Hyperdimension Neptunia Third Sister: Darkness

by Somedudeonline

WARNING: This a direct sequel to 'Light', read that first if you don't want to be confused. After having died, Bios is reborn with the energy of Despair running through her, now the opposite of a Goddess. In spite of what fate demands of her, she gathers a group of vigilantes to save Lowee from a sinister group of organisations known as, SCJP

2. Volume 2: Forgotten

Hyperdimension Neptunia

Third Sister; Darkness
Volume 2

Chapter 5

The heroes

Just a short while ago, a group of vigilante heroes have stopped one of the four great organizations from trafficking children, a list send directly to the goddess of Lowee and over the internet revealing who took part of it. Chaos ensues, underground groups have surfaced and fight for territory, and people of Lowee in high places that were on the list have gone into hiding. With many search parties and recourses put into capturing them, many criminals take advantage of the absence of officers.

Even tonight, there are many fights breaking out. We stand as we watch them squirm around, robbers, looters, and some rioters. On top of the roof, we observe our targets. Our clothes fluttering in the winds, surrounded by snow, and cloaked in shadow. Our masks cover us as we are seen jumping over the buildings. Yes. We are… The Phantom Crusaders!

The girl clothed in gothic dark clothing that seemed unfit for this cold weather, using light magic bursting under her feet, she moves at the speed of sound knocking thugs out with a black blade. Me, Bios. The Switcher.

The guy dressed in green garbs over silicon armor and metal devices shooting string, with his blade included he moves with his string entrapping anyone he comes close to. The Silicon Knight.

A large bald man with two big metal arms and a thick winter coat, with the ability to copy any move, he uses ours to move around at blinding speeds and uses his opponent's moves against them to immobilize them, The Claimer.

The mechas used today had been blown up. One young girl walks through the flames she's caused with her magic. Holding onto her witch hat, her white robe flows with the wind whilst she moves her staff around casting a new spell. The Lion Enchantress.

We are a full party, with attack, speed, magic, and trickery on our side. There is no defense we can't penetrate, no wall that won't crumble before us, no object immovable. And by the time authorities come to apprehend us, we are gone, like it never happened.
With our masks our identities are hidden through magic, we only appear as figures of smoke.
As cool as that all sounds. Our image kinda…Fades. Whenever we return to base. Because. Well…

Here I am. Looking at my three friends on top of a pile of rubble from the ceiling of our base, the only source of light coming from the hole. They are just sitting around and…
"Man…I am boooooored…", Sili-san's whines travel across the whole building, inducing cringe on any nearby creature.
"Stop complaining. A warrior need nothing but the ground and quietness to relax for the next fight. No other need is important.", Acclaim responds to him.

"Man shut up, you are practically a cyborg. There isn't even a bed to rest in. Also, this 'quietness' is just eerie thanks to winds making ominous sounds.". Sili-san says.
"I do see your point in that this isn't the ideal sound environment for rest.", Acclaim admits.
"Also, I prefer to lie on something soft, the floor here is either dirt or hard metal.", Sili-san complains whilst knocking on the metal he is sitting on.
"It is a bit uncomfortable…", Theresa says meekly.

"Besides that, we only have been getting by because we're stealing whatever lunch a thief has or maybe hunting a stray animal, but we don't even have anything to cook with. What does your warrior philosophy say about that, HUH?!", Sili-san rags on Acclaim, probably just taking his anger out on him.
Acclaim seems stunned, I think I spot some cold sweat as he says, "It is true that food is lacking…And nutrients are bennificial…", he then looks to the side and adds, "And I haven't had any alcohol for a while…"

Sili-can points at him and angrily yells, "YOU SEE?! You do have desires!"
"Hmm…", Theresa makes a noise, then she tells them, "I would've hoped for better food at least. But Bios spent her own last savings so we could eat something nice. I was hoping for more…But…Um…We can get used to it…Like I did…", it sounds more sad the more she speaks.
The two look at her before their eyes are aimed at the ground, probably out of shame.
It is clear my allies are unsatisfied…

Yes. Outside of our image, we practically are a bunch of broke hobos living rent free in an abandoned building with no furniture. There is a rather large hole in the ceiling, and the only way to keep snow out is due to my, and now especially, Theresa's fire magic. And bad food is something even I deem unacceptable. Furniture, we might make ourselves. Weapons, I can make out of thin air. Heck, even non-weapons I can as long as I can envision their use as weapons. A chair or cooking utensils wouldn't be impossible for me to make.

But food, gas, electricity, technological advances, water, and beds? Yeah, now that is something we'd have to either spent time crafting, or we need money for that. Never mind we'd have to get that in here without notice. Now, a makeshift kitchen we could make up with fire magic, so maybe no need for gas. But drinking water? Sure, we could melt Ice magic, but that isn't healthy I think.

I have a few ideas though…Yes. It is time to earn some money.
"Attention, everyone!", I call out to them.
With their stares aimed at me, I begin talking, "May I ask, what level are each of you?"
"Level?", Sili-san asks me, like he never heard of the word.
"Yes, we all have levels. I don't usually bother caring because I gained most strength training my natural body.", I respond.

"Excuse my question, but, does it matter?", Acclaim asks.
I nod and say, "More than you'd think. Most of your fights had been close calls. Whilst you three have exceptional talent or training, only your natural strength is great, you may be lacking in stats. I have learned leveling up can make quite a big difference, especially when using high level skills. You three only have them through special means rather than through learning them from higher stats."

"Hm…I am level 28.", Sili-san said.
"I have fought a lot in the wild, so naturally, my level would be 45.", Acclaim tells me.
"I am only level 10. Is that bad?", Theresa asks.
"Yes, you three can get a lot closer to my strength if you were to fight more monsters. But aside from Acclaim, there is a lack of fighting experience alongside actual EXP. Sili-san, you lack the physical strength to penetrate the enemies defenses. And Theresa, you lack control over your magical attacks, you barely have any of your basic combo skills.", I tell them.

"Is that why you have been telling me to only fight mecha's up till now? It kind of bothered me…", she tells me, she actually looks troubled.
"Yes. If you were to fight people like that, you would kill them all.", I say.
"But…You kill people sometimes…", Theresa said, pouting.
"Some I do. I stopped caring about those out to kill me or others. But a lot of them out there are petty thieves and idiots. The Basilicom can handle them. If we murder all of them, they will put in a lot more effort to go after us. Besides, I think some of them can still become good if they realize the error of their ways…I hope."

It seems she accepts that answer, as she leans back and has nothing to add to that.
"Either way. We need money. And we can get both, Money and Experience. Not only will this method increase our strength, but we can even create a side reputation as heroes. Think about this, we exist to rid Lowee from its shadows as we move about them. But our first goal is to help. Why not do it in the light as well? I am of course talking about, doing quests for the guild!", I tell them my plans.

They all look at me, eyes wide open, leaning forward.
"The guild?!", their voices were a mixture of surprise and a sense of, "For real?!"
"Yes. Think about it. With our masks having two modes, we can use the 'appears like an average person' mode as our light identities, doing quests, helping people and of course, we get money!", I basically tell them to get a job.

Acclaim raises a hand. I nod to him, prompting him to speak up, "When you say all that, it sounds like you have some experience. I know nothing of the guild but. Could it be you used to work with them?"
"Ah. I haven't told you my level yet, have I? 78.", I reveal my level. They almost fall on their back in surprise.
"What? I know you're strong, but what is that?!", Sili-san speaks out.
"Bios. What did you do to get that high?", Theresa says as she looks in awe.

"Of course I did. I had to do quests, you know? As that was part of my work! Even though I was told to just do simple requests…No. I wanted to go higher. I fought many monsters, and I was the target of an evil group of four powerful people. I helped take one down, took another two down personally. Of course my level would be high, alongside also doing what I'm doing now. Sili-san, you had spent more time stealing from rich companies. Acclaim actually has higher levels due to his lifestyle. Theresa, you barely fought. These thugs are weak, give little EXP. That's why we should fight monsters! And the most productive way is through quests!", I tell them.

"Does the guild accept everyone?", Theresa asks.
"Well. If you're a child you should show your strength first. Other than that, if you party with me you can do any quest I can do. HOWEVER!", I speak until I take their breath away with a shout. Then I declare, "We will not party up until your rank increases!"
"Huh?! Why?", this seems to have confused them quite a bit.
"You guys would be forced to do quests at my rank! It would be pointless! You need to rank up yourselves!"

"Eh? What rank are you, Bios? I never went past Rank E.", Sili-san said.
Acclaim and Theresa are just staring at me, confused. I don't think either actually have any information on how the guild works.
"Rank B.", I tell him.
"As expected!", he says with a comically loud voice, he then gave me a dumb sounding tone saying "As expected of our leader, very powerful indeed."
"Is that great?", Theresa asks. Acclaim shrugged his shoulders.

"Perhaps she was too busy to rank up? I can't picture you being too weak to face the strongest monsters.", Acclaim comments, his arms crossed.
"Oh no, any rank up quest beyond B is impossible to do without a party. You guys are underestimating how strong those monsters are. They are monsters who don't bother to attack any nation, so they are left alone. Growing so powerful, even a Goddess can't kill them on their own. That is what you're facing when you move past Rank D.", I tell them.

Hm…Normally it isn't me giving all of these long explanations, I am more of a listener. Is this how it feels like to be a leader? Kind of exciting…But also tiring. I'm going to sleep for a while later
They seem to have calmed down a little? I wonder what is going on in their heads.
Hm? They are discussing something? I can't hear them. I can use Wind Sense…But…Invasion of privacy is bad, or something.
They looked at me and said, "Can you register us by yourself?"

"Eh?", my only response. What do they mean?
All three of them looked awkward. Theresa fiddling her staff, Sili-san whistling. Acclaim looking the other way. "I'm just a kid" "I'm a thug" "I look like a villain"
Are you a bunch of school children?! What, you are shy?! You think I'm not?! I feel tense just talking to you all, and you are friends! I need to hype myself up to act like a leader! I AM ROLE PLAYING! AH! The realization hurts!

I feel heavy, not even the release of a sigh helps.
"They need a general description of you and a name, aliases are fine as long as they know how you're presenting yourselves. They may need a picture. The camara should show your 'generic' identity with your masks on the side of your faces.", I tell them.
Sili-san gave me a thumbs up, "I'm counting on you!"
"I appreciate your effort. I'll prepare myself.", Acclaim says as he looks satisfied, leaning backwards with his arms crossed.
"You are so cool.", Theresa says with a beaming smile.
Don't look so pleased, you're troubling me quite a bit!

And here I am. In front of the guild receptionist. And as usual, she stares at me not knowing what to do. Her face is a mixture of clueless and annoyance.
"So basically, I want to sign up a whole party and do an S Rank graduation quest.", I say.
"You sure you didn't make them up?! Also, S Rank?! You need to be at least at A Rank and I don't even know you?! You're a kid aren't you, what do you mean level 78?! That doesn't mean anything to me! Also, I don't need to give a reason. NO!"
To be honest, I am just teasing her, her reactions are funny.

Still, I seem to offend her when I ask for something reasonable.
"Can you at least give me all your B quests. I want money.", I tell her.
She shoots me down quickly, her voice cracks even as she shouts, "NO!"
"Fine. I'll junk rank up quickly.", I say.
She sighs, with a quiet voice she speaks to me, "Here are some easy gathering quests for beginners. Get some herbs…"
"Gathering quests are boring. I want to murder monsters. More fun.", I say with a dry voice.

"UGH! You are so difficult!", the receptionist crunches over, leaning on her elbow as she is holding onto her head.
Then she gets up and looks perplexed.
"Wait…Have I not done this before, You kind of remind me…There was a girl who also asks for unreasonable things…"
Ah, I forgot. People can remember me again after a while of being exposed to me. I need to stop. However.
"I do mean that I don't want to do anything boring. I am strong on my own, and so are my friends.", I tell her earnestly.

She stands straight up, holding her arms crossed under her breasts, she actually raises them slightly, which I believe is a punishable crime in Lowee, but I am sure Big Sis was joking…
"Fine…If it is a party of four, I suppose I can let you go. You can accept every quests, and just for you, you can take some D Ranked quests as well.", she gives in.
I give her a bow and say, "Thank you very much."

Now back to my friends.
With a blank face, I tell them, "So yeah. Apparently with everything going on there have been a lot of newbie adventurers and a lot of new quests. Although, plenty of E-ranked gathering quests for monster extermination has been taken, so I have gotten some D-ranked quests for us as well."
They look at me taken aback.
"What kind of story was that?", Sili-san asks.
"I feel bad for the receptionist…", Acclaim says.
"Um…Bios. You should be more reasonable?", even Theresa berates me.

What do I do with these people?
"Stop moping. We're going to earn some credits. And eat good things. Maybe even get some beds…Perhaps fix the sealing.", I tell them what we're going to do and list the things we can do later
Suddenly, their moods changed. They opened their eyes and their heads rise up.
"Oh…I can't wait. That sounds great!", Sili-san spoke for them.
"It mattered that much to you…Huh…?", I said.
Somehow, this isn't what I had in mind when I thought, "Rebel vigilante heroes fighting the most evil organizations hidden in the cities." Don't we lack discipline if we go for luxury?

I thought so at first and was prepared to sleep alone outside. I can't freeze anyway. But, I have to take care of these guys now. If they need this, then I will make it happen for them. Although, I thought they would be willing to live a hard life, they clearly weren't all that prepared…Oh well. I have learned from last time. If we want to be at our best, we need some time to relax, and that is easier to do with improved living conditions.

And thus, we head outside. A lot of our beginner quests are in the Stella Plains. It is not too far from here, making it an easy trip. Once there, we see plenty of monsters up and about. This is clearly specified as a dungeon area and not part of the main road, but pretty close to one.
"All right, so what quests have been picked out?", Sili-san asked, brimmed with enthusiasm.

"I picked mostly monster killing quests, but I have opted for a few gathering quests to get you started.", I say with a straight face, just showing him one of the quests I mean.
"Let's see, let's see", he says, moments before his happy-go-lucky smile turns to a frown, looking at the quest. It was only the mouth that changed his expression, as he is more confused. He even paused his breathing.
With the most blunt tone possible, he points at it and says, "It says "Touch Grass" and gives a 500C reward."

I shrug my shoulders and respond, "Perhaps they changed their standards?"
It's certainly preposterous, but I didn't care much as I negotiated out of being stuck with boring quests.
Theresa and Acclaim touched the one patch of grass they could find. Crouched down, they looked at us and said, "Quest complete"
"It really was that simple.", Acclaim says so, he doesn't even sound to surprised.
"That really was it?!", Sili-san shouts at them.

"Well, boring things aside. We've got some monsters to kill. They are lower leveled. So let's hurry it up. I am letting you three go off. I got quests for myself."
And so, we went on a hunting spree.
Theresa barely puts out any effort, she just waves her wand and a row of flames burns wild live and forests alike.

No monster posed any challenge, not the lizard types. Not the ghosts, not living visual novels, and not the ice golems.
Theresa already killed all the ice golems within the area. Sili-san stops the axe of the Lizards with his string, them flying means he can shoot string below them to capture them easily. Acclaim can simply punch anything that comes his way, and he even gains healing magic from fighting the ghost enemies.

At some point, the three understood that Thresa's magic would reshape Lowee if she keeps spamming her most powerful attacks. Just for her, they flew around shooting string. They captured a bunch of monsters and created a huge ball net to keep them in. With string, they catapulted them into the sky. Theresa had stars in her eyes as she waved her wand around before thrusting it at them. Like a domino effect, a chain of explosions killed all the monsters.
Well. That is enough. I'm off.

I have no reason to stick around. They can handle this. I need to earn my own share of money. E rank quests don't give much after all. I hop over to the Lowee grass lands. With the bow and arrow, I shoot as I run by. It's like drive by shooting. My arrows fly around and hit some rabbit-like and bird-like enemies. If a monster sneaks up on me, I quickly move behind it and stab it with a sword.

I see an Ancient Dragon. I materialize an axe and place it on my back. I shoot a wave of arrows at it shouting, Storm Arrow! Some of the arrows explode causing it to flinch. This gives me time to move behind it and dig my axe into it. It growls, but I am not done. I use explosion from the axe to go through him so he fades in death. I seem to have drawn the attention of many other monsters I have exterminations quests for. They can fire magic at me, or jump at me, but I just maneuver around them using Light Step, and I can shoot an arrow with each leap.

At some point, the arrows I fire collide and bounce off each other, ricocheting all over the monsters, leaving them unable to avoid damage as they are inside a whirlpool of arrows. An SP skill of mine, that I finish as all arrows reach the center, and just before they collide, I shoot an arrow about to blow up infused with explosion magic, using the other arrows to increase the explosion's size and strength. I continue hunting with my bow and arrow, and the occasional Light Step and axe swing.

I go to a forest of dead trees. These trees never grow leaves, ever. One assumes it is because of a boss monster living here. But who can say. Regardless, I spot my friends doing weird things.
No, they are doing quests. Sili-san is at the top, on the lookout for gathering items, or monsters. With his strings, he can just nab things from above. It seems he also is just gathering some kind of eggs.

Theresa saw something pop out of the snow. It looked like a hamster. A snow hamster. She crouched down and pet it. It looked satisfied and walked off, revealing some healing herb she wanted to gather. Acclaim is just jumping around at high speeds, gathering a lot of wood and monster materials lying around. He just got back with a bunch of random stuff in his arms.
I walk towards them.
"Oh? If it isn't Bios.", Acclaim says, prompting the other two to instantly cast their focus onto me.

"Bios is back?!", Theresa happily shouts as she jumps from a crouched position, then she turns my way to confirm whether it is true, right after, she runs up to me.
Sili-san just jumps off the three, no fall damage or anything. "It's been a few hours. Did you do what you had to?", he asks.
I nod before replying, "Basically, the only thing left were quests shared with you."
They have done such a great job. They even bothered doing gathering quests.

"This is actually a pretty risky area. Many monsters hide here. Is it okay for you three to do simple gathering quests here?", I ask.
"Due to the fact that not a lot of people come here, the wait for material respawns is a non-issue.", Acclaim says.
"It's not a problem. We can even relax here. Look.", Sili-san speaks with confidence as he holds up a lot of string in his hands. Focusing on Wind Sense, I can feel string placed across the whole forest. Wait…I can sense twitching…

"Ah, one of them fell for it.", Sili-san looks very pleased as he turns to the general location his string is being pulled.
"It must be a weaker one.", Sili-san says before thrusting his arm that held the bundle of string upwards. The following whiplash causes a monster to be shot into the air, upon which Sili-san shouts, "Theresa! You're up!"
She spins her big want behind her back with her right arm before thrusting at the direction of the monster thrown into the air, from there, she shouts, "Flame Blast Explosion!", with that, she triggers a chain explosion that created a giant blast of fire.

That is a lot of firepower. However. I can see this takes a toll on Theresa. She is low leveled, and does not have the SP to do this constantly. She still needs to learn doing weaker spells with better magic control.
"If a bigger monster enters my web, I entangle it and send Acclaim after it.", Sili-san is telling me this whole strategy with pride, he is actually swaying his arms around like an excited child.

"Hm…So was it your plan to set up camp here?", I ask him, crossing my shoulders, I also slightly lean my head to the right. The stuff I was carrying got dropped, but I ignored that.
"Well yeah, I figured we need a good outside base. Although it is Acclaim who suggested a base. I just think we need to prepare for if we want to rest outside.", he explains.
"I have experience with this, so I can make quite an adequate camp.", Acclaim says.
"Hm…", is a noise I make. It seems unnecessary to me.
"But we're done with our quests. We can just go back home and report them…?", I imply confusion as I say this.

"…Hm…Oh, I suppose so.", Acclaim says as he holds his hand over his head, clearly trying to think about it.
An old habit perhaps?
"I didn't really think about it like that.", Sili-san said.
The two look disappointed. I hold my fists to my sides and say, "Making a base is not really a bad idea perse. But I do hope you both know, most of the time, we do some quests, return. Eat and sleep. And then go outside again. There isn't much reason to camp outside. Once we have money we can buy recovery items too, so there isn't even much point to resting for long."

Theresa is walking our way, I can tell from her constantly switching who to stare at that she is kind of lost in our conversation.
"Um…But won't we get exhausted, still? Shouldn't we have some in-between to rest?", is the point she is making.
"For you, maybe we do need to rest more often… With that in mind.", I talk back before pausing.
"What I want to say is, it is good you all come up with strategies for camping. Because regardless of what we may do, we might short rest on long trips. Making a small camp we can easily disassemble or destroy would be preferable.", I tell them.

Sili-san looks excited, I can tell Acclaim is trying to hide feeling pleased with himself.
"So you mean…?", Sili-san says as he is practically begging for praise.
I close my eyes and say, "Yes, yes. You did not waste your time. Good job."
While they seem happy, I do want to tell them, "It is good to camp. Because in-between quests, I want to start training you."
They looked baffled. "Training? What do you mean?", Sili-san asks me, actually looking scared.

"Well. Sili-san, you lack experience, and especially, strength. Acclaim, you lack creativity and can't improvise attacks due to the fact most of your attacks are copied. And Theresa, you not only have a lack of regular magic skills, but even worse, you lack the essence of a fighter.", I tell them bluntly.
They do seem discouraged. I may not be very good at this leader thing.
"A lot of my strength comes from harsh training.", just saying this gives them an air of depression.

"I knew it. She's going to torture is for strength…", Sili-san says almost crashing onto the ground.
"U-um…Please go easy on me…", Theresa says.
"I actually am looking forward to this.", Acclaim gives his consent to terrible training with a smile.
I shake my head and tell them, "No no no. I don't expect you to do my insane personal training. I mean I want you two to get closer to my level with proper practice. And Theresa is going to do magic control training first anyway. So no harsh training until someone asks."

Suddenly, Sili-san has regained his strength and says, "Thank god."
"I'll be seeing this training regimen of yours then.", Acclaim says, acting cool.
Theresa isn't saying anything, she seems a bit down instead, holding onto her staff between her arms.
"Either way. If we report these quests, a Rank Up quest should show up. So let's go.", I say before turning around and leaving. The three follow me…But then they trip over the stuff I had dropped and forgotten about. I hear them thud. I turn and around and say, "Oh…My inventory is full. Could you maybe help me?"

With an annoyed party, we head back to the guild. Reporting a good thirty quests. I brought more trouble to the receptionist as she not only has to struggle with the disbelief of thirty done within a day, but also with bringing a bunch of reward items and money out of nowhere.
We spend the money on recovery items, and we have a nice meal. It was take out and we sat in our base, eating away.
Finally, I see the pure joy we are working towards. The next day will be the Rank Up quest, although, by my estimate, it should be a cake walk.

Cake walk….It's a good thing I ordered a cake too, now I am hungry again…
After a delightful meal, we all slept wonderfully. I just hope we weren't needed that night.
The next morning, we set out, completing more quests and on our way to kill a boss. We head to the great Lowee Slope. It is a giant snow-field going downwards into a crater. We stood there, watching the view. Nothing but snow all around, almost a void if it weren't for the miniature forests with an average of 100 trees each, and of course, there is the big brown crater in the distance. Apparently, most human adventures don't make it through here, due to lack of recourses obtainable here, no coverage, and a great deal of monsters.

Despite it being cold, the gentle breeze that flies over us makes us feel relaxed. The sky was blue without a single cloud. There are plenty of monsters about, it is a perfect hunting day. We look out to the crater beyond, we don't see any monsters. But I know our quest is the destruction of nuisance living there. The plan is to build a port town there. Apparently, this happened before I was born, an Island had somehow been shot into this shore, which is north of Lowee, connected to the ocean. The land somehow attached to the main landmass, and the crater was the result of the battle in which this same event had taken place.

With the killing of the monster and turning this into a port town. A road could be established, which is easy considering the lack of nature in the way. It could be useful not only for transport, but also, an escape route in case something happens. Perhaps some overseas exploration? Either way, it's not meaningful to us, we are here for the hunt.

I look to the right, at my friends. Theresa stood in front, completely lost in the view. Sili-san is leaning on Acclaim's right arm with a smug expression. Acclaim shows no emotion, but he probably is excited too. I think Sili-san tries to pep us up, talking about this being the perfect hunting ground. Naming all of our strengths and specialties. But when he tries to get Theresa's attention, he grabbed her shoulder, and she had an unpleasant reaction.

She immediately "eeped", and jumped over to me, hugging my arm tightly, burying her head in it even. Then she looks back at the perplexed Sili-san. Acclaim also tilts his head in confusion. Even Theresa looks back and forth at them, seemingly confused.
"Um…I.", Theresa tries to speak, but she stops and looks down at the ground instead.
"S-sorry. Are you perhaps the type that doesn't like to be touched?", Sili-san asked, genuinely concerned. He even crouches down and tries to reach out for her, but then stops realizing he is about to make the same mistake.

Theresa has calmed a little and says, "Um…I don't know? I didn't feel like this before…"
"Hm…Theresa didn't show any sign of issues with physical contact before. In fact, she is very close to leader. But perhaps it is because of how Bios appears physically.", Acclaim speaks his analysis out loud.
"…You mean I brought some of her past troubles back to her?!", Sili-san sounds shrill as he asks this, and he instantly snaps his head back to says to Theresa, "I am so sorry!"

