My laziness kicked into hyperdrive recently but better late than never.
The full expanse of the clear blue sky could be taken in from above the high altitude.
Atop the largest cylindrical tower of the offshore petrochemical industrial area, squatted a petite middle schooler with candy cane knee-high socks and long black hair dyed yellow at both bangs.
From her odd posture, She appeared like a feral cat. A squatting yoga pose where the balls of her feet were a point of contact, body hunched forwards and hands touching the metal surface of the tower.
Lessar, the youngest and only member of a former magical organization known as New Light, wore a worn-down version of her group's uniform. A white undershirt beneath an unzipped football jersey combined with a short miniskirt of the same color scheme of white, blue, and red.
Her unique spiritual item, a golden dragon-like tail wrapped in a clear tube, peeking from underneath her alluring mini skirt and exposing her black butterfly thong. Her tail, swaying back and forth in anticipation as it surveys the area from above.
Though this place was known for refining oil and petrochemicals, there was no combustion of fossil fuels to release greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, as this platform site was abandoned many years back because of bankruptcy. Therefore making the tall height she chose, a perfect vantage point to spot her target.
Unfortunately, however, that didn't change her luck of finding them. Lesser only knew two things about her opponent and that is Their a person of extremely high interest to that god who approached her. And. There the only thing standing between her and her wish.
Normally Lessar would refrain from taking such a job that disclose so little information on her target, but as things stand for her right now. She won't hesitate to take the opportunity. Not if it could provide her with her deepest most desire. No matter what it requires, she would stop at nothing to achieve her goal. Regardless if it is murder and/or genocide.
So, with the little information she had on hand, there wasn't much she could do in terms of planning; But to wait until she would spot her target where from then she builds a surrounding parameter and observes before killing them, hopefully, in one fell swoop.
To help her even more in her endeavor, Lessar had deployed over twenty of her Jack-o'-lantern communication spells to the entire estate. Searching not just by sight but also sound.
One of them, which she uses as a relay point, floated beside her and displayed multiple split-screen projections. The fist-sized pumpkin-shaped item with eyes and mouth looking out of place surrounded by the artificial environment.
'Jeez, how long is this person going to hide for.'
Lessar only saw about two options open to this person. Fight or flight. But with the location they were on being isolated, said flight response would just become hiding. And that would only stage off the inevitable. If this person knew what was going on, which they most likely did (why would they even be here in the first place), they would pick up on that.
All that was left now was to play the waiting game. It is only a matter of when will they realize, that they would come and seek her out.
But even so...
'where the hell are they?' She sighed impatiently.
The passage of time, though short, was too long for lessar. Well more like it felt a lot longer. And with her patience growing thin, doubt was allowed to fester.
'If they are taken that long maybe they've spotted my spells and are lying in wait to formulate some kind of plan.'
'No not possible, I'm very careful when maneuvering my pumpkins around and my wires are too high up. There's no way they could pick them up with the sun providing cover. Right?'
'Even if they didn't catch sight of my spells they still could be planning something.' Lessar sighed frustrated. " I'm so gonna kill that person real good for driving me crazy."
Not even a minute passed after that, she caught the slightest huff of a breath.
Instantly knowing what it was, Lessar's bright ocean blue eyes widened involuntarily and began to sparkle, her primary weapon, the spiritual item called Steel Glove, perking up in her grip as it lay between her palms.
In what could be called a futuristic fashion, her mobile pumpkin spell made its way in front of her and the hollowed-out dark eyes lit up momentarily before projecting a single sharp 2D image.
"Found you."
Lessar took in every signal detail she could as she gazed on predatorily at the holographic representation of her target running.
He had no special traits that she could speak of. Apart from his hair, which made him appeared a bit cute in her eyes, he looked like any normal high school student. Average inbuilt and plain looking.
What was so special about him that would peak that Magic Gods interest? Whatever it is was clearly something she couldn't see or feel. And knowing that, Lessar pushed those thoughts away and focused back on her mission.
Incomprehensible or not, that doesn't matter, because before they even use whatever it is, she would instantly kill them.
Lessar finally rose up, her mouth twitched into a sadistic smile. As she reaffirms her grip on her weapon, taking in the feeling of her polearm in her hand, the sharp talon-like blades kissed the metal surface of the tower.
Time to start the hunt.
She nose-dived off the tower after gaining a small running start. The wind, blowing through her worn down hair indiscriminately as it also caused the tattered fabric of her jacket to flutter.
