon, you know?" Revis commented, throwing her chest as if lugging something heavy. The grin etched on her face couldn't sensationalize the numbness in her heart.

A magic circle appeared a distance away, causing her to flinch. "Hey… the person who had you replace Aria. Just who is he?" she interrogated, lightly tapping her foot against the dungeon, creating a new landform to wield.

"One whose hand I'll never let go of," Ryuu responded before being mirrored by Revis in her sudden charge. "Heh! Good for you!" Their swords bumped with cracks as they slashed at each other, biting blades into opposing flesh. Miach familia's health potion's lingering effects allowed Ryuu to match her former companion's healing.

Their swords met in a flurry of sparks, an innumerable variety of dancing glints of light. As they continued to trade blows for what felt like an eternity, fireworks began to overpower the dungeon's daylight, burning a smoldering crowd of butterflies in their wake.

Neither could hope to cleave limbs off due to close proximity denying the motion to producing necessary power, so they sawed over and against each other with vertical, diagonal and horizontal drifts in random yet speedy combos.

Bloodshot eyes from Ryuu revealed her heart had declared Revis could take as much flesh, blood and bone from her, but the current Alise would die to save the old one. Gale Wind refused to allow her familia's dream to die at the hands of its former main driver.

No matter how much she slashed, the shrieking emanated by the blades couldn't deafen the buzzing in her eyes. Her tightened jaw kept flames from spilling out of the furnace in her heart and forcing her eyes to rain to heal the pain.

Swelling like an agitated storm, Ryuu's cuts grew so feverish, deflecting them was like thinning a pack of hornets with a pebble. As a first-class adventurer-level monster, it was possible, but the elf was no wild animal. Wooden strokes stroked aside crimson-ebony masses to slip into Revis' guard.

They kicked into each others' guards and married their shins with large duds. Their streamlined movement covered acres in instants, flying up and down the field like sparrows and hurling their very best like enraged apes.
"This is getting ridiculous!" Revis growled but held her tongue before a series of curses could slip out. The thumping of her heart did not match the amount of stamina she should have had; she squandered openings and stuck to her handicap like nailed wood.

Her decision to adhere to the handicap allowed her old friend to at least have a chance at defeating her. Twisted as she may be, she despised the usurpation of freewill. Despite that, she knew missions required the sacrifice of morals, but… she couldn't.

The sight of a beheaded elf marinated in a pool darker than her locks of hair froze her spine. The vicious grin on her face nearly fractured, but she continued its work admirably, maintaining the intensity of her attacks.

""P-please stop,"" the sisters in justice mentally groveled at each other's physical and emotional horizons. They couldn't. Their hands craved to be stained in red, fueling the intensity of sparking clashes.

Revis' heart scalded the voice in her head demanding she go free the spirit. The voice in her head was roasted every time it demanded Revis retrieve items regardless of her schedule. It made her want to lurch and hurl, but she sometimes followed for the sake of her dream.

The hurricane of sharpness, Ryuu, blended her despite her greatest efforts to fend her off. Her body was inefficient, as it took hundreds of magic stones to fuel her for a single battle. It healed injuries, not damage, meaning her encounter with Ais still weakened her, and she adapted her fighting style to her legs, hands, and weapons being on fire, which there were not.

Regardless of being edged, Revis grinned and pressed on, displaying the will of an adventurer, no matter how monstrously twisted it may have been. Her eyes went black then the world's light flashed back into being, allowing her to shift her neck by a hairsbreadth from the tip of Ryuu's sword.

"To think you have properly inherited and assimilated Kaguya's style into your own… amazing," Alise thought, eyes flashing at a pattern one would normally see from her vice-captain, who she regularly had sparred with.

Ryuu brought a leather sheath forward, slid her holy tree sword inside, and stomped a foot, pushing mashed earth at Revis' feet and zipping into the woman's space. "AMAZING!" She thought, observing her free arm… be free. It arced away from their battle. Her healing patched the blood-spewing stump.

She had barely saved her sword-wielding hand from a technique Kaguya had been developing. The Gojouno Mesh. It was a silly but fitting name for a cut derived from the Ashina cross technique, a technique that scored a gorgeous cruciform so quickly it could serve a demon's arm, or so bragged Isshin of Ashina.

It was essentially four Ashina Crosses in an instant + + ++. With the way they were stacked, they looked like an octothorpe(#), hence the mesh.

"You completed Kaguya's technique!" Reverence and terror flashed through Revis' gaze as her body was in the motion of distancing itself. The rabid, charging elf seemed to have the spirit of a girl in a maroon kimono floating beside her.

"Issen." Kaguya's representation seemed to announce as Ryuu unsheathed Alf's Lumina while her wind puffed, accelerating her, and cracked a heavy, blue-tinted hit, courtesy of Ryuu's Aero Mana skill, against the black and red blade.

Although wielded by a single hand, Ryuu's strength, enhanced by the skill, made it feel like two arms were striking against Revis' lone and add to that the technique that doubled the force. Feeling her fingers nearly pop from their sockets distracted her from her now common rebounds against the shattered earth.

"Futaba." Ryuu yanked the kodachi pair from their sheathes and attempted to cleave an X into Revis' form but was awarded a V courtesy of a quivering greatsword. Revis' lack of an arm, now a healed stump, spoiled her balance, but she had been able to adjust on time.

"In the sky of a now distant forest," Ryuu began, contracting and flinching away from mortal cuts and responding with her own. Her magic power swelled once again, flowing into her next spell. "Infinite stars scattered in the endless night sky. Respond to my foolish voice; give me now the divine protection of starfire," Ryuu pressed on in, reveling in the majesty of the night her leader conjured.

Fairy Serenade, her skill, increased her magic power, and the effect multiplied at night. Ryumon and Naruto had given her this opportunity; as a result, she could keep up with a monster as powerful as a high tier 5 or even higher.

She knew he wanted Riveria to use a spell-like Azure Engraved Beheading, whose effects only worked during day. This knowledge, despite her fracturing bones, despite the stinging sears of her torn gloves and hands from friction, she pressed on.

She moved faster and faster, the blue glow on her sword brightening and the weight of her attacks multiplying as she aggressively adhered to a combo. An amputated arm put Revis at a severe disadvantage; one Ryuu wouldn't let go of so easily.

"Give the mercy of light to the one who abandoned you. Come wandering wind, the wandering traveler. Cross the sky and run through the wilderness, run faster than anything else," she breathed, leveling a harsh glare at her opponent as remnants, a parting gift from Ryumon descended, stardust, the finest you'd find anywhere.

The twinkling nebula remnants illuminated the elf's beauty. Through the descending dust, she heard the bewitched dragon sword speaking to her, "DON'T FUCK THIS UP, YOU LONG EARRED BRAT!" It cheered her on its own way, even if long ears is a racist slur.

"Luminous Wind!" she shouted, spawning orbs of twinkling light clad in winds. Their typical greenish hue was night colored, and as if on cue, the chilling night bled into nothingness, giving the impression the orbs had greedily devoured it.

An impact rippled through Ryuu's arm when she deflected the obsidian and ruby sword to pave entry for slipping into Revis' guard. A phantom stimulus of movement tricked the monster into believing her arm moved and got reality rattled to her brain when Ryuu's fist buried itself to her cheek.

A cracking thud slapped against Ryuu's leg, halting an extended leg guarded by shin guards. Dropping the wooden sword allowed Ryuu to arrest the redhead's wrist. She swiftly twisted such that Revis' bust was parallel to her back before ducking while yanking, plucking the creature from over her shoulder.

A lone night wind orb arced over her shoulder and battered into Revis' knees; her hurriedly tucking her knees to fetal saved her chest. "Luvia," chanted the she-elf, and the orb swelled into a brief but pompous explosion of wind.

"AGH!" Grunted the monster, not giving time for her fragmented shin guards to land, spinning one bruising leg to hoe into Ryuu's forehead. Ryuu's backhand launched the offender to the ground, resounding a crash-crying crater.

Whishing sweeps stepped Ryuu back before a second explosion of black wind sent a crimson bullet shooting into the shadows of erected hills and trees. Without time to strategize, Revis found Ryuu sailing above her, face blistering with rage while tears bubbled from her peripherals to cool.