"Hm… But…I never had a problem before… I don't know why I reacted like that.", she says.
To be fair, imagine getting used to getting hurt for years and then suddenly not for a month. In fact, you are convinced you won't get hurt in the same way again. And then suddenly you are reminded of it…
"Perhaps. You have just gotten used to your new life, and your brain is trying to block bad memories, so it hurts to experience past pains now?", I ask her.
She moves a bit away from me, her hands still grasping my arms. She looks at me, gave it some thought, and now she says, "Maybe. I have never had friendly experiences with bigger people."

"Hm…Hey, whenever you feel like, what if you grab my hand instead? On your own free will? would that be better?", Sili-san says, as he reaches out an open hand.
Theresa looks at it. Her breathing slows a little.
"We are all friends now, aren't we? We won't hurt you. And anyone who tries to, will have to deal with us. Even if it takes a while. I want to help you feel relaxed around us too.", Sili-san says.

"Friends…But… Why are you two…Friendly?", Theresa asks.
"You ask that now after a month?", Sili-san chuckles before continuing, "It took you only a day to befriend Bios and you were still doubting us? We are all in this together, aren't we?"
Acclaim goes down with his knees as well and says, "We were happy you wanted to join. Bios here may be tough and our leader, but we can't not see her as a young lonely girl. You seemed like you would be a good friend to her."

"Um…You are aware I don't have an age, right?", I tell them. Technically, I am only over a year old… Theresa has lived longer than me.
I get ignored, however.
"You know what's cool about phantom thieves? Oh wait we are vigilantes…Um…Phantom Crusaders. It doesn't matter who you are, we trust each other to create a brighter future from the shadows. That is why…Um…We are friends?", Sili-san tries to do a Naruto speech without being the main character, big mistake.

"What he is trying to say is, even though some of us have unusual appearances… Well… Some of us aren't even human. Some of us aren't even an adult. Some of us lack common sense…", Acclaim then gets interrupted by Sili-san, "Wait if I use elimination method…What do you mean I lack common sense?!", only for him to be shrugged off.
"No matter what, we all have the same goal, eat the same food, and sleep under the same roof. We are practically family…", Acclaim says. But he kind of hesitated finishing that sentence.

"Is family something you wished for?", I ask him.
"Well. I have been alone for the most part. Only saying it now do I realize what it means to have one.", he says.
"Nice isn't it? It's like being a full time baby sitter, only sometimes you end up being the helpless fool that needs saving. Never mind all the sibling squabbles", Sili-san says, his eyes lit up.
As the two go on, Theresa makes a thinking noise.
Then she silenced everyone by simply saying, "I understand."

She grabs Sili-san and Acclaim's hands and says, "You two took me in without question…And Bios did everything to help me…I want to trust you…"
She looks surprised when she gets pulled up by Acclaim. She lands on his shoulder as he says, "We don't know how to help you feel better. But I saw you staring into the distance. It's a better view from up my shoulder, am I wrong?"
She appears to be speechless. But a few seconds pass, and a shy smile is visible on her face.

Now then. this whole thing was unexpected. But we have to move on. Time for another improvised speech. I need a lot of sleep after today…
I walk forward, thinking up something to motivate them.
I raise my finger into the air, "Ladies and Gentlemen! Warriors and Mages! We have come together for one great hunt. Since it is all E-Rank, there is no fret or worry! Look at the huge bed of snow, the vast land you see before you is completely white, untainted! We will cross this place where others quake in fear! Race, Fight, Eat, Train, this is just a playground for us, so let's have fun and enjoy the hunt!", is my speech.

They throw their hands into the air and do some enthusiastic shouting. I quickly turn around, perhaps they are thinking I am smiling at our journey…But uh…No. I don't know what my face is like, but I am having trouble keeping my eyelids fully open. Too much social interaction. I haven't talked so much since I was alive, and even then I tend to stay in the background with my thoughts.

"What do you even need friends for? Don't you think your time to kill is coming nearer? Making Lowee a better place is a waste of time!" I heard a voice directly in my head.
I felt a chill down my spine. What the hell was that?
I shake it off. My friends' morale are still up and I must not make them doubt me.

I jumped off, at full speed using Light Step. It was a great monster hunt. I shot myself around everywhere, blasting enemies with Light that is emitted from my sword with every swing.
Sili-san jumps down, over some monsters below. As he passes their heads, he wrapped them in string and slung them over the air with a front flip. As he landed, the monsters were smashed on top of other monsters, to which Acclaim followed up on, dashing next to them and cutting them in pieces.

Behind us was a giant wall of fire, monsters turned to cinders as Theresa slowly walked out a gap that had just opened. We were greatly overpowered for this. Not even rank C would be much of a challenge to us all. I did the minimal, mostly using a bow and flail. Sili-san flung himself at monsters and tried to train his physical strength by slashing them. Acclaim used magic and weaponry he had copied from monsters, sometimes pulling out a gun to shoot at them.

Theresa didn't do much, she only brings out powerful fire magic when boss monsters show up. Other than that, she gets protected by the two whenever a monster gets close. Sometimes we set up camp to eat. Then I have a sparring match with Acclaim and Sili-san. We decided no magic or special skills, just swords. I myself am using two, as it is two against one.
I want to train their overall fighting skills to be on my level.

Sili-san has more fluid movement as he doesn't rely on copy moves, whereas Acclaim has to unlearn copying everything first. However, Acclaim has a lot more strength then Sili-san, even more than me.
Be that as it may, I can still fend them off, I move like a leaf around their bodies as they jump sporadically to get to me. I can easily backpaddle whilst deflecting their blades. Even if they do a pincer attack, I get above them and kick them away using both legs.

In the meantime, Theresa has her own training. She sits in seiza pose and concentrates on magic in her hands. With a few levels, she should now be able to do elementary continuous magical attacks. However, she has to control her output to not break those spells using too much power. I see fire and electricity generated between her hands only to break apart. We move at night to kill monsters for quests that only appeared at night.

Some of them flew over us, but we can launch each other up to bring them down. Theresa tries shooting flames at them, but mostly sparks come from her rod. Eventually, she manages to hit one flame magic on an enemy. I can hear her breath heavily as she gets excited.
Now, obviously, she uses magic to break those targets back when we played around, but those weren't attacks or specific spells, they were just small bursts of magic…Now I do fear what would've happened if she had just missed her self-control there…

Back to training, Sili-san and Acclaim use string now to trick and ambush me. However, I am used to their fighting styles now. If they use fire resistance string, I just cut it with the Snow Control of this sword. If they entrap me with string not resistant to fire, I burn it. If they pincer attack me whilst airborne, I use explosion to get away using my feet, and cast it in their faces with my hands to keep them at bay.

In the meantime, Theresa is getting better with her magic. Shooting multiple Flame spells, and now having added thunder to that. We head further in. Sometimes going inside a small forest to kill some monsters. One of them had some kind of spider boss, with a bunch of tarantula enemies for its subordinates. However, with Sili-san and Acclaim, they subverted the spider's silk webs with their own string and entrapped the spiders. I thought it would be kind of funny, so I told them to do that. Since I have a phone, I can take a screenshot…I don't know how it works.

Theresa took it so Sili-san and Acclaim could pose, though, only Sili-san got into it…I can't believe Theresa knows better how a phone works than me…
Heading further, and training some more. It has been six days, Theresa can now use Flame Rush and Thunder Rush. Alongside with Ice, Blast, and Extension. We have practically finished all the quests, except for two.

Our first target before the Rank-Up quest was some kind of mecha with a giant staff, a giant gear where his feet should've been, he kind of looked like a mage. He had a skull on his staff and a skull with horns on an armored plate that covers the front of his gear. It is quite a bit tougher than the other monsters we have fought. But I know they can handle it easily.

After avoiding some of its attacks, Sili-san and Acclaim have shot their string inside its gaps, reaching for whatever spinning parts it has internally to get it stuck in movement. Actually, they were testing Theresa. She wants to learn Thunderbolt. They use their string to open some gaps and told her to shoot lighting into it. The Thunder and Thunder Rush spells are too wide to get inside the gaps, but she accidentally used those instead of Thunderbolt. She keeps trying and failing, sometimes no spell even activates.

Sili-san and Acclaim are straining themselves, now grunting and getting red as they pull harder on their string.
"Thunderbolt!", With that one shout, she shoots multiple thunderbolts into the gaps, stunning this machine. The other two use this time to cut pieces of it open until they could expose some kind of core. Afterwards, they let Theresa use a powerful Explosion spell, but not just any, her advanced super version of it. From the inside, the thing was blown to pieces until it disappeared as a whole.

Theresa leans on her staff as sweat drips from her, out of breath. Being lower leveled, that explosion costs a lot of SP, that she hasn't fully built up outside of magic practicing. We congratulate her and help her up. We can take our time. The crater is only an hour long walk from here. Standing on the edge between snow and scorched earth, we can see the sea on the other side of this huge crater.
"I won't be helping you. This is an easy fight, it would be a better experience for you three to fight this thing on your own.", I tell them, almost sounding sad

I move in front of them, after one look at their faces, I say, "But you don't need to worry. We have fought rougher battles. Whatever comes out, it is only for a Rank Up quest to D, you cannot lose."
They give me a nod, Sili-san gives me a snide remark, "You don't have to tell us things we know.", with a smug face.
I close my eyes, and move away. The three jump off, and that is how this fight will start.

Upon getting closer to the epicenter of the crater, the ground begins to shake. I am barely effected up here, I stand there with arms crossed watching them take a stance to keep their balance while a bunch of tentacles emerge from under the ground. From the epicenter, rocks are shot into the air as a squeed's head rises from below. A Squeed is a squid type of enemy, but it seems this one has become closer to an octopus, leaving its main body underground.
Theresa makes a stroke of her wand over her head from left to right, as she says, "Increase strength…"

Sili-san has a light shining over him, he got a strength and defense buff. They probably had planned this from the beginning, giving Sili-san a strength buff so he isn't outclassed by Acclaim. They can't buff anymore, their next move must be swift. These tentacles are huge, there are a few dozen of them, and it isn't even slow. Theresa is standing a great distance away, Sili-san and Acclaim had shot string against its tentacles which may catch its attention, or so they probably think.

Not only did they quickly move with their string, Sili-san cuts the tentacle as he passes by, and Acclaim launches rockets at its head, this is again, to catch its eyes.
I hate tentacles. It reminds me of a fight I had last year. That guy got creepy. I didn't think much of killing him, but I kind of don't regret it at all now that I think about it. Others I had at least a little bit remorse for…

Sili-san and Acclaim keep moving around, using its tentacles against him by wrapping strings around them that can help them move. Even if it pulls a tentacle back, they used that to their advantage and get closer to its face. Sili-san couldn't do too much, but Acclaim shoots spells and projectiles from explosive fire-arms at him.

I hate watching this. I don't like standing still like this. Especially when friends are fighting.

I suddenly feel my surroundings darken. I hear two foot stops as a presence is behind me, but I sense nothing in the wind. I get startled with my shoulder being gently grasped, then a voice whispers in my ear, "If you find this so frustrating, why not ditch them and fight who you're really supposed to kill?"
I turn around to see nothing. The presence just ceased to be the moment I moved. The sound of battle gets my attention again. I need to see how they are doing…Let's ignore what happened.

It seems the strategy is for Acclaim to provoke it so that Sili-san can wrap every single tentacle in string. When he shouts, "I'm done!", the two jumped across each other, each with one half of all tentacles bundled up, they gather them together and tie them up with string. Back to the back, they each hold onto to string, calling out Theresa.
She lets wind gather around her staff, she flattens and processes it. I take a closer look and notice her arms straining trying to control this.

"Maximum output…", she chants in a strained voice, soon after, she shouts, "WIND CUTTER!", firing off a long blade of wind almost invisible to the naked eye, it cuts off almost half of each tentacle bundled together with one shot. It screeches, waving its cut tentacles around wildly. Certainly, it is pissed. From the holes of its cuts, it shoots big beams at the two, on top of that, it guided its beams over the ground at seemingly random directions, Sili-san and Acclaim have a hard time avoiding them.

Theresa calls them back, probably having sensed energy coming from its suction cups. From there, it shoots a large volley of red energy balls.
"Great Fire Wall!", Theresa shouts the moment Acclaim and Sili-san got behind her, the great wall of flames have evaporated the energy balls upon contact. She bends her fire wall and shouts, "Release Blast!", turning the wall into a beam of flames that does decent damage on this monster. On the other hand, she looks taken aback, almost dropping her arm with her staff seeing it was still looking strong. This is most likely due to her only having fought normal people, who no matter how strong they become, they should still be hurt by such amount of fire, but this is a boss monster, with her low level, it is not enough.

Now it is spinning its tentacles like drills. Sili-san and Acclaim exchange glances.
"You know, Acclaim, tentacles and young girls…"
"Oh, trust me. I know what to do…We are on the same page."
The two jump forward and shout, "WE MUST PROTECT HER AT ALL COST!"
"EVEN IF IT MEANS DEATH! ALLOW NO TENTACLE NEAR HER!
What are you two talking about?

Still, a good decision to move away from Theresa, one tentacle hit would do good damage to her, but with this much force, it is a one hit KO. I'd say the ones ranking quests have underestimated this monster, most likely, no one got this far to know of its skillset and only based it off of its low level. Even if it hurt, Sili-san and Acclaim threw themselves at the spinning tentacles, only able to use their string from the ground, they can't out move them and protect Theresa at the same time. No matter the damage, they us their sheer strength to redirect the tentacles away from her.

I suppose they have thought it to be safe, for I see them moving away to the sides of this monsters.
"SP Skill! String Cutter!", Sili-san shouts, shooting string from his sword as if it were a whip extension. A second later, with a good downwards swing, string is shot through the Squeed's head at high speed.
"SP Skill! Blade Burst!", Acclaim announces his attack name as his sword burst into flames ignited from his overheating arms. With a blast, he shoots the sword at the monster, letting it blow up.

They did decent damage, stopping the Squeed from using its tentacles like drills.
Thinking they have it cornered, they are moving in on it for the kill.
But then, suddenly, smaller tentacles appear from below Acclaim, wrapping around him. He can easily shake them off, but it leaves him prone. It takes this opportunity to use five of its bigger tentacles entrap him.
In the meantime, it gathered its other tentacles to shoot multiple red beams at him. Sili-san's quick response is to shoot string into the ground behind him and pull himself away from them.

But, now he is stuck, taking hits from a volley of energy balls.
Acclaim tries everything to get himself out, but as red energy is gathered around him, he gives up and takes a full blast of dense magic.
He looked like he was about to faint for a moment, but I see the light return in his eyes as ports on his arms open and releases tentacles, using the same strength as the monster to unwrap himself. He does have to spin his right arm to block an incoming thrust of a spinning tentacle, for he lack the time to dodge.

He is knocked close to Sili-san. The two get up, but I can tell they lack the stamina to continue for much longer. They stare as the monster has gathered it's tentacles, releasing spores of red energy from its suction cups and holes, all of that energy gathered into a giant red ball, although, the center had an ominous black orb with lightning inside.
Theresa, now has a teleportation circle below her, the low end of her wand being stabbed into the ground. She guides the magical energy in her body, waving her hand into a thrust to the sky.

Above the squeed, a similar magical circle appears, albeit, slightly different symbols. With one strong pull, her wand is taken from the ground, a three yellow magic rings spin around her wand's orb. Continuing from there, she places a lightning magical circle on top of her teleportation circle.
"SP Skill. Tenchi Raigeki.", she says, covered in lightning.
In a moment's notice, advanced level lightning magic is shot from the portal above the squeed, it destroyed the ball it was making, creating a big explosion that has it on its last legs.

I can feel something coming from the ground near Theresa. Perhaps retaliation. But Theresa can't move, even if she wasn't exhausted from that, she lacks the stamina and experience to dodge. She would be gouged by Tentacles, have I not moved.
Using Light-Step, I move at her in an instant, before the tentacles could come from the ground and hit her, I use Iaijutsu combined with Light Magic to shoot my blade out of its scabbard, slicing through the tentacles.

In the meantime, Acclaim and Sili-san are laser focused on taking this thing down. Acclaim fires off the same red energy from its arms, the monster has no choice but to block. With his other arm, he has made a string catapult, of which Sili-san uses to launch himself into the air. Once in the air, he pulls Acclaim up with his own string.
Acclaim uses all of his arms' strength, using some form of flame exhaust as he swings Sili-san around before throwing him down onto the monster. Sili-san pierces through squeed, using his sword covered in string.
With one large howl, the monster shakes the earth as it is disappearing with data particles.

As Acclaim makes his landing, Sili-san jumps for joy, throwing his fist in the air with a cheer.
Acclaim even gives us a good smirk as well. I look to my left, and I see Theresa actually disappointed, she is hugging her wand tightly. But then, Sili-san and Acclaim have run over to her. Throwing her into the air as she 'eeps' before landing on their shoulders, dumbfounded. I could see her about to freak out, but then they say, "We couldn't have won without you!"
"That lightningbolt was not only incredible by itself, but it came with impeccable timing. You saved us."
"So we are walking you back home, no need to expand more of your energy."

As she's calming down, I can see her face flushed. She then shyly looks away, but I can tell, she's hiding a smile.
Now, we return home. Our return trip wasn't eventless, we saw another young girl being chased by a monster. I quickly sped through the monster, slicing it in an instant. I don't think the girl even saw me draw my sword and sheath is back in.
Apparently, she had been separated and was lost for a while here. There was a quest to return her as a missing person.

Her parents had joined some kind of group of nomads after losing their house. Their lives seem mostly fine, but recent monster outbreaks had them flee all the way out here and their daughter had fallen down a slope or something like that. They not only were very pleased to see us return the girl, Sili-san and Acclaim even put on a show destroying a bunch of monsters and giving them some of the materials to sell for food. Returning to the guild, we had gotten our Rank Up. Along that, a few people in and outside the guild were staring at us. I suppose doing so many quests had them curious who had been helping them out so much and so swiftly.

Honestly, we may have trouble gathering whilst keeping a low profile if our reputation increases any more. The benefit is, however, if those people start seeing me as a hero, I can gather more energy and strengthen the power of HDD. This would weaken whatever darkness form I could get though. I believe it was called, "SSD"? Sin Shadow Drive.

Either way, since I have already done some D ranked quests, that rank up quest is already available. And we have earned more than enough money. It was time for renovation. Unfortunately, we needed to be discreet. This means manually carrying planks, tools, furniture ourselves. I had the idea to separate and move them all over Lowee until night time so we can find a spot no one goes to. Then, once we have gathered together, Theresa will teleport us and everything we've bought into our base.

Using string, nails and hammers, the floor now has a nice laminate flooring, the roof is finally fixed thanks to the many metal plates bought, hammered in and put in place using string. The massive rubble pile and shitty walls, stay, however, we need the rebel base aesthetics. We have some lazy looking sofa's and big chairs placed around us, with a small table on a carpet in the middle. And a few small tables we had to put together ourselves. Also some beds in the corner.

The only things we are missing is electricity, a fridge, kitchen and perhaps some other electronics for networking. We raise a few glasses. I have some sweet juice, Theresa has some kind of tea, Sili-san drank a soda, Acclaim is the only one with Alcohol, just a little though. With some cheers and celebration done for our rank up, we take our time to rest. For we will quickly go to our next Rank Up Quest.

Chapter 6

Training

Our next adventure awaits. We need to cross the Dis Snow Forest. We are now outside the general cities of Lowee. We stop walking, I think we've all noticed Theresa is lagging behind. Turning around, it would seem she has stopped. Her head was held down at first, but now she looks at us, determined.
"Bios…", she calls out to me.

I look at her, tilting my head.
"I want you to train me.", she says. Sili-san and Acclaim look dumbstruck, they are whispering something to each other.
I on the other hand, am intrigued. I tell her, "I am not good with magic, you know?"
"That's not what I need help with…I mean…I want you to teach me how to fight!", she says.
I fold my arms…I assume she wants to learn more about actual combat than just magic casting.

"I feel like a burden…Last time, you promised not to intervene…But because of me…Every time, I need your help. I don't like it. I joined to help, not to turn you into babysitters.", I haven't heard her speak up so much…Ever. Maybe now she is getting used to be allowed to make demands? To speak her mind?
I walk to her and say, "My training is pretty strict. Are you okay with that?"
She looks at me with glee, but quickly changes her expression to a serious one and says, "Absolutely!"

Once close to her, I nod my head and say, "Good. Then every break, I will train you. The most important thing to practice is…Movement."
With one blink, she looks at me as if I just said gibberish.
"It is the first thing that needs to be addressed. You do not move yourself at all during battle. No repositioning, no stance to quickly jump away, you are like a statue until you ignite some super move. However, in a fight, the enemy can be super-fast. I don't expect you to improve your speed to a crazy amount, but you freeze up when something comes near you. With no way to dodge, you will always be an easy target.", as I talk, I slowly walk away.

Then, I make a sudden side step before turning my heel and using Light Step to leap back to her in an instant. Within no time at all, my blade is next to her neck.
"Like this.", I say to her trembling body. She is petrified with fear.
"If you lose your nerve, you already lost the fight. Look at my sword, only the tip is next to your neck, one jump back, and you would've avoided it. If you ducked, you could've countered with a blast from your wand. You could put up a barrier, or have prepared a counter-attack beforehand.

I sheathe my blade and say, "Pay close attention to how enemies move before you blow them up. I will train you more at the next camp."
As I walk back to Sili-san and Acclaim, who have already turned around to continue our march, I tell them, "Acclaim. I want you to train Sili-san's overall skills. You two should help each other in place of me sparring with you."
"That's fine with me.", Sili-san says.
"I will train myself from time to time, if you feel like it, you can join.", I add as I walk past them.
"Definitely.", Acclaim replies whilst Sili-san gives me a quick rejection, "No thanks."

Within this dense forest, it isn't as great of a hunting spot. Our vision is even worse when it snows, and we couldn't move around as fast or find as many monsters to quickly kill to complete quests. On the other hand, there are a lot more materials to gather and use. The only open spot we have until we get into a clearing would be the road paved a long time ago, back when there were a small amount of monsters in existence and people walked here regularly.

Despite that, our levels are at a good spot, and we have more than enough strength to dispatch any monster in the way. I mostly didn't do anything. Sili-san and Acclaim used their blades to kill most enemies that approaches us. Theresa lured monsters out of the trees herself to practice dodging their moves. Her movements were sluggish and awkward, but she did a good job of timing her evasion right.

She dodge rolled away from one attack, but after the roll, she twists her ankle and got down on one knee, about to be hit by a Lizardmen's axe.
Sili-san killed it with a sword penetration, then he uses the string of his sword as a whip to launch his SP Skill, "String Cutter", killing the monsters around her.
In the meantime, Acclaim uses Blade Blast to dispatch monsters trying to flank us from the right, his sword blew up some of the trees to our right alongside it.
"Be careful with your SP Skills, we don't need to burn the forest down.", I tell them.

Theresa didn't thank Sili-san. She looks frustrated. She stands up and ran forward, eager for the next fight. At some point, I sensed an Ambush, little did the monsters know, we can easily get above the trees. Once they charged in, they only bumped into each other as we looked down upon them. We jump down and kill them with a surprise attack.
We finally entered a clearing. Some bigger monsters are in the middle, but with our team, eliminating them takes no less than a few minutes.

Sili-san and Acclaim have their sparring match. With the amount of trees here, setting up Strings to jump on and off of was a possible way of making an interesting fighting arena.
While Sili-san can match Acclaim's speed, Acclaim had no need to go on the offensive. Sili-san lacks power so Acclaim could simply block or parry him and hit him back.
"Your strength is still lacking. You need to at least cut steel if you are to fight more enemies like the last few. We got lucky with our strategy last time.", Acclaim says.

The two can use their string against each other, I can see a struggle of the two constantly trying to one-up the other by taking their string out of their control. Of course this fight is unfair, even I can only get a draw with Acclaim now that we have seen each other's full techniques. Still Sili-san has taken this very seriously and is not backing down.
Acclaim lets himself get wrapped up in string so he can set them on fire using Theresa's "Great Fire Wall!", however, he refrained from using Fire Beam for obvious reasons.

The string was laced with oil, Sili-san was planning for this. He had some explosives behind him he was planning to ignite without Acclaim noticing. It is a risky plan to launch himself forward to do a piercing attack, but another reason why this fight is unfair, Acclaim can predict every attack, so he easily avoids it using string to pull himself away. However, Sili-san uses his momentum to use his SP Skill. He turns around and shouts, "String Cutter!"
His string whip is sharp enough to cut through trees and scratch steel, however, Sili-san was on the ground already, he uses Ligth Step to dodge it.

"CombinationStar, Light Slash!", Acclaim shouts as he uses my sword slash of light and fires a blade of white through the air. Sili-san snaps his fingers and string pulls out a bunch of wood, rocks and other things lying around to create some type of cluster in front of Sili-san. The blade of light blasts through it, but Sili-san receives less damage as he is flung into the forest. Their fight continues as they use the trees to hop around and fight.

Theresa was watching with awe. I don't want to disrupt her, but we have got our own things to do. I tap her on the shoulder and say, "Let them do their thing. We've got our own lessons."
She snaps out of her daze and looks at me. she nods and says, "Yes!"
"Alright. Let us first address your stance. I don't think a mage needs a very tight stance, considering close combat isn't what you want to do anyway, however, battles throw unexpected scenarios at all times, and we are not primarily an adventuring party. You will be alone at times. Because of this, it is important you know what to avoid and how to move.", I explain to her, she is listening attentively, nodding and, I guess, taking mental notes.

