VI

Chapter 34: War Among the Shadows

Cosmic_Collision

Part 1

September 3, 9:00 PM

Hishiro had heard the details of the operation from Asuka, but he didn't expect things to be this bad.

He and Kyuchi had met somewhat near the site at the northeast corner of District 5, but even though several buildings stood in between them, they could see the sea of flames erupting into the dark sky. "Whoa, they really are going at it this time…"

"Seems like we have no time to lose - says Misaka as she is ready to charge in." The girl said it, but it was difficult to take it seriously when her expression was completely blank. They have gone together on many missions by now, but Hishiro was still not used to it. Maybe he never would.

Wasting no time, both dashed towards the war zone, which was way worse up close. Wreckage, flipped and destroyed vehicles, multiple people laying on the ground either unconscious or dead… but for the boy, there were two things that stood out the most.

The first one being the Anti-Skill wagons closing off the crossroads, though now they were being used as cover for the officers armed with weapons that did not match their usual loadout. From what Asuka had said earlier, they were probably affiliated with the dark division of the organisation, also known as DA.

The other one was way more worrying. On the other side of the fight were several people looking way younger, acting with no apparent tactic besides brute force and outnumbering their foes. But more importantly were their weapons. "No way… you gotta be kidding me!"

Powered suits. But not of any kind, he knew these pretty well. These looked exactly like the ones developed by Takayama Kyrie back when her team was studying Railgun's powers via the battles between the Sisters and Accelerator.

Kyrie escaped and is currently on the run, but it's impossible that she had found a way to keep making these, right? Even in the dark side, no one had enough power to keep her hidden from all the enemies she and her whole team had made, and Academy City was still in the process of setting up factories to mass produce them. Did someone already smuggle the remaining ones I didn't destroy that day?

The thought of it all annoyed him to no end. He almost lost his life more than once to avoid exactly that situation, but now it felt it was all for nothing.

"There it is - says Misaka as she spots the objective of the mission." Kyuchi interrupted the boy's thoughts by pointing at a silver suitcase being tightly held by an injured DA member "It's not going to be easy to approach - says Misaka as she quickly studies the course of battle."

"You don't need to tell me that. If only those things weren't here, I could manage somehow" Hishiro replied, pointing at the prototype machine.

The girl glanced at it for a few seconds before asking "So you can do something if Misaka takes care of that? - asks Misaka, confident she can handle her part of the plan by herself."

"Wait a second, there's no plan yet! And besides, that thing was based on the #3 powers! I doubt yours can destroy it-"

"Misaka #19998, codename Kyuchi, ready for combat - says Misaka as she heads out just to prove the rude boy is wrong for underestimating her."

"No, it's not about that! I'm dead serious here! Really, don't go yet!"

It was too late. The clone had already left their cover and was quickly making her way towards the east side of the battle, ready to confront the machines. "Dammit, that's exactly why I was against her joining. I knew something like that was going to happen eventually." Hishiro cursed under his breath, surprised by how annoyed this made him. He didn't have to care if she got herself killed by acting reckless after all. "Seria better not blame me if anything happens!" There was no point in hiding anymore, so he also stood up and beelined towards the suitcase.

Kyuchi had already planned a route of action. The powered suits aside, most of the enemies on her side only had regular weapons, probably brought from outside of the city, and she was second to none when it came to a firefight. There were also a few espers, but compared to fighting the #1 10000 times, this was a cakewalk for her.

Lowering the goggles that were resting on her forehead, she fired her rifle at them before they could notice her approaching. Her goal here was just to keep the machines busy so Hishiro could do whatever he needed, but also destroy them if possible for her own pride. Anything else was unnecessary. So she didn't aim to hit any of them. As long as they felt pressured into cover it was enough.

A few bullets were fired back at her, but none came close to hitting her as well. They were probably amateurs when it came to firearms, which made everything even easier. Finally reaching the first machine, she tried to fry it using her electricity, but just as the boy pointed out, these were made to use the same power. They responded with the exact same attack as her, trying to imobilize her with a strong enough current.