"Ahh…"

Revis' extended her hand in time to deflect the spell, but at the cost of her flight, plummeting her like at a right angle. The fight was over. Her last arm joined the other in flight.

"So you wo-!" Her voice cracked as Ryuu was suddenly bashed away from her descent to stab Revis through the chest.

A thudding squelch pummeled wind into visibility for a moment and packed networks on blood upon it. Twitching uncontrollably, the woman stumps twitched, edging phantom hands to her chest.

"Basta-" she choked as hands gained closeness. Her eyes were wide as they drifted over the arm running through her chest and landed on the hand clutching an amythyst, heart sized magic crystal.

"Sorry Revis! You got defeated, and I need more strength to serve her!" The man in white, covered in burns, howled before yanking his arm back and ducking in time to evade a flash of silver. The sword princess, wings unfurled, had appeared above her to decapitate her fellow creature.

NieR:Automata: Bipolar Nightmare End

Dark Souls: The Fall of Artorias

"ALISE!" Ryuu cried as she shot past trees and dirt mounds, shattering them under the trundling slipstream produced by the immense speed, before halting and tucking her knees, then driving them to the ground to catch the creature rapidly descending to her back.

"Violas!" Called out the man in white as a cavalcade of green masses exploded from all over and rushed to serve as his rampart as he retreated away from the scene, preventing the sword princess from giving chase.

Ais grunted and waved her sword in a wide arc, unleashing a thin blade of wind that tore into the masses, crumbling some to ash as their magic stones were compromised, revealing the man in white to be gone.

The sword princess turned to a now downed Revis, pressed against Ryuu's chest, dying her white shirt crimson, and tensed her expression, fingers tightening around her sword's hilt. Her gaze drifted over to Naruto, whose concern was evidently on the individual who had just escaped and saw him showing no concern about the creature.

Indignation produced a crimson vignette when her eyes landed on the creature. "Aria" "Aria" she said. Threatened Lefiya and her familia she did but… Some people could be monsters, but the young woman couldn't ignore what she saw at the end of the fight. Both women were crying, and those tears confirmed that the one in red was a Alise Lovell.

A former ally who lost herself to tragedy and swore to destroy the world but refused to kill her friend, thus halting her goal. The encroaching crimson vignette was swept away. Gold eyes saw black, and the rapier returned to its home with far more force than necessary.

"Well… shit," Naruto commented blasely, pursing his lips at his failure to kill the other creature for the second time. He and Ais had been observing the battle starting from near its conclusion when they saw a man blurring to the fight from a distance.

The clever man kept away to stay out of Naruto's clairvoyance perimeter.

Angling an upturned eye as twitching green corpses, he wheeled to put his friend in his focus ad lightly pursed his lips, his dilated pupils relaxing as his eyelids drooped when the noise of quiet wailing entered his ears.

Claiomh Solais, in its spear form, had found its way into Revis' chest, halting her body from following her feet in dust conversion. Still gold from the saturation of faith, the spear strained its power to allow the pair a last moment.

"Heh, you win, Leon," remarked Revis, forcing a grin whose presence was invalidated by a drop slipping from her eye's corner and falling over her lobe. Her body offered no resistance as it was pressed against the she-elf's bossom and rained external tears.

A whimper answered her factual statement. The rapidly reddening eyes of the elf were shut, unveiling the faux preparedness to end her former captain's life. In Ryuu's heart, regardless of the acts and lives Alise took, regardless of all the pain she caused and her betrayal, she was still the same girl she loved; the path taken by the creature tore at her heart.

Ryuu had Syr. Who did Alise have?

"… Stop crying already." Revis' shivering tone backfired, concentrating the boreal winds to tearing open her heart to reveal an endless vacuum. Her purpose, dreams, and hopes had been crushed that day, so she latched onto the closest purpose, even if a monster offered it.

Cries of pain overwrote her morals and dreams. Each moment that passed cemented her acknowledgment of the truth. She distanced her eyes away from the imaginary eyes of her deceased comrades. She could no longer escape those eyes because of Ryuu's presence.

"You won… why are you crying?" The aloof creature's voice fractured, squeaking with a slight sniffle.

"You… can't take yourself from our dream. You can't," Ryuu responded with a mumble lacking incoherence.

"I betrayed the dream, did I not?" Alise asked, pointing to her, diving into the darkness. There was a limit to how far light would reach in the ocean, and Alise's dregs were dragged to the very bottom of the abyss. Why is it that the elf could reach her?

"Your betrayal doesn't erase your image from its conception. And our dream is flexible enough to allow those who have wronged to come back to right path; why can't it accept you?" Ryuu remarked on Alise's assertation. "Besides," Ryuu said, sliding both pairs of eyelids over her soul windows.

"I left you… if I didn't leave you, this wouldn't have happened," Ryuu answered in self-deprecation.

"It was mine and Kaguya's orders… besides… if you weren't alive, who would have stopped me, the monster?" Alise whispered, peering into Ryuu's open blue eyes. The azure made her heart soar from her pain, knowledge of her actions, and the corruption of her morals.

Ryuu's grip on the creature suddenly stretched grooves.

"… It's unfair… why did they have to die? Why did good people have to be slaughtered as if their deeds meant nothing," Revis lamented, removing her green gaze from Ryuu. "And to think I'd join those monsters… laughable," she continued sardonically.

"They didn't have to… It's an injustice, but… that's why we existed, so other people wouldn't have to experience it. I am meager and will struggle, but I will do everything in my being to carry the torch… and pass it on to better this cruel place we live in," Ryuu said gently, taking care not to allow her tears to slip.

"I don't like it when you talk about yourself like that," Alise chided, forcing her lips to crest up in a grin.

"I don't like it when you talk about yourself like that," Ryuu parrotted, attempting playfulness.

Alise giggled slightly, "you're right. Like, I'm way too good to be talked down upon," she responded, puffing her chest then wincing when the holy spear pried her chest open even more. "Don't disrespect my image of you like that," Alise said, suddenly shifting her expression.

"Sorry." Ryuu's ears drooped.

Alise sighed then harbored a "what am I going to do with you?" expression. The face flickered to somberness, her mind being dragged into the vacuum in her heart. It was only a matter of time before she met the abyss of death once more, except, this time, she wouldn't escape.

Reading Alise's expression like a book, Ryuu's heart-scripted ciphers to her mind to be translated. Another tear left her eye, but this time, it wasn't just melanchonic. It was also hopeful. The intense flame in her gaze hoped to solder and infect Alise's despondence with hope and joy, at the very least for her final moments.

"Your sins… don't erase the auspices you've granted to the people. I destroyed lively hoods, slaughtered innocents, and very nearly desecrated my body to extend my wrath… On that account, you are not alone; we are the same. Sisters through and through. Maybe lady Astrea and our familia will forgive us if we both beg." Ryuu's hand drifted to Alise' chest and rested beside the golden gem, near where her heart would have been.

"You leveled up… didn't you talk to lady Astrea."

"I was trained by lord Hogni and Hedin and lost consciousness. So, you and I haven't seen our goddess in years," Ryuu remarked, tightening her grip on Alise's shoulders. The goddess not even waiting till she was awake, sent alarms in her head; she didn't know what to make of it.

A joyful, shivering sound jerked away the redhead's tears. A laugh slipped from her, and her cold features were upturned. "Please… don't be like me. Don't let them take your kindness from you," Revis and Alise spoke, appealing to Gale.

"You… the one in the mask," Alise called out.

"What?" Naruto's monotonous voice responded.

"Will you also preserve justice?" She asked.

"No."

"Heh! That's some interesting company you have there, Leon," Alise commented on the seemingly unperturbed adventurer.

"He cannot restrain himself with morals… it's why I am around. I am his bodyguard and moral regent," Ryuu remarked, struggling to keep pink from slipping onto her cheeks. Alise's eye sparkled for a moment before turning to the man still in brown.

"Fine then… I understand I am imposing on you, especially since we were enemies until now, but will you… keep an eye on this ditzy elf, for me?" The request tugged out her concern for leaving the elf in acknowledgment to the immeasurably pain she caused her.