"With that in mind. You need to learn to keep your legs well balanced and be well prepared to use your toes to move away.", I tell her.
She already looks lost. She raises a hand and says, "Wouldn't you use your heels to jump?
"For jumping back? Sure. But not everything comes from the front, does it? You are a mage, you are most likely as far back from the battlefield as possible anyway. You need to be able to move to any direction. And while you may want to avoid receiving attacks, being able to parry some with your staff will save your life.", I explain.
She looks at her staff, now back to me.
"Let's start with avoiding long range projectiles. I will slowly shoot arrows at you so you can take your time to learn how to dodge. Don't worry, I will telegraph them well.", I say.

Having moved away, I take the bow and arrow out of my inventory, turn around, and aim at Theresa.
I pull the arrow on its string, with a grunt I fire. The grunt is meant to be a sign, and I think she caught that, because she jumps to the left and avoids her first arrow. We repeat this a few times, at some point, I accelerate or fire one or two more arrows consecutively.
I can see her movements getting dull already. I sometimes add a curve to my shot so they only graze her instead of hitting her. At some point, she rolls to the side to her knee.

I know she can't dodge right away, so I only make myself seem threatening by loudly pulling the string to get her attention. She desperately jump under the arrow. Being tired, she seems to have figured she could also parry arrows with her wand. That is fine, but now she is spinning it around to block arrows…And I see an opening.
I swiftly get in front of her face and knock her want out of her hands using my sword. Whilst she was in shock, I gently lift the sword next to her neck and say, "You froze again…"

"But…You didn't say you would…", she couldn't finish her sentence.
"I never said I wouldn't come at you any other way. Besides, if you leave yourself open, a competent enemy will take advantage.", I tell her.
Looking down, she asks me, "What did I do wrong."
"The way you were spinning your wand. You're moving it with your fingers, however, it means your hold over it is too lose. You have to alternate between hands, make sure at least one hand has it tightly gripped, unless you want someone knocking it out of your hand.", I explain to her.

"I understand.", she says, raising her head, then she asks me, "You're really giving me a lot to think about. I feel I can become better like that." She looks pleased now.
Maybe she thought I was bullying her? I'm not really a teacher or anything, I just say what comes to mind and try to think of ways to improve her fighting like I did mine.
"Maybe you need to learn some basic martial arts. Being able to get out of close-quarter-combat by parrying and jumping back would be helpful. I can't help you with learning a quick counter-attack spell, however, you have to develop that yourself.", I say.

With all of that said, I have decided to train her in using her wand for melee combat, mainly as a defensive weapon. Holding it with two hand, using the left hand to parry and then the right hand further up the staff to hit the opponent. Or just simply how to anticipate an attack, parry it, jump away. Sometimes I switch over to a hammer so she can learn how to dodge roll under it using her tiny frame. She has an advantage against big opponents if she uses her size to squeeze through tiny openings against big weapons being swung at her.

Naturally, this is an uphill battle for her, even if she had some experience, she has no stamina to speak of and after getting tapped a few times, she collapses on her butt.
"Hm…Definitely, you need to do more exercise. We'll be having a run after you've caught your breath.", I tell her.
"Yes…", she says before dropping in her back.

It's been two days. We had waited for night time to kill some monsters for quests. There was one boss monster, taking the form of some kind of golem. Acclaim knocked its weapons away with one swing from his sword, Sili-san cut through it leaving it stunned for Theresa to finish it off with an explosion. These three have come quite far. They are no longer a few misfits that happened to be somewhat talented, but rather, a squad that work together, overcome any obstacle by covering each other's weaknesses, and coordinate to take down enemies with haste.

We now move south to the mountains. The next day had me training Theresa again. Now her movements have improved quite a bit. She used many monsters along the way as training. Baiting them out and dodging their attacks. At some point she practiced countering them with a shot of fire. She freely moves around, despite her ragged breath, swinging her wand as she jumps away from one arrow, and parries another at the same time. When she got used to my speed, she casts flame magic back at me.

At first she just aimed for arrows, but now I am getting hit by fire. It is fine by me, with my body now, low level magic, even by someone with a high intelligence stat, won't really hurt me. Even if she damages me, I won't feel the pain.
I use Light Step to avoid her fire, and I appear in front of her again. I assume she was waiting for this attack, for she ducks right under it, her wand charging up fire magic.

I leap to her left, avoiding her Flame Rush, then I swing the sword around my head before making a stroke from my right, she uses the bottom of her wand to misdirect my blade, doing a turn before blasting fire magic my way. However, I can still use Light Step to easily move to her back. I can tell she was surprised, her body didn't even move. She turns around and her eyes were wide open, looking unfocused, as if dazed. But, after I move my arms, I saw the light in her eyes…Her spirit firing up as she jumps back. Of course, it was too late and I would've hit her in a real fight, but this shows real improvement.

We alternated between martial arts and ranged evasion lessons. As well as running a marathon around to increase her stamina.
The next day, we walk into more open fields close to the mountain. Trees and forests weren't as common anymore. Now that the sun is lower, we make camp. I think I want to focus on my training at this point.

"Theresa. You practice on some things you want to practice on. I do recommend stamina training, but it is your discission.", I tell her.
I move away, but can feel their gazes onto me. I guess they must be curious about my training regimen.
First thing's first…It has been a while since I last trained. Months even. I actually dislike not having done any. I must see what I am capable off. But first. I need to warm up
I did some basic push-ups, squads and the like. Of course. One glance back, and I see their unimpressed faces.

They must've been expecting something crazy, but I haven't even gotten to my old workouts yet, never mind the new training methods I have in mind. Give me break.
Anyway. Now over to my usual training. First, Defense training. I shoot a bunch of arrows out that curve back to my directions. Some of them were charged with elements to build up elemental resistance. Now, with my new body, I have even more defense. My attacks only sting a bit now. Explosions and elemental bursts went off all over me.

After ten minutes, I put my guard down and breath out, "Foo… I need to figure a way to be hit harder, my defense stat is too high for this now…", I talk to myself.
They are looking at me absolutely appalled. Probably just thinking I am only hurting myself.
Anyway. I strap a tower of huge boulders onto my back and now do push-ups for real. This is still going relatively smoothly. It helps that I don't feel the pain like back when I was alive.

At this point, I don't think my muscles can be broken and will heal back stronger like when I was alive. I am not sure how effective this is.
I did a hundred of them, Now I shake the boulders off. I jump up int the air and use my sword to cut each one of them apart before they can hit the floor. This is also training, I must let myself get hit by a falling boulder if I fail to cut it before it hits the ground. I do another round of this by chucking dozens of them into the sky. It is kind of troubling to gather them, however, so sometimes I throw random stuff with them.

The three of them are now just staring at me in awe. Stop. I am getting self-aware now.
Well, time to use my training sword. From my inventory, I grab a giant steel blade, almost as long as a lantern-pole and as wide as a sumo wrestler.
I used this to train myself easily swinging big axes and hammers around as if they had no weight. Still, this thing feels pretty heavy. I can definitely still use it for training. I try to do Kenjutsu with it now, which is not something I could've done a few months ago.

My strength is definitely greater, but using this thing elegantly still is tough, it almost takes my feet with me as I do a swing, I can't fully control it at all.
I take a step forward with an overhead swing, I then step back and do it over. After a hundred times, I place the blade onto the ground. Finally, I begin to sweat.
"Man, you training is quite something, huh, Bios.", Sili-san says with an unsure tone.
I look back at them.

Acclaim has to look of someone that made sense of my training and said, "Yes. It is a pretty decent training regimen."
"Amazing. You really are amazing. I would never be able to do this. Keep that up!", Theresa says enthusiastically.
What are they talking about?
"This is my old training, though? I am not going to get much stronger from it anymore. I can tell I won't take long to get used to it.", I tell them.

Now their jaws drop.
"That is what you do NORMALLY?!", Sili-san asks.
I tilt my head and say, "Well, yeah."
Acclaim nods to himself with cold sweat and says, "I see. I now understand where her strength has come from."
Theresa doesn't look like she knows what to say.
"You really are not done yet?", she ends up asking an odd question.

"Hm? This is barely all the training I used to do? besides, my goals are different now. Back then, I was mostly learning many weapons and how to infuse magic within them.", I tell them.
"But, what is it exactly that you are planning to do?", Sili-san asks, scratching the back of his head.
"Is it perhaps the fact that I physically overpower you?", Acclaim says boldly.
I look at him attentively. It is one of the moments it made me feel weak.

Everyone's eyes are on Acclaim. He adds to his comment, "You have trained more than any of us, yet you are still physically unable to overpower me, nor do you have the strength to damage tough opponents using metal. That has been bothering you, am I correct?"
I nod and say, "You hit the nail on the head. I have realized, our enemies use tough Mecha."

I turn around and say, "Now I can use HDD and magic. However, if I become powerless, I won't be able to win any fight. It frustrates me."
"That said.", I say crossing my arms and closing my eyes.
"Even if that didn't happen, I refuse to stay idle. My training has gotten me so far. I feel better, getting stronger. I want to find ways to improve myself at all times. So…", I look at him sternly and say, "Don't think I am pushing myself as punishment. I want to overcome any limit I can of my own free will!"

"Well, at this point I have come to accept our leader being a crazy girl.", Sili-san says.
"Bios is amazing. A goddess, I believe you can do anything!", Theresa says, clutching her arms near her chest.
"Well, I am inclined to do harsh training as well. I assume Avenir has way more advanced weaponry, and we barely won last fight.", Acclaim says.
"Well then…Let's get to it.", I say.

Training, fighting monsters, gathering, eating, sleeping, running. We spent a few weeks, not because it took us that long to get to the boss for Rank Up. We did it so we can spent our time getting stronger. I asked Sili-san and Acclaim to stitch together something mountainous to put on my back for push-ups. I did squads with my training sword and used it in combat for training. I punch the same mountain side, over and over again. It cracked my fists at first. But now I am punching holes in it.

Whenever I was training alone, Acclaim sometimes joins me if the training included improving the legs, shoulders, and back. His arms are made of metal, there isn't much he can do for them with pure muscle training. My muscles don't physically change because of my body, but I can feel getting stronger as this training becomes easier for me to do. If I wasn't training Theresa, she would work on mastering teleportation magic.

At first, she has to focus on it a lot in order to use it, especially if she wants to teleport more than herself. Being able to do a quick short teleport would be a perfect evasion maneuver. Aside from that, in our sparring matches, I see her using counter and shield magic a lot more to stop me from closing in on her. She is getting smarter.

Sili-san and Acclaim's training is mostly just sparring in order to improve their overall fighting. Sili-san has finally gotten close to Acclaim's level, their blades creating shockwaves as they clash.
Theresa has become far better at fighting. Her reactions are a lot sharper, and she uses many combinations of magical attacks to try and trip me up. From fire spells in multiple locations to get me to step elsewhere, to dodging with teleport and casting explosion on me. She can even dodge sword swings from up close.

Suddenly, she stops. I cease movement of my sword, the blade nearly touching her forhead.
Huh? What's wrong? "Why did you stop?", I ask her.
"You wouldn't have hit me anyway…", she says, sounding fed up with something.
"Well…No. This is training. I am not going to hurt you.", I said.
Why would she want me to hit her? I don't understand.
"Bios… You have been holding back too much. Back then, you made the arrows curve to not hit me. You go easy on me every time… I don't want that!", she basically scolds me.

I sheathe my sword and step back to give her some space.
"I just don't want to risk harming you.", I say, but this made her more upset.
"I asked you to train me, because I wanted to be able to fight. But now I have no idea what I am up against… I want you to take me seriously! You're still treating me like a child! I am not ignorant of my age, but do remember, that my chance to be one has been taken from me a long time ago!", she shouts, almost like she is crying.
This problem goes deeper than I thought

"But…didn't I save you from that…", I muttered.
"Yes! But I can't just pretend it never happened! I could have just lived my life as an ordinary girl in some orphanage or something. But I chose not to! When I joined, it is because I admired you! I thought I would never be free and that any attempt should be stopped! But against every odd, despite every impossibility, you defeated all of them! I thought goddesses were useless, I had no faith. But then you showed up and saved me, even though I tried so hard to push you away! I want to help you. I want…To be like you, to do the impossible. And one day…I even want…To surpass you!", she has a long winded passionate speech.

My mouth was agape.
"So don't treat me like a child! Because I have no desire to regain something I have lost and will never get back. I rather want something I have the talent for. Helping my friends! I knew what I was getting into when I joined. So fight me! Fight me for real!", so she says.
I see. With her freedom, she chooses a difficult life, but one that is genuine to her wishes. I feel stupid for not seeing it. The share energy I feel is strongest comes from her. She is my most faithful follower and I couldn't hear her… I have a wry smile stuck on me.
I move away. Not that I am a goddess anymore… But wishes…I like to fulfill.

"I understand.", I say.
She gasped for air, then looks at me intensely.
I turn to her and get my sword out. "You better dodge every attack.", I say before letting my sword burst in light, then I continue, "Because I can't guarantee you will survive…"
I can see her face tense, up, she moves her legs and spins her wand around until she is in a pose ready for combat, though it seems to be a more stylish than practical one.

I speed my way over to her, an after image isn't simply left behind, the blast of wind coming from my movement had evaporated the image behind me instantly. My sword split the snow below me before it is used for one powerful swing to my right, aiming for Theresa's neck. Despite that speed, she ducks, but holds her want above her as it is encircled by barrier spells, being practically indestructible, my magic can't move the staff and she ends up directing my sword further than I intended to swing.

With one spin to hit my sword close to my right arm, her wand is immediately aimed at me whilst glowing red.
"Explosion.", she says as she casually casts a weaker version at me, knocking me back. After my feet have slid over the ground, she casts "Thunderbolt", on me, so I move to my left to avoid it. I circle around her whilst she casts all of the continuous elementary magic spells of all elements.

"Light Slash.", I say as I fire a quick weak version of Light Slash to cancel out her spells.
I see her dance, I suppose she found a counter to this. Every turn has her staff emit weak magic to hold off my Light Slashes whilst her dance creates a magical circle of ice.
I recognize it. I have seen it all the time.
"Ice Coffin!", I hear it and immediately move away as she summons a row of icicles my way, them getting bigger the further they appear from her.

I have seen my sisters use it all the time. Ice Coffin is a basic SP skill spell, normally appearing below the enemy, entrapping them inside it, and then shattering to do damage, but if you put more SP in you can make it an attack like this.
Just outside the huge pillars of ice's reach, I use Light Step to quickly appear just a little above her head to do a mighty downwards swing, my legs stretched out behind me.
It strains her arms painfully, but she manages to block my attack with my blade between her hands that are holding the wand.

However, this was intended, I curl my legs before extending them both into her stomach to kick her back, the air forcefully blasting from her mouth. I don't give her a break, the moment our feet both landed on the ground, I dashed over her with my sword held below me, the edge facing the ground.
Even though she is hurting, her eyes are still on me as she manages to step aside, my blade only grazing her shoulder.

She dodges so she can quickly thrust her wand and counter with Flame Rush. I am still in the air with my head facing the ground and Theresa in my vision. I hold out my left arm to let it take the full hit before brushing it off making a parry motion. I flip over and land on the ground, quickly, I cast my own "Explosion", but she side-steps and dodges it before shooting lightning back at me.

"SP Skill…", she says as Lightning is flowing through her body, she holds sparks within her hands before spreading them into the air, lightning scatters and combines into a lightning magical circle that disappears, hidden.
Below her is the same circle.
"Great Thunderbolt!", she shouts as giant lightning looms over my head.
I use a powerful burst of Light to shoot me into the sky to avoid raining thunderbolts. I look back to see it has scorched the earth.

I flip over grabbing a bow and arrow and I fire so many arrows with exhilarating speeds that they looked like a twenty-meter wide beam.
"Fire Wall! And…", she surrounded herself in a tiny shield of flame before she bends it and shoots a beam at me shouting, "Fire Beam!" This is a smaller version than the usual one, she must've learned to do weaker moves to conserve SP. Hitting all arrows would be unnecessary as she won't be hit by most, this attack will take care of all threats whilst making me stop to avoid it.

I cast Explosion from my feet to dodge the fire beam. Then I use it again whilst grabbing an explosive axe from my inventory, I dive down at her about to slam my axe onto her. She jumps back, avoiding it alongside the explosion that comes after it. However, the explosion does make it easy to get the axe off the ground, the edge normally digs inside it and it takes some strength to get it out. I use its weight to pull me with it as I do a flip over the ground.

It is a feint, because while it looks like I am about to do another smash, I am trained to swing this around like it has no weight, but despite that, she ducks under my axe, she even counters by casting Flame Rush against the axe itself when it recoils, shooting it out of my hands.
I materialize a spear, but before I can use it, I see she is enchanting her rod with fire and ice. I lean forward and look at her with my eyes squinting. But Now I realize it. She is using my mirage trick.

Illusions of her are encircling me. I close my eyes. Good. But unfortunately, it doesn't work on me.
I can use Wind Sense to feel where her real body is. I leap over to her with my spear, breaking through the dense air she has put up.
Although it must've been surprising, she manages to avoid getting fully stabbed by the spear, only getting poked by it. However, she didn't see my slash coming as I lightly cut her to her right shoulder.

I can see her about to counter me, so I come up to her and give her a brutal kick to the side, this would normally break her bones, it is good her level is close to the 30s.

She is flung over the ground, she grits her teeth and draws a magical circle with her staff. She throws it behind herself. It is a teleport circle. Once inside, a circle spawns in front of me. Now it is my turn to get baffled. I have no idea what to expect. I only know she will appear out of it. She did, but her wand had a flame orb so bright, I can feel myself disintegrating by merely looking at it. I stab my spear into the ground and get away as she fires it off in my direction.

Since it hit my spear, it explodes outside of my vicinity. But I can tell, it would've done great damage to me. Since this fight is now about trickery, I grab the axe that was shot from my hand. I throw it at her. It is a pretty good throw, the axe moves as fast as a speeding car. Even if she avoids it, I have already cast explosion on it.

I think she could sense it about to blow up, because the moment it was lighting up, her eyes widened. She dodge rolls out of its way. I recreated the axe using Weapon Create. Then I grab the second hammer. I spin myself around with these two heavy weapons. In the past, I used their weight to get me moving like a tornado, but now I am strong enough to not need their accelerations. Not only can I whip out this move faster, but I can move more efficiently using it. So I am practically a top as I move over to her.

One I stop spinning, I use the momentum to jump at her, prepared to slam her with both weapons at the same time.
"Great Fire Wall!", she shouts summoning a giant wall of fire around her. I can see her bent it. She understands dodging isn't the only damage prevention method. I have no choice but to slam my weapons into the ground to cancel my attack.
"Great Fire Beam!", she shouts whilst I shoot light from under my feet. I barely manage to dodge a great blaze.

I gather Light into my sword. At some point, a huge flash turns into a burst of Light. This Light streams from my sword, a spiking tail of white energy as I rev it up. My strongest SP attack.
"UnionStar. Light Slash!", I fire at directly at Theresa, who must stand still in recoil of using such powerful magic.
However, she draws a three-sized teleportation circle, holding her want with one hand. With the other hand, she makes a smaller circle. With one swirl, the circle is flung behind my back within the blink of an eye.

I can already see it coming. Light is absorbed into big circle, and a weaker version comes out of the other circle. Alas. "Reflection.", with Light Magic enchantment on my palms, I can redirect the light back at her, she won't have time to make the same triple circle. Except, she hasn't used her other hand, only the wand, she holds the hand onto the ground, and a short teleportation takes her from harm's way. My Light crashing into the ground leaving a rift. It isn't as big of a rift thanks to it being weakened due to only a portion of it being able to go through the smaller circle.

Now, she shoots me down with Lightning magic. I don't have the time or strength to dodge, so I block it and take the damage. I fall on my feet, but the fall feels heavy, very uncomfortable.
We look at each other. I must admit. I am feeling the adrenaline. She's getting good.
"You have done some great spells. I am happy you suggested this. Do you feel it? Even though I am sure your SP is low, you are prepared to finish this battle with respect?", I speak to her.

She's out of breath, but she responds excitingly, "Yeah… I haven't lost yet. I need to put everything into this next attack. My new finisher move…"
"Then…Allow me…", I respond to her. I am charging my blade up with light.
She on the other hand, is creating a bunch of magical circles. I don't know how good you have to be to throw them, it is not a common thing I see done, most just summon circles at a further range. But with this method, she can make more quicker. I am between two long walls of magical circles of all elements.

"SP Skill…", she says as she summons a three-sized magical circle below her feet.
"Archive of Elements!", she shouts, whilst I shout, "UnionStar!"
I have not only greatly charged my sword with magic, I had let magic wind up under my feet as well. I blast my way forwards, avoiding a huge explosion behind me. The wall of circles I am in between go all the way to Theresa herself. Each circle casting a grand elemental spell. Some in different locations in case I moved elsewhere. It is like diving through a hell that his narrowly closing its distance on you.

I can actually feel my legs almost burn up.
And yet, I am too fast for her. But I am prepared. I have another sword I am charging with Light magic behind my back…
I shout, "Light Slash!", as I bring my black blade down on her.
However, my attack went through her? No, one of the three circles was a teleportation circle. Using three different circles and fusing them together? I know that only a genius could do that.

As my attack misses, she moves right next to me. She couldn't teleport far it seems. But didn't matter. The hell she unleashed was only a combo to finish of her move.
"Photon beam!", she shouts, shooting a glorious laser of white my way. Man it hurt, however, I prepared for this. I move out of the beam, barely escaping it with minimal damage. And with my top speed, I move behind her, too fast for her to even really follow me. She turns with a ghastly expression, as I hold out a second blade bursting with Light.

"That was great. Unfortunately, you forget, I am the one who taught you this fighting style.", I say before raising my blade in reverse grip. I let go of it to flip my hand to swing it more effectively.
"UnionStar, Light Slash!", I shout swinging it askew right above her head. Alongside taking a few strands of her hair, the mountain behind her had lost its top for it was disintegrated, and the cloudy sky it reached now has a hole with sunlight seeping through.

Theresa is mortified, like her life had ended within her mind.
I gently hold my hand onto her shoulder and said, "That was great. You've improved so much!"
She blinks once…Now she has snapped back. She looks at the shaved mountain and then back at me.
I can see she's still processing this, but she says something, "But…You are overwhelming…"

"As you can see. If I were to fight anyone for real, I feel I can beat anyone outside of big sis. I might've been too easy on you, but my full strength is something I wouldn't even use against her in a real fight.", I tell her. I try to calm her, but she's about to sob.
"I've worked so hard but…Still…"
I shake my head and say, "Don't feel that way. Listen. Even if you are talented, you are still a child. I am not even a human, I have been born with power and have a crazy training schedule, and I am planning to fight old organizations hidden in the shadows with giant machines, if I had a close match to a kid who only trained for a few weeks, you think I'd make it?"

She raises her head, no longer do I see her sad.
She shyly looks away, "I s-suppose you're right. Maybe I should have some patience…"
"Besides.", I smile, "You have improved so much already. I am not a battle hungry person, but I do like the adrenaline rush it gives me, especially when fighting friends. If you were weak, you wouldn't be able to make me excited. And…"

I show her my left arm, which has been burned black. Her head jumps back as she looks shocked at my arm, and so, I tell her, "You hit me with that last beam. Of course, you can't kill me, but it certainly hurt. Your attack was fantastic, any other person would've lost. I barely made it out. Not like I can't counter it, but I wasn't expecting it either."

I can hear a faint laugh from Theresa, I lean in to look closer at her face.
"You casually show your terribly wounded arm as if it is a light wound. I should've expected that from a goddess.", she giggles between sentences, "I wanted to surpass you but acted like I'd just do that in a month. It should take years."
She turns around and says, "If I lose to a kid, you think I'd make it?", right? My goddess shouldn't lose so easily of course." she says with a snicker a bit she started belly laughing.
I feel absolutely lost…I never saw her like this. And I don't see what's funny…

Hm…Actually… Hehe…
I have my own dry laugh, but I join her, "Exactly?! You really think you can just beat me with just a bit of basic training? Grow up first!" Now we both have joined in laughter.
"I am at least stronger than Sili-san, right?", she says playfully.
"Maybe at first, but I don't know. He and Acclaim have been working hard too.", I say, still in a good mood.
"Should we check on them?", she asks me.

I agreed, and so, we walked to where we heard them fighting.
What are they doing? Theresa sits down behind my right shoulder as we both shut up and watched two men fist fighting each other like the world is about to end.
Flames were generated from their battle alone, their upper clothing having burned off. The two were throwing hands at great speed, even thick metal would bend upon impact.
I think I get it. Acclaim wants Sili-san to be physically close to his level, and I suppose mine as well.

The best way is for him to learn to win a fist fight with someone who has arms made of nintendium. The idea is ludicrous. I actually think they've been doing this for a few days, but with Acclaim able to predict Sili-san's movement and counter his move with a mirror move, Sili-san just gets knocked flat constantly. But this time, surrounded by the fires of spirit, Sili-san takes a hit, only to have Acclaim shovel back with his feet with a headbutt.

"No matter what! I am to be a Knight to save others who are exploited by faceless organizations and protect Bios! If I lose to some mercenary, I AM NO MAN!"
Waaah…His spirit is creating blazes hotter than Great Fire Wall.
Sili-san seems to have figured out Acclaim is still somewhat limited to his own stamina and can't copy an attack while in the middle of executing his own. Sili-san dodges a few punches, sets up so many feints even he stops thinking about his attack. With instinct and strength, Sili-San punches Acclaim hard in the face and shoots him through some trees.