The girl was faster however, and unlike the machine, she also could manipulate the electricity instead of only shooting it out, so she redirected the attack towards the second powered suit, disabling them both at the same time. Then she proceeded to launch a second barrage of bullets at the people hiding behind cover waiting for an opportunity to fight back, all the while going towards the next one. It seemed she really had all of it under control.

Meanwhile, Hishiro had a way more aggressive approach on his end. He used a smoke grenade to hide his approach just before drop kicking the first one to get on his way right on the head, all while using his power to slow down any bullets that came his way. Actually pulling this off made him pumped up and pushed all his worries outside of his head.

Smirking like a hungry beast cornering his prey, the boy dashed in a slow stance, punching the air out of the lungs of the second enemy and used their body to shield himself from the second way of bullets coming his way just before sending it flying towards the third. He then grasped the lungs of the fifth with null inertia, suffocating them to make them unable to attack, at the same time as he low kicked the next one onto the ground.

All of that happened way too quick. The remaining foes were struck by confusion as to what was happening, unable to tell that it was just a single person attacking them, while the first ones that were hit were starting to recover. This was the window of opportunity he needed. Swiftly moving around the people still standing, he went straight for the suitcase and tried to grab it by pulling the handle.

It was supposed to be easy, but even though he was injured, the DA member held onto it for dear life and did not let Hishiro take it away, angering him. "You bastard, let go already!"

"Never! They'll kill me if I do!"

"I'll kill you if you don't!"

The boy pulled out his gun to show he was serious, but instead of pointing towards the older male, he instead had to shoot sideways against the others that were coming for him, hitting at least two of them that fell down unconscious. Still, this was enough for the one carrying the suitcase to get away, and even though he was struggling to move, the smoke screen worked against Hishiro as he could not see where he had gone. "Tsk, you can't be serious…"

Part 2

"Huh… huh… hahahahaha, that's it you fools! You'll never take it!"

The DA member carrying the suitcase was heading towards the street that led deeper into District 5. If he managed to get away from the battle and into any of their bases nearby, it was pretty much their victory. And the chances of him being attacked on the way now were way slimmer since the battle was going to draw more attention than one random guy in an anti-skill uniform.

That was nothing but a naive assumption, and it proved to be wrong the moment he took a single step into the street.

"Oh? Oya ohyeah, what do we have here? What is it? What is it? Whatisitwhatistiwhistwhistwhist, HUH!? KEYAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Someone wearing a blue gas mask adorned with a white star painting and cloaked in black was standing further down the street. His long black straight hair flowed unnaturally on the wind as he carried an electric guitar above his shoulder that looked completely out of place.

But more importantly, he was being followed by a massive machine that covered the whole street, all the way from one sidewalk to the other. It had five legs evenly distributed around its cylindrical shape, all of them equipped with omnidirecional wheels, and several amplifier-like devices surrounding its main body.

It all looked so unnatural in comparison to everything around that the man was struck with fear the moment his eyes landed on the scene. The masked person, however, paid him no heed and just continued. "Would you look at that! This is exactly what we've been looking for all this time! Very sick of you to bring it to us like that! Wouldn't you agree, Su-Mi-Re-CHAAAAAAN!"

Finishing his line like he was following a script, he made a circular motion with his arm and pointed up towards the sky. Or maybe towards the lid of the machine behind him, which was just being opened, revealing a girl with greenish hair wearing a purple racing suit. "Wait, Nokon, could you stop calling me like that? It's embarrassing, you know. Also, stop messing around and just take the suitcase already. He is trying to escape."

"Heh - hey, hey hey, that's not cool! You get back here" Of course the man did not. He dragged himself back into the crossroads faster than he had been moving before. Or at least, he tried to. "Sumire-chan! Light's up! It's time for the Beta V2 to show its prowess!"