"… No. I will do it for her and myself," Naruto said coldly, pistoning a short laugh from Alise's lips.

"I like you," she responded before looking into Ryuu with eyes of approval. His dead manner of speaking was similar to hers, so the clarity of his response blinded her. It would have marked Ryuu as a burden if he had said yes. His refusal stated Ryuu would never be a burden to him, implying that his cold self treasured her.

"…"

"Alise!" Ryuu squeaked, also getting a read on his response.

"What? Expect me to lose an opportunity to see you blush?" Alise remarked innocently, bringing a twitch to Ryuu's eye and ears. A short moment passed, and the tug of darkness reminded Alise of priorities.

"… Ryuu," Alise addressed, her tone catering to Ryuu's instinct, causing her spin to contract and her dorsum to be upright. "Listen. There's many more of those spirits," Alise said, wincing as the voice in her head shrieked.

"These new species typically serve as couriers for them, collecting magic crystals to strengthen them. Besides myself, there are two creatures, one marginally stronger than me and Aria's child but weakened because of her cloning magic. Her other self walks among you. Her name is Ein, and the other in white, Olivas, and his strength is equal to mine… he likely surpassed it by devouring my crystal.

There are many gods in the Evils, not as many as before, but still numerous and headed by a man named Enyo. The Evils have a cache of cursed weapons… Beware of Nidhogg… Go to the 59th floor," Alise fired rapidly, voice fading with each word.

"Nidhogg?" Ryuu questioned.

"I will educate you at a later date. It's time to wrap things up. My regalia can only do so much," Naruto said, closing his eyes.

"Monsters use divine beings to access unfathomable strength," Alise whispered, directing herself at Ais, whose eyes widened. "The demi-spirits are different because they use other entities to give them form. Keep the gods away from this hell hole… And don't die here… please," Alise requested, addressing Ryuu. "Because some… never escape."

"Does that mean?" Ryuu's eyes rapidly widened.

A somber smile traced itself on Alise's face.

Claiomh Solais suddenly vibrated, drawing eyes to it.

"He said, and I quote 'I, the demon and the knife, will address this. Your peace will not be desecrated'," Naruto translated with a shrug.

"Full of surprises, aren't you?"

"My preferences are satisfied," Naruto quipped, drawing a snort from the redhead.

"Man! Good job, Leon!" Alise exclaimed, teasing the elf. Ais, at the side merely shook her head at the elf's rapidly flustering expression.

"…" Ryuu placed her hand on Alise's chest and intoned, "For our dream. The curbing of injustice in the world." The elf's eyes widened slightly when she felt warm on her hand being delivered by a very familiar skin tone of peach.

"For the bridging of hearts and the straightening to a line the cycle of hatred," Naruto intoned, averting his head and refusing to meet her teary eyes. He offered her his sword, which meant that she was his teammate; she and he would support each other and link their dreams as best as possible. Even if he didn't want to, he was still obligated to put his dream alongside her.

"To the death of tragedy and preservation of familial warmth," Ais breathed, allowing her hand to find place on Naruto's hand and her fingers to caress Ryuu's. She trusted Naruto's choice of company, and a partner of his was a partner of hers. And she was a potential sister.

"…Thank you… All of you," Alise muttered before making a follow-up, "Please kill me. I don't want to die like a monster." Ryuu's hand quivered as her eyes found her knees. Her hand tentatively reached for Alf's Lumina until Naruto's voice froze it.

"Gale, take Miss Wallenstein and prepare to delve into the succeeding floors to begin the hunt," he ordered. "But…" she said, her eyes falling to the redhead.

"That's an order," he said before warping the pair away before she could react. A mound of dirt rose and cushioned the humanized creature, property of the holy spear. His fingers caressed its shaft, and his arm tugged, yanking it from her chest.

"You are a real piece of work, aren't you?" She asked.

"I've been told," Naruto responded, hefting Claiomh Solais skyward and summoning Ryumon. The stardust residue drifted to the sword and suddenly twinkled at proximity. Lightning and wind exploded with power from the sword's blade, swirling the dust into a crackling vortex of stars.

"You will protect her, won't you?" Alise asked again to make sure.

"She can protect herself, and I will do everything I can not to let it get to that point," Naruto responded, displaying pride in the she-elf. Even if his voice was monotonous, Alise felt a shiver crawling down her spine, commanding her to respect his charisma.

He couldn't say, "I won't let that happen." He had to factor in potential changes. He had to remember he was neither omnipotent nor omnipresent. He had to realize people could still get the better of him. Being a pessimist, he kept himself in the realms of reality so that when disappointment descended, he wouldn't be distracted by grief.

"Heh, I really like you. Stopping them from attacking her by taking the initiative. We could have been great drinking partners," she remarked softly.

"Cheers," Naruto stated, twitching his wrist. The creature couldn't help but dispense more tears when an uncomfortably hot liquid, taste, appeared into her mouth. "Fuck! That's good. Thanks, dude."

"Mmmm… we can be drinking partners in another life, perhaps…"

"Yeah… that would be nice," she responded, closing her eyes and relaxing.

Naruto nodded and tensed his biceps, hefting a Ryumon roaring with winds, lightning and fire.

"Farewell."

A moment passed with Naruto staring at the now-deceased creature, thoughts and feelings roiling a storm within. His clairvoyance pinged him that his companions were near the full strength so the time for dallying was low.

He picked the pale, unmoving woman and felt storage weight pressing onto his body.

The Fall of Artorias End

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[-]

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Two blood-soaked hours languidly drifted, containing the death of numerous Evils operatives, the destruction of strange growths in certain parts of floor 21, and the extermination of enhanced species that resulted from an enormous number of magic stones left behind by monsters killed by Evils when they planted bombs.

Without any effort, monsters and Evils alike were slaughtered, with Naruto making no effort beyond abandoning his manly pride to settle on either Ais or Ryuu's backs like a koala on a eucalyptus tree. His choice was affected by the amount of laundry he would have to do. Every time people – who Ryuu killed – were plentiful, he'd teleport to Ais' back, or if there were numerous monsters, he'd teleport to Ryuu's back.

Both senior adventurers were amused by his antics. They didn't mind walking him around, especially when he repelled splatters of blood and destroyed monster crystals while also using his claivoryance to find enemies they otherwise wouldn't have found themselves.

Despite hardly sharing words, Ryuu and Ais seemed amicable to each other, which resulted in Ais' laxness when she and Naruto sat on her hill and caught up despite Ryuu's proximity in one of the trees.

Feeling breathless despite her lungs being air ballooned, Ais pressed against him, shifting uni-directionally like a pet attempting to comfort a melancholic owner. Despite his inexpressiveness, getting a read on him was no longer difficult for Ais. Even if it was, context would have alluded to what was causing him shrink away from her touch.

"It's okay…" Ais muttered, pressing her bosom against his arm and stretching her arms across his body to wrap him in a sideways hug. She redrew her left hand from his shoulder and reached down for the sheathed, black double-edged katana beside them.

Hesitation was nonexistent, even with her awareness of the potential consequences of handling the sword, when she took it in her hand and lifted it to eye level before addressing it as if addressing a person. Ais was fully aware each of his regalias altered his behavior in someway.

Claiomh Solais made him heroic, outgoing, and virtuous, hence his heroic and bombastic entrance earlier. Ars Goetia unshackled his morality and caused him to be more sinful – lustful, prideful, etc – hence his comfortability just watching people die and farming them for fear. Ryumon applied a tighter lock to his reticence, curbing his natural reactions for maximum efficiency.

Little details like Naruto bringing out the weapons spoke volumes to Ais. "Please leave his heart to me," she said to the sword, which just secreted black dust that flared slightly. In her hands, the sword swapped to Vargo of its own volition.

"Ryu-" Naruto started, nearly leaping out of Ais' embrace. "Shhh," Ais cut him off before tossing the knife to the closest tree where Ryuu was stationed.

"Tell me what's wrong," she requested assertively, slightly tightening her grip on his shoulder as if her fingers were chasing the flesh absconding them. Hearing no response drooped, Ais' shoulders slightly, cueing her pressing against him even more as if surrendering herself to him.