"YEEEEESS! That is my win! Finally!", he shouts in celebration.
"Bios Bios…Won't they get cold like that?", Theresa's question to me seems to have gotten his attention.
"EH?! Bios?! Theresa?! Since when were you here?!", he said, but I ignored him.
"Well, Theresa, when you are as active as those two, you may not notice the cold. It's better not to mention is until you actually have warm clothes ready for them, or else they will suddenly feel it. Or so I think.", I tell Theresa.

Acclaim calmly walks back to Sili-san.
"They seemed to have fun…Hey, why do boys like fighting that much? You two are even more over the top than we were…", she asks us all.
I answer, "I don't know why boys are like that. But isn't it better? We are going to have to fight a lot, better have team members that seek a fight."
Honestly, it's not like I can say anything. Before this, there have been practically no males in my life, besides the Assailants of Death I guess…
"To be fair, I beat the fighting spirit into him these last few days.", Acclaim says as if he were judging him.
"Hey. Machines and strength to do cool things is just our nature. Besides, Bios, don't you enjoy fighting just as much?!", Sili-san comments.

I blink a few times, then I answer, "I don't necessarily love fighting. I enjoy a good fight where my life is not at stake, usually with a friend. But I think I just like the adrenaline rush and deploying tactics to see if they work, I don't care too much after that."
The two of them had their arms crossed and stared at me in doubt.
I looked around even Theresa's face shifted to the most 'poker face' you could find.
They seriously think I am battle crazed?

"You seemed to be having so much fun though…", Theresa says under her breath.
"Like I said…", I feel annoyed as I speak, "It's not like I dislike fighting. I enjoy it somewhat, but I am not battle crazy! Okay! Listen, it is normal. Not many of the goddesses seek out battles perse, but once they transform they have an adrenaline rush and then they are quick to fight. It works like that for me, too!"
"But you didn't transform…", Theresa says.
"…", an awkward silence ensues…

"Uh…Well. it is time to rest. Tomorrow, we will be fighting the boss to promote ourselves to C-Rank.", I tell them.
I leave them be. I myself have gotten a lot stronger too. Not only can I punch big holes into the mountain side now, the boulders I use to cut up mid-air I can now crush with my bare hands and feet. Soon I'll be able to punch through bedrock.

The next day, we had a plate filled with boss monster quests.
Although with our current party, each of them can solo each boss.
The plaid dolphin, a dolphin in some kind of red plaid pattern coating. It flies over the ground.
Nidhogg, a variation of the ancient Dragon. It is just more powerful, nothing noteworthy.
There was a knight-like mecha with red-yellow coloring wielding a two-handed sword, it is called a Mekidrygar.

Sili-san guides the Plaid-Dolphin around blocking its every move with string, or he uses said string to pull him elsewhere. Eventually, he trapped him into a circling wall of string.
"SP Skill… Projectile Netweb", he gave his attack a name as he pulls his sword over a string like an arrow on a bow, when he released it, the sword gets flung from one string to another. It accelerated and penetrates the dolphin multiple times before it is shot in the air.

Sili-san had jumped preemptively in the air onto one last set of strings. The string is pulled back from his weight alongside his sword. As the two are shot downwards, he grabs the blade to thrust it forward and shouts, "Spider Stinger!", killing the dolphin as he is drilled through it.

Acclaim took his time parrying the claws of Nidhogg and countering its breath attack by copying them. When he broke Nidhogg's guard, he said, "SP Skill…", while his right arm holding the sword begins to spin.
Now his arm is a drill turning fast enough to suck all air around it up. He lets his arm overheat to create some kind of flaming exhaust effect to turbo its speed.
He jumps forward and destroys the monster with his arm turning into a tornado sword of flames and sparks whilst shouting, "Blast Drill!"

Mekidrygar had cannons on its back, but Theresa casts explosion at the exact moment it would fire them, letting its shells blow up within it.
It tried to slash at her, but she ducks under its sword and casts more offensive magic. I see her prepare a teleportation magical circle under her. Then she throws around a bunch of different circles in sets of two at varying heights symmetrically. It tried to do a plunge attack on her, but she teleported above the teleporters.

A circle is emitted from her wand as she says, "SP Skill…"
Her wand flashes rapidly as it fires a bunch of arrows of light into the circle in front of her.
"Space Light Shower!", she says as every single circle she had flung behind the mecha blasts it with a rain of Light, suppressing its motion and slowly tearing its metal.
Her free hand was shining with Light magic, she hovers it over her staff before doing a thrust, dispersing the circle she was shooting light into. All the other magical circles flew together into the mega and created an implosion of Light as she said, "Light Disruption!"

The mecha is blown apart. It disappeared signaling its death. With the amount of power these three have acquired, the next boss will not be much of a challenge to them.
We stand there, this part of the forest has little in trees, probably because the monster had made its nest here. But it is quite a surprise, it was a machine. Its head looked like a steel castle-tower with Vulcan cannons around the top part. Its eyes were glowing red as it floated above ground. It had two huge disconnected hands that floated with its head.

A floating head and two big hands, a sign of death in Lowee. I read in our history that there was once a demon king the size of Gamindustri itself with that appearance, and it had many pieces and reincarnations spread over the land that can spawn weaker and stronger monsters like this, some of those monsters have made mecha versions.
As it sees those three walking up to it, it flies higher into the air.

I am not helping them, this is their chance to show their growth.
From its fingers it fired rockets, from its palms it shoots fireballs, and from its head, it rains down bullets. However, Theresa casts, "Great Barrier!", protecting the three, the only issue is, this makes her unable to move, and those two have to get out of the barrier in order to attack. This is fine, I think. The monster gathers its hands above its head, charging magical energy.

Sili-san takes this opportunity wrap its hands with string, he himself has been launched into the air by Acclaim, so he flies past it right after taking hold of its hand. As he drops down behind the machine, he pulls the hands upward, once it releases its powerful dark blast, it will only hit the clouds above. Sili-san pulls his arms down with all the strength he could muster, not letting the hands of the monster free.

He trusts Acclaim will launch an offensive. Acclaim shoots himself up using Light Step and hits the head with a punch, this is to learn its moves. He jumps off its face, which had begun to fire bullets at him, and the moment after, Acclaim releases a barrage of attack it had been using on them. Fireballs, bullets, rockets, everything. Unfortunately, this also burns the string around its hands.

It was sudden, but its hand kind of warped as it turned into a purple-misty energy. Then it suddenly appeared behind Acclaim, he can predict it and casts explosion from under hit feet to get away. Whilst Acclaim grabs a sword, it swings its fist from Acclaim's left, Acclaim moves a little lower to his left with Explosion magic, evading it. He was already charging magic into his sword before letting it burst out in light.
"CombinationStar. Light Slash!", he shouts as he launches a flying blade of light at the enemy. It had no choice but to gather its hands to block the attack, though I think it still did much damage to it.

Smoke came out of it as it turned red with rage. It clutches its hands as if in anger. Suddenly they disappeared, and once they reappeared, they grow bigger. Sili-san is between the palms of his hands. If he didn't use his string to pull himself close to Theresa, he would have been clapped between its hands. They disappear again… he tries to cursh Theresa under its fists, but she was already on guard and jumped away, rolling over the ground as the fist pounds the surface only. A fist spawns close to her, but she aims her wand at herself and casts a short distance speed teleport to move away from the fist's swing.

It gathered its fists back to itself. Acclaim has gone down and warns them, "We need to make a good shield, now!"
The monster unleashes a rush of fist throws, constant back and forth punches furiously banging on a large interconnected web of string Sili-san and Acclaim have made together. Theresa had controlled her magic to specifically target the string to up its defense. The fury of punches leaves a dust cloud that makes it hard to see anything from afar, but once it was over, I can see none of them are harmed.

"Theresa, can you help?", Sili-san asked.
Theresa nods and draws something in the air with her wand. A triple teleportation circle that goes over the wall of string. Sweat drops from her, and her arms look like they are weighted by an invisible force, but she summons the same circle behind the floating monster. She teleported the web onto it. The web entangles it, and thanks to that, Sili-san and Acclaim can pull it down by themselves.

After it slams down to the ground, Sili-san shouts, "EXE Drive Skill!"
From any location, string wraps around the monster whilst each string is attached to some surface. A lot of the string is connected with his sword which is now completely covered in string. With string pulling the sword forward, Sili-san plunges it into the monster shouting, "Ultimate Stinger!"
While it is unable to move, Acclaim's arms opened up leaving only a frame, for his metal plating releases an entire arsenal of spells and weaponry.

"EXE Drive Skill…", he shouts as jet shoots him forward alongside his weapons. At high speed he moves around using many different weapons and spells to attack the monster before flying high up into the air. "Unlimited Arsenal!", he shouts as he uses his thrusters at max power while his sword wielding arm spins like a drill. When he collides with the mecha, a huge explosion followed by a pillar of flame sends Acclaim flying in recoil. This is not enough to destroy the monster, however.

That is fine, Theresa has learned her EXE Drive Attack, her level had exceeded 25 already.
"EXE Drive Skill…", she says quietly, holding her wand up. A triple magical circle of light is placed under her feet, whilst three circles of each elements have spawned and rotated around her. At some point, the wind, flame, ice, and thunder circles teleported right beside the monster each taking up a wind direction, all have become triple circles.

A huge fire ball, a giant flying Iceberg, a huge swirl of wind, a great spark of Lightning. All element float against it, they didn't look like they were physically touching the monster, their presence was damaging it. Theresa is swirling her wand around, almost like mixing them together whilst they were doing damage. She thrusts her wand down with a lot of magical power. Suddenly, the circle appears above the monster and unloads a giant beam that not only hurt it, but also is absorbed into the other elements.

Everything became dark as her elements turn into a shimmering light, then she snaps her fingers and says, "Existence Annihilation". the light turned into a giant mountain almost like an explosion but a lot slower.
The darkness that had enveloped because of this move, had been repurposed. She wasn't finished. She uses the darkness element to create a triple magical circle of that element above its head. This is her peak, her Exe Drive Skill. The skill to overcome all limits. And this was the boss finisher, "Extinction Meteor!"

I notice the symbols of the triple circle includes teleport and gravity. So I guess I shouldn't have been shocked but…Oh I think it's not crazy to be shocked. A giant meteorite is warped through the circle and completely destroys this monster. The only reason I can tell the damage is not much different from the other two Exe Drive Skills is due to her level, because otherwise, this would've been crazy.

The three came together and high fived each other. Their hard work has led them to an easy victory. With all of our jobs done, we returned to the guild. Got paid. And now, we are working on…A kitchen.
Yeah, taking out food is fine and all, but we mostly operate at night. It would be better if we could make our own food. Me and Theresa watch as Sili-san and Acclaim are trying to install it.

I have no understanding of these things, and Theresa is…Well, her case is self-explanatory. So we just watch two guys who seem to be sharing brain cells fooling around with all the different parts we have bought. We didn't need electricity to cook, for we have fire magic, that notwithstanding it is pretty standard for Lowee kitchens to have magic support anyway. To get water through the tap, however, is quite a bit more difficult.

We can't just access the sewer system or else we'll be found out. Our solution is to use Lowee's abundance of snow and use magic to turn it into water. This is actually not typical. Have you guys ever drank water from magically converted snow? It's not great and also tends to be not as healthy. But we had no other choice.

We let Sili-san and Acclaim figure out how to use the pipes and left the magic to Theresa.
Those three have become so much stronger. But when it comes to their levels, they are…
Theresa: Level 32
Sili-san: Level 41
Acclaim: Level 53
Mine has been raised slightly: level 80.

It has been a few days, but we finally have our next Rank-Up Quest. This would put them on the same rank as me.
Still, in my opinion, the thing I had to do to get promoted is not as rough as this one. The name of the monster is ridiculous, "Great Big Senpai", but I have seen it in action once and it terrified me. I am far stronger now, but I intend to help them only a little in this next fight.
Apparently, it has shown up in an older amusement park area that was meant to be cleaned of monsters to be reused.

Obviously, no one is going to come close to it now. We accept this and a bunch of other quests for that area.
The amusement park wasn't as cold, the grass was as green as ever. We are actually in some kind of space with bottomless pits and everything. The monsters here are a lot stronger, but not really threatening. There were some powerful dinosaur turtles or something like that here. There were some sentient pipe enemies, Gang Leader Cats, and Heal Doggoo's.

We now have to deal with enemies that can heal and paralyze us, which was pretty annoying. We were mostly having fun here once we leveled up a bit. I was mostly just dashing around and taking in some sights. The other three were fighting for their lives. But I bet Sili-san was having fun with the rollercoaster at least. The monsters there were hard to fight on top of it, but he can use string to move with the rollercoaster or move around it.

Theresa uses the tea cups for warping, tripping monsters into it, she used wind magic to spin them around, and then, blasts them with explosion to create some hellish spinning tea cup bumping attack. Her imagination is…Something.
Acclaim grabs the gondola of the drop tower and uses it to crush a bunch of enemies into the ground…This also resulted in the thing breaking. I will file for property damages.

Generally, we were just goofing around here. The attractions were still working, so we basically took a holiday here. But after a while, we have to take our jobs seriously and fight the Great Big Senpai. That sounds contradictory, but trust me, this enemy is dangerous.
A big humanoid with a huge head, black hair that was weirdly and smoothly separated in big strands that reaches his neck. His mouth was kind of shaped like a horse's. he had a black stubble beard. Wore a red headband and a grey tracksuit with the red colored letter C placed two times on his shirt diagonally.

I can see it already, they are on guard, but they are so stupefied, they can't tell whether to take this seriously or not. On the other hand, their bodies are tense, probably the fear of the unknown, but this means they don't have the calm to observe him. I have fought him once before when I was alive, it was not a noteworthy battle perse, but more so because it was a drag rather than it being easy or hard.

In the blink of an eye, his feet were almost touching ours as he is staring down. I can see it has Theresa in his vision…And me?
"Wait…Sili-san… You don't think…", Acclaim speaks in cold sweat.
"Yeah, this bastard is aiming for…", Sili-san seems to agree with Acclaim on something.
These two have more synergy than I expected. What do they keep agreeing on anyway?
"PROTECT THEM!", Sili-san shouts as he and Acclaim jump forward about to cut him down. It shouts as two swords slash into it, doing minimal damage. It may whine in pain pathetically, but that will be part of the our lesson.

For in the next second, a kick to the sky shoots Acclaim over the clouds. Followed by a punch that blasts Sili-san past Theresa, I see her face filled with fear as Sili-san crashes into a wall of earth.
The senpai just moves so fast it looks like it's teleporting.
Now behind a mortified Theresa, it was about to snatch her between its arms, moving its face closer to her with glee.

However, he is still a stupid monster. He didn't even notice my sword charged up with light. I jump towards him and knock him back with a strike.
"UnionStar Light Slash!", I shout as I do big damage, the area brightening with an explosion.
I cast "Explosion", from my feet to try and impale him with my sword, but it did a speed movement. This thing is fast, but this is a technique that lets you move at Mach 2 for a few seconds by kicking your legs ten times in an instance.

However, my Light Step is not inferior. He moved back to where we started, and I instantly caught up to him, I will attempt a cut from left to right. But he dodges it with his 'Flash Step'.
Then he flash steps behind me about to swing the back of his foot against me, but I move away from that spot at high speed as well. I can sense Acclaim and Sili-san getting close to Theresa. They now stand there staring as I fight this monster at a speed they can barely follow.

This is what I meant with tedious. This guy hits anyone at high level 40s with moves that crushes 70% of their bodies. Theresa is barely at level 40, Sili-san hasn't reached 50 yet, Acclaim only is a little over that mark. Since I had Light Step, even at a low level, I was able to counter his attacks as to not get hurt, but that mean a boring fight of waiting for an opening between Constant instantaneous movements and clashes.

Our fight lasted about thirty seconds, I am blown back as he wings his left leg horizontally against me, even though I blocked it, it doesn't stop me from getting knocked back.
"Senpai Shot!", is what I hear as he spits out a small dark purple orb. As small as it looks, people standing close to each other will be hit by it all the same. The three behind me cover themselves as they get hurt. Theresa falls to one knee while the other two had to catch themselves by taking a step with their feet.

Now they've gotten serious. Sili-San and Acclaim quickly move to the side of this thing, Wrapping it withing their string. It struggles at first, but now Big Great Senpai is free, tearing through the silk with ease.
It uses a quick movement to appear behind Sili-san, but Acclaim jumps in with Light Step and blocks its attack with a sword bursting with light. It snap vanishes again, with Acclaim following it in the middle of our group, the two throw a punch in sync with each other, their fist collides with equal power.

"It doesn't matter if you hit hard, the strength is copied together with your move.", Acclaim said, not only having learned it attacks, but also Flash Step. I can see Acclaim is following my strategy, but soon he should realize he needs to get that thing off guard. Even when its doing its combos of kicks and punches, Acclaim stops them with a perfectly mirrored counter-attack. However, at some point, Acclaim uses Light Step just after he kicked the ground a tenth time, going just slightly faster than me.

"Senpai Shot!", he shouts as he spits a purple orb at Big Great Senpai. Surprising it, it coils itself back in fear. Giving Sili-san the opportunity to attack with an SP Skill.
"String Cutter!", he shouts whilst airborne, swinging his sword down with string acting like a razor-sharp whip that hits the Senpai, while doing decent damage, it grabs the string, in spite of its sharpness, this monster is fast to commit any murder it can. He threw Sili-san into the ground next to it, before dragging him over the earth in front of it.

Sili-san detaches the string from his sword, at the same time, the monster made a dash to him. Sili-san moves over the creature's head using his string, when it turns around, it will see he is surrounded by a network of webs. This was Sili-san's newest move.
"Projectile Netweb.", he says as he has his sword moves from string to string going through the monster several times before he launches himself whilst grabbing the sword to plunge it into the monster. But the Great Big Senpai blocks him. Sili-san attempts a push forward, but he ends up being shoved back.

"This thing really is tough, what's up with that?", he says.
Whilst the two locked eyes, Acclaim uses Flash Step to close in on the monster with his arm already rotating with fire and lightning. With a thrust, he shouts, "Blast Drill!", making the monster budge. The damage was good, but it countered him, as it already had its right leg raised to its left, Acclaim gets hit with the back of its heel, his body busts through a slide as he is close to fainting.

"Ice Coffin!", Theresa shouts. She already prepared a bunch of different spells. The monster is stuck inside an iceberg, upon shattering, it takes a bit of damage. Theresa then lights up him with a "Great Thunderbolt!"
It won't just take it, it shoots a "Senpai Shot", back at her. She dodge rolls out of the way, but that lets him sneak behind her. His figure reappeared behind her about to swing its leg.
Theresa had her wand aimed at herself, she shouts, "Teleport!", and does a short distance teleportation above the back of the creature's head whilst it kicks the air.

"Great Explosion!", Theresa shouts blowing the monster's back with a big explosion that also sends her flying over the ground. She painfully lands on the ground, but quickly stands back up, because this thing isn't done yet.
It practically flies over to her, with little room for evasion, Theresa summon a great wall of flame shouting, "Great Fire Wall!"
This may damage it, but it was determined to break through the flames and grab her. I guess the passion of his soul burns hotter than the flames.

I can see Theresa panic, but she manages to bend the fire and reuse it for her next spell, "Great Fire Beam!", the monster may get knocked back a little and soak in some pain. Regardless, it isn't enough. He moves forward, frustrated I would say, kicking Theresa up into the air. With how low her defenses are, she has practically been knocked out. Now it is trying to grab her, and that is where I step in.

My feet have huge spiking white energy trails coming from underneath them, "Max Charge Light Step!" This is my barehanded SP Skill.
"Reflection Punch!", I shout as I hit the monster in the head with a fist of Light, knocking it close to the wall of earth.
"Arrow Rain!", I shout while shooting a barrage of arrows from my bow, some of them were explosives some of them were flaming. They hit him, making him shout "It hurts" in an annoying voice.

In a moment's notice, it moved up to me at fast speed, I cross my arms as I take a roundhouse kick, when I land on the ground, my feet rip the grass off the dirt. It moves in on me again, this time I dodge it. I spam Light Step, with each step I fire an arrow. At first he could dodge it, but before he realizes it, he got stuck between a storm of arrows that bounce off of each other constantly.
"Arrow Storm!", I shout as I finish it with the arrows all coming together, me blowing them up with one final arrow shot in the epicenter of their union.

Before it can even move, Sili-san entangles it within string attached to every possible surface.
"EXE Drive Skill! Ultimate Stinger!", he stabs him so hard I can feel the air-blast penetrate a wall miles away, and yet, that is not enough to kill it. It does a combination attack, two side punches finished with a kick to knock Sili-san out and onto the ground.

I have given Theresa a Life Fragment to wake her up. These are expensive healing items, but we have to use them now. Now that it has beaten Sili-san, I have to move forward. I use a spear so I can easily stab it matching its speed. After images are made as I make many steps and thrusts shouting, "Rainy Ratnapura!" I finish my assault off with a slice. I knew it was going to vanish, so I grab a hammer and counter his next movement with a heavy slam shouting, "Zersturong!"

In the next second, Acclaim moves in going for his Exe Drive attack. I move to Theresa so I won't get hit by the explosion at the end.
"Unlimited Arsenal!", so he says, his arms having opened up with tons of weapons that he uses to overwhelm the enemy with dozens of attacks before he goes up in the sky and uses a sword with a spinning arm as he shoots himself down with jet thrusters, creating a giant explosion. The problem is, this is more of a move you use to kill the enemy.

It is super powerful, but Acclaim is flung away from his own attack and can't immediately move, so the monster just gets to him and punches his lights out.
"Bios…Use this!", Theresa tries to shout, but her voice is barely coming out. Even so, I can hear her. She flings a bunch of magical circles used as platforms.
These are platforms? If I stand on them, that thing will have a hard time countering my attacks, because in spite of its speed, it can't jump high. I see.

"Thanks, Theresa!", I shout before hopping over her many circles. She keeps making more and letting some disappear. I can freely use Light Step to hit that monster, with it only coming close to touching me. I can see string flying around me as I move, they are helping each other using healing items to get back on their feet.
Sili-san covers him in string, but not just any, the string had a bunch of dynamite strung along it, and gasoline was dripping off it.

Even if it could break through, fire already spread to the dynamite, blowing it up. While it is weak, Sili-san held it back with even more string. At the same time, Acclaim comes at it with an axe, he spins around with it whilst cutting through its kneecaps, getting it down on its knees. He stops spinning once he is behind its back, he brings the axe down on it shouting, "Tanzerin Trombe!"

"Now Bios! Finish him!", I hear them shout.
I grab a second sword, a long platinum one. Holding two swords and letting them burst with a white spiking light magic, I call out, "EXE Drive skill!"
I shoot myself forward, with great bursts of Light Step, I keep cutting him whilst constantly moving past him from different directions. Eventually, I will appear before him and do a jumping spinning slash, all my cuts are diagonal whilst I go high up. I keep rotating, fusing the bursting lights of my sword together.

Now my two swords have become one as I hold them above my head, I say, "FusionStar…"
I go down and strike my enemy with a great sword of light, it disperses as it creates a huge blast of light that wipes the monster away whilst I shout, "Light Burst!"
And that was that. We finished our quest and are now at Rank B, this will allow us more than enough quests to make good money, and even help people.

"Wow…Bios really is amazing…", I hear from Theresa.
"I thought you were overstating how powerful the enemies are at higher ranks.", Sili-san says.
"I am not sure how to feel on you taking the win, to be honest.", Acclaim says.
I look at them and say, "Maybe it isn't fair, because my level is high enough to solo him. However, I was holding back. Don't worry. We can still train some more.", I tell him.

Well, regardless, we should be happy. With everything said and done, it is time to finish our training, and the rebuilding of our base. We buy a power generator, normally you're supposed to charge it, however, we live in Lowee, there are those that support magical charging with electricity. The only thing that was left is to make sure we could use the internet anonymously.

We brainstormed, but this goes far beyond even Sili-san and Acclaim's basic computer knowledge. But I know a girl. I didn't want to do this, but she is one of the only three people that actually have my number. Calling her was difficult, I didn't understand how this thing worked. I gave Nepgear a call. I wrote down what she said because I cannot make sense of it, but I am pretty certain Acclaim and Sili-san can follow her instructions. And thus, we have our own private server hidden away from the eyes of Lowee.

Now, we sit here, eating our own food, sitting in our sofa's and couches on top of a floor we made ourselves. Watching the screen, the news. Now we can gather information through the internet as well. We even got a retro game console. The Super Loweendo.
I was expecting our vigilante side to be covered in the news. An arrest warrant for us is out, but obviously, no one knows our identities thanks to the masks I have made.

I was surprised, however, that our other activities seems to have made the news as well. "A group of four adventures have gone and slayed many monsters and saved a large number of citizens along the way. Some even call them the legendary heroes. According to rumors, they may even work with the Goddess. Isn't that exciting? Whoever they are, their strength is great. They even felled a Big Great Senpai and the monsters representing death in Lowee. Isn't that exciting!"
Now I understand why I've been feeling share Energy build up lately…

Chapter 7

The forgotten

It has been a while. With everything set-up, we now have all we need. The only thing left is to find the other organizations. Since the mass crime in the evenings have been dwindling thanks to both our hard work, and the efforts of Lowee's authorities. We can rest at nights and gather info in the days.

We didn't really find anything out about the other organizations besides surface level stuff. However, both on the internet and in the guild have I learned of an interesting rumor.
A swordsman. He appears at night challenging the strong. With swift sword strokes, he cuts even the atoms. No range covers enough distance to escape his blade once the duel starts. Beware of the Shadow Samurai.