The girl slipped back inside the machine and it came back to life. A low pitched engine started humming while the amplifiers lit up with different collared lights. "LEEEEEET'S ROOOOOOOOOOCK!"

With that, Nokon jumped and brought his guitar down to his arms, playing a cacophonyc sound with a single over exaggerated motion. The shock from the sound waves made the DA member stumble forward, but instead of falling down, his head struck a translucent wall with a light white tone that had appeared out of nowhere the moment the sound was played. The hit was way harder than it looked, making the older male fall unconscious, finally letting go of the suitcase.

Part 3

"Dammit, where the hell did he go?!"

Hishiro was still back there in the middle of the battle trying to look for the suitcase to no avail. He had figured that maybe that man walked away from the crossroads, but now he couldn't do anything about that as he got completely surrounded by both DA and the other ones. Kyuchi, meanwhile, was fighting off the last of the powered suits, to his complete surprise. Come to think of it, these prototypes had no electrical protection. I forgot about that.

"You'll pay for this, kid!"

"Kill the esper scum!"

Esper scum? Are these with the anti esper movement?

There was no time to think about that. The two groups seemed to make him the primary target and a rain of bullets were coming his way. He had to find a solution quickly, otherwise he wouldn't live through this. It was impossible for him to fight off that many enemies at the same time, so his mind landed on his only silver lining in his situation. Maybe she could do something about this. I can't believe I'm about to do this… ugh, this isn't my day.

"KYUCHI! I'M LEAVING THIS TO YOU! HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!"

After shouting as loud as he could, he gathered all the strength he could muster and released it all at once. His power activated with more force than usual, and his mental calculations did not match the massive output, causing a mental paradox and making his power to almost go out of control, resulting in a massive distorted field of Null Inertia to appear around him. This summed to his last words made the enemies think it was a suicide attack and they all changed to defensive tactics in face of the spectacle unfolding before them.

This was nothing but a bluff though, and it wouldn't last for long. And worst of all, Hishiro wouldn't be able to activate his power for a while afterwards. If this last resort were to fail here, the best he could do was to fake his death and hope for them to ignore him, which was unlikely to happen.

After just a few seconds, the whole thing disappeared leaving nothing but the exhausted boy kneeling on the asphalt. That was more than enough though, as Kyuchi came running from the sides and sent sparks flying everywhere before helping him stand up. "Where is the suitcase? - Asked Misaka as she is unable to find it anywhere around."

"That guy used the mess I made to get away. If only I had just a second more I would've taken it. But he can't be far."

Their conversation was cut short as the effects of the distraction were over. The girl had to support him with her shoulder, so she wasn't able to use her rifle and had to rely only on her electricity, while he only had a few bullets left in his revolver. Combined, they did manage to keep the path open for an escape route for a while, but once the bullets were over and with no time for a reload, they were driven into a corner. And then…

*BANG*

"Kyaah!"

The two of them fell down, following a few steps away from each other with a trail of blood coming from Kyuchi.

*BANG - BANG - BANG*

However, none of those bullets had come from the enemies they were fighting. In fact, they all came from the opposite direction. One by one, the members of DA dropped dead on the ground, each with a single bullet hole precisely on the spot their vest didn't protect them. Some among the anti-esper movement were also hit, but they were fast to disperse and not let themselves be all shot down.

Hishiro gritted his teeth, trying to see who had done all of that. And the answer did not make him happy.

Spiky blond hair. Sunglasses. Hawaiian had met that boy before, and it wasn't a pleasant one. "The grim reaper. Isn't just great…"

Luckly, it didn't seem that he was interested in them. So the boy made haste into crawl towards his ally and try to pull her away from the cross fire. "Hey, are you alive there?"

"Misaka… is fine. It just scraped on my leg - says Misaka as she tries to endure the pain."