She wanted to be taken to his heart, causing a trail of blood to slide from under Naruto's mark and stain his collar. The taste of iron in his mouth failed to detract him from his girlfriend, beautiful eyes prying at his very soul, aiming to destroy the abyss that harassed it.

"I-" he started, only to fall into pause. The monolith that his words crashed against was salaciously bobbing copper flesh. The smoothness it possessed while wrapping over the goddess' soft curves made focusing on it like focusing on the breadth of the sky.

"Naruto," Ais addressed, pulling away from him and then taking his hands." We can talk another time… if you want," she offered in retreat. Her address imposing on him felt like a gut punch; his slight flinch felt like a jumping heart when a puppy yelps when its tail is stepped on.

"I assumed it being a mission would make it easier… y-you know?" the appended words felt to familiar yet so distant. "I could have approached the mission differently. With my abilities, I likely could have gotten away with sneaking around the palace," he explained, causing Ais' lips to frown.

"But there's also a risk you could have been caught and…" Ais thought without interrupting him. Her hands' strength around his warm hand flexed slightly as she boldly pushed her shoulder against his. "Come on. Do it," Ais encouraged, watching his hand tentatively twitch towards wrapping around her from her peripherals.

It plummeted like a boulder in water. "This is bad," she thought before prepping herself.

"The assignment went without a hitch, and I could have left. But. I made a decision to stay, not for additional investigation or collecting of other potentially incriminating items… I indulged in my lust and couldn't stop… or rather; I didn't stop," he reported without turning his head, fearing what he might see on Ais' face.

"Now when I look at you, I'm afraid. I'm afraid you'll leave me even when you assure me you'll not. The thought of seeing another man on you revolts me; it makes my blood erupt and carbonate while it simultaneously becomes a tundra. But… it would be totally fair, wouldn't it?

I wouldn't stop at just killing them. I would twist their soul into something hideous and rain every evil known to the gods and beyond. This… but…" He stumbled out of his speech and gripped her hand tighter.

To see the future and its potential routes is to lose the present. This is because darkness always surrounds one, blinding them to their actions' effects. The veil shifts only after the act, and Naruto saw a smiling Ais and Syr, their lives undisturbed by him as he had not done anything wrong.

That was the future he missed, and to him, he compensated with something that meant the world to him, their, in this case, Ais' happiness. His heart desperately wanted to rescind the payment, but the die had already tumbled, and the former present was in oblivion, haunting him from his memories.

"I cheated on you. It would be bearable if I stopped at the mission, but I didn't and cheated on you," he confessed. To his great shock, not one twitch communicated itself to him through their in-contact shoulders.

The memory of the goddess' lips coiled around his wrecker was captivating. The power he exuded was what she made herself subordinate to, which stocked not just his lust but also his pride; he was proud that the bitch had her throat massaging his member. Another strike against his beloved.

"My lust came in droves, and I indulged in it, even going as far as using Ars to stimulate it because it was intoxicating. This wasn't the goddess' charm, rather, it was my failure to leash myself… I am… sorry. Plea-" he suddenly choked on his words, and Ais caught sight droplets falling over the ledge.

The princess widening eyes begged her body to move. To wrap the one bathed in a lonely cold in a hug. Her heart jumped and concussed, producing a sharp tinnitus-like pain in it, but the sight of him, a shell of his glorious self, was far worse. It was unbearable. The comparison was like seeing a familia member being approached by a goblin while a dragon approached Riveria.

To Naruto, if you wronged to the point you knew you had to say sorry, then the apology is worthless. To him, sorries were useless and never fixed anything, as they were just words. Naruto saw people who claim sorries make victims feel better as a little off because the victim feeling better is a product of time. Amends were what he favored, but what could he possibly do for a sin this grave?

"If… you want to do another man… I will stay my blade. I knew what I was doing and didn't stop. If you want to leave me, then it's also…" the words halted like a boulder, and his heart and mind desperately tried to kick it through. "Fine… Now… I find my thoughts about you tainted by her… Like… I want you; I want to gobble you up and defile you and… No, what am I saying… I'm sorry."

"…"

"…"

The couple allowed silence to take them.

"Look at me," Ais commanded, causing his head to droop toward his thighs. "Naruto," Ais called, her tone morphing to authority and… affection. "Look at me… please," she whispered with barely a whimper.

A sharp breath left his lips then blue met gold.

"Thank you," she said, allowing her body to latch onto him instinctively. His heart beat against hers, his spine was as flexible as ever, and his digits were still on 10. She nuzzled to his neck, peeked down his shirt, and saw the same peachy flesh as last time; there were no scars.

He was as warm as ever.

"I love you," Ais confessed suddenly, expelling a harsh gasp like she had socked him on the liver from him.

"Wha-?"

"I love you. I love you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much," she tightened her hugs, pressing her face against his chest.

"M-mi-"

"Don't Miss Wallenstein me, mister. I'm not letting you distance yourself from me, you fool. You stupid… dummy head. My name is Ais, use it," she practically growled.

"Ais, I-"

"You've punished yourself enough. You knew by going through with this; you might have felt like this. My hero," she whispered the last part before tugging him toward her, closing her lips and feeling them phase through his mask, attaining her final goal.

Contact with his slightly chapped lips fired every ounce of gun power in her heart. Decorated dyed papers combusted to sparkling crackles and lit the heart darkened by a hatred for monsters. Then twinkling stars descended, and the cloudy yet murky skies parted to reveal themselves upon Naruto, relaxing into her embrace.

His lips pried hers, and his tongue drove into her mouth and brushed over her teeth. His embrace around her tightened, and she found herself helpless; she was much stronger than him, but the idea of cementing the fact was so alien it didn't register. Realizing they had an audience, Ais allowed him more strength, bending her back into an arc so she could hide her flushed face.

A moment. Then two. Then three.

Ais couldn't help but think of grilled cheese when her eyes landed on the drooping spit trail rope. There wasn't a person who didn't love grilled cheese except for lactose-intolerant weaklings.

"You sacrificed your sanctity for me, so thank you. You were busy and stressed, but you took the time to write things for Lefiya and me and make them easy to understand; thank you. My swordsmanship improved a lot because of you, and now I can defend my family better. Thank you. You prevented Ishtar from taking more from me, so thank you," Ais expressed, leaning to his cheek and gently pressing her lips for every kindness he afforded her.

"Thank you for accepting me despite knowing what I am," she added, pulling away from his cheek and pushing towards his lips again. Her heart soared when his mask allowed her to slip in again. A crimson hue tinted her lobes as her mind compacted on itself and her heart hardened.

Her hand grabbed his and guided it to her still-developing bust and to Naruto's shock, used her fingers to press his into her flesh.

Like an embarrassed puppy, she couldn't look him in the eye.

"I-I won't leave you," she affirmed, face still tinted with pink. "And… the thought of my mouth… and other mouth… and butt… having anything that's not yours is morbid… It's repulsive. The only 'thing' I want in me is yours," Ais said, nailing her gaze out of Naruto's permanently. Her brain fizzled away with the imaginary steam puffing from her ears.

Mouth agape and cheeks flushed, the aloof warrior also averted his gaze. A moment passed, and it dropped like meteor. The smooth arced shoulders. The delicious lips. The soft curves embraced by her golden hair that glistened like pixie dust and strings of wealth.

"Man," he thought to himself as his hands sunk and floated onto her breasts while the other wrapped around her waist and plucked her to him, embracing her in straddle. It was like he was handling glass and didn't want prints on it. The hand on her waist dropped and cupped the doughy butt he enjoyed so much.

The difference between Ais and Ishtar was so ridiculous he pitied the goddess. She had nothing on the treasure on his lap. Ais' soft mewls stimulated him far more than Ishtar's most risqué poses and insurmountable flexibility.

The sexy woman… his beloved girl friend. Naruto's hand left her chest and rump and hiked up to her cheeks, gently cladding them in their warmth. The buoyant touch suggested grooving its way in would sear it with intense fire.

Reading his desires, despite her embarrassment, his princess leaned to him, embraced him, and expressed her love again. Soft, warm, and moist suckles saturated the air as Naruto's lust-filled mind bleached before flushing gold to the succulent, mouth-watering nectar flooding in. His craving was unreal.