Apparently he comes out at night. In the western streets of Lowee, actually a little bit to the south of the western area specifically. I don't have much better to do. I doubt I can let some blood thirsty warrior walk around, especially if it is true no one survived a fight with him.
So, during the night I head out.

I strolled over the streets, there actually are some lights on, it is still pretty lively in some areas of Lowee. I didn't go out too late, around eleven P.M. I want to make sure I meet this guy, so I am just going to roam around here. Maybe find something else. Who knows.
I went to a darker part of the street. The one I was in before had slightly richer people. These streets are filled with your average worker that need to sleep early to wake up early. Some lights are still on, but that doesn't matter much.

I don't find anything. It's quiet, but honestly? It is a pleasant kind of quiet. I can feel relaxed like this. But maybe I'm odd for enjoying the sound of wind blowing snow away and increments of nothing with exception to my feet digging into snow.
I go to a street with more independed businesses. Most people live in the upper floor of their shops or offices.

Surprisingly, there were quite a few people outside. They were a little noisy, so I thought they were drunks or other unsavory types. But they actually seem kind of friendly. They are relaxed, some of them are just playing games. They look like regular people who just happen to have energy at night. I shall pay no more mind then and keep walking.
Something feels off now. The quiet air now feels eerie. Even though I don't see anything, I sense a presence in the wind, snow moving as if being stepped on.

I hold the sheath of my blade as if I am about to block the wind itself from cutting my head. One gust of wind travels past me, and a shadow appeared next to me, but walked like it was always there. I already felt him in the wind, but if I hadn't, I would not have noticed him being there, setting aside the eerie feeling I have, for that was just instinct.
As soon as his right foot is placed from behind my back, he turns around to attack me.

I quickly unsheathe my blade and mirror his moves, I deflect a drawn sword with my own as we move past each other.
I look to my side, and am astounded. I see a black blade. It is different from mine. Mine is only bended slightly, the only bent that I'd say is noticeable is near the edge, my sword is almost staff-like with exception to the blade itself. His however is 100% the shape of a katana. But I can tell from the material and pure black color, that is a sword like mine.

We jump past each other with a turn before assuming a stance.
Impossible. The black swords don't actually exist. Mine is created by my imagination and newly acquired power of darkness. Then again…It's not the first time I've seen another. I only had a brief glance, but one of those three devils I fought brought out a black blade resembling mine too. Perhaps I should've figured why I was given the blade that controls snow, since I was practically having all six in mind whilst making it.

"You are strong. Please, have this duel with me.", A deep low-energy voice came from the samurai, it almost didn't sound human. A voice bereft of joy, anger, sadness. I would say robotic, but it's a bit different from that, more like it came from something hollow. Or from behind a mask. I thought the samurai was wearing a mask, but rather, that seems to be his actual face? Was he a robot? No, wind often seeps into machinery, letting me sense some movement inside it, but I don't sense anything. In fact, he is breathing oxygen like normal.

It was like white hair sprung from his face rather than the roots in his skull. He wore a black Hakama, his pants were super wide to the point of it looking fantastical. Red bands and strings wrapped around his body. He had small wooden shoulder pads and random wooden armor covers is arms and waist. Actually some of it seems broken. I also see random pieces of metal placed all over his body, the pieces appear shattered. Actually, are they rusted into him?

Our blades are directly pointed to each other's eyes. The air is tense and quiet as we slowly inch our way over. Our blades cross, and I take a small step forward to his left and let my blade drop towards his hands. He turns his blade before receiving my sword with a sudden askew step to his right, then he knocks my sword the my right. He moves his shoulders to swing his sword at me from my left. I place my left foot behind me to do a quick turn, then I swing my blade against his.

Then, he does a spin slash with his blade coming from the opposite direction, but I can duck under it with ease. I guess he saw my next attack coming, yet I still grace his gut with my blade as he jumps backwards. The instant he landed, he jumped my way, commencing a sword strike from above his head. I deflect his sword to the right, I step in with my left foot, trying to get on his toes, but he moves his right foot back and turns slightly. I already swung my sword from my right as I move forward, he does a full 360 turn, the point of my blade barely missing his back.

As he finished his turn, he tries to hit me with another spin slash. I duck under it again, my sword aimed at his stomach. I try to lunge myself into him releasing my bend knees, I attempt to thrust my blade into him, but he actually knocks it away with one arm. From above, he does a sword slash with his left arm, I use the momentum from my forward lunge combined with his parrying my blade to quickly get to the ground and roll over, barely avoid his sword.

After the roll, I quickly turn around to parry his sword, but that was part of a combo, for he is trying to hit his knee into me. I simply countered him with my own knee thrust, our strength is very close. I see a sudden swing of his other leg to my side, an almost impossible movement, as if his hips themselves were detached from his torso. Regardless, I jump above his kick, placing my hand on his leg. I turn my body around to get my feet in front of his head. I retract my legs and attempt to kick him in the face. He blocks it with his arm and is only shoved a good twenty meters away.

Upon contacting the surface, the two of us made a quick dash over to each other, we engage in a sword's dance. This is mostly a formal display of general skills. I can feel he is actually a lot more experienced than me when it comes to using swords. I sometimes take a peek at the reaction of onlookers, but they don't seem concerned at all. In fact, they are smiling. It seems they gather here to watch fights unfold. They've seen this more often.

Eventually, he avoids a swipe of my blade, he does a backwards jump, his back nearly touching the ground, but before he could fall, he does a backflip to land safely on his feet.
I want to see what his next move is, so I didn't pursue. He sheaths his sword. However, I can tell in his eyes that he isn't done fighting. His right hand is on the handle and the other hand is holding the scabbard.

Iaijutsu. His next attack is likely and SP skill. He uses a Flash Step technique, letting him move at a blink of an eye, it looked like he teleported in front of me. The air around me feels dense. It is like I am frozen as I was watching him swiftly draw his sword and immediately reach for me neck. The closer his blade got, the more it felt time was getting slowed. Slower and slower. I can now see he has moved to my right, he did a turn as he drew the sword to increase the speed of his blade. What I am now seeing is not the present. This is the future. This skill seems to infect the user with fear images of what he will do to stun them.

But this can work against him, for if one resists the fear, they can think of a counter-attack, that is, if their reaction speed is fast enough. One more look at his blade, a green energy that somehow turns our surroundings navy and cyan blue is emitted from the sword as it is going my way.
"Iaijutsu, Kyōfukiri", He says, at the same time, I am ready to use my own SP skill.
"Critical Edge!", similar to his Flash Step, I use a short version of Critical Edge, a move Neptune uses that uses SP to move her forward with a slash in an instant.

I am currently behind the samurai with my sword all the way in the air to my right, whilst he has his sword drawn out. I can feel the air stuck in my throat, but only feeling a small cut on my neck, a breath leaves me as I am relieved.
The Samurai turns around and says, "To block my blade this quickly, you are worthy to be my opponent. Please, go all out. The warm-up is over."

Turning to him, I hold my left hand behind the middle of my blade.
I see energy emitted from his sword. It was green with a red hue. In a moment, he shoots a green beam with red sparks and hue at me.
"Mirror Blade", I say as I turn my sword into a mirror blade using light magic. His beam is split in two.
I've read about it. This is the sword of light. Meaning he controls energy. He can turn off something's energy, or the reverse.

In the next moment, he does a quick thrust, shooting a red arrow. I deflect it, but that was just the wind up for his barrage. It was like multiple swords are continuously thrust forward shooting hundreds of arrows my way. With my speed I can deflect all of them, but not without massive strain and sweat. It actually feels like a heavy weight is thrown at me. Too slow did I realize, this too, is only a feint. Not all thrusts shoot energy at me, some keep energy in place to be fired off later.

At some point, he dashes for me to stab me, at the same time, arrows that were kept still are now launched my way, not allowing me to dodge. The best I can do is block the sword so it won't penetrate me and let the explosion of the arrows send me flying, this way I can get some distance from him. Now, seven meters apart, I close the gap, holding my sword to my left hip so I can swing it at him. He anticipates it, but it is a feint. I use Light Step to quickly, get out of his reach.

As he looks confused, I appear behind him to aim for a cut. With his instincts, he quickly turns around using his toes, it was like he released some kind of energy from them to turn on a dime, he blocks my blade. Now, I cast explosion from my sword, breaking through his guard and slashing him. He tries to retaliate, however, I cast explosion from my feet to get myself up into the air, he misses me completely.

While he looks up, I rev my blade with a swirl around me as light bursts out from it.
"CombinationStar Light Slash!", A mid-level Light Slash attack that shoots a blade of light at my opponent with bursting white energy. I want to test out if his sword is a hard counter for magic. He transfers some energy through his blade and cuts the Light Slash apart, seemingly without using much strength. I can gather from this that magic is not counted as an energy he can control. Energy and magic are separate, as far as the sword is concerned. While he can use energy to clash against magic, he cannot turn magic on or off.

My shoes digging into the snow below, I stare at this man, slowly inching his hand over his blade as it lights up green. The green light becomes smaller, but brighter. Turning into a cyan color, until it becomes as clear as air.
The people around me are starting to fidget. Actually, they get ready to move.
"Tenkukan Giri!", he shouts, as makes a perfect horizontal cut into the air. It is like the air, molecule and all, had been cut and turned into a blade of energy fired at me. it actually was at such a blinding speed, only someone who can see the speed of light can anticipate it.

I had to get into the air at max speed using Light Step to get away. Looking down, everything it touches had been cut off cleanly. People are panicking.
Whilst fleeing they shout things like, "He is using his certain kill moves! Run! His range is unlimited! Run as far as you can!"
They've witnessed this many times before and know it is time to run.

Looking further, I can only think he limited the overall arc of his blade, because the actual air being cut was much wider at first. Air blades are difficult and require either magic enhancements, or much physical strength. You're essentially letting the wind, blown from your swing, turn into a blade. But he infused a very precise sharp energy he can freely control into it. Even as an undead, I would be cut in half and killed with a direct hit.

He jumps above me, ready to strike my with the same attack. I cast explosion with my hand aimed at my left, just before he brings his arm down. A rift is cut into the ground. I land next to it, it catches my attention as I see a light in the corner of my eyes. A bright orange-ish light…
No way!
I jump away from the rift just before lava bursts out of it.

I cast 'Ice' Multiple times to cool the magma, hopefully drying it up. Luckly, not much more came out of it.
He cut down to magma itself. His slashes might be able to go through anything!
As soon as I heard movement, I look at him about to thrust his sword forward.
I duck leaning to my right leg, I can feel my shoulder opening up as a blast of wind flies past me, creating holes in some walls in the distance.

I sense friction underneath the samurai's leg as he shovels his left foot forward, within less than a second, he had appeared to my left, about to do an upwards swing to my left shoulder.
I jump backwards and see his flying cut slash open a few roofs before cutting through a cloud in the sky. Looking at its speed, I felt such anxiety, I couldn't breathe.
I materialize the toughest shield I had made from my inventory.

I move forward, knowing he is going to cut me again. Of course, he will easily tear through my shield. Anticipating that, I have charged my blade with light, I pushed my shield forward, flung myself underneath his slash. He must focus on my shield being cut in half, revealing that I am not behind it anymore. He quickly turns around as I am about to hit him in the back with my sword bursting with white light.
"CombinationStar Light Slash!", I shout as I let my sword unleash the energy with a slash.

The intentional raging energy scorched his arm, but he stops my sword as a whole with his own blade overflowing with green energy with the usual red hue and sparks. My white blade of magic clashes with his green blade of energy. After a few more blows I know for certain this won't go anywhere, any interaction between these two result in a cancellation of all impact and forces.

Once some space opened up between us, he held his sword tightly with one arm. It looks like his arm stiffened as his sword rattles. Out of the aether, a few green energy balls were emitted around him. "Maruki Mukougeki!", he says as these energy orbs fly my way like drones. They seem coordinated, I assume he can freely control them, however, looking at the movement with his swords, he can't move them and do other attacks at the same time.

I jump to the left to avoid one, I jump to the right to avoid another, I duck, I jump over one and land on my hand as three approach me from multiple directions, I cast explosion from the palm of my hand as I push myself up into the air to avoid all of them. Then, as I flip to my legs facing the surface, I cast explosion from me feet to push myself back from another pincer attack done by these orbs. I only just see his blade charged with the wind slicing energy.

I aimed my hand in the air to cast explosion to get me down, but the end of his flying slash hits my left arm. I wince, it hurts more than a usual attack would. On the ground, I hold my damaged left arm.
Despite being undead, he damaged me…Black blades can kill the immortal, perhaps? No, my arm isn't bleeding. If I had a normal body, it would never heal, but I can tell it wi-

My thoughts are cut off as seven orbs came down on me. I jump backwards into the air to avoid their explosion. I see the ground scorched, but this is clearly a set up. Unfortunately, I know that once his sky cutter is swung, it is too fast to dodge, even for me.

Honestly, I feel fear. I think this can be the end of me.
But then I get grabbed by string. I am pulled away a mili-second from being cut by his blade. Now I feel them in the wind, my friends.
String begins to surround the samurai, alongside Sili-san' special attack, "String Cluster."
Of course, the samurai cuts every objects close to him, including the string. This seems to be a distraction as Acclaim is using my own Light Step to get next to the samurai unnoticed.

I can only assume the samurai has instincts beyond his comprehension, because he looks bewildered, yet he instantly parried Acclaim's blade. Acclaim does immediately casts explosion from the palm of his hand on the samurai, making him jump back to avoid it.

Just as the samurai intends to counter Acclaim, a blazing wall emerges between them. On a building nearby the samurai, a girl in witch attire chants, "Fire Wall!"
Theresa curves the wall of flame before letting it burst with a blast into the samurai shouting, "Fire Burst!"
What toughness, even if the samurai is able to cut through the fire, splitting it doesn't stop the flames from hitting and burning him. However, despite him looking like toast, he moves as if he isn't hurt at all.

"Move her away! He can instantly slice through anything from any distance!", I shout.
Thank Big sis for that, Acclaim uses the same string and pulls Theresa away before the samurai could swing his arm.
The two gathered near me and Sili-san. Sili-san berates me, "Man, Bios, I swear…How many times do you have to learn to not fight alone?!"
"Not now! This guy is an even worse match up for you three. He can instantly kill you with his attack!", I warn them.

Now, with the whole group tense, we watch the samurai walk forward, he is calm, yet, I don't sense any will to fight anymore. It's like he is sighing at the sight of us.
He raises his blade, we nearly retreat at the idea of his next attack. What makes it more ominous is all the lights going out around the neighborhood.
This black blade has the ability to control and turn off energy. It can also-

He may have stopped my thought process, but I have the conclusion already. He shouts, "Senko Migiri!", he shouts as his blade unleashed a blinding flash. The three near me scream as their eye-sight is temporarily robbed from them. Since I saw it coming, I closed my eyes. I am sure the light stays for a while, but I can feel his movement through Wind Sense. He dashes forward, and then, makes three swift, but simple curves strikes. I parry every single one, and even sliced him after setting a step forward. The light is fading, and I can hear him say, "You can see without sight. A worthy opponent indeed. I want to fight again."

I can feel him take his leave. But I don't want to charge after him without the others. Now with my eyes open, I can see them slowly trying to open their eyes. They still appear in pain, groaning and tearing up.
Ten minutes have passed, we got on top of a taller building so we could speak privately.
"Leader, I am quite disappointed in your stubbornness to fight alone again. Haven't we established that we should fight together?", Acclaim says, he makes it sound like a formal complaint.

I sigh before telling them, "I just followed a rumor. I wasn't sure that guy even existed, not to mention his strength. It isn't my intention to leave you out of this, in fact, I am quite happy you are here now."
Sili-san leans on his back with his arms crossed and says, "You should know better by now, this isn't the first time you chased a rumor that came true and beat you, seriously."

Theresa blinked, and then, aimed her eyes at me asking, "This happened before?"
"Oh yeah. That is how we met Acclaim.", Sili-san says.
"I see. So she heard some rumor, investigated and then fought me. Now I understand our fateful encounter.", Acclaim reacts in a way that makes it feel like he tried to figure this out for a while.
Theresa is sitting there with her mouth agape, "That's how you met? Weren't you friends since the beginning?"

"Yup. Basically, Acclaim was some human experiment going on his own until orders came in, he belonged to one of the four organizations we are destroying, but Bios convinced him to join us.", Sili-san explains.
"And I have seen her run into strong enemies through rumors as well, at least they weren't AS STRONG but…", Acclaim adds.
Theresa sinks and says with a face that looks molten, "And she looked for rumored monsters to fight making our jobs more difficult. They weren't even quest monsters so it was just a waste of time…"

The three looked at me with faces that said, "Our leader is a pain in the ass."
It's not my fault. Any rumor can lead us to the truth. And how many things can kill a goddess, nonetheless, one that is undead?
"Either way, we have to wait for him again. But fighting inside town is impossible. We need to see if we can lure him outside.", I stated.
"Actually, we don't need to wait.", Acclaim takes our attention as he holds up a gizmo.

"Sili-san was kind enough to place this tracker onto him using string. I made it myself using leftover blueprints from Plagia-arts.", Acclaim explains.
"I don't know how it works. How far can it track?", I ask him.
"Well, it can track him over any distance, however, it seems that the connections had been lost last minute.", Acclaim explains.

I hold my hand over my chin and say, "The blade he has manipulates energy. He probably felt something was off and realized the tracker was on him. Or, just to be save, used his energy blade to drain energy regardless."
"If it is the latter, he probably does it as a safety measure before getting too close to home. Even then, we might at least a get a direction of where he resides.", Acclaim says.
"But didn't you lose track of him?", I ask him.

"No worries. This device has a rewind feature, I can see the tracking history.", Acclaim says.
I don't really get what I am looking it or know what everything on the map means.
According to Acclaim, the Samurai was very quick to get past the great plains to the east and headed up north from the middle of it. It was around then that the signal was gone.
Beyond the great plains, huh?
Theresa fidgets as she looks back and forth at us.
"Um? What is going on?", she asks us.

"Do you two know what is in that direction?", Acclaim asks.
"There used to be a golden tower there. However, before I was born, it had sunk. It was supposed to be the source of C-Sha's golden power. I find it hard to think what the samurai is doing there.", I say.
"I've heard the tower sinking caused a city to rise out of nowhere!", Sili-san shouts.
"According to Plagia-arts data banks, the city had excited a long time ago, but was destroyed during the first console war.", Acclaim says.

I nod. I know a bit more about it, because I have been there before.
"It is true. The golden tower sunk, and something rose as its power dove into the ground, leaving no room for anything else. It was more magical, however. Buildings just randomly appeared, and magic scattered everywhere from there, changing the weather. There used to be a forest there, but half of it had died due to the decreased temperature.", I tell them.
"What could he possibly hope to do there?", Sili-san asks, still racking his brains for answers.

"I think it would make a great hiding spot for criminals, but I doubt humans could survive in there. There is no food, not even monsters roam there anymore as far as I have read.", Acclaim mentions.
Theresa quickly picks up the conversation, "I could think he might be after some lingering magic in the epicenter of the incident…"
My crew is brainstorming answers, but it doesn't matter.
"Either way, someone as strong as that is a threat. And a bounty is already up. We can get answers after we beat him regardless. And if he finds some power, we'll overcome that too.", I make the final statement for us.

Their conversing hat stopped, after staring at me for a bit, I see smiles on their faces as they say, "Yes, leader!"
Well, I am happy we seem to have gotten more confident as a group.
It is decided. We gather some supplies and food for the trip and we head to what used to be the shore north from the great plains.

We enter, what looks like, a new world.
I feel taken in by the sights. Even though it is not my first time seeing it, it can't be understated how beautiful this place looks. Sili-san and Theresa are frozen.
Only Acclaim doesn't seem to care, but certainly, he must be impressed.

The snowfields of eternal nights and sky light. We call it the "Cool, Cool Plains"
In the beginning, it seems a slightly downwards field of snow, but further ahead are mountainous things that can only be described as 'Snow Dunes' There are some large glaciers in between random locations, or just some frozen lakes spread around. There were also ice and snow sculptures that formed small buildings or playground assets.

Some of the snow looks more like purple-tinted chrome. There are also a few wooden buildings around. The more notable thing is the sky. It is always night, filled with starts and pretty lights alongside aurora veils. But neither the moon nor the sun smiles upon this land. These lights are a source of lights that brightens this area like it isn't night despite how the sky looks. The weather alternates between snowstorms and gentle snowfall, despite not a single cloud passing by. Truly a strange land of magic. All the way north is a locations surrounded by skyscrapers sloppily lying around, most don't stand up straight. There is a way to differentiate night time and day time, however. The sun never is in sigth, but it's light is still noticeable. Alongside the Northen light, there is one orange-red light, that is the light of the sun.

"Is this even the same world? The sky wasn't like this a minute ago. I saw nothing like this, in fact?", Sili-san says.
"It does feel like a different plane of existence. While in the forest before us, I saw only a normal snowfield in the distance. Perhaps there is some trick to our eyes?", Acclaim thinks out loud, tilting his head while holding his chin with his hand.

"Wow… There are even more pretty things outside…I had no idea.", Theresa almost seemed at the verge to break down in emotion.
"It is possible magic has altered this, creating some kind of sphere you have to enter to see it. I have seen magic capable of it, but it is a difficult spell to learn. If you look behind you, the forest is barely even an entity, most of our surroundings looks like snow.", I tell them.

They looked behind, their faces aghast.
"The way back… It's gone?!", Sili-san says.
"No, this is most likely an illusion!", Acclaim tries to reassure the party.
"Yes. The magic barrier is actually a constant snowstorm, it may appear as fog as well. The forest is practically a gate to get through the storm. We can exit, but we can only enter from the sky, or from the forest. Of course, a goddess can just break through.", I explain.

Theresa is still staring at what is in front of us. If I were any more tired, I'd think I see mini-stars in her eyes.
"This place is amazing… Is that a playground? Amusement park attractions of ice?, She speaks out her mind, as if we all vanished. Her voice becoming very high-pitched.
"We can relax a bit before doing a serious search, if you want?", I ask her.
She suddenly looks red in the face as she hastily turns to me saying, "Huh?!"

She relaxes herself as much as she can, trying to put on a tough front, and then, she says, "Oh…No. Finding that man is more important."
I see a hint of gloom in her eyes.
Sili-san walks next to her and seems to act mature in telling her, "Hey, kids should be able to play whenever there is spare time. It's good for you. You can more easily focus on the task ahead that way."

It kind of had me thinking. Does Sili-san count as an adult? He is above the age of eighteen, my understanding is, is that a human is an adult by then. But I never really have that impression of him…
"Eh…But I…", Theresa looks conflicted, like she doesn't really know what she wants, no, rather, I think she doesn't UNDERSTAND what she wants.
"Have you not done anything childish these months in your free time?", Acclaim asks.

Looking down, Theresa tells us, "Well. I wanted to play when I was a little younger. Whenever I passed a playground or something similar. But I never got the chance. After a few years, I stopped thinking about it altogether." She then looks over to this snowfield, "But this place…It's so… Breathtaking, it makes me feel… Awake? Like I have been sleep-walking for years, and now I feel…Alive?"
Maybe some kind of sense of wonder reawakened in her?

I tell her, "We can take our time. Assuming that man's base is north of here, he can hardly escape our pursuit. If he does leave, we can await him here. Either way, we will encounter him."
She suddenly straightens her back, now she holds her hat down slightly and says with a meek tone, "If leader says so…Then…"
I nod. I look at the other two before walking off. "Let's move forward slowly. Taking our time is a must.", I say.

As we walk, we inspect every structure like they are art pieces. Well, Theresa is mostly goofing around. Maybe for her first time. It is pleasing to see her smile, as she does so rarely when on her own. I see her go down a slide and say, "So that is what it feels like."
On the other hand, sometimes I see her idle, her face warped with thought.
I jump on top of the bar of a swing set as she is swinging around, perhaps for the first time as well.

"You know, Bios…", she starts a conversation, sounding calm.
I look over to her and ask, "You have something on your mind?"
"Yeah. Doing these things is kind of fun. And I am happy to experience this simple stuff…But. I feel it could be a bit more…Exciting?", she says.
I totally understand. At first I had fun doing these things with Rom and Ram…But…

"Not only have we fought so much and experienced so many adventures. But you even traveled at Light Speed a few times thanks to me. In comparison, this feels slow, doesn't it? Doesn't give the same amount of adrenaline you're used to…", I say without thinking.
She stops swinging, points at me, and speaks up, "Right?! You understand! We've gotten faster, jumped higher, went to greater heights, slid off larger slides, climbed mountains, and so much more. I am happy. I feel free doing this. But when I think about it…"

She stops for a bit before looking out with a smile, "I enjoy going to so many places with you, Sili-san, and Acclaim even more."
It does warm my heart to know that doing things with us makes her the most happy. However… I tell her, "Well, we also like to do exhilarating stuff."
I look at the two approaching us, I ask them, "Isn't that right?"
"What's this? Bored already?", Sili-san speaks smugly.
Acclaim asks us, "We thought about it, we can maybe make it more fun for you two."

And thus, we goofed off even more. Sili-san and Acclaim use strings to put things together, in this case, make a trampoline that can bounce us to the height of a thirty meter tall building. We actually jump on top of a building and jump off it onto the trampoline for fun. There were these teacups made of ice, I doubt they were meant to move and spin at all, but with their string and creativity, Sili-san and Acclaim found a way to make the spin as fast as possible.