In an almost premeditated moment of her free-falling, Lessar swung her weapon at the forefront of her body. Its claw's opened a gape as if ready to take hold of something.
And in the short time that it did, they clasped on up onto something. That something being another of her spiritual items known as Dromi which looks like thick metal cable wires.
It grabbed a hold of one of them and, Lesser, in the split moment that it did, maneuvered around the wire like a buzz saw and moved along it by using both the transferred momentums.
The mysterious objects spanned the full view from high in the sky, connecting intricately to the many objects towering up high. The lines, ranging in the thousands.
Lessar moved from wire to wire, parkouring beautifully as she danced her way two kilometers to the east.
Having completed her preparations for setting up her box parameter in just twenty minutes, Lessar fluidly proceeded to the area where her pumpkin spell was tracking her target.
The boy ran openly through the area, and like a spear on reentry after being thrown, Lessar plummeted towards him at break-neck speed.
She rained down from above, using one of the wires nearby as a slingshot, but as her four-digit blades flew towards him, without even casting his gaze upwards, the boy skillfully avoided the attack.
BOOM
The gravel blew up and his body got pummeled by clouds of debris.
'Shit.'
There goes the surprise killing strike.
As a follow-up to the attack, Lessar danced her body to the front of the Steel Glove and rested her feet on it like a monkey hanging on a branch with one hand. Afterward, she then, with the finger-like blades embedded into the gravel, seized a broken piece beneath before grasping at the pole with her free hand and flipping it 180 degree's clockwise.
From there, like a forcefully bent bamboo shoot being released, the clutched gravel slammed at him with an impact greater than a sledgehammer.
The clamped gravel explosively erupted out into debris and she still, however, didn't hit her target. Instead, as his replacement, the heavy-duty strike struck the concrete-filled ground.
Lessar didn't notice this but to prevent himself from being blasted, the boy had woefully tripped his leg and rolled out the way.
When the dust settled and her feet touched the ground, the next she saw him he was running off into a passageway on the right.
Her movements were fast. Likely as fast as a short-distance sprinter maintaining their speed throughout a marathon. Within a couple of seconds of flexing her leg muscles, Lessar reached the passageway opening.
The boy was back in her sights. And he ran through the passageway with a speed that couldn't be called average, glancing over his shoulder at what she amounted to be random intervals.
Lessar, obviously, charged at him. The four-digit blades of the Steel Gloves positioned in both hands to spear him with a quick thrust.
However, the boy reacted to it efficiently and made his way to a catwalk on his right.
Simply by utilizing her astounding jumping ability, Lessar leaped to the landing between floors and intercepted him from climbing to another.
She threw a couple kicks and swings, trying to knock him off balance from the stairs but he would always dodge and block the strikes until he felt safe to get knocked off.
Cautiously moving her feet, Lessar rocketed from off the stairs and thrust at him with the Steel Gloves. The boy, after seamlessly getting up, sidestepped the attack and spun on his heel for a roundhouse kick. With her weapon raised, Lessar consequently defended against it and crumpled backward.
Before she had gotten back up, the boy jumped over the railing and crashed into a nearby cooling water pipe-line, dropping to the ground with a not so cushioned thud.
Lesser followed after him but saw he had already kicked off the floor and ran through the dense network of metal structures underneath.
Lessar clicked her tongue and frowned as she strained her eyes to see through the route.
Following through there may prove difficult when she takes her weapon into account. Leaving the options of going around or over open. But those in themselves bring in the prospect of momentarily losing sight of him.
momentarily? Lessar laughed at herself. Why is she so worried? None of that matters since she has the vicinity sealed off and has a mobile security. She thought she might as well enjoy the hunt and vent off all that stress he put her through for waiting.
So she took a seat on the stairs.
"I gotta say, that boy's good. Really good." She laid back. "But how did he avoid my fist attack?" Lessar mused as she let her pumpkin communication spells search for him. Could the reason possibly be linked to what was so special about him? Can't be right? Foresight isn't anything special in the world of magic. Besides, why would a magic God be interested in that? Those people can do just about anything.
"Guess I'll find out when I spot him." Lesser smiled and just as quickly as she did, she instantly leaned up. One of her pumpkin spells picked him up.
Moving by way of the wires again, she reached the location where it was.