They both moved to the sidewalk. Hishiro left her sitting down with her back leaning on a light pole and walked back to the crossroad. By then, Tsuchimikado had already finished getting rid of anyone that was still trying to fight back, and the rest just ran away. It seemed like he had no intention in going after them, but now his attention was completely drawn by the other boy. "My, it has been a while-nyah!"

"Has it? I wish we wouldn't meet for longer than that. Like, forever."

"How cold." He said that with his gun pointed towards Hishiro while wearing a malicious smile. "Then again, I guess I did ruin your date, huh? Sorry about that-nyah! Still, you have some weird tastes regarding women."

"I could say the same about your jokes."

"If you don't like them, how about we can go straight into business instead. Where is the suitcase?"

"I wish I knew." The brown haired boy replied while shrugging.

"By the way, don't even try feigning ignorance on me. I know very well why you and your kind were doing all this mess-nyah."

"Hey, grouping me with them is taking it way too far. And if you want to know, you're asking the wrong person. These anti-skill look-alike were the ones to take it away. Actually, I was ready to rip some information out of them as well."

"You? Hah! You have no idea of the situation you're in right now, do you? I'm going to do that myself. And I need you out of the play for the time being" With that, Tsuchimikado lowered the hammer on his pistol, making Hishiro swallow dry. His body was in no condition to fight, and it would be a while before he could use his power again. If the grim reaper were to decide to finish him off here, it was checkmate for him.

"*sigh* Fine, fine. You do you. I'm out. I'm not paid well enough to deal with someone of your level, and getting shot is not my style. So if you excuse me, I'll just take my partner over there to the hospital. I hope you don't mind that."

Unfortunately, Hishiro couldn't help but let a bit of his sarcasm escape during when mentioning the word "level", making the blond boy frown. It was obvious to him that he would still be after the suitcase after this and he had no reason to let him go here. But deep down, the trail of blood leading to the girl hidden behind the light pole made him hesitate. He had his fair share of guilt regarding that incident, especially for not being able to help his friend while he was dealing with the fallout in the end. He had no idea of how badly injured that clone was, and he didn't want more of their blood on his hands. So he decided to let that one slide, and instead, focused his attention on the DA members that were still alive.

But not for long.

"This is a super waste of time. You won't get anything of value out of them."

Another familiar voice broke in the vicinity.

It was Kinuhata, followed by the other members of ITEM, coming from the opposite side of the street. "We've been super after those guys for days now. But they super lost the remnant to another team while trying to escape with it over there"

The two of them had completely opposite reactions.

Hishiro was now panicking inside like crazy. The grim reaper didn't care at all about Kyuchi being here. But what about ITEM? How would the #4 react if she thought the Railgun was here, and working with him on top of that? The situation would get way worse than having to deal with Tsuchimikado alone.

"Yo-ho~, in the end, you sure got a beating, Hishiro!"

Frenda was the first one to approach him, sending a shiver down his spine. He quickly covered the rest of the distance himself, trying to avoid them from getting any closer to the light pole. "S-shut up! You're acting too smug for someone that was just waiting in the shadows until everything was settled to show up, even though you have way more firepower than I do! Has the thought of helping me ever crossed your mind?"

"Huh? Why the hell would we help you out of all people?" Next came Mugino, not even caring to look him in the eyes. "You could just drop dead here for all I care. Actually, please do. I would love to see you and that disgusting face of yours ripped apart in the mud."

That comment did annoy him a little, but to be fair, he felt the same towards her, so he couldn't complain about it.

Meanwhile, Tsuchimikado ignored the useless banter happening in the sidelines and questioned Kinuhata, not fully buying her words. "Sorry, but I find it difficult to believe they lost the suitcase. After all, if they did, you wouldn't be wasting time hanging around here now, would you?"

"Hmm? But we super aren't wasting time." She then looked over her shoulder "Did you super get them, Takitsubo?"

"Yes", replied the girl seemingly staring at the void. "They headed further northeast into District 6."