So many more things we did. All I focused on was Theresa beaming with a great smile.
Sometimes followed by laughter, not only from her, but from all of us…Except for Acclaim, for he is a brooding man…Who sometimes looks away, maybe hiding a smirk.

We are sitting within various positions in this huge climbing thing, it's like a block of bars interconnecting with each other. From there we see a big wolf with pale-blue fur dig out of the snow. It is about as big as some of the playground things themselves.
"We finish him in one go.", I say looking at Sili-san and Acclaim.
I jump off using Light-Step, so I appear right above the wolf within an instant. I had materialized an axe, and smashed it down onto it with a spin.

It tries to retaliate, but Sili-san and Acclaim each took a side as they covered it with string. They pull themselves at it and slice its sides with their swords, making it flinch.
With no time to spare, I spin around like a top as I mow it down before finishing it off with a great vertical smash shouting, "Tanzerin Trombe!" The monster fades into a digital code, meaning death.

We look back at Theresa, a bunch of tiny orb-like enemies have popped out of the ground, surrounding her. They look like they have some kind of ice shell on their lower body, their upper body being pure white, almost looking cute. They are closing in on her, but she doesn't look troubled. With a neutral expression, she grabs her want, spins it around. Then, with a swing, she says, "Flame rush…" Covering the monsters with in wave of flame, easily killing them.

"I thought there were no monsters in here?!", Sili-san says, sounding like I lied to him.
"According to rumors. No one lives here. We can barely see any monsters here, right? Most likely, they are few in number, and camouflaged on top of it. Most scouts likely didn't travel any further to confirm…Or maybe they died…We are quite strong, but even then, these were probably the weakest monsters living in this area. The once up north must not only be used to this climate like the ones here, the enemies up north might've fought others for territory and absorbed the magic in the area.", I explain my theory.

Acclaim crosses his arms and adds, "Essentially, only a few monsters survived here, but might've evolved to grow resistant to the cold. Judging by them coming from the ground, they might've done this by warming up the earth they dig under. Or perhaps some have simply spawned like that…They could also be new. Either way, we must tread carefully."

We are leaving this structure area soon. This region is huge and has many wide clearings between snow dunes, some with literally nothing in it. We travel up one snow dune after another. Some weaker monsters get in the way. And that is kind of it. It didn't take long for us to see the samurai roam in a wide open area. We look at him from up a snow dune.
Crouching, and with our voices lowered, we discuss a plan of action.

"What is he doing here anyway? He looks like he is just loitering aimlessly.", Sili-san comments.
"I would say that is irrelevant…But. Knowing what his intentions are could be of importance.", Acclaim says.
"I mean, let's be honest here. There is no reason for any man to stroll around here like he is walking on the beach.", Sili-san says.
"Hm…It is true a normal person would die after being outside here for too long. Even we have to rely on some tools and Theresa's flame enchantments to stay warm.", I say.

Of course, I am the only one of us who isn't affected by weather or temperature conditions. But that shouldn't be the same for the samurai if he were human. I want to say he is an automation. But even then, that doesn't feel quite right.
"Either way, are you sure simple tactics won't work?", Sili-san asks me. He looks impatient, like he is ready to jump out of his crouched position.
"His senses are too good. On top of that, his gut instinct won't let him fall for easy tricks or stealth.", I answer Sili-san.

Honestly, I doubt I can take him without transforming.
"All right, here is the deal. This man has one technique that can kill any of you with one shot, it pierces through defense. It's his special energy air cutter, it cuts through everything from any range. To be frank, if he were to cut the moon in half, I wouldn't be surprised. So I want you guys to mostly do support.", I tell them.
"However, if range doesn't matter, staying far away may not be the best option perse.", Acclaim mentions.

"Yeah, if you are right about the air blade itself being close to instant, would close range combat not be better, since we would be able to parry his attacks?", Sili-san brings up a good point as well.
"I was thinking keeping you further away would make him focused on me, but then again, I did mention his awareness being high. But you guys are correct…I'd suggest we start out with some of our strongest attacks, of course, outside of EXE Drive skills, as we haven't the energy for it yet.", I tell them.

"Avoiding a prolonged fight to keep us safe, huh?", Acclaim points out my intention.
"Yes. If we damage him enough, he may become sluggish, allowing you more dodge time. If we were to fight for a while, the chances of human error would be much higher.", I say.
"And you won't transform?", Sili-san asked.
"I'm not going to lie, I doubt we can beat him in one go. My Share energy is limited, I must only transform if I'm sure I can beat him. But right now, I know too little of his skillset.", I give my answer.

"How are we going to attack him with our strongest attacks anyway?", Sili-san asked.
"That's where Theresa comes in. We will prepare our attacks from a distance without him noticing, then, just before we unleash our skills, Theresa will teleport us his way. And to make sure he will not find a way to dodge or stop our attacks, we first bring Sili-san in as a distraction. Then me and Acclaim will use the same attack to blow him up. After that, Theresa will only occasionally use a spell.", I give them instructions.

"Should I not barrage him?", Theresa asks.
"That will only cause him to make you his primary target. You can teleport away, but not spam it. Your barrier can let you take the air blade hit and live, but it will still damage you enough to either knock you out, or get you close to your consciousness fading. Your role will be to teleport us to a safe location in case we are losing.", I tell her.

"So we need an escape route?", Sili-san asks.
I nod to him. Prompting him to look around for a bit for a good hiding place.
He returns to us whilst I say, "Basically, if I get downed, we run. If both Sili-san and Acclaim are wounded, we run. If Theresa gets hit by the air blade, we run. Either I will speed my way to Theresa, or Acclaim and Sili-san use string to get to her. Theresa, if you see us getting wounded, you must prepare a teleportation circle that will lead to the place Sili-san found."

I look at Sili-san with questioning eyes.
"Yes, I found a good spot. There is a wooden house hidden within a snow dune we can use.
"Okay team. We got our strategy. Let's fight.", I declare, I feel greatly tense, my throat feels stiff as the words come from my mouth. But, it is also exciting.
Sili-san prepared a Projectile Netweb. A teleportation circle is made underneath him. This one is made for him to return, this does cost double that of Theresa's SP.

Me and Acclaim are just going to be teleported there with no return.
In the next second, the samurai is surrounded by string. Even worse for him, more string has been shot out of multiple tools, wrapping around him. He reacts quickly and cuts them apart, but regardless of that, Sili-san and his sword are both about to be launched from string above the Samurai.
"Spider Stinger!", Sili-san shouts in his attempt to plunge himself with his sword into the Samurai.

The Samurai swiftly turns, as if he was about to casually swat a fly, there is no hint of surprise in his movement. But before his blade could reach Sili-san, Sili-san disappeared.
Just as his blade missed, me and Acclaim are at his flank, holding a blade of light made from two swords infused with a lot of Light magic.
"FusionStar…Light Slash!", we both shout as we strike the Samurai with Light. He could barely react.

Yet, I can see green flashes as he swung his sword, creating a gap to escape from as our double colliding strike that creates a giant exploding pillar of light. As the smoke fades, I can see the Samurai actually did take a lot of damage, but not nearly as much as I would have hoped. His movement only slowed down for a few seconds, with his sword giving off a gloomy energy, electricity discharges slightly from his body, and his movements seem unaffected now.

"Cowardly attack. However, if you intend to fight me at full strength. Then I won't back down. But, expect no mercy.", the samurai spoke, he doesn't really sound angry, more… disappointed?
Eitherway, he unleashes a horizontal "Tenkukan Giri" aimed at our feet. Me and Acclaim both cast explosion from our feet to jump quickly into the air.
Of course, nothing is stopping him from cutting us both, we are perfectly aligned.

Another energy air blade is about hit us. I cast explosion from my feet before he completes his swing, whilst Acclaim goes back down casting explosion from his arms instead. This is fine, I can focus on charging my blade with Light magic.
"CombinationStar Light Slash!", I shout before shooting a medium sized blade of Light at him. He deflects it effortlessly with his blade fully charged with energy. This gives Acclaim time to get to his flank with Light Step.

With a sword engulfed with light, Acclaim does a spin to his right as he attempts to slash the samurai, however, it is easily blocked by his blade, which is beaming with green energy.
The Samurai curls his blade around Acclaim to push it away, with the point of his blade immediately aimed at Acclaim afterwards, he quickly shoots a green beam out of it.
Acclaim uses his left arm engulfed with light magic to block the damage. Whilst Acclaim is being shoved away, he aims his other arm at the Samurai and shouts, "Great Explosion!"

The Samurai flinches for a second, he clearly didn't expect Acclaim could cast magic, of course, this spell is learned through copying Theresa. The Samurai somehow cuts partly through the explosion before jumping away. Now I come in. I have an axe ready, with its thrusters, I am going down onto the Samurai while spinning at high speed. Yet, he still dodges me. As my axe scorches the ground with an Explosion, I watch the Samurai move like his feet are sliding over ice at sub-sonic speeds. Looking closely, his legs are sparking.

I follow his movement to my back, he is standing close to Acclaim. He swings his blade, and space gets cut. I have to dodge each swing before they are finished, unless I want to be cut up.
I put much effort and do many quick movements to avoid thrusts and slashes, Acclaim tries hitting him with magic, but after dodging a few spells, The Samurai hit Acclaim in the shoulder.

Mind you, he aimed for Acclaim's chest, so he barely dodged it.
The Samurai puts his blade in his sheath and moves in front of Acclaim's left chanting, "Iaijutsu, Kyōfukiri" As he pulls out his sword, Acclaim is stunned. I know this move, time feels slowed down due to the fear, to make this effect work, the Samurai actually only moves fast with his leg, but the actual blade moves slower to instill you with dread, each second more mortifying than the next.

I shoot myself forward using Light Step. I stop his blade with my own strike, my sword still alit to make sure to block any energy. I look at the Samurai directly into his eyes. I am not even thinking, one of my hands have let go of the blade and is aimed at his head.
"Explosion!", I cast a weak explosion into his face. He steps back a bit, almost looking like he is about to stumble on his back, but then, he stands straight, charges a lot of energy into his sword, and tries to hit me.

Our blades of magic and energy clash, brightening up our surroundings.
We hit each other's knees as we thrust them forward. I take this opportunity of his posture slightly weakened to push our swords into the air.
"Explosion!", I shout as explosions from my feet blasts my head into his, he drops his guard having to take the shock. I cast explosion from my feet again to do a flip with much strength into a light magic filled sword-strike.

I push him back, then I lend on my feet, our blades firmly pressed against each other. I could feel a kick coming, but it felt so impossible I couldn't react to it in time. Charged with energy, he fully rotates his hips like they aren't connected to his bones. A full 360 degree kick without moving his upper body hit me, I can feel electricity running through me, he did lightning damage. The kick itself was actually very fast, close to Light Step speed.

I try to stand up, holding my cheek where he kicked me. I try to jump over, but I cringed from lightning running through me. I am hit with Paralysis. I can only move randomly. I watch as Acclaim tries to protect me by barraging the Samurai with spells. The Samurai not only avoided them, but with his blade injected with energy, he can cut through elements. A smoke cloud was brought from an explosion, he uses his air-blade in an attempt to kill Acclaim.

Acclaim emerges from the smoke unharmed, appearing to have dove beneath the slash. The Samurai thrusts his sword at him, but Acclaim had cast explosion before the thrust even finished, avoiding being pierced by wind. Acclaim swings his sword bursting with Light at the Samurai. He doesn't seem to be damaging the samurai, but it is apparent that he is buying time for me to recover, he is mostly focusing on parrying the blade to avoid an air-blade attack. It is a pretty looking dance of a sword fight, but in the end, even Acclaim got surprised by a straight kick to the gut charged with electric energy.

Acclaim cannot copy divine attacks, like the goddesses' share energy. I have confirmed the black blades are the same, they hold mythical properties unlike magic. If he can't react to or copy that kick, it means it is empowered by the blade. I have to move forward!
Alas, as I try to use Light Step, I only hop for a bit before landing on my left knee again.
The Samurai holds his blade above his head, about to finish Acclaim with an Air-blade, but then his sword is stopped by string.

Sili-san has arrived from the top of the snow-dune.
The Samurai does a spin and easily cuts the string, however, more string is shot at him from multiple directions. This didn't look like a problem for him, but it is a distraction for Sili-san to maneuver behind him, about to do a mighty slash.
"String Cutter!", Sili-san says. Even though his blade gets blocked, the String extension will act like a whip, the Samurai slightly moves in an effort to dodge it, but his check still gets hit with a massive scratch.

The Samurai uses a form of Flash step to get away from Sili-san, his sword having slid from Sili-san's blade. He appears to Sili-san't side to slash him, but Sili-san not only weakens the Samurai's blade with string, he uses string to pull his sword forward with his own slash to strengthen it. I can see him gaining the upper hand against the Samurai, but the Samurai injects his arms with energy, giving him great strength and speed to push Sili-san's blade over his left shoulder. Sili-san uses string with his right hand to pull himself backwards avoiding a slash.

It took a few more dodges for the Samurai to try using his energy blade, Sili-san clearly has no defense against this energy, so he ends up getting hit by a beam, crashing into a Snow Dune, following that is a green explosion the size of a toolshed.

Acclaim tried to rush towards him, but I see him about to stop now, and it is because he realizes that the Samurai is about to thrust an air-stab at him, he is too slow however, the attack pierces his shoulder. The Samurai sets a few steps forward…And…
He stops, getting distracted by his surroundings illuminating ever so slightly. With energy charged in his legs, he jumped dozens of meters into the air. It is by a hair's breadth, but he dodged a giant explosion cast by Theresa.

The samurai might've been hurt slightly by the residue, but overall, he is fine and immediately grabs his sword while turning to Theresa. He uses an air-slash to cut her down, or so he would if she didn't teleport away immediately. It would seem Theresa has spent this fight setting up multiple magical circles. Like the one above the Samurai's head.
"SP Skill, Tenchi Raigeki", she says as a huge bolt of lightning strikes him.
Despite the whining and tearing of his armor, he took a stance to take it, and seems unharmed.

In actuality, he took a bit of damage to absorb lighting through his blade, dispensing the energy inside his body, the blade itself can use the electric energy to boost his strength, but this pose is normally used to keep enough lightning in the blade for a counter attack.
As the Samurai landed, the gathered up Acclaim and Sili-san are immediately swooped away with one horizontal draw of lightning. I can see electricity surrounding his body, figuring he can use this to boost his body's overall performance, I have no choice to go all out and reveal my top speeds and strength aside transformation.

Luckily, the moment I had some control over my body, I healed paralysis with an item.
I grab another sword, the one that absorbs lightning. And while holding these two blades, I have them burst into light indefinitely. I see that I have caught his attention, as his head turns to me, followed by this his body, and now, he stakes a stance pointing his sword at my eyes.
I lift the heel of my left foot, a giant trail of light appears bursting from beneath it. I know I have to put as much strength as possible into it.

We shoot forwards, the sound we make almost sounding like two jet planes running into each other. He didn't move his blade, he simply lets his movement thrust it at me, but I block it between my crossed swords. Out clash makes snow dance into the skies and air travel to the ends of this arena. I put my right foot forward and push the right sword over to nudge his blade away from me ever so slightly, only so that I can align my other sword with his neck.

Quickly, I boost myself forward with the left leg, He realizes this and gets away with his neck only getting scraped. I have moved a few dozen meters behind him, But I know no range is safe, especially with him juiced up. I immediately turn around to see him about to unleash an air-slash. I swiftly move away and counter with a flying slash of light. What starts as a ranged battle with energy slashes flying into each other, or me having to avoid air-slashes will soon turn into a melee of insane speeds when he realizes that he has a higher chance of hitting me that way.

We go so fast, it is like we are flying around just to bump into each other beyond the speed of sound. My heart is pounding and I am relying on wind sense as my eyes are shaken with fear. I am panicking as I am going beyond my usual top speed. My body can only handle so much because it isn't alive, normally my bones would slowly tear from moving with bursts of light this strong. What I am trying to convey is, is that I am breaking through my limit with clumsy, but fast movement, whilst he can reach this speed comfortably. He will be a lot smoother. Never mind that…He doesn't have friends to protect.

We fly up a dune and break bits of it off with one collision, than we hit each other all the way down the arena again, with how fast we move it must look like random air-explosions are barraging this location. We might be evenly matched now, but that is going to be over. I see him look to to Sili-san, who is barely getting up. The Samurai moves at blinding speed with a thrust towards Sili-san, I intercept the sword with my two blades, holding it above my head.

However, it may be weakened, but Sili-san still gets pierced by the air shot out of the swords, it is small and I don't think it hit his vital areas, but he falls on his back nonetheless. The Samurai turns around and does another Air-slash towards, Theresa. I blast myself with Light Magic to somehow take part of the attack to my back. It seems that I can absorb the attack by letting myself get hit by part of it.

With pain, I land back onto the snow, about to fall over, but I am on high alert, and will move to save another friend with haste. I see him kick down Acclaim, about to execute him with a strike, I stop his blade with one sword, and unleash a great slash of light with an unterhau from my other sword, knocking the samurai back and doing okay damage. It would seem this tactic of his would allow openings in his fighting style as well, but I suppose the risk is worth it. I won't last as long as him.

Over and over again, I am forced to take his attacks, the small cuts I can dish out aren't much in comparison. Luckily, the energy surge from lighting is over.
I am on my knees, holding myself by my swords hyperventilating. Sili-san and Acclaim have run up to the Samurai to fight him. I see the two work together with great acrobatics to avoid his air slashes. They have figured out that they can stop air-slashes by knocking his sword away, so they take turns distracting him, and the other stops an air-blade.

I look over to Theresa who is preparing a few more spells. I see her move magical circles, an ability I have only seen her really do.
I see some kind of fire surrounding his staff, and it makes me thing, She is planning to trap him by countering with Fire Wall!
I jump forward and shout, "Triangle formation, now!" Sili-san and Acclaim looked at me stupidly, but then they nod and get in position.

I let one sword burst with light as I go down, and now, I will swing it over my head. The Samurai doesn't hesitate to attempt a retaliation, however, him getting close to one of us is the plan. While we surround him in a triangle shape, Theresa casts Great Fire Wall on all of us, trapping him into a wall of fire. Realizing what is about to happen, the Samurai jumps back. He observes his surroundings before jumping into the flames as they curve and combine into a huge pillar of inferno.

Normally, her fire wall curves before shooting out into a beam, this is like if three beams collide into a singular point. Despite that, the Samurai still manages to jump out. The damage is definitely good, but he isn't getting hit by the great heat of the epicenter, and thus, looks relatively fine. But then he is hit with an explosion. And another one, and another one. He can dodge the explosions now, but with occasional icicles hitting him, he is completely on the defensive.

The Samurai looks over to Theresa and tries to do another Air-slash, but a magical circle appears in front of him. It was one imbued with Light element, actually hidden by the element. Theresa planned for this. The circle activated and shoots a giant beam of light. The air-slash is practically unaffected, only slowed by the shattering of the magical circle. In Theresa's case, the extra second allowed her to jump away.

As for the Samurai, the two halves of the light beam barely hit him, but it isn't meant to do damage anyway. We can see it now, the light was meant to block him from reacting to two wind circles drawn into the wall of the snow dunes activating right now. Since the Samurai couldn't see them, two tornadoes sneak up to him, and upon contact, send him flying into the sky as they combine into one giant hurricane.

Once the winds wade, the Samurai only looks disoriented for a few seconds, then it was back to business and he raises his sword to try and cut Theresa. Now, Sili-san has wrapped him around with his string. And with one great pull, he smashes him down onto the ground. It is honestly impressive how he lands firmly on his feet, on the other hand, it doesn't look like he didn't take any damage. He tries to cut the strings wrapping him around, but only more string covers him as Sili-san says, "EXE Drive Skill…

Sili-san appears in front of the Samurai, wearing a cheeky smile.
"Ultimate Stinger!", Sili-san says, he doesn't even shout it as an attack but more like a taunt. Despite the dense air and string, The Samurai still manages to deflect the attack, but I realize now, Sili-san didn't intend to attack him.
"Acclaim! Theresa! HIT HIM WITH YOUR STRONGEST MOVES!", I didn't know my voice could get to shrill. But in this desperate moment, we must take advantage of him being trapped under string and unload all of our EXE Drive attacks onto him, we end up shouting in sync, "EXE Drive Skill!"

Theresa with her explosive elemental magic stops him from moving combined with me and Acclaim going around and laying down punishing blows, the Samurai has no choice but to take massive amounts of damage.
Acclaim unloads his entire arsenal and shoots him from every angle whilst I cut him down over and over again with two blades as I swiftly maneuver around him.
To finish it off, I hold my two blades together to create one giant sword of light, Acclaim flies into the sky to prepare to throw down his spinning fist with turbo boosters, and Theresa combines all elements together.

The once land of snow is scorched by all of our attacks going off as we shout, "FusionStar Light Slash!" "Unlimited Arsenal!" "Meteor Extinction!"
Thick clouds of snow and ashes surround the place the Samurai was at. We are at our limit. Panting, hurting, and especially, desperately hoping it is over. But as the dust cloud is clearing, we see his shadow still standing.

With one blow of the wind, he stands there. A lot of his armor ripped off. His mask cracked. Holes in his legs and arms…But I can tell. We have only got him to a quarter of his full health. Maybe a little lower, but our victory is merely close, however, I doubt we can snag it.
As smoke comes from him, the Samurai's eyes glow for a bit, or maybe that is my fear making me see that, as he slowly puts his blade in his sheath, he says, "EXE Drive Skill…"

The air became tense as his spirit captures all of us in his attack, even Theresa wasn't safe. I can barely move. I see him appear as multiplied after-images moving all at once. Every after image draws the sword for one attack, then disappeared. They moved so fast they looked like they teleported. It wasn't an after image per person either, in fact, some of his shadow clones attack nothing, his attack isn't fully precise, he can't follow his own speed. But it doesn't matter, with how rapid and whide they were, even though I had just enough strength to jump back and deflect one attack, I am stuck in mid-air.

I notice none of his attack hurts us, however, every move left a green energy trail behind. I suspect once is done, every trail going over us or through us will damage us all at once. I will mostly get scratched thanks to me barely able to dodge, but the others weren't anticipating this attack at all, they will definitely take the full brunt.
Finally, all the after-images were gone, the Samurai has disappeared…No…He suddenly moved back to position, but he is so fast that is looked like traveled at the speed of light.

He is slowing sheathing his blade saying, "Gyōketsu Jisoku…"
Once the sword's guard touches the sheath, he shouts, "Hyakku Iai-Giri!"
Suddenly, all those green lines vanishes as we get cut and pierced by seemingly nothing.
I come out okay-ish, but Theresa is hurt, I can't tell how bad from here, and Sili-san and Acclaim are down.

The Samurai is taking no chances, he is glaring at me. I think he is going to attack me, I must prepare a parry and counter attack, and right after, get Sili-san and Acclaim away, following that I will…
He jumped. He only glared at me as a taunt. He immediately shoots an air-blade at Theresa. Luckily, she has taken no damage prior to the EXE drive attack, meaning she could take it, if barely. She teleports away, but the Samurai clearly knows that already.

His senses must be extraordinary, even expecting a teleport shouldn't mean he knows exactly where, but he quickly unleashed another slash at Theresa. During this time, I throw two life-fragments at Acclaim and Sili-san, hoping they regain consciousness soon enough to use them. I said that once Theresa is hit, we need to leave.

Theresa had her barrier up, yes, but even weakened by having to shatter a magical barrier, it still hit part of her and does massive damage. If he hits her again, not only will she die, so will all of us.
I shoot a bunch of arrows at the Samurai, he probably seems confused as the arrows don't do a lot of damage, many even bounce off. However, whilst he is descending from the air, I make all the arrows explode with magic, doing minor damage, but creating a massive smoke cloud.

I dive into the smoke cloud, sneaking behind the Samurai. Once he turns around, he takes a hit from my great blade of light. He didn't take the full hit, as when the light was pushing him back, he shoved it away with his sword charged with energy.
Now is the time to transform… However, I notice his sheath in his hand. Oh no even my inner voice is shaken. Before getting hit, he made a suspended cut using energy next to me. it is similar to his EXE Drive skill attack.

As he returns his blade to his sheath once more, my shoulder is cut. Giving him the opportunity to come at me at full speed. I can barely dodge his blade as he draws it and swings it horizontally. The tip goes through my side, just before I can fully jump to my right.
We turn to each other, but the Samurai seems calmer than before. He isn't glaring at me as intensely. It looks weird, he holds his sword in reverse grip and points the blade to the ground.

Ugh I feel numb…Suddenly, I can't get my body to move. I drop to my knees. That's it. I didn't dodge it, he missed…On purpose. His attack cut my internal energy rather than me. A normal slash doesn't damage my undead body, but his air-cut or energy attacks will, even if it isn't as much as share energy. I can't move, my energy is synced with his sword and I am in his grasp. How frustrating. I can't lose here… I am grinding my teeth.

He does one horizontal sweep with his sword, and a blade of air goes through my stomach. It is an odd sensation. With how my body is, I won't really get cut in two except if I were hurt by Share Energy, but with the ability to damage me, it almost feels like I am in half…It feels like I fell off of myself, into the snow…I am losing my vision. He is approaching…

Suddenly, his sword is caught in string.
"GRAB HER! WE MUST FLEE NOW!", I hear. A bunch of shouting. I am constantly moved. Explosions…Going up an hill…It is getting blurry…My sense of time…All over the place…Theresa? She's okay? Telepo-…

….

….