""More.""

Ais slid her body higher without breaking their lip lock and once again allowed him to appreciate her bust on his chest. Her hips pistoned, humping her crotch against his leg, pouring a pail of frozen water on Naruto, who jolted from her kiss and pistoned his hands to her shoulders.

"Ais. Stop. Wait. Why aren't you mad? I cheate-"

"I can take a cold bath… and I can take a warm bath. They have the same purpose, but… one is far more comfortable, and if I have free time, then why should I not enjoy it?" Ais stated in a parable. "I am a little sad, but… the fact you did it to protect me and the others makes this feeling inconsequential… you are a pervert, and you hold yourself back a lot. I'd have to be stupid to think you wouldn't snap, and it happened to be that time. Riveria takes cold baths but lapses as soon as she touches warm water," Ais reported while attempting to mask a smile. She and the elven princess had started taking baths together whenever possible.

"I am not excusing you, but… don't be so harsh on yourself," Ais said while shaking your hand. "It hurts but… I am not going to punish you, either. Maybe my sister will, but I won't," the demi-spirit added as her fingers wiggled up his neck and tossed between his white hair and brown hood.

"Sister?" Naruto asked.

"My harem sister," she said, her face slightly uncomfortable.

"Ais… I really like her. And I love you," Naruto suddenly confessed. The girl nodded, allowing a small smile to crawl onto her face and leaned into breath, "I know you do…" She pressed her forehead against his shoulder and appended a question.

"Does she love you?"

"I think she does… but I… maybe reading into it too much," he said ambiguously, finding his muscles contracting to drag him away from her gaze. A raised brow crested Ais' features as her aloof expression betrayed a hint of amusement.

"Bro… she kissed you," Ais said, snickering internally at the boy, randomly manifesting manly cluelessness. Naruto of all people. "Bro?" Naruto questioned mentally before shrugging, as it didn't count because she was in a relationship with him. Maybe it did. She was both his friend and girlfriend. "That she did," Naruto confirmed, dipping his chin in a nod.

"It's fine… I will not throw away our love just because stuff happens irresponsibly. I fully and wholeheartedly trust you, and I can handle it… I read somewhere that people want to be with multiple people but can't handle one being with someone else. In this case, I don't want anyone, but you and seeing you on the waitress didn't bother me… much, so, I think… yeah? Now that you are here with me. I find myself not caring. I think I'll be able to handle it," Ais expressed, expanding her chest with a breath to prevent a sigh from escaping.

"Besides… by being your woman, I gave you responsibility for me, and you can't be responsible for something unless you have a level of authority over it. I want to cater to your happiness. Your happiness is a priority," she said.

Naruto, for once, found silence forced onto him by circumstance. His genius intellect had rusted cogs, and the mounting pressure from the desire to understand and express had him gritting his teeth. Ais, somehow reading his troubles, pressed her palm against his chest.

"Breathe, Love," she crooned, fluttering her brows as he gazed at her to weaponize her feminine charm to soothe him. Had she been anyone else, it would have blown up in her face as happenstance made it that Naruto wasn't the type to be driven into a corner by women. At most, they agitated him.

"Sorry… Are you sure you are willing to allow this? Think of yourself. Nothing merits you degrading then relegating yourself to a spot other than number one," he warned, crawling his hands up her for arms and past her biceps to grasp her shoulders.

"As if you can give us spots other than number one," Ais replied, taking time to play with his shirt's collar.

"I do not follow," he said.

"It's… hard to explain," she asserted softly. "But, your zeal in your work makes it hard for people not to feel like your equals at times. And I am sure that you can translate that to your… pending relationships. I want you to myself, but I also want you to be happy and never… wanting. Imagining you with someone else makes me a little uncomfortable, but as long as you treat me and the others with respect and communicate with us… you'll do great."

"Oh…" he breathed in vexation.

"You already made me respect you. You make me feel safe despite hardly ever being around on account of our responsibilities… and other things. If I were to describe what I feel when I imagine it, it's almost like watching Riveria handling the younger, newer members of our familia," she potrayed, waving her hands and gesticulating her arms to fill in gaps she couldn't express.

"Oh, okay…" he muttered before embracing her and leaning his face to her forehead. A light thud announced the white rampart's presence, forcing a scowl to draw itself on his face. He forgot to activate his mask's permeation ability, and his disgruntled presence had Ais stifling a chortle.

"…"

"…"

Swinging her legs to the side, Ais transitioned her straddle to pressing her back against her paramour's chest. A hue of crimson pigmented her skin's cheeks when she wiggled her hips slightly. Hearsay depicted the act as making a man comfortable and happy.

"…"

"…"

"… Do you want to do it?" Ais questioned suddenly and drew a sharp flinch as an answer. Who could blame her? She was a teenager living with hundreds of powerful people, some of which were animal people, which made things more than a little uncomfortable.

"So… no?" Ais' voice withered like a mummified petal.

"Yes but no... Yes, to harbouring a desire for coitus, but no, I don't want to… I… this is terribly cliché, I imagine, but I am not ready, especially with my operation with Ishtar," he shook his head. "If you insist I will confer, it might be an issue, but I should be able to deal with it…"

"?" She tilted her head.

"At this point in our relationship, I would like to avoid sexual encounters or rather… encounters that are too sexual. My debacle manifests itself in my affection for you and a Syr Flover," he explained while stroking her arm.

Taking her silence as a prompt, he continued, "My primary focus is what's best for you. That said, you note that lust has a way of taking control of love and inhibiting its growth should its fruit be consumed too early." After introducing his point, Ais craned her neck and straightened her back slightly.

"With my primary objective stated, I ultimately desire and am obligated to nurture our love to the point even if you were scarred, maimed or even more interestingly, turned into, let's say… a goblin, it doesn't flinch. Beauty doesn't last forever… for mortals at least," he presented, pinching and tugging her flesh and hair strands.

"If I bite into lust now, I might forget the treasure I see and feel on me, and one I know is toiling away at tables and cabinets. I… resent the gods. I wouldn't hesitate to kill one even with the threat of punishment should I reach the other side, and unlike most mortals, I am wholly unintimidated by their power.

But… you and Syr are my goddesses. I wouldn't think to harm you and… desecrate you. Lust isn't necessary but is useful in a ratio of trust, tolerance and love. Unlike the trio, which are symbiotic, lust is an unrelenting conqueror, so if its hold is too high, the others will have no room to grow. With the trio, they are intertwined, so if one, let's say, tolerance falls, the other two will just rebuild it.

To put it simply, I want sear the beauty of you beyond your curves into my retina, so I ask you to give me time," Naruto detailed while lightly swaying her left and right and strumming her muscles to ripple like a harpsichord.

"Okay… I understand. Thank you," she responded with her lower lip bitten, eyes tensed to stop a tear from slipping out so he didn't get the wrong idea. "I… have made my peace with being in your harem. I have high expectations for you, especially since you told me you have made plans and regulations that time," Ais muttered without a hint tension in her face.

"Mhmmm," Naruto groaned out.

"…"

"…"

"Naruto?"

"Yes?"
"I remember you saying something about never eating… what's with that?" Ais interrogated, swinging her legs again to switch to stradling him.

"Nothing. I just don't need to eat… or sleep," he answered without veil.

"You told me how you figured out you don't need to eat, but you never told me how you discovered you didn't need to sleep. Your focus is exceptional, but even you would… if you focused for long periods," Ais said before steeling herself slightly when Naruto tensed again; this time he shivered.

"Oh… you don't have to-"

"No," he cut her off. "I'll talk… since I intend to be with you for a long term, it's your right to know," he said while his voice fell an octave, betraying an unnatural somber.

"One of… if not my greatest fear is I'll disappear… And… no… No! That's not a good start," he muttered, his heart rate pounding through Ais' ears and hammering into her mind. He huffed in a block of air and exhaled a mountain of fire. "The me you know might not be real… I… will likely be reduced to a concept in the near future…"

""WHAT?""

Ryuu was at his side the instant he uttered it while Ais' grip tightened his shoulders. As lacking as he was intact, Naruto was brutally honest to a fault and it was always clear, to them at least, if he was joking or not.