"Hoh, that's where they have all that super fancy stuff!"

"We aren't here to play around, Kinuhata." Mugino shot any weird idea she might have been having before she had the chance to say anything. It would get annoying if she convinced Frenda of anything before the mission was over.

"I-I know! I super wasn't going to suggest anything-" Her words were cut off by her growling stomach, making her whole face grow red.

Their leader sighed and turned around, heading in the direction Takitsubo pointed at. "C'mon. Let's get this over with today and have some decent dinner afterwards." Her voice sounded more tired than usual. Maybe she wanted a break just as much.

"Hmm… Interesting. So this is the power of the infamous AIM Stalker." The grim reaper finally lowered his weapon with a slightly improved mood. "It looks like you're having a hard time with this. Do you mind If I were to tag along-nyah?"

"Heh, don't you even dare if you care for your life. I'll blow you away if you get in our way"

"Oi, c'mon now. You do know who I work for, right? I'm pretty sure our goals are aligned here."

"Get lost. You are in just because Takitsubo can track them down."

"True. I was supposed to be working with a team now that could be helping me with that, but, well… let's say some things happened. Anyway, it's not like there's nothing for you to gain from cooperating as well, if you get what I mean-nyah! I'm close with the higher ups, after all."

Despite Mugino being very vocal about being against the idea, she didn't take any action to stop Tsuchimikado from following her. It was impossible to tell if she was really just too tired to fight back or if she didn't think it was worth confronting him here about it.

"Wait a second, I also need to- ack!" Seeing that, Hishiro also started walking towards them, but a sharp pain ran through his body, making him stop on his tracks.

"You super need to take it easy." Kinuhata said in a cold tone. "You're in no condition to get involved in this anymore. We super don't need a burden holding us back." With that, she also turned around and followed Mugino and Takitsubo, leaving only Frenda standing there looking back and forth between the two groups.

Her eyes quickly glanced at the trail of blood leading to behind the light pole before addressing him again. "You can leave that one to us. Besides, in the end, it looks like you have something else to do right now, don't you?"

He grew impatient and was about to lash out, but stopped himself from doing so at the last instant and just nodded in response. All that he could do was to watch her leave him with a "See ya" and run after the rest.

After they were gone, he couldn't help but laugh at himself. "Hehe… hahahahahaha… just what the hell was that, me? Burden? Leave that one to us? That's not like me at all." Frustrated, all that passed through his head was himself just going regardless. He knew the location. He could have Asuka check the surveillance system. He needed nobody's permission to do that, but for some reason, he lacked the motivation to do that all of a sudden.

"Us, huh…" Looking from another angle, he was about to head into a battle against an unknown foe and leave Kyuchi behind in this hellscape without even confirming her situation. Did he start to care for her all of a sudden? No, that couldn't be it. Maybe he just felt guilty. It was a rushed assault, and he didn't want it to go the way it did, but despite all that, it was he that failed. Kyuchi said she could take down the powered suits, and not just that, she also saved him in the end when he asked for help. But he couldn't even take the suitcase nor keep himself safe. He would probably be dead if he was acting alone.

"Tsk… dammit… what a moment to grow a conscience." Begrudgingly, he went back to check how the girl was doing. She said the bullet had just scratched her leg, but this was too much blood for it to be just that.

And in a flash, all his goodwill was whipped away.

The moment the boy approached, Kyuchii quickly hid something back in her pocket. It seemed she was talking to someone or recording something. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing - says Misaka in a completely natural and not suspicious way."

"Yeah, right…" Hishiro frowned and stood there looking at her for what felt like half a minute, but she just stared back at him blankly. "Whatever, how's your leg?"

"A vein got a little damaged, but as long as I stop the bleeding, I will be fine - says Misaka she tightens the grip on the bandage" As she mentioned, she had already done some first aid treatment herself and tied some cloth around the wound.