…

…

"Kekekeke…See? What you can do without me? Your friends were more of a hindrance, don't you think? If you are angry at losing so much, why not rely on me…?"
"I WILL WIN…HAHAHAHA, FIGHTING ISN'T FOR YOU, HAHAHAHAHA!"

I wake up from an endless void…I am. On a bed?
What is a bed doing in a place like this? The ceiling looks like wood at first, but it is overly white and clean. I just can't understand how a bed is this soft whilst the whole interior looks like metal. I sit straight up and look around. I see snow everywhere, some windows are blocked by snow dunes right next to them. This house seems to be between a rift of snow-dunes.

I have already gathered I am in a tiny house, everything is so small here and the door is only three meters away from the bed. I am alone in here.
Okay…Let me think about this
Theresa most likely teleported us away after Sili-san or Acclaim have grabbed me. I have no idea what happened after. I assume we were on the run. Since we are in a similar location, I can only assume we couldn't get too far away from the Samurai, and resorted to hiding.

The fact that I am here unharmed means we aren't found out yet… But this house isn't even that well-hidden, the front entrance is wide open. Why would the three not be here.? Did they get beaten? No, then I wouldn't be on this bed. Did the enemy find us? There is no sign of battle here. I can only assume the three rested a bit before going out to distract the Samurai. Meaning I should go after them right now.

I get up but a massive pain that runs through my torso has me drop back to the bed.
I am not fully healed yet. There are no physical wounds, but my body is aching nonetheless.
Crossing my arms, I close my eyes to think.
I cannot fight the Samurai as I am now. If I take just a few minutes to rest, maybe eat something, I can be strong enough to take out weaklings. Regardless, anything that hits me could knock me out. So I should find my friends, create a distraction, and run away as fast as possible. As long as I am conscious, we can run away to a safer location.

I breath in and out. Trying to relax for a little bit…It felt like a few minutes have gone by. I must move slowly, avoid pain spikes. I can take a little pain, but move too fast and it will hurt enough to stop my movement completely. I calmly open the door and walk outside, being greeted by the morning sun, or reather the white lights as it is rising. It brightens the snow it shines it light upon. After a whince, I slowly get used to the light. I was holding my hand in front of my face, But slowly, I retract that to see this pretty snow desert. It still feels so odd that snow falls without clouds…

…
Someone is here…!

I can sense multiple presences hiding around the house. One tried to snipe me with a Kunai. I use a little burst of light from my feet to move ever so slightly back before using my sword to guide the Kunai to the ground. It was perfectly aimed, it would have pierced my throat had I not moved.
Out of the shadows, no, this man actually looks like he is moving like a shadow above my head. I can't make out whether or not he is very fast, or if it is some trick to make it feel like that.

Someone wearing the uniform of a ninja had jumped at me with two blades held in reverse grips, he is trying to pincer my neck between them. I don't simply turn around, by holding one foot forward and another foot to the side, I can shoot myself away by about five meters and turn myself around with a slight burst, it feels stiff, but I don't find it as painful.

As I am staring at the stone-faced ninja who just missed me, I can sense a presence run around to my back. he appeared like a shape-shifting shadow when running. I only caught him with the corner of my eye, but he only LOOKS like he is moving fast. He uses some kind of technique to make himself appear as a shadow. These guys are definitely ninjas. Even if their outfits aren't the standard black ones, they can use some skill or magic to make them unrecognizable. Even their movements are an illusion.

Let's say, you leave three after-images behind as you tun fast, one dragging behind the other. You'd think the front one is the real one and the other two are just your after-images right? They make these after-images per illusion, in reality, the shadow in the middle is the real one, creating the effect that they feel fast. But with Wind Sense, I know exactly where their real bodies are. Their feet are the only thing I don't really sense, a technique to walk without sound is a technique to stop moving the air around your feet, very impressive, though I don't know how difficult it actually is, I am not a ninja.

Not only is there a ninja in front and behind of me, there is still one hiding as a shadow to the left wall of the house I walked out of, thinking I didn't notice him. In fact, I don't think the one behind me is aware I know he is there, since he moved with some kind of stealth technique. Anyway, I hold the flat end of my blade in front of me, the metal of the blade being well reflected in the white lights, I make sure that the ninja sees I am looking at his reflection within my sword.

This is a taunt. I don't feel like moving much, so I let them come at me.
They both throw shuriken my way, the one behind me jumps, or so, it looks like, in reality it is a shadow clone that is above me, and he actually makes a dash to my rear, I use Light Step to quickly move crookedly to my left, as the Ninja of the rear stabs nothing, I hold out my left hand and leg to the left and cast Explosion from the left to send my flying into the Ninja. With my elbow hitting his neck, he is knocked with his side into the air.

Before he can drop, I want to catch his leg. I grab him just above the ankle an throw him at the Ninja in front of me. I plan to throw him off guard and knock him out with a strike from my sword. He clearly was stupefied as he could only move backwards to absorb a body hitting him, now I am behind him, and he will be knocked down onto the ground. The ninja that was hiding throws a smoke bomb, alas for him, he doesn't know of Wind Sense.

As he jumps off the wall, straight my way, I materialize a knife from my inventory and use reflection to shoot it through his knee at the speed of light. He is about to drop to my shoe, but I won't let him. I send him flying into a flip in the air with a kick to the face. The Ninjas are all knocked out. They definitely weren't strong, perhaps the lowest level of their troop.
I walk over to the one that fell on his back after I kicked him.

I search his clothes and I notice that these clothes are definitely the uniform of Lowee's official Ninja force. They carry the emblem of not only Lowee itself, but, I know the symbol the guard of their blade is referencing. I have seen it on Dragonette's clothes and her sister's weaponry. The fact is, they attacked me despite my wearing the mask that makes me unrecognizable, meaning they have been given a target that appears unidentifiable to them.

So the ninja force is after me now. I suppose it makes sense that ninjas would deal with vigilantes that appear in the night. Still, I wish Big Sis would know I am not her enemy…For now…
I sigh. This is all very tiring. Either way, I have to find my friends, we got more enemies now. These can only be scouts, really.
With that thought, I kept a moderate pace as I moved to whatever direction the wind blows. Unfortunately, the snow has already covered their tracks.

The snow structures here are so odd, some snow dunes are rather thin, making them more like walls. Some places warp into big Bumps of snow. And there are these tiny houses of snow scattered around, some hidden within snow structures. The wind blows. I don't really feel much cold. But it sure feels lonely here…
I can hear something… There is a presence! My heart races, I can tell one of them is the Samurai. But…I don't sense the other three.

I hide behind a snow wall that is below an area that has some slope up to a big wide snow bump. The Samurai stood there and is confronted by a few ninjas, one of them wearing a more unique clothing style. Orange cloth that has many tears in them, barely any armor, a steel arm. His hair was black and white, with his hair being tied in a spikey knot, a warrior's style.
I try to look closer, and I see a few bodies on the ground, they seem to be ninjas.

"Samurai, state your purpose…Or rather, identify yourself!", one of the weaker ninja's made a demand.
"My purpose is to fight. I have no name. You are not worthy to be my opponent… You will live if you don't get in my way.", a cold reply comes from the Samurai, he speaks as if it is a matter of fact rather than a threat.
"You have been causing too much trouble! For the sake of Lowee, if you don't surrender, we will eliminate you!", he speaks.

"For the sake of Lowee…", it is the only time I hear a faint emotion from the Samurai, almost as if he is grieving.
"Only the goddess of Lowee must utter such words…If you speak for this purpose, you must be willing to die for it…", with a strict tone, the Samurai speaks as he slowly bends his knees and holds his blade up to his cheek.

"Wolf…Eliminate the secondary target!", this one ninja shouts, he has some sort of white robe over his traditional ninja outfit.
"Roger.", an emotionless response from the orange ninja, who was called Wolf. Wolf takes out a short sword that is curved a little less than a katana.
"And you all, don't slack off, overwhelm him with numbers, now!", and so, the foot soldiers are commanded to lay down their lives. But I think the commander here has no idea how out of his league he is.

I can tell a clear Hierarchy here, the low level troop Ninja are the ones I fought. The ones being able to use ninjitsu are black ninjas, and incase stealth isn't important, you have the more combat abled Red Ninjas. And the ones wearing white robes are commanders. Probably, because of their high skill, they can stealth with even the color white, meaning only fellow Ninjas might spot them, only so they can receive orders. But what does that say about Wolf?

Two ninjas run towards Samurai, but they don't stand a chance, he just moves past them, cutting one as he goes by. By the time the second ninja turns around, he is already cut down.
Two Red Ninjas jump into the air. One of them using Katon, fire breathing technique, but the Samurai just cuts through the flame with an air-blade, the attacking ninja being, well, "doubled". The other ninja was in the middle of doing hand signs, but the Samurai jumped into the air charging his leg with kinetic energy using his black blade's ability.

When the red Ninja was done, it was too late, the Samurai is already above him. I see his hips swing without his upper body even moving, as he spin kicks the ninja onto the ground. The Samurai dives down holding his blade beneath him with both hands, thrusting his sword down the Ninja's throat as he lands.
The Commander is losing his calm, he tries to bark an order at this Wolf guy, but he gets taken out by a quick air-blade.

The Samurai swings his sword again, this time, the air-blade flying to Wolf. Wolf swings his sword the exact instance the blade is fired, this is all in a split-second, too fast to see, Wolf saw his previous attacks and figured out the timing to parry it. That is not the insane part, it is the fact that he parried a blade that cuts through everything.
Even the Samurai paused, then he uses more air-blades to gauge whether or not it is a fluke, or so I think.

Yet, each time, Wolf parries it.
"I understand…You are formidable.", the Samurai's words did not seem to be of importance to Wolf, as his only response is to use his metal arm as a grappling hook the moment the Samurai raised his blade. With the Samurai's arms entangled by the hook, Wolf pulled his way over to the Samurai, this made the hook let go of the Samurai's arms, allowing him to move back slightly and deflect the two quick swipes Wolf did whilst he was propelled forwards into the air.

Pushing forward, their blades grind into each other as the Samurai is being shoved back. The Samurai pushes Wolf's blade with the idea to slash his throat right after, but he somehow got his blade parried by Wolf, to make sure he wouldn't get countered, he thrusted a kick with electricity at Wolf. Avoiding the paralyzing effect, Wolf stopped it with his arm, despite being kicked back about ten meters, the sparks from the kick doesn't seem to hurt him at all.

The Samurai uses an SP skill where he moves as if time freezes, he unleashes a drawing technique where he takes the sword out of his sheath and aims to reach the enemy's neck from below, going slower and slower to instill fear, but Wolf's serious expression had no change. And just as expected, he parried it perfectly. Right after that, Wolf throws his blade into the air before smashing it down onto the Samurai, twice, it was such a heavy blow that the snow underneath was blown away, but the Samurai manages to block those hits.

Then the Samurai crouches down to swing at Wolf's legs, but Wolf jumps into the air…And… What?! As if to insult him, he jumped onto the Samurai and off him, interrupting his stance. Wolf is back in the air and is about to finish the Samurai. The following scene, the Samurai moves forward at high speed by channeling his energy to his legs, with Wolf having nothing to hit in the end, now he is forced to do a roll to absorb the shock of his landing.

However, this maneuver would be his undoing, as the Samurai turned around and horizontally cuts him in half with an air-blade. That should be it. Wolf dead in his own blood… Now I have to make my escpape…Impossible! My eyes widen. What am I looking at. As the Samurai turns away to walk, Wolf just jumps off one hand and dives onto the Samurai. Thanks to his instincts, he could block the attack, but even the Samurai is caught off guard as the legs of Wolf move on their own and works together with his upper body to overwhelm the Samurai with well-coordinated sword swings and kicks.

When the Samurai jumped back, Wolf takes this opportunity to reattach his body together, I don't even know how. It's like his wounds are just stitching together, and then his scar regenerates like it was never there. Wolf throws a few shuriken to keep the Samurai busy, closing in on him at the same time to do a wide slash, the Samurai not only blocks Wolf's attack, but he uses his strength to let himself get pushed, so he could quickly jump behind Wolf.

Wolf dodges a swing by jumping into the air, he then attempts to use his grappling hook on the Samurai again. The Samurai lets one hand go of his sword so it alone would be grappled. The moment Wolf came close, the Samurai had his sword glowing with a green light. The next moment, Wolf is shot into another Snow Dune by a green beam, which followed into a green explosion. Honestly, after last time, I can't say he died. I do sense more Ninjas gathered to attack the Samurai. I have all the info I need, I better go.

I cast Reflection on my feet to use Reflection Step, this allows me to move at light speed, in return, my movement is unprecise and cannot altar course between steps, sacrificing all maneuverability. But this way, I can get away unnoticed, as by the time sound is made, I am already gone.
The Ninja and that Samurai are not allied. This might be good for us, as we can hide while the two fight…But first. I really need to find my friends. They too must be a target to these Ninja

I try to get high into the air to get a better view. While the cold wind gives me chills, I feel kind of pleased being in the air, it feels freeing. I look around holding my hand above my eyes. I see flames in the distance. I can tell, there is another fight happening. They must be there. I would say it is about, north west if you exit the tiny house I came from? More west than north, however.

I make my way over there. I don't see a single other Ninja in the area. But now that I am close, I see the three of them fighting one…Busty lady. Must be from Leanbox.
She isn't very tall, but she has pretty big…Bouncers. She wears a somewhat thick white t-shirt with black lining and has buttons of which only the button beneath her chest are done, on her shoulder blades are symbols of a black circle with a blue incomplete circle within it. Aside from that she wears a red ribbon hanging below her neck, cuffs matching her shirt, with the one right hand including a bigger red ribbon. Below, she wears a pleaded black skirt under a grey jacked wrapped around her waist. She wears black shoes with big socks that look similar to her cuffs.

Now that I get a good look at her face, her hair is orange to shoulder length with one strand of hair standing up in the middle of her head with a twirl, her eyes were orange, and somehow, have musical notices in them. Next to that, she's wearing a microphone earpiece.

She uses two ninja blades as she is dodging the onslaught of my friends, but is also just as easily deflected by their defenses. She's actually very capable, even if the three decide to kill her, she could escape. I can tell the three are hesitating to go all out, they don't know what to do about her.

Sili-san tries using string, but any attempt is stopped by her using "Katon" onto her blades and using the flames that burst from them to easily cut through his strings at rapid succession. It seems he is distracting her so that Theresa can shoot a giant iceberg at her. But the female ninja shouts "Katon!", which is basically the same as a powerful flame spell, not at the same level of Theresa's ice attack, but enough to dent it when it is a stab infused with Katon, allowing the ninja to jump on top of it, from there, she jumps to the three.

For a second, she was glowing with magical energy, I think she uses a level 3 enchantment on her sword, doing a magic attack as flies into Sili-san and knocks him away with one slash, as if she was propelled to the left she hits a guarding Acclaim to her left, and then she moves around Theresa with het back facing Theresa's before moving past her with the blade already swung. What looked off is the timing, Theresa was cut as soon as she swiped her sword to her left, despite being a meter away from her.

Since it is a magical attack, their physical defense, which had been trained by me, meant nothing. Theresa can only take the attack because her mental strength is tough. Even then, it is only an SP Skill and not a real finishing move. Acclaim dashes towards her, and both unleash a flurry of quick short-blade attacks, mirroring each other as they shout, "Ranbu!"
In reverse grip, they jump and do a spin slash before shuffling back and forth with each swipe, clashing blades before finishing it with a back flip slash, of course, nothing can really come from this exchange.

I bet she has the most difficulty with Acclaim as he is learning and mirroring her skills. Even when she casts "Raiton", a lightning bolt attack made of magic, he just counters it with his own. But despite that, she can anticipate Theresa's attacks, avoid and deflect Sili-san's attacks, and she even manages to elude Acclaim, mostly by getting him to be defensive with her many weapons and skills.

She even has a buffing ninjutsu that increases her ninja capabilities, especially her strength and agility. With strength, she enchants her sword with "Katon" and stops a string-whip-slash from Sili-san with a parry, then she throws him in front of Acclaim before moving out of the way from devastating attacks that both Acclaim and Theresa launch at her.
But now she shows her strongest attack.
"EXE Drive Skill!", she shouts, all air feeling more dense. I can probably move a little, so just in a bit, I can use Reflection Step to intervene…

She hold her blade to her left and grabs a second blade that she holds to her right, setting both aflame. Kind of like a less magic-heavy version of my light swords.
"Hitsuden Ninpo!", she shouts as she moves in to the three. She starts off with two slashes from below, then she swings her arms up in an X shape cut to get into the air before doing a downwards spin slash, continuing from that is a flurry of flaming swords dancing around as she slashes the three with spins and jumps, those jumps often containing spin-slashes themselves.

With one final reverse spin slash, she moves back a little. She charges herself up with energy as she pulls her arms behind her, doing one more powerful swift circular cut.
Within the next moment, she slides past the three as her last slash exploded into a fire pillar. The pillar is gone in no time, but now she has a scroll in her mouth, probably about to do her true attack. Her eyes are closed as she waves her arm around summoning four fire balls.

She holds out one sword and lets it get consumed by the four flames creating an explosion of fire. She shoots herself like a flaming dagger at the three, shouting, "Midaresaki!"
Now, I am in front of her. Speed of light makes this feel very sudden, but I know I can block her, my sword is already bursting with light. She swung her flaming blade that guides the fire surrounding her with it, but I can take that. As she moves away from me, the flames near me grow with intensity as she sheaths her blade. Despite that, I easily put it out.
"Leader!", Sili-san and Theresa shout behind me.

The girl's eyes look like they increased in size as she asked with a slightly shaky voice, "Who are you?"
Her posture and the light in her eyes almost look too honest to be a murderous ninja, she's moving her body with enough energy to warm herself through this cold.
"I have no name to give you. However, I should let you know, I don't have any reason to kill you, so let me give you a warning.", as I say that, I let my sword burst in light.

"UnionStar, Light Slash!", I shout as I shot a burst of light from my sword swing at the ninja. She tries her best to guard it, but in the end, she jumped away before the light exploded. I still have Reflection Feet active, I move to the three and say, "Sorry" They look confused, but for Sili-san and Acclaim, it turned to fear the moment I shot Theresa away at light speed using Reflection.

"Oh no, not agai-", Sili-san couldn't finish hit sentence, and with that, I send both of them flying quickly. The shinobi behind me is running my way. With Reflection Step, I can jump much higher into the air than normal, from there I shoot another Light Slash at her to make another explosion. This should give me an opportunity to escape under cover.

Between snow dunes, I find the three coughing and wobbling.
"Are you three alright?!", I run up to them, but I stop, for my side is suddenly stinging with an intense pain, I drop to one knee.
"You make us feel ill, and then you dare fall from pain? What happened?", Sili-san makes a snarky remark. But Theresa runs to me in a panic whilst Acclaim looks at me concerned.

I get a hug from Theresa whilst she is in tears.
"Stupid…Why are you here if you're still hurt?", she asks me.
It costs me energy to even speak, but even then I give her a playful, "You know me by now…",
She pouts as she looks at me.
Acclaim walks towards me, at the same time he says, "We were all partaking in drama as you were passed out. You can't blame he-"

Acclaim got close, when he was saying that, he tried to reach for Theresa's shoulder, but stopped himself along with his speech as he sees Theresa deadly afraid. He pulls his hand away.
Theresa takes a deep breath and grabs his hands close to us and says, "We were all worried about you. And I think we're all happy to see you okay."
She looks at Sili-san and says, "Come on. Sili. You want to get close too, don't you."

Sili-san looked at us with his arms crossed. He sighs before moving near us. He then crouches and says, "Listen, Bios. I am sorry. I was meant to be saving you before anything happened and…I failed. I want make jokes like, "You should've seen us screaming at each other when we were inside the tiny house", but it is only to cover that I hate seeing you in pain."
I look at these three, genuinely caring for me. Please, I can't handle all of this kindness

They explain to me how bad the situation looked. On top of that, they still haven't told Theresa yet about my undead state, even Acclaim doesn't have all the details. Only Sili-san knows. They tried using a Life-fragment on me, an item to recover someone from knock-out, near death, or in some lucky cases, recently-dead.

Theresa was panicking as she tried registering it to me over and over again with Sili-san telling her to stop, knowing how futile it is. But only he knows why and didn't want to explain to her I am already dead, and thus, cannot take reviving items. Even healing items have a reduced effect. He could only explain my body isn't normal, so something else was required. In the end, they used a lot of Healing grasses and pods to heal me up and hoped I would wake up.

On top of that, the Samurai was still pretty angry at our ambush and had the will to finish the job. So they had to go outside and lure him away. They managed to do so and succeeded in escaping the moment he seemed distracted. But then they were attacked by ninjas, not knowing their goals. And now much earlier, they fought this girl who apparently calls herself MarverlousAQL, their trouble mostly consisting of them being out of SP after dealing with the Samurai.

I sense movement with Wind Sense. There are certain to be more ninjas scouting for us.
"Let's continue speaking as we move. We need to find a hiding spot to rest, and we also shouldn't get surrounded by enemies.", I tell them.
They nodded their heads, I think we understand each other well enough to know what our next plan of action is. Along the road, I do tell them about us being targeted by official Lowee Ninjas, so this is most likely law enforcement done in name of Lowee.

Hidden Ninja villages exist everywhere, aside freelancers, there are plenty of Ninja villages that house mercenaries doing illegal stuff. Usually, assassinations of non-dangerous targets, theft of innocents, or other such stuff is prohibited. Legal ninjas often are doing protective or spy work, if not working for the four nations, otherwise they have been granted permission by one of the four nations and usually that is only for beating super strong enemies.

I'm pretty sure each nation has their own secret services, they are designed to help the local goddesses, whilst in agreement to be allowed to have operations even kept secret from them. Lowee had the biggest hidden Ninja village, big enough for it to be known. It is actually 'hidden'. You see, there is a big traditional looking town, and within that town are the ninja hiding. It is very complicated, I have never been there myself.

In the meantime, I think we have chosen probably the worst possible direction. As we walk. We come into a patch of nothing but flat snowland. There were a few monsters along the way, but they were pretty weak. The only one not so weak was some kind of wolf monster with a bunch of colored gems sticking from its body. They were imbued by some kind of magic. It shot them out of its body like its body was an automatic rifle.

I could easily deflect these. Sili-san used his string to capture these crystals, he gathered them by turning the string into some kind of net, continuing from that, he jumps above the monster and throws the crystals back at it, damaging it slightly. Sili-san followed that attack up by doing one his moves where he surrounds the enemy with strings and his sword catapult off one to the other to increase velocity and pierce through the wolf. After a few hits, Sili-san jumped forwards as his sword got close to him, he grabbed it in a next second to knock the wolf back with a slash.

He wasn't expecting the wolf to retaliate by firing off a magic spell conjured in its mouth, a lot of teeth growing inside, the teeth themselves being made of magic crystals. It shot some type of ice beam that knocked Sili-san back. This didn't matter, for it was already too weak. Acclaim came in and simply killed it using Marvelous' SP skill that he learned, "Battou Ranbu!", three magical slashes killed the wolf. There were many rabbit type enemies behind us, but they were inconsequential, for Theresa easily disposed of them with large Ice Coffin and other icicle summoning spells, strengthened by the snow. If that wasn't enough, she just burned them with fire spells.

They seemed concerned about me, since they know I can't move that well yet. Of course, we had garnered some attention. Even if weak, these ninja do plan a lot of things together. They knew they were too far away to catch up to us, they knew we were faster regardless. So, now they start throwing projectiles at us. Forfeiting all attempts to chase, they simply use tools to make us unable to dodge or deflect all projectiles.

A lot of these are enchanted with magic so deflecting them might still damage us, some are coupled with nets to slow us down, explosives are thrown to create smoke bombs to make it hard to see all projectiles, even if I can do it, the other three can't. On top of that, while the ninjas didn't prepare themselves to move in, I know they can if we waste time stopping these attacks, and I think they are banking on that too. With how flat the area is, Sili-san could barely attach string to stop these attacks.

We decide to run. After a while, we got away. But I must say, we underestimated them. All of us have been hit and grazed by a ninja-star or Kunai. Acclaim carried me and Sili-san protected Theresa after she got stabbed in the shoulder. I cast fire magic at the right spots to hopefully create some kind of mirage. Of course, we got poisoned, for those few weapons that hit us were laced with poison.

We couldn't take our time to heal immediately, we needed to make sure the ninjas weren't on our tracks. Luckily, a blizzard had arrived. Of course, you would think it unfortunate, but this was the best way to get them off our trail. Yes, we suffered too. And we were still poisoned, so that made us only feel weak against this thick wall of snow blowing over us. Theresa wasn't just poisoned, but her skills were also silenced, meaning she couldn't heat us up. Now we are back to more snow dunes. We hope to find a snow dune large enough to take cover from the wind and maybe register an antidote.

I can sense movement. There is one snow dune bent over due to it being frozen. We hide under it. Some ninjas stand above it. One of them was a man, as far as I can make out, he had an extra lair of clothing, which should signify him a commander. Some others jumped near him.
"Have you found them yet!", his voice is an obnoxiously commandeering one.

He sounds like the kind of guy that would backstab you and also mock you for being too trusting.
"No, commander Gaiden.", was the response he gets.
He sounds displeased, "I expect better from my team of ninjas! Darn it, if only Wolf wasn't on the opposite side of the area right now…Where is Marvelous?!"
"We haven't heard from her since her report of having fought an enemy, sir!", is the answer he gets.