The she-elf's heart sweltered under an uncomfortable heat, standing guard and watching over them as they shared intimacy but she maintained conduct and did what was required of her, which was guarding Naruto from threats.

Her heart's stabbing throb was all but overhauled.

"Don't interrupt me." With his authority, he restrained two dams from spilling out an influx of words.

"Ever since childhood, I was subjected to nightmares of unknown origin. Doctors, both the medical and arcane type couldn't make heads or tails of the cause. Within each nightmare, I'd take the body of a boy named 001. He had blonde hair of an unusual shade, sun-kissed, and blue eyes like any typical blonde." As he pushed words out, he didn't let his eyes drift to them because he knew the looks on their faces would rob him of articulation, forcing him silent.

"001 was an orphan who had recently been kicked from an orphanage because he harboured a powerful entity that was a cause of a great calamity? I am still unsure of that. I, as 001, was kidnapped and inducted into a secret training programme headed by a warmonger by the name of Danzo Shimura.

From there, I'd experience everything. I felt his pain and I felt the pain I felt as a consequence. I was afraid. I was torn apart by monsters more grotesque than anything you'd find in this wretched place. I beaten to a pulp by my peers and watched the friends I made get devoured alive or turn on me.

As you can imagine, I am traumatized, avoid sleeping by default… and have issues. I am troubled and have difficulty building meaningful relationships out of fear. Kudos to Syr, who, with her therapy, managed to curb it without knowledge of this, but I will have to explain to her as well," he explained, keeping his eyes on a distant magic crystal while Ryuu and Ais' eyes pumped wider and wider.

Ais could feel each of his muscles experiencing a tremor and felt a lone drop fall onto her neck and dive into her dress.

"Y-y-you mean all those ti-" Ais began.

"No need to worry, woman. Unconsciousness is not sleeping, so I cannot get nightmares, given I wake up in time," he responded with slight mirth. "Trauma was born, and so was my inferiority complex… the one I compare myself to is always 001. In each dream, I'd sometimes grow as he did and other times inhabited him at different ages, observing him grow in power.

Irrelevant right now, but later, after I stopped sleeping, I lost my younger brother, and… that has haunted me for the longest of times because… well. With each experience of hell elapsed, the colder his heart and the paler his hair would become until…" Naruto trailed off, allowing his words to sink in.

"It became as white as mine. His stature was equivalent to mine, and a few other things are mirrored except this mask and cloak. With my knowledge accrued from countless studies, I concluded a few theories, and one of the leading ones is 001 became bipolar, leading to the birth of the one you know as Naruto," he expressed, pushing himself to ignore their gasps, to ignore the vexation, fear, and worry in the eyes.

"But your age. If you dreamt of him getting older, yet you were a child, then maybe-" Ryuu attempted inserting, only for Naruto to shake his head.

"The place I dreamt of had a different power system from what I experienced. Some individuals could crush and raise mountains with a few sequential hand signs and a wave. 001 was specifically trained to defeat people this powerful and… well. It certainly explains how I can give you two first-class adventurers with far more experience under pressure than me directives… And see you move as long as you are within my field of view," Naruto remarked, hiding a flinch drawn by the hurt expressions on their faces.

"It also explains how I can use magic in unconventional ways. It explains how I can fight out of any situation because any situation I fight I have experienced before in some form… Each time I feel the walls around my heart crack, I feel a sense of dread, and so comes my dilemma.

Should I keep you out? To save myself and continue living for the ambition I have bestowed upon myself or should I let you in and finally enjoy the life brother, grandfather saw and valued? Well… since I am here and not farming excelia on the 25th floor, I chose you, obviously," Naruto remarked casually.

"No… no. no. no," Ais muttered with a darkening expression while Ryuu's pupils dialated and seemingly squeezed at her tear ducts. To Ais, she could feel and see monsters beyond what was in the dungeon, repeating the nightmare she had with her mother except… he would never come back.

The one named Gale was on a similar boat. The loss of her familia spiralled her into a pit of depravity and the beautiful boy in front of them had pulled her out. Besides that, he made it that even hearing about him threaten to tear the neutral expression of her face. All those moments they had during breaks when they'd sit down and talk while Syr served drinks.

They both saw him as precious so like clothes on a windy day they…

"Ais… Ryuu… Please. Please don't reject me," he said softly, dispelling the shadow that befell Ais' heart and snapping Ryuu's pupils to expansion. The wind was cut down in an instant. "I made my choice, and I'll live by it because… I love you two," he said, nodding.

"And it might not be true… It's just a theory, after all…" he trailed off. "Well… under the assumption, I am a personality without memories created to protect the original me, then with the return of peace, there is little use for me; hence I'll probably disappear…

001 is unstable from what I have seen, and with that in mind, I won't let anyone harm you, not even me. He, I, I don't know, lost many brothers and sisters during his training, most of which were by his, my, hand. That means I could kill you and… I don't think… imagine if you killed me.

To you two, my combat power will live on through you. I have taught you many things and will teach you more. To Syr, I would give my mind but… she is just as smart as I am, even if her actions say otherwise… my work being in your mind will be proof I existed, and that settles my heart… somehow. I still am unable to wrap my head around this legacy thing. Please… should I become a danger to you, don't hesitate kill-"

THUMP! THUMP!

"Don't say it," Ais whispered while diving into his body; her neck and his practically melded.

"Please," Ryuu appended while doing the same, her ear pushing up some of Ais' hair.

Both young women had embraced him from the front and back, respectively. The glaciers in his soul shivered and crumbled into the somehow dammed ocean. It was only a matter of time till he saw what happened when it overflowed.

To them, Naruto simultaneously felt like lava and a pillow. The thought of their affection possibly cutting down the amount of time he had almost rubber balled them back to the surface and floor 37, respectively but his words, 'please don't reject me,' kept them tethered.

"You are so unfair," Ais projected mentally while physically flaring her nose to calm the burn that came before tears were shed. Ryuu's mind was under similar constraints for the same reason as Ais. They were cutting down his time, but… he wanted them. He didn't want to be alone if his theory was correct and he met his end.

Even when gripped by dread, Naruto felt an indescribable warmth in his stomach, fluttering away like dancing dandelions and migrating butterflies. This warmth… was everything to him and hammered him so hard he thought he would lose his cold brain and become a blonde idiot with a big, forgiving heart.

"It's too early to say farewells, ladies. There is much to do," he announced before pausing. "I-"

"If you say you will die one day anyway, I will hit you," Ais growled, causing him to blink in mild surprise. Confusion on how she figured exactly what he would say vexed him slightly but he shook it off.

"Please learn tact, Sir," Ryuu requested, searing him with a reproachful look.

"One it's true. I will die one day," Naruto said, not even flinching when a wack bloomed a bruise, a testament of his pain tolerance. "Two, I have no use for tact. Someone has to be the 'bad guy' so to speak, and that happens to be one of my more favoured roles," he addressed with a shrug.

An exhausted exasperation moulded Ais' face to a pained sigh, pointing her gaze at Ryuu and speaking, "please protect this moron." Upon that utterance's conclusion, one of the girl's dainty fingers latched onto her forehead and temple.

"I take offence."

He was ignored.

"With my life. You needn't ask," Ryuu sighed, overwriting her professionalism with a soft, amiable smile.

"I am serious, you two. If I endanger you, kill me. If it's any consolation, then the thing that will control my body will not be me. I will affirm once again that I wouldn't hurt you unnecessarily and definitely, wouldn't kill you," Naruto commanded, exercising his authority.

"Don't be like that!" Ais chastised.

"I will have to be that person, dear," Naruto responded without adding an apology because he perceived his action as the correct ones. "001 is something Orario won't be able to handle if caught unprepared. What of you two? Just part of the crowd. And you'll be isolated. How do you think I feel about someone else killing you using my body? I would rather reduce my soul to zero," he spat out.

"But then, it's not guaranteed that you'll become different. Maybe you are an amnesiac and regaining past experiences, meaning you won't change," Ryuu argued.

"We are all the same at birth, then are separated by circumstances, preferences, and so on. The me you know now would be gone if the life of another was suddenly appended to it. That would erase my circumstances, preferences, experiences, and memories, making me a different person. The bonds we made could be trivialized, and that promise we made that night could be nothing.