The pumpkin spell that was following had lost sight of him somewhere in the vicinity. So to guarantee he wouldn't escape her a second time, Lessar stationed some pumpkin spells in the surrounding area and as a precautionary send others to guard the barrier as well as search any other possible places.
The last her pumpkin spell saw him, the boy ran through the section underneath the constructs to her right. She knows for a fact he didn't escape. Her pumpkin spell would have picked that up.
This would mean he's still underneath there, and since there's more of an open road-literal asphalt road there's no way he could escape from one construct to another without being noticed.
Something felt wrong when she really started to consider everything.
What was his plan here? There are surely better places around where that is possible. A trap? Maybe. But this area isn't suitable for that. It's too open. Three of those catwalk buildings with multiple different size tanks and pipes lined up vertically together and boxed off by an asphalt road. Why here? There has to be a reason.
Suddenly her pondering was cut short with a glimpse of the boy. It was just a glimpse but it appeared he was running straight through those lined up constructs.
Lessar didn't know whether to call his game plan smart or stupid. True, taking the route from under the building would shield and protect him from her but once he loses that he will have to pass the asphalt road up ahead before being reintroduced to the dense side of the petrochemical plant.
Even so, her mind would not send signals to her feet.
There was something more to his gambit. Is what her subconscious told her. If she chased up to him there was no doubt in her mind he couldn't outrun her.
And that's when it hit her. This was a game of the fisherman and the fish. What if she did chase right behind him and he changed direction? There was no way for her to pick that out until he crossed to another building and by then he could cross into the jungle of structures on her opposite side.
Regardless if I act too late or too early, I run the same 50/50 risk of losing him.
Smart but-when she considered that- the dilemma only exists if I reside on one side.
lessar told herself to no longer question this. She unzipped her jacket pocket and pulled out a fist-sized cube, and with her hand raised at a 45-degree angle like she was riding a bike, activated her Dromi wire by refining her mana.
Two instantaneous sounds of impact belled out on both her sides.
Without even a hint of resistance, the Dromi wire cube had expanded and pieced through a couple of structures on opposite sides as a wire.
Lessar then quickly grabbed hold of it with her Steel Gloves and drew herself back a couple of steps for a launch to another wire high above where she had to gymnastics her way unto it.
Now balanced, crouched and legs spread, she saw the back of the boy fleeing, so she quickly reached for her miniskirt and pulled out a small spice bag strapped to her right thigh. This was another item used for a spell.
'This game of cat and mouse is over with.' Lessar toothy grinned before using her Steel Glove arm to swing and throw the spice bag towards the spiky hair boy who was 10 meters out.
At the wires angle, she couldn't do a vertical drop and so couldn't take the risk of launching herself after him due to having no way of softening the blow of jumping back down, especially from this height. If there were two to three structures close by where she could ricochet from to break her build-up momentum then it's doable, but those surrounding them were not cable of putting her in an advantageous position.
Though there was the option of a parkour roll landing, the momentum would still be too great and not even that would guarantee her safety.
There was another way to take care of him however and once her Jack-o'-lanterns intercepted him, that's when she had used it. A Golden-style explosive Wind Spell.
The spice bag flew high in the air and headed for the boy in an arc. With the boys' movement restricted as five pumpkin spells blocked his path, it was game over. she won.
The string holding the bag closed became undone and spread the spices through the air where they floated around and created a complex magic circle above the schoolboy.
Lessar then moved her thumb horizontally and chanted.
"Fire of the right and water of the back, mix the colors of your directions with the wind. The wind of the back right that contrarily holds both the active and the passive becomes that which indicates calamity and a turning point!"
Per her thumb actions, an invisible power swirled up and the magic circle exploded with a flash of light that created an explosive surge of wind from above the spiky hair boy's head.
But.
Lessar couldn't believe her eyes.
She saw everything that happened visibly but the data send to her optic nerves and read by her brain created problems.
The first attack should have already destroyed his rush while the second should have had his body slammed into the ground from the power above.
But.
However.
It was also during the moment the lanterns cut across him did he escape her.
He outstretched his right hand. A simply mundane action that was amplified even more when he waved it around, although a bit incoherently as if dancing.
Even so, countless dry bursting noises ranged out as the wall of pumpkin spells burst into streamers with little effort of the boy's gestures.
And.
When the wind spell encroached him and cracked and exploded the asphalt, the boy withstood the attack, his right hand raised proudly as it was held by his left.
The spell dissipated with the same dry bursting noise and the boy's figure still stood.