"I see… good to know. I'll report back to Asuka, so just tell me when you're ready to leave" He stepped away from her and called up their support which was on standby during the battle. "Come in, it's me."

"Good to hear your voice, Shiro. Things were looking really bad, I thought you wouldn't make it this time."

"You say this every time…"

"Oh, do I? I just worry about you, you know~"

"I'm sure you do." For once, Asuka's teasing gave him a somewhat comforting sense of familiarity. "Anyway, it was really bad indeed. Someone managed to escape with the suitcase in the chaos."

"Is that so? Hang on for a second, I'll find them-"

"No need to. They went to District 5. ITEM is after it right now, so if you keep watching them, You'll find it eventually. That being said, we're retreating for the time being."

"Eh, say what?" Asuka sounded genuinely surprised, her joking tone was completely absent from her voice. "That's rare, coming from you. Wait, has that ever happened before?"

"I spent all my power to escape in one piece and it will still take a while before I can use it again. Also, Kyuchi got hurt."

"Ah, I see… It can't be helped then. No problem, I'll track their every move until you two can act again."

"Also" Hishiro added while making sure the other girl was not hearing, "I know that I might be asking a little too much of you now, but I want you to keep a close eye on Kyuchi too, just to be safe."

"Wait, don't tell me you're still suspicious of her after all this time? We already told you that she is safe-"

"It's not like that. The one I don't trust is Seria. I think she might be using her to pull something on us here."

Asuka didn't reply right away. The pause meant she was taking what he said seriously. "Okay. I'll stay alert. If anything comes up, I'll talk to you."

Between the Lines

The battle at the docks of Bremerhaven city raged on.

Despite being terribly outnumbered by the Down-Colored Sunlight, the three leaders of the golden sages were starting to push the other party. That was hardly a sign of an upcoming victory, given how the Down-Colored Sunlight operated by preparing large scale rituals, it was still quite the impressive feat to accomplish. It all came down to not only being able to keep the rhythm, but actually finish off the fight before whatever large scale attack was being cooked up.

That being said, Lillian did not show any signs of concern, even though being fully aware of it. Surrounded by several enemies led by the blond man in suit they called Mark Space that used wind magic based on the swords of the minor arcana, driven to the corner of the facility with nothing but the ocean behind her, all she felt was the thrill of combat.

"You seem to be quite happy despite your current situation."

"Is that so? I apologize, I mean no disrespect. It is just that onii-sama doesn't let me do this very often, so I can't help but feel excited."

Among the organisation, Lillian is regarded as the most important of the trinity. Not because she was a great leader, she barely ever attended her responsibilities of her position while in the base. That title was only given to her for her outstanding charisma, which is why she dealt with all the external work, like making alliances in many different countries and keeping the cabal on good terms with them, as well as handling negotiations and acquiring spiritual items needed by the other members. No, her importance lay somewhere else. She filled a role that only she and no one else could, not even Ràzval.

The enemies approached her, making her almost take a step back where there was no long floor. "Whoops, that's a little dangerous. I think I need to start taking this seriously."

Saying that, a blue collared light orb flew out of the tarot card she was holding and dived into the ocean behind her. Shortly after, a thick pillar of water rose up, twisting around like an unstable structure about to collapse, before forming a shape similar to an eel that slammed down on the ground in front of her and moving by itself, trying to swallow up the members of the opposite cabal.

Some of them were taken by surprise and were sent down the beast's throat at mach speed, following its large body before disappearing in the waters of the sea. The rest easily avoided the attack, including Mark that narrowed his eyes studying the spell cast before him. "Is this Tiamat? No, Bahamut perhaps?"

"Good guess, but I'm afraid your assumption lacks the proper scale I'm going for here. This is no particular dragon. It is just a dragon. The dragon. Stripped from all interpretations, distortions and mythologies. This is the concept of the creature in its purest form."