If another version of me suddenly said, sorry, I made that decision when I lost my memories. Then what?" Naruto brutally smashed at Ryuu's point.

"You are making this difficult," said Ais, regarding him with dewy eyes that were squeezing to challenging glare.

"So, I am," Naruto responded with a sigh. He knew he was undermining them, but what could they hope to do against someone who could simultaneously fend off Hiruzen Sarutobi and Danzo Shimura? It was tough love.

"Naruto is Naruto, and I know you will make us fall in love with you, no matter what," Ais stated in matter of fact tone, as if surrendering her rationale. Her arm clutched at his neck, pulling him closer as she stuck her chest out and pressed her breasts against her pecs.

"But…" Naruto started.

"In elven culture, we are frequently encouraged to renew our vows in light of life changing experiences. Even if you did change for the worse… to lift the sword princess' words, we would follow you again because details around you may change but the core you won't," Ryuu followed up, forcing down a blush.

"If you changed, then nothing stops us from renewing them… whatever or whoever those people aren't here. They can't force 001 to do anything, and for all, we could know, he could relapse back to you," Ryuu continued before reaching for his hand and clutching it.

Her point was 001 was raised to be a weapon, and if he returned to himself, he would lose his purpose, causing him to relapse back to Naruto. But he identified a fallacy in her logic.

"We understand you have to be realistic, but please don't ever ignore the possibility of miracles. Knowing you, you likely feel like hope… can be poisonous, and that's fine… Let it degrade our bodies as we strive for the utmost," Ais said.

A light huff blew out of Naruto's nose as he directed his gaze at the ground, looking through his and Ais' crotches. Both young women's gazes phased over to each other, and Ais nodded at Ryuu in response, flushing her face in pink as she tentatively shifted to Naruto's rear and embraced him in a far more intimate manner.

"Arguing with you incites more effort from me and that will result in us running circles around each other but… in as much as I cannot agree with you, I appreciate you… both of you. Thank you so much," he said, retreating as soon as the heart card was pulled… and it was working.

Ais and Ryuu had dragged him away from the rationale that sparked an unnatural fear of himself. They exposed in as much as he was sure he was strong, he had terrible self-esteem and had little confidence.

Flipping a switch and knowing the light would turn on was not the same as confidence. Naruto was intelligent and a fearsome warrior, possibly the best, just limited by his falna but seeing someone able to do what he was able to do even better just shut him off. He had no hope to cling to, and this lack of hope reflected his lack of spine, leading him to take the easiest route out.

The trio fell silent as their gazes fell to a nearby lake reconstituting itself. It was a strange sight that could only be described as nature fast-forwarded. Despite their extended excursions into the dungeon, the normalcy remained skewed.

"Naruto… I love you," Ais crumbled the silence.

"To you as well," he responded.

"You talk so distantly," she said.

"I don't follow." Naruto tilted his head while his chin rested on Ais' shoulder. At some point, she turned to watch the lake with his, and Ryuu had taken to sitting beside him and occasionally throwing glances at the sword princess.

"The way you talk makes her feel like a fellow worker than a friend and lover," Ryuu offered. Her hand reached his sleeve and pinched it as if her hand feared coiling around his arm. "Your choice of words erects a business-only atmosphere that discombobulates her."

"Ahhh," Naruto stated with a nod. He had read about that somewhere and paralleled the information to himself. Instead of saying, "I am hungry," he would say, "I want to eat." He typically made no use of expressive words unless he was verbally assaulting someone.

"You will have to live with it. That is not something I can change," Naruto said before looping his arm over her waist and pawing at her breasts, erupting pink tints on her face. "And I'm doing this because I am overcome with the desire to touch your breasts," he answered before she could ask.

It wasn't too sexual for him, so it was fine.

"O-okay… enjoy," she squeaked.

"Okay," he replied.

"That is hardly something appropriate to do, especially when you have comp- wh-what are you doing?" Ryuu squeaked when Naruto's hand landed her head.

"Petting you."

"I know, but why?" she asked.

"You are adorable," he replied, shutting down any potential rebuttals. The she-elf allowed her body to slump under his ministrations. "O-okay," she said, shrinking, earning a stink eye from Ais, and twitching ears slightly.

"Hey, I'm right here," Ais said while pushing her back to him, mushing it with his chest.

"And Leon is right here," Naruto replied before slipping his hand away from the elf's head, wrapping it around the side of her neck, and dragging her into a one-armed embrace, ignoring the quiet squeak. Ais pouted and offered no words.

"You've been awfully sassy lately, Miss Wallenstein." An elbow to the chest couldn't halt his stream of words.

"You are… really good…" she blushed at her choice of words. "I want more… too much work," she complained while wiggling her hips at his crotch… "I want excitement… hey… I'll take a bath later, and you need some release right? You can… use me for material… and Gale too-"

"WHA?" the elf escaped his embrace and wheeled away so hard a crack popped when her body crunched a nearby crystal. The sight left the corners of his lips curling up yet the now vacant side shivered to reproduce the warmth poorly.
"What?" The words that left Ais' lips alighted his brow inquisitively, his mind derailed from expectation. Airhead at an odd time, then comes up with odd ideas at other times. She based the thought on her knowledge of his perversion.

Lacking a transition, Naruto's eyes peered back to the splintered warmth that had seemingly been swept away by frigid torrent. His fingers curled around a bicep his eyes and mind insisted were not there. With a quiver from his heart, his brow twitched.

"Hey… you really are sassy and cost me a cute elf. Mind you, I decide when or whether or not I'll peep on you. I have given you courtesy enough. IT'S THE OMEN FROM THE TOP ROPE." Naruto's voice ramped up in volume when he suddenly snaked his arms around her warm waist. It was still not Ryuu.

In retrospect, the sword princess probably should have shut her mouth when she made no attempt to resist her lover hurling her to the air. Trailing behind her, his hands griped each other before her tummy, then retracted by it by his arms, locking her in a hold.

She remembered Loki calling it a suplex.

A loud crash hiked up the debris that wasn't moved by her sudden bout of coughing. Guarding her mouth, one arm was scythed to the side, producing a gale that puffed the cloud away, scattering it so thinly the naked eye would not see it. Getting her back away from the floor, she suddenly felt warmth on it that leaned into

"S-sorry," Ais apologized, ducking her head and squeezing her shoulders in to make herself seem smaller like cute animal. "You better be," his monotone practically grumbled while his hands travelled up her waist to caress her breasts.

"H-he really likes touching me." Like inferno stone, her entire body drenched itself in pink with the occasional twitch, none that prompted her to move away from her perverse lover and put more force into leaning into him.

Warmth lingered in her loins like an unpleasant chocolate that left an aftertaste. She wanted it but couldn't bring herself to do out of respect for his wish. An assumption coloured why he was comfortable with groping her, which was very sexual, obviously, but drew the line at more sexual acts.

He essentially communicated that groping was nothing, typically for a man with a sky-high libido. He had done it before and definitely, would have done it if he didn't go for his mission against Ishtar. She wasn't moaning under him, caked in his seed because he loved her.

He didn't want it in his head that she was an object to satisfy his carnal desires; he didn't want her to be some kind of personal whore. A desire for her to maintain her sanctity and self-respect drove him away from acting on his impulses despite tasting the addicting pleasures of the flesh.

Like a witch at the stake, her body combusted in resonation with the hive embers that had taken to being carried by her winds. The arm latched onto her waist, the hand that seered her chest with lust, appreciation, and affection in equal measure; they served to drag her back to the hearth that was her boyfriend.

As heat moved things forward, the ice melted, and from the melted ice came forth a better person. He just had a way of making the people around him change, whether by strength or by mentality, and this guarantee drew them to him like moths.

He was also cold. When in proximity, the warmth was robbed from her, prompting a curl to embrace him as the sole sense of warmth. There were other options. There was dry wood and flint which he made an option, but she stayed ignorant of it. He was the only warmth recognized.

Without her command, her body shifted such that his hand was brushed away from her chest and craned her face up to permeate her lips through his mask. It was strange how he was a culmination of every fantasy during her period of recklessness that slipped out as a what-if.