He didn't emerge out of the spell unscratched, however. His clothing and face were tattered and dirtied.
After taking care of all that, the boy hurriedly twirled back around and frantically beelined for the towering structures ahead, Lessar, losing sight of him fleeing through them.
Did he really take out both her spells with a couple of swings of his right hand?
No, never mind the Jack-o'-lantern communication spell, that was just simply used to restrict his movements, but the explosive wind spell...
It got destroyed.
Within a couple of seconds of being touched by him, it got violently shredded.
'This… this is even more powerful than I had thought.'
Lessar could only gulp at the sheer terrifying-ness. There was no denying it, that ominous power would certainly gain that God's attention.
Lessar laughed, her weapon resting on her shoulder as she gazes mischievously at the direction the boy escaped.
Well, things just got more interesting.
She let her body slip backward, her form hanging like a pendulum as the steel gloves attached itself to the wire. Then used the light grip of the four-finger blades and her body weight to gradually rotate on it until she built up the necessary centrifugal force to swing to another wire.
From then on, it turned back into a game of cat and mouse. Lesser, using her many remaining pumpkin spells to scour the entire estate and relay back the boy's position to her as she rested atop a building, contemplating. From time to time the boy would suddenly pop up, hide, and ambush her communication spells, dwindling her reconnaissance numbers. It didn't take more than one of the groups disappearing for Lessar to catch on, so she combated that by combining two groups, and in any case, they spotted him, having all the pumpkin spells rendezvous on his position.
Which was what just happened. The location she chased him to being underneath something of a roadway bridge still surrounded by steel structures, pipelines, tanks, and small machinery.
Lesser stood 12 meters across from the boy in that 16 feet tall passageway area. If he caught sight of her spells and decided to run here that means this is where he wants to make a stand.
So.
She picked up her strut and zoomed at him, sliding her four-digit blades along the surface of the pavement as she careened.
The speed at which she rocketed with would immediately cause for response by her opponent but the boy didn't react. Instead, he just stood there and watched as Lessar rushed him.
That was until the striking distance was met. Both Lessar and the boy moved concurrently.
In the instant Lessars uphill strike was executed, the boy seized her weapon.
As it was a magical tool with unique properties that increases her arm strength, gives her tremendous destructive force, and the ability to grab just about anything, a single touch of his right could easily destroy it.
However, Lessar had already anticipated that and moved her grip on the weapon at that same moment. By doing so, the polearm was no longer within reach and the sparks and dust whipped up from the pavement fluttered in his face.
Following up to that, Lessar swung her body in a twirl and moved to kick the boy's stomach. Her movements extraordinarily fast, but were still dodged by the boy jumping backward.
Disregarding that, Lessar tried swinging her weapon around like a whip and attacking. The boy however had already recovered and dodged the countless eversible patterns. He even tried counterattacking by attempting to snatch it but ultimately failed in doing so.
Immediately, Lessar switched to more unanalyzable attack patterns which were really arbitrary: Twist, spins, flips all of which were delivered with a series of feints, lunges, and strikes. At the end of it, he became battered but she became tired.
As to regain her stamina without creating an opening, Lessar, in that moment as well, moved a couple of pumpkin spells around to pounce on him. Those twirls and spins and flips in combat do make her attack patterns unpredictable but they demand extraordinary stamina.
Something this boy seems to have a lot of.
Before the last two of her spells became destroyed, she positioned them to follow behind her. The pumpkin to her right sprang up and rushed for the boy while Lessar followed right behind and twirls the steel glove around like a baton.
Having seen it blind his view and knowing it was a distraction, the boy swats it into colorful streamers with a swing of his right hand in hope that Lessar would attack his blind spot. Which was his left side. Having learned that, the boy swiftly swung to his left where he saw Lessar but still had his vision obscured.
And.
Once he defeated it, he no longer saw her but instead, she spawned behind him, in the time during his battle, and struck his back with her steel glove.
While he barreled across the concrete floor, Lesser jumped to and bounced off of the bottom of the overpass structure, only so she could attack him from above. The steel glove weapon brandished as it plummeted for the spiky hair boy. She missed, but that didn't deter lessar as she pole danced around the steel glove and made her way behind him for a swing. Unfortunately, however, that too was dodged as the boy distanced himself.
Nonetheless, the speed of her dash instantly recovered that stretch and she attacked him, fruitlessly, sometimes by using her feet but mostly with the use of the steel gloves.