The man frowned at her description. It was not a particularly strong spell by itself, but it was just impossible to pull off. Magic drew power from the meaning given by all the things she just said to have gotten rid of. Then how she was manifesting it without any basis to build it upon? Unless… "Impossible… is this built completely from the ground up?"

This was insanity. It was just like trying to drive a car using no steering wheel, gear lever or pedals. How can someone control the engine and wheels directly without the necessary tools?

"Pff… ahahaha, AHAHAHAHAHA! Sorry, but your reaction is just hilarious! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!" She continued to laugh maniacally for a while as the dragon kept wreaking havoc. "No, you are just half right. It does have some basis behind it, but not like the ones you are used to. Which makes it flexible enough for me to do this!"

On her command, the water took the solid form of flesh as the serpentine dragon morphed into a western looking winged one covered in golden scales that immediately started to breathe out fire.

Mark quickly used his eight of swords to blow a strong gust of wind that worked like a wall, keeping the flames away, but the others didn't react in time. None of them were badly burned, but most were hurt enough to be out of combat for the time being.

The man blinked blankly for a few seconds. That now was just his reflexes. He had really lucked out to defend himself, the change happened way too fast.

I see… lacking the usual symbology, she is capable of shaping it at will. That means she is creating all the necessary tools - the legend, the meanings, maybe even idols - all inside her mind in order to keep the creature existing. That explains the phenomena, but not the speed. How many decades, or even centuries it took for the basis of our magic to be created and become strong enough so we could use spells from it? Are you telling me that she can replicate that in a matter of fractions of a second all by herself?

None of it made sense, but he decided to attack regardless. It did put him in a huge disadvantage since he did not fully understand the spell, but it was better to just take action instead given how fast she could launch an attack without warning. Using the three of swords, a huge wind blade was sent flying at her.

The Dragon did nothing to protect her. She didn't even blink. Instead, an yellow orb came from the card at light speed and stood between her and the incoming attack.

That was all it took.

The wind morphed on contact, creating a transparent bird twice her size behind her, with its wings covering her body as if hugging the girl.

So it uses the four basic elements as a source. Meaning she probably still has two left. But since she used the seawater for the dragon, she needs some contact with the element in question. She can't make it appear by herself!

That meant the spell had a weakness.

She used the water from the sea.

Wind was all around them, so it wasn't a problem for her to make anything from it.

Earth was a wild card. Some spells referred to only pure earth or rocks, but even the concrete beneath them could count depending on the situation.

That only left fire. And the only fire nearby was the one created by the dragon, which was quickly dying out.

Confident that his plan would work he launched another attack. This time, it was the five of swords. The air itself was being sliced all the way to the ground making a huge cut in the scenery. In response, the bird took the form of flesh covered by silver colored feathers and flew Liliam to the side, avoiding the invisible attack.

However, the man had already taken his next action. Using the ace of swords, he instantly appeared right beside her. Neither of them wasted a single second. Mark activated the nine of swords, while Lilian let a green orb drop into the ground, from where a lion emerged, disrupting her opponent's spell.

This was just a feint. The man activated the six of swords right after, blowing away all flames from the surroundings, making her unable to use the final orb. The concrete lion also shape shifted into a real one, covered in crimson fur with black stripes identical to a tiger's. It tried to bite Mark's head off, but he jumped back just in time to avoid the attack. Now, if I'm correct, next she will…

Just as he predicted, the dragon began to move. His form changed again, making it wingless and way larger than before, with cracks on its skin from where it was possible to see lava flowing inside. He had already activated the four of swords when the massive wave of fire came from the monster's mouth. The man disappeared into thin air as the flames rained down where he was standing a moment ago. When it ended, he reappeared there again, followed by a gust of wind blowing the flames away again and stealing her ability to use them once more.

"Now I got you!" His final card: the ten of swords. After activating all of them, he could summon a huge amount of Telesma, rivalling the power of an archangel, and by unleashing all that power, a huge disaster would occur to his target defined by whichever court card he was to choose. But by using all four of them at once, he could destroy the 3 monsters and her at the same time, not leaving any room for a defence.