Her mouth exploded in flames, delving deeper into his lips to caress his ice. In clumsy motions, their teeth roughhoused as her tongue invaded his lips to drag its counterpart out. Initially, on her rump, his hands rose as if forgetting her curves, and caressed her cheeks, waist and back, each impact shivering flesh.

Then a log pressed against her thigh, and her vision went white while she shuddered. Like during a bout of dragon slaying that would endanger her familia, she dragged herself away from him lest she degrades his efforts.

"Hmmm." Her soft voice impacted his heart into bounding reel. A line of spit dripped down her chin as bleary eyes stared drunkenly into his. A quivering child regarded a mountain of confectionaries.

"Ah… Riveria," Ais muttered suddenly, snapping Naruto out his own thoughts and dragging his clairvoyance back with him as a result, crashing him with a powerful magic signature he had missed in his distraction.

In spite of the criminal position, the girl didn't dare get off him but was prepared to move in his defense should the elf misunderstand. Riveria's motherly instincts were not to be trifled with.

Naruto didn't bother swing around to meet his gaze, and he didn't even care she was there, only worried about how much content the high elf had heard. Biting back a thrown fist from shattering the ground, he forcibly divested his heart of rage and embarrassment at his slip-up for neutrality.

"I – you – when," Ais started while slowly removing herself from him. Her embarrassment at being caught in such a state had expansive grounds but that was no excuse to injure lover in the aftermath of what would have been a normal reaction had she not been a first-class adventurer.

"I went for a walk to clear my mind. Me finding you was sheer happenstance and… you have found yourself a good man and… I was here just before he threw you," the leaf-haired madamoiselle spoke, pressing bitterness away from her tone.

The teenager whose body had just been explored by grabby hands was once someone you could never imagine being like that.

Riveria combed Ais' hair in the morning, afternoon and evening. She chased after her when she caused trouble and dealt with the aftermath before having screaming bouts with her… or after. And comforted her when she expressed frustration and sadness.

Seeing that child, one who would tear a monster apart so violently one would pity it, become someone who fully understood her decisions and stuck by them, was odd. It wrenched open an odd gap in her heart..

Despite being groped, the only discomfort she showed was a natural embarrassment, and to drive home the fact she wasn't forced was how tenderly she handled her lover. The lover clearly had high libido and wasn't shy, meaning the situation was a prime opportunity to push for more.

He didn't.

The respect Riveria held for Naruto swelled. As a fellow repressor of desires, she understood that a slight slip up would be catastrophic with the impact of its relapse. At some point during the prolonged pawing and rubbing, he lost himself to Ais, telling Riveria a lot.

As an elf, she was disappointed, but Ais was human, and as culture dictated, they did things differently. Cultural barriers or not, love was love.

"Oh… thank you." Ais shrunk with her reply before turning her attention to the boy she had been standing beside.

"Sweety… that's rude," she chided.

"I have nothing to say to her," he responded, dropping the atmosphere to a chill. It wasn't in a sense it was threatening, rather, it was heart-wrenching to third parties, like Ais and Ryuu observing the distance between the pair.

"…"

"…"

"Please do not be hard on him. I did offend and threaten him earlier so it was my mistake. A thousand pardons." When Riveria spoke to Ais, she spotted her eyelids clenching while her chest jumped slightly, then when she directed at Naruto… nothing.

"You threatened him?!" Ais' tone darkened and flinched Riveria. The older elf made no effort to defend herself and inclined her head.

"I could have been more amiable in my approach… I am sorry," Riveria responded, suppressing belabor from leaving Ais' lips.

"You know… I really want you two to get along but… with this is…" Ais started while shooting her gaze onto and off him and her repeatedly. Riveria grimaced, recalling their girl talk, which had happened a few days before Ais' random disapperances.

"…"

Naruto's mind and lips were equally muted.

"Honey," Ais mewled, not before swinging the wizened adventurer an apologetic look, then draped herself over his shoulder before dragging his hood back with the friction of her cheek. Her pecked on his lobe and her hands slid under his pits and rested on his chest.

"I understand you are upset, but please… I really need you here. I need you two to make up," she said to him while rubbing his chest. "I know Riveria wouldn't aggress against anyone unless it's extremely important and… you are difficult to deal with so that could have agitated her frustration… she isn't bad, after all, she played a huge role in me becoming the person you love so much," Ais communicated.

"I truly am sorry…" Riveria's remorse-drenched voice lilted in his ears.

A moment of silence. Then a sigh. His body shifting prompted Ais to pull herself away from him so he could face the elf.

"He really is like a rock, now that I look at him," Riveria thought before approaching him as he slowly stood from his seat.

"It's nice to meet the man who impacted my daughter so," Riveria started with a warm smile, her mind and heart centering on the far more lively and more communicative Ais. "My name is Riveria, a fellow adventurer, mage, and your senior, nice to meet you," she presented, offering a light courtesy and offering her hand.

"… I am your junior… an adventurer for Guild benefits… nice to meet you too…"

"Cold," the high elf thought when his fingers coiled around hers in a firm handshake. "Nice to meet you too."

"…"

"…"

-He's both easy and hard to talk to because he always prefers the other person lead the conversation. And it must be worth talking about so… he has no interest in gossip and rumors unless he conducts an investigation. Don't let him squeeze back into his shell when you meet him. Be persistent, and he'll probably relent… I know how that sounds… he is really difficult.

"How did you meet Ais?" Riveria started, throwing a teasing glance at the girl who immediately ducked and rushed toward the hiding Ryuu.

"Well… my heart skipped a beat when she squeezed my shoulders like a pair of oranges… that was when I knew I had to stay away from the monster, but she pursued me… and I found she wasn't that bad," he responded, glaring at Ais from his peripherals. His phantom pains reminded him why he considered getting a premium medical insurance.

"What?" Riveria looked at him owlishly.

"Miss Wallenstein… she crushed my shoulders… well, there's a bright side I can't ignore," he answered with a small shrug. "Men," Riveria almost rolled her eyes in amusement. One of her best friends, Gareth, was similar in that he'd treat the most awful of injuries like the winter festival

"Really? Oh, you… have a regeneration skill… what could possibly be bright about that?" she questioned.

"Oh, you know… this is the funniest 'and that kids, is how I met your mother' scenario I can imagine. To be honest, I am not one for marriage, but if she wants to, it's fine. But for robbing me of my bachelor state, she better be prepared for the speech, and with how much of an airhead she is… well…"

Both his and Riveria's gazes drifted to the wood again, landing directly on Ais, who was also under an amused stare from Ryuu.

"You are quite ruthless. I can't help but feel bad for her… but I admit, it would be quite amusing," Riveria responded with a slight giggle, hiding her lips with her fist.

A few minutes of conversation suddenly extended to dozens, with Riveria holding a 90% stake to the conversation, with Naruto making thorough use of his ears. Ais really wanted him to get close to Riveria, so he pushed himself to converse with her about menial things and… he found himself relaxing.

It was odd for someone who barely looked twenty to regale him with tales like his grandfather but it was amusing all the same. It was nice he got to experience things like this before or if he was going to disappear. It wasn't that daunting the more he thought about it. It's like death. You know you will die, but don't center your whole life around it and…

Maybe they were right. Maybe nothing would except an extra bag of knowledge.

End

Well, that's that. Sorry, it was so bad. I already stated why it is so above. Merry Christmas to y'all I guess. Christmas doesn't mean anything to me but to others it does a lot so, uhhh, happy merry. Merry Christmas. I am still pissed I'm being forced to acknowledge this day instead of going over the chapter and taking out the cringe and all that. RIP to Beta's laptop.

So I'm going on hiatus for a bit. I'm gonna try working on chapter 1 of the DxD fic. Couldn't work on it because Beta laptop died and I had to prioritise this chap. Sorry to the guys who were excited by it but I have a couple of bucks worth of data so I should be able to upload it even after I move. Will set a reminder and everything.

I have never had a meaningful relationship with the female sex before, except mother and aunt and grandma. Maybe a few friends throughout my relatively short life but never anything beyond. I've fucked n all that but no relationship = no romance = go easy on me with this romance bs, please.

Signing out.