The flurry of strikes, the rush of attacks that emphasized speed - both of them were aimed to merely seal off his movements and tired him out for a conserved final blow but even so, he evaded them. Well, the boy evaded them a few of the times but he still moved around so much that most of her attacks were unsuccessful.
During some point in the battle, the distance between them had widened and both Lessar and the boy used that short moment to pause and catch their breath. But in truth Lessar had purposely let them distance themselves. After seeing the way the fight panned out she switched to a different game plan.
One that called for the remaining couple of her pumpkin spells to ensnare, encircling and encroach the boy in a diversion; Meanwhile, as the chaos continued, she took the opportunity to attack. From three different angles. All of which were done roughly within the same intervals.
For the first, Lesser catapulted and deployed the spice bag above him. For the second, while chanting and moving her thumb horizontally, she aimed and activated the Dromi wire at the boys' sternum. Lastly, at the same time as that, finished it off by exploding out towards him with a powerful thrust.
Of the three attacks implemented, the explosive wind spell was the only unavoidable. Her angle and timing made sure of that. Guaranteeing regardless of what he does, he would remain temporarily pinned. That just left the saddening dilemma of how he dies: A piece through the sternum by the wire or skewered in the gut with the steel gloves four sharp blades.
What happened next was a bit hazy for Lessar. All she knew for certain was that her vision got tainted with spurts of blood and she heard six distinctive yet familiar sounds.
First, there was a sound of the ground cracking and something watermelon like getting pierced. Then came seconds later two dry bursting sounds; Followed by a wet crunching sound and ending along with whipping and bashing sounds followed by two heavy sounds hitting the ground.
But what happened was pretty simple.
With a battle sense that couldn't be called anything but amazing, the boy managed to reduce the damage done to his body.
He knew there was no escaping all three of the attacks so he opted to take two of them.
Though they were different split-second intervals, before he dealt with the wind spell, the boy adjusted his body enough to the right to take the Dromi wire through his shoulder blade. And, at the same time, had his right hand which was supported by his left, raised to intercept the explosive wind spell. Meanwhile, after he destroyed it, letting his left hand guide his right to sever the wire.
Seconds later, a dry bursting sound ranged out. The wire snapped and grotesquely sliced through his left shoulder before dancing through the air like a black serpent and whipping the bottom of the overpass structure. Plummeting downwards and..
What immediately followed was Lessars head being chopped off with a silent whippish.
.
.
.
"Othinussss!"
Kamijou called and the God appeared.
"Well?" Othinus asked, stepping out the shadow cast by the bridge. "What is your decision, did you choose to help the people suffering in this world, or did you choose to help yourself and those in yours?"
"Screw you, you bitch. Life isn't so binary that it only presents you with two options."
"Oh? Is that right? I would say on a fundamental level that is true but technically not so much. It all hinges on the scale. Give out a questionnaire and you can choose whether to answer but ask a question from a questionnaire and you have multiple responses. Same with a paper 2 exam. There only exists one answer but you could go at it from multiple directions. The one you are faced with, however, seeing the particular circumstances, only has two options."
"Then kill me right here and now because I won't back down."
"Well aren't we big. The last time I checked, you weren't in any position to make demands, boy. But, I do admire your persistence, it'll be a waste to end-"
"Spear me the halfhearted threats. If you want to kill me then do it, otherwise, shut up and listen."
"..."
"Whatever your terms are to save both worlds, I want them."
"Ohh. That sounds very ambitious. We're talking about over a million people here human."
"You are going to do it. I do not intend on dying anytime soon, not until I bring you down."
"Alright, I'll bite. Let's see how long you last. But, I won't tell you the terms of my condition until you can survive the 100 opponents. Deal?"
"Deal."
Was the final thing he said before a bright angelic light engulfed him.
'Humans are such simple creatures.' Othinus smiled devilishly.
Everything went how she expected it to play out.
FLOOR 2 OF 100 CLEARED. NINETY-EIGHT MORE FLOORS TO GO.
How was it? I wanted this chapter to drive home the point that every opponent has a reason for fighting and that Touma was destroying their hope for happiness. Though, I did not include the backstory. Felt like it would have ruined the momentum. So quick summary of it: The coupe in the British Halloween arc succeeded and when the members of New Light rescued Lessar, they got cuaght while she escaped and was burned at the stake to lure her out.