A massive tornado appeared and swallowed the girl, as well as the beasts she had summoned. The force was a bit too much and caused quite the damage among their own numbers which was unfortunate, but with how fast his opponent was, he had no time to hold back and avoid friendly fire. At the very least, it was over. He had won.

But once the wind dispersed, it showed a very different outcome.

The beasts were gone, but a mass of metal stood where Lilian was supposed to be. It moved shortly after revealing to be an armadillo, sheltering the girl kneeling beneath it.

"What? But how?"

"Ah, I see. You made another misunderstanding." The girl replied nonchalantly, standing up as her newly created creature turned back into a red orb. "It is true that I tend to use the four basic elements as the source material for them, but it doesn't need to be like that. Just like my creations, the four elements can be anything I want. Like using concrete instead of earth, and metal instead of fire. As long as they are different from each other and I put enough effort into it, I can even use the multiple different substances contained in the air."

Mark was shocked. It was clear to him now that had chosen the wrong opponent. Only their leader Levinia could possibly compete with a monster like her. No, not even that was a certainty anymore. Replacing the four basic elements was almost the territory of the magic gods.

Her spells were not that strong. Getting hit by it was not going to kill him. But despite that, He was genuinely afraid of Lilian now. She was fast, unpredictable, and her power was off the scale of being absurd.

And she wasn't over yet.

All four orbs started circling around her, getting faster after each full rotation.

She finally revealed the card she was holding in her hand.

XIV - The Temperance.

Mark didn't even have time to try and understand what it could mean before his eyesight went completely white and he lost conscience.

Unlike any other member in the organisation, Lilian power's were gentle instead of brutal. Which not only matched her magic name, but also the destiny she was set to fulfil. To be the hero that will lead the world to become a better place, and then sit on the throne above it all afterwards to make sure mankind would never follow the wrong path again.

Hello once again. It's been a while, but not as much as last time. I guess that's an improvement?

I'm slowly, but surely getting back into the hang of things. And I'm also back to reading the LNs (finally made it to Genesis Testament), which means more inspiration and more ideas to drive the story forward.

This time, just action non stop. Hishiro has been on the backseat of this arc so far, so I wanted to give him and Kyuchi a bit of the spotlight. Also wanted to show a bit of the contrast between his and ITEM's mindset, given that they are the ones working the closest to Pointer most of the time. He looks down on them, but his stubbornness makes him the least efficient when more numbers are required. Meanwhile ITEM lays deeper in the dark side which makes them more of a "villain" than Pointer, but they care more about the end goal than their pride, which leads to their teamwork being as high as the "power of friendship" in comparison to him and Kyuchi. That is, until Mugino goes shitmad about other level 5 being stronger than her, but we're not there quite yet…

As for Tsuchimikado… well, if you're following closely (and I don't blame you if you're not given my sparse release schedule), he is being a bit of a troll in the middle of all of this. I didn't have the chance to make him act like this yet, so I couldn't let this opportunity slide despite risking getting a little out of character given the situation they're in. Hopefully I managed and continue to pull it off, but I'll let you be the judge of that.

I'm not going to comment on the Between the Lines section yet. I think it's better to wait until that plotline finishes and I can talk about it all in one go. That being said: Mark Space. I was kinda afraid of tackling his character ever since the beginning because there's not much about his personality in the original story to go with, but I ended up enjoying writing him quite a lot. His fighting style in particular, which partially inspired Rüdiger, is really cool to play around with. I kind of regret not using him as a more prominent character now.

By the way, I'll try to start replying to reviews again from the next chapter onwards. I really wasn't feeling like it last time and there weren't enough for this one. So if you want to leave something there, I'll appreciate it. No need to if you don't want, though. I won't cry about it. But Kyuchi will. And Asuka will hack into your PC, so there's that. No pressure. XD