The commander looks away, probably thinking on how not to lose his temper.
But there is more information, for the ninja says to him, "There have been reports of a lot of our men having been killed by some…thing up north!"
"Bah! So we can't even investigate the spawned city?! This blizzard is hiding the tracks of the vigilantes, too, what luck. If Wolf were here, he would've still found them. And I knew that girl would be useless.", the commander is venting to his men.

We have antidotes applied to us in the meantime. Now with our heads clearer, I ask Theresa, "Can you help make a mirage? I think they are still searching here. We need to make it look like there is no real gap underneath here.", I told her.
With magic, we made some kind of reflection to make it look like there is nothing here. It is strange, with this blizzard, but I think it helps us avoid detection. We do see some Ninja run by, they don't seem to see us, though.

I can hear heavy breathing. I barely feel the cold. A testament to how unalive I am. But the other three... Hyperthermia will hit them no matter how resistant they may be. Theresa can cast flame magic to warm herself up, but not only can that ruin the illusion, she also seems too weak to do anything. In fact, I see her eyes slowly losing their life, she herself struggling to sit straight. Acclaim is used to these extremes, and even he isn't looking his best.

As the only one being able to think clearly with this condition, I move over to Theresa. I should reach her…But instinctively, I hold my hand back. I don't feel comfortable getting into someone's personal space…But…I can't leave her like this. I sit behind her and give her a hug. I can feel her startling body turn. She tries to look at me, but stops…Ah…
My body has no heat…Why…
"I'm sorry…", I utter without thought.

I can hear her go, "huh?"
"I want to…help you…But I can't even make you feel warmer…", I say without thinking.
Perhaps I am not so sound of mind after all…I feel much anguish…
But then, from two sides, Sili-san and acclaim come giving us hugs too.
"If it is body heat we need…We can't be stingy…Right…", Sili-san says, he sounds weak too.
Acclaim speaks to Theresa, "I'm sorry, young lady. You must feel horrified with us so close…But if we can offer you any warmth without magic…Then I will do anything."

I can feel she was shaking anxiously at first…But, I don't feel any vibrations from her now.
Light has returned to her eyes…She closes them and nods her head.
She gives us a smile, "Nuh uh…I have never felt…warmth like this from others before…Thank you…"
As the ninjas move away, we sit here, slowly getting used to the blizzard.

We move forward. I have Theresa interlocked with my arm so we don't get blown away. Sili-san didn't seem to want to, but he and Acclaim are assigned to hold onto each other. Acclaim didn't care much, he just wants us to survive and has no feelings whatsoever besides that.
I don't know if we should consider ourselves lucky for the snowstorm dying out, or stupidly unlucky for the fact that it is petering out when we see some road downwards that leads to some underground system.

We go inside weary from the snowstorm, we are happy just having to walk a path without any wind now…And then we find out that the rest of the path is just slippery ice that gets thinner and thinner. We have entered an IRL platformer with ice physics and bottomless pits. Theresa almost falls off, but not only do I hold onto her, Sili-san has us covered with strings. But I can't say it is easy, we are forced into narrow slippery paths, and I notice none of us are walking straight. Too weakened by the blizzard to move well.

Whether it is physical or mental, the situation is taking its toll on us. Of course some kind of giant icicle has to fall on us too, dodging that almost gets us to comically fall off the edge, but we persist in staying on the road. I see even more icicles in the distance…Wait. No, they are the same kind of crystals on that wolf monster's body. We have to be careful of elemental discharges.

With a bit of effort, we are going upwards. We end up on a huge glacier. There are rocky hills around this big flat ice lake, but that is about it. No…I see a figure in the distance…A person.
It is clearly a ninja waiting for us. She is alone, so she must be a special unit, meaning her strength should match Sili-san, Acclaim, or Theresa.

"Finally arrived? You must not be so special if you took so long getting to me…", she says as she stands up, wearing a confident smile, she reaches for the sword sheaths on her thighs.
She had light black hair and blue eyes and her skin tone was very lightly tanned. Her hair is worn in a long ponytail. She wore a black top and black shorts, her belly was showing. Over that she also wears an open grey jacket with a black cape with white outlines buttoned on her shoulders. Instead of socks, she has bandages, on top of that, she wears black shoes with blades coming from their tips. On her back are seven sheaths, six of them are the same, but the middle one is slightly bigger and a different color.

"I've been dying to have this dance…Don't disappoint me, I'd only wish you all a pretty death.", she taunts us as she leans back, grabbing her six blades. She hunches over as she holds three katana in each hand, they are being held between her fingers. It is crazy to think anyone would fight like that, as using only your fingers would mean not putting any of your real arm strength into them. But her confidence must suggest she has fought many times like this before, so she definitely isn't doing something stupid.

She crosses her arms, still hunched over, then, as she does a motion to straighten her back, she opens her arms with much force, unleashing a powerful gale from her blades, this gale turning into razor wind, six slashes are shot our way. But they can't possibly be as sharp at the Samurai's.
Theresa's wand spun two times over her hand before she grabs it to stab it into the ice.
She made a barrier that protected us from the razor wind.

A lime-green aura came over the swords on her right hand for just a little bit, then she swings her right arm over her head shooting three green air-slashes combined with wind at us. These are definitely magical in nature. I am sure they aren't as sharp as much as they pack a punch. She breaks through Theresa's barrier and quickly blows a razor wind at us, it feels more like a long lasting wind burst then a gust, however. Theresa uses small barriers to protect herself and Sili-san, me and Acclaim can deflect these small air-blades made of wind with our swords.

She runs over ice like it isn't slippery, now she jumps high into the air. I can tell she is trying to close the gap from above, whilst she moves down to us, she shoots more air blades our way. We move out of the way to dodge it, and quickly, Acclaim shoots himself into the air with a burst of Light Step, he uses the same six blades with his copy ability and blows a heavy gale with six air-slashes at her. She easily parries it.

Of course, Acclaim is still coming her way at high velocity, the two clash blades in the air.
After coming down, they slide over the ice. The girl uses the ninja's shadow walking technique to appear faster than she is, Acclaim must've already seen this move when fighting Marvelous, for he does the same. The two reappearing again later to clash blades. Instantly, Acclaim switches to two ninja's blades and rapidly unleashes a bunch of slashes shouting, "Ranbu!"

This was Marvelous' skill, and I can tell she clearly has fought her before, because she defends herself with quick steps and exact parries. Of course, Acclaim has more than that. Before giving her any time, light us coming from under his feet. With a burst shoving himself forward, he kicks her back. Of course, sending her backwards is easy on ice, even if she blocks the hit. Though she may not have taken much damage, to hold herself up after that strong kick took enough out of her to release her breath, meaning she had to hold it in to stay steady blocking his attack.

She immediately returns to the smile she had the whole fight, only having looked cautious when receiving that blow.
"I see. You must be the copy experiment…And you've fought Marvelous, huh…", she says lowering her arms.
"I am not as soft or kind as she is…Don't get surviving her to your head.", this girl tells him.
Acclaim gets ready to fight, until Sili-san sticks his arm out in front of him, signaling him to stop.

Our attention got to Sili-San. What is he doing?
"I'll fight her.", Sili-san says, he sounds pretty calm.
"Huh?", comes out of Acclaim. "Can he do that?", a question from Theresa.
"I haven't been pulling my weight lately…I want to have this 1V1…Please. Leader. You have to realize, too, it is better to have one member run out of energy, than a whole party being half-spent.", Sili-san elaborates.

He wants to prove himself. I respect 1V1s. I have been in a martial arts tournament before, the final event taught me to use anything at your disposal, even dirty tactics. But I also met friends who desire honor, so I understand wanting to fight your own fight. Sili-san should match her strength. I can grant him this.
"Go ahead. But if she has some hidden power, we WILL jump in.", I tell him.
"Hoho…Well, I am fine with 1v1s. I enjoy nothing more than beating the cockiness out of people.", she says with her arms crossed…Somehow.

She opens her arms out and stands spread out like an animal warning you of its danger.
"Theresa, I only ask you to do one thing! Create some Ice bergs around the area.", Sili-san suggests, the girl looks questioning at his question.
While Theresa looks confused, I just thought of his plan, He wants to have objects to use his string with
"Theresa, do as he says.", I give a command.
She doesn't get the reason, but she nods and says, "Understood."

A bunch of pretty big icebergs and pillars come from the ground, none of them hitting anyone.
"You're fine with this?", Sili-san asks.
"Whatever trick you use, it won't matter.", the girl tells him.
"Who's cocky now.", Sili-san, smiling for the first time this interaction, responds to her.
"No. You have no idea what you're getting yourself into…", the girls says, ready to slash the air and fire wind-blades his way.

Sili-san uses both arms to pull himself up using his string, going over the wind slashes. He uses his strings like bungie ropes to rubber-band his way towards the girl, her smile fades for a bit, probably processing Sili-san's ability. Her thinking has her defend herself from a slam of his blade, their feet moving over the ice. Sili-san looks overpowering, but his opponent has six katanas, even whilst blocking, she can use her fingers to hurt Sili-san, although small cuts may be all she can do, that can still deplete his HP enough to weaken his attack.

He isn't stupid, he must have some plan in mind. He uses string to pull himself backwards to garner distance from her. He swings his sword vertically shouting, "String cutter!"
The girls jumps like the floor is made of concrete, avoiding a whip of string that cleaves through the ice below us. As she jumps, she fire green magic-based air-slashes at Sili-san, who is still sliding backwards.

He takes advantage of the ice and lets himself get pulled by string to his right, the sliding making him faster, easily dodging more slashes. Even when she unleashes a wide air slash, Sili-san can easily use his momentum to get in the air and swing around, avoiding more air blades, going from iceberg and ice pillar to another. At some point, she predicted which ice pillar he would go to, so she cuts the tip off with a powerful air-slash made of magic.

She might've thought Sili-san would fall with his string disconnecting between the cuts of the ice pillar, but as the tip of the pillar is falling, he says, "Well, this is convenient for me, thanks." Confusing the girl.
He wraps the broken ice-pillar peak with string and spins it around, he ends up throwing it at the girl. The weight made is so much faster, it only gives her a split-second to react. She probably could've dodged, but she decides to slice it in pieces with her swords.

This may have weakened it, but a bunch of ice debris still knock her back. Sili-san takes advantage of this and uses his string to catapult himself over to her, drop-kicking her with both legs, even with her arms blocking his feet from imprinting her face, it must still hurt a bit.
On the other-hand, this girl is battle-hardened, just as Sili-san's kick is losing force, she timed her back flip with his own and managed to cut the back of his leg with the blades coming from her shoes.

Sili-san hasn't gotten his feet on the ground yet, the girl is faster and hits him with a magical air-blade. Even though Sili-san blocked it, he got blasted back, his clothes tearing slightly.
The corners of her cheeks raised, the girl says, "You are almost like a shinobi yourself…However, this area is not only to your advantage now. I will be able to hide a lot better…" she then uses the ninja skill of appearing faster than reality, on top of that, it is used as a stealth skill where she darkens as if she were a 3D shadow, combined with fast silent movement, it almost looks like she disappeared.

Of course, I can see her, but telling Sili-san is not what he wants.
I think he might be able to see glimmers of her as she moves around the icebergs and pillars, but that is it. After looking around for a bit, I notice him shooting out a bunch of different threads, creating a huge web.
"Webnetwork…Trap.", he says to himself quietly, I think so, anyway. It was pretty hard to hear.

I understand this move, he used it before. The strings help him detect her movement. Even if she is a ninja, if I had trouble seeing his strings with Wind Sense, she has to learn to notice them first, so she will touch them.
I see him suddenly turn his head, he has found her. He wiggles his fingers, capturing her between strings. He moves to her whilst pulling her to him.
"Damn it! I shouldn't have slacked thread training!", she shouted before getting hit by a big sword, slamming her across the glacier.

She manages to get back on her feet, but Sili-san immediately gives chase, he will hit her in no time. She blocks him with one set of Katana, she gives herself the opportunity to stab him with the other set of three. She thrust her swords forward, but Sili-san has already uses his string to back off, her blades only plunging into air. However, this doesn't make her flinch, she instantly jumped at him to cut him with the swords held within her right hand's fingers.

It almost looks like her hands are being stopped by an invisible wall, but if you look closely, you can see some threads having stopped her swords. Her eyes widened, she looks angry more than shocked, though. Gritting her teeth, she tries to slash him with the other set, but she gets parried, and right after, kicked in the stomach. Even though they're on ice, she stops herself from sliding and jumps at him again.

She tries to hit him from the left this time, only to be stopped once more. She wanted to thrust her other set of blades at him, yet even they are being stopped. She is able to free herself by using her fingers to gently cut the rope, it seems they harden more when they are being pushed, but with her fingers, she can use her blades like scissors instead. Even then, Sili-san has string shot from other areas, wrapping around her wrists. He forces her arms to spread open wide, giving him a free attack.

Despite managing to cut herself free using her fingers, her panic made her lag, and now she is too late to stop Sili-san's strike. Flung over the ice, she sends more air-blades flying in frustration. Sili-san goes over it pulling himself up with string whilst moving forward. He shoots string from his sword and wraps it around her arms, pulling himself onto her with a sword-strike. She can block it, but the pressure of Sili-san't attack has her almost bending fully through her knees. However, she uses the blades from her feet to cut herself free into a back flip.

Still having the advantage, Sili-san closes in on her…Only to be blown away by a magic blast of wind as she shouts, "Futon!"
Sili-san lets string pull him to slide over ice avoiding more blasts of wind as the girl rapidly shouts in a sudden growly voice, "FUTON, FUTON, FUTON!"
Sili-san gets into the air, dodging another Futon as he moves past an Iceberg, then, he launches himself at her.

Is he making a mistake? he gets hit by another Futon and is shot into the air. But then I see string wrapped around an Ice pillar. He uses his position to spin around this pillar as the string unwraps, increasing his momentum. The girl jumps onto the side of an Iceberg and starts beaming with a deadly grin.
"Futon: Rotatsu Kazekiri!", she shouts as she jumps forward, wind magic making her spin like a drill. She's covered with razor-sharp green winds.

I guess Sili-san took note of that. Because, after he shoots himself off the ice pillar, he uses string to rotate himself whilst holding his sword forward, going from an arrow to a high speed drill. The two collide, blasting wind strong enough to crack through Icebergs. Sili-san had more power behind it, but his attack is dull in comparison, once they were done, the girl manages to leave a few cuts on Sili-san, however, she is taking the most recoil.

Sili-san has the time to shoot string at her from his sword. Wrapping her up. Now, he spins around, a lot. He goes faster, and faster…Until… He sends her flying into the ice, nearly shattering the surface. She gets up, but has only one option to continue fighting, take Sili-san's next strike. Sili-san is strong enough to smash her through the cracked ice. Now she is under the glacier. Sili-san looks closely, but he turns his back, acting like the fight is done.

A normal person would succumb to the cold ice, or maybe not find their way out. But this is a ninja, they are all trained against extreme temperatures.
Sili-san is still cautious at least, he quickly noticed the color of ice below him changing. Steam flew around him as the color orange can be seen beaming below him.
Sili-san jumps away before the ice melts, that doesn't save him, for the girl jumps out of the hole made, and she sheds boiling water onto him, which hurts enough to make him shout.

After Landing on ice, she laughs, despite steam coming from her body.
"You fool, heat and cold mean nothing to me!", she shouts before flames get emitted between the gaps of her katana, she shoots fire balls out shouting, "Katon!"
Sili-san easily jumps away from the flaming balls, but they are meant more to get rid of his foothold. If he falls into the water, it is worse now that it is boiling.
As expected, Sili-san opts to stay in the air swinging around with his string, only coming back down to attempt an attack.

But the girl smirks, clearly having this planned out. She thrusts her blades into the ground and shouts, "Doton!", a shockwave is sent through the earth, hitting Sili-san with a nearly spiked ramp that is shot out of the ice…It must be some kind of magic because I fail to understand how that is feasible.
Regardless, Sili-san is prone in mid-air, or so, we assume whilst the girl fires air-slashes his way. Luckily, Sili-san can easily get himself back down to the ice with his string, even if hurt.

It takes him a bit to stand up straight, however.
The girl spends no extra time, she shuffles forwards firing air-blades of all kinds. Sili-san defends himself from the onslaught of attacks by deflecting the attacks with his sword.
After overwhelming him with attacks, the girl gets close enough to use another Doton to shoot a rock out of the ice.

Obviously, Sili-san anticipated this, for he uses the sudden elevation of the floor to his advantage, jumping with it and using its force to increase his momentum as he pulls himself into the air. He uses another arm to wraps string around it. It looks hard, but he is able to break the rock from the ground and take it with him into the air. He does one mid-air roll before sending it back to the girl.

This time, she dodges it by jumping away, still looking like her heart stopped moving for a second. And she is right to fear, for she gets a swift dropkick down towards the ground, followed by a heavy slam of Sili-san's great sword, unfortunately, she blocks the second attack.
As the two slide over ice with their blades locked, the two push each other away. They stare into their enemies' eyes.

"How…Is the poison from my small knife not affecting you?", she asks, not even sounding shocked, rather, she sounds impressed.
They are both breathing hard, but Sili-san gives an answer amid catching his breath, "Now that you mention it, I felt something stinging my leg. Maybe it would've bothered me, had I not been going through a blizzard poisoned.", Sili-san replies.
"No wonder. Now I look stupid for thinking you were weak…Fine. Let me show you my- no…I am going to use an even more advanced technique than Shinobi Transformation.", she replies.

She holds up a scroll before putting it in her mouth. "Shonobi Tranformation: Extreme Mode!" Extreme is an…Abt way of describing it. She just bursts out of her clothes, like they shatter and are shot in pieces all over the place. She's still wearing her underclothing at least.
Sili-san leans over, I hope in disbelief, he shakes as he says, "What the hell…?"
"Theresa. You might have to cover your eyes…", I stopped talking as I look into her eyes and see nothing, I then say, "Right. Nevermind." And now I feel incredibly awkward.
"What could she be planning.", Acclaim seems to not even care as he looks more into what battle capabilities this…'Form' has…

She looks down on Sili-san, that is, until he says, "Aren't you cold like that?"
Mildly annoyed, she responds quietly, "I thought this form would at least be enchanting enough to stop him from moving. I am getting the "A female shinobi should be bewitching", saying from one of my teachers to my head…", she is actually ranting to herself, a bit later, and now she smiles at Sili-san saying, "Underestimate me at your own peril."

Her body was already looking vague as she was speaking, but now she vanished. Actually, from the outlines, I can tell she just moves at a greater speed. She has become super-fast, only really slowing down a little to be seen in the middle of her closing her gap to Sili-san.
I can see her clearly, but Theresa is blinking, probably to try and adjust her eyes to follow this girl.

She stops a little in front Sili-san's left, swiping her swords like they are a single claw, Sili-san's string can only stop it for a second, for her strength had simply overcome the string. She tears through it and attacked Sili-san, who now has to dodge these attacks. He moves back, continues to step to his right as a thrust of three swords slide past his sword before he deflects it and moves away, dodging another slash. He tries to counter her, but she moves too fast for him to hit her.

She stops next to an iceberg, leaning onto the tip of the iceberg with her elbow.
It is a mocking move, she looks down at him with a smirk, and she tells him, "See, now? I sacrifice everything for my dance. Clothes, defense, comfortability. In return, my strength and speed are at the human limit!"
Indeed, Sili-san can't keep up with her speed now, he tries to, but she moves too fast to be hit, and while his eyes must be pretty good thanks to me sending him flying at light-speed a few times, it must be hard to see her regardless.

Acclaim has his arms crossed, his face looks filled with respect as he nods and says, "I see, shedding all clothes to increase your speed. May be worth trying."
"No.", I rejected him flat out, coldly, no thought,
Theresa looks confused at me and asks, "Is there something wrong with that."
"How would you feel seeing a half-naked man constantly?", I ask her.
She gives me the face of, "I don't see your point", but then she places a finger on her chin and says, "Well…"
I, once again, forgot who I am talking to, and smoothly stop this by saying, "Don't answer."

"Acclaim. You must never use this technique, even if you learn it. That is an order.", I tell him.
He looks a little confused, but says, "Fine."
In the meantime, Sili-san has to deal with a shinobi of overwhelming speed.
Even then, he had a solution for this. With her speed now, she is more liable to run into string, and thus, sili-san places a trap, and she ends up tripping over it, hitting her face into the ice. This is almost comical, I would be laughing, but I see her quickly getting on her paws like a cat before jumping from that position at a crazy speed, Sili-san misses yet another attack.

However, her speed increasing won't matter as strings will catch her regardless, and even if her strength increases, only her sharp blades may break through them, but if they entangle her body, she gets stuck. Of course she can cut them later, but by the time she did, Sili-san can get a hit in. Again and again, Sili-san finds a way to stop her movement using string just enough to get a hit in, although, it isn't consistent, sometimes she shoots air-slashes that hit, and in other times they trade blows instead.

Over-time, she's gained higher awareness. I see Sili-san working hard weaving his threads, moving them around to catch this girl, he himself also getting used to her movement. But she's so nimble, using both her feet but also using her hands from time to time to get between gaps of strings that Sili-san is trying to catch her with. Eventually, Sili-san manages to get her surrounded, from every direction comes string that should've fully wrapped her up.

It is no use, she uses her right hand and two feet to jump through one gap with great strength. To continue her technique, she spins around like a drill again, most likely thinking she'll be safe from string that way. However, Sili-san has been improving his technique so much, he knows exactly how to stop something from spinning. Constantly shooting string and weaving it around from multiple directions. Her using multiple swords actually makes stopping them easy, as it gives Sili-san more things to bind.

She stops spinning just as she gets to Sili-san. I figure she can probably cut herself out of the string, hut regardless, another free hit for Sili-san as he knocks her away. She frees herself from string, and then, she lands with a back flip onto the ground.
She shoots more air-slashes at Sili-san, occasionally also using Katon to make him lose his foothold.

With her increased strength, Icebergs and Ice pillars are getting annihilated. On top of that, she can jump much higher now and slice through them physically. Back onto the ground she goes, and immediately, Sili-san shouts, "String Cluster!", a bunch of string attached to debris created by her slicing through pillars and icebergs are about to shoot them all at her from every angle.

With her speed, dodging it is simple, but of course, it is another new attack she doesn't see coming, so worry is seen on her face. Regardless, she dodges it, but Sili-san doesn't stop there. Debris keep getting smacked into huge clusters all around her, she turns as she is watching all of the chaos. Of course, it comes with befuddlement, for none of the attacks are aimed at her. It isn't clear what Sili-san is trying to do.

"Have you gone desperate?!", she shouts, almost conjuring a fake smile.
However, she clearly has lost sight of Sili-san. And through all the debris smashing together, Sili-san has snuck his way to her side. She notices too late and gets smacked in the face by his sword. She recoils as het feet are going through the ice, however, it isn't a good finishing blow. She easily stomps her feet onto the ice, cracking it and stopping herself from sliding.

I can see a vein about to pop on her face as she grits her teeth and swiftly moves back to his Sili-san.
She shouts as she unleashes a heavy swing at Sili-san, but just as much as she looked frustrated then, now her face is in disbelief, for Sili-san parried her.
She tries to hit him from the other side with her other arm, and gets parried again. She doesn't see it now, but Sili-san is using string to slow her own arms down, while he is using it on his own sword to pull it forward, increasing the strength of his own swings.

For a while, this isn't moving forward and has little in trickery. The girl is angry and is mostly just swiping at him as hard as possible, with Sili-san keeps up using his strings. Sometimes, they switch to moving all over the battlefield, which has its icebergs and pillars slowly depleting. But with their lash clash of blades, Sili-san's final attack has been fully prepared.

A string wraps around her arm. Only looking mildly annoyed, she cuts it, but then her other arm gets wrapped, and in the next second, so does the arm who had just been freed. No matter how much she cut, an overwhelming amount of string ties her limbs as Sili-san says, "EXE Drive Skill." With more string coming from every leftover pillar, iceberg and his sword wrapping her up almost entirely.

Sili-san's sword gets covered in string, on top of that, his EXE Drive has gained the extra attack of constantly whipping his opponent with string as his sword unleashes more string. This time, his sword is vibrating hard enough to unleash wind.
"Ultimate Stinger!", he shouts as he thrusts his sword onto her, sending her flying…Um…Her clothes shatter…What? She shouts, "God Damn it!", with a very growly voice, I have never heard such anger. Anyway, she is blown out of the glacier, going through a rocky hill…Even under the ground…I suppose this battle is over?

"Hey, Sili-san?! What was that?! You can't tear someone's clothes off!", I shout at him.
"That was indecent of you. Minus respect.", Acclaim says.
He turns around and shouts confused, "Hey, it wasn't me that tore her clothes off!"
"Listen! We can't do this. There is a minor here!", I shout whilst holding my arms like I am presenting Theresa, and then continue, "This will get us banned on you dumbass!"
"What can I do about it! I am fighting a Senran Kagura character!", Sili-san screams.
Theresa looks saddened, she looked the other way and said, "I thought you were better than those guys…", never having sound so disappointed.
"OI!", he yells at us in anger.

We hear a quiet, yet deranged sounding laughter. Up a hill, stood a girl. Below the hill was the hole that same girl was shot through. She survived Sili-san's hit, and is now looking at us with a vicious face. Of course, she is butt-naked, but don't worry, the snow and wind are covering her up. Despite that, Sili-san shouts, "Hey, put some clothes on!"
"You're the one who got me here in the first place!", she shouts back at him angrily.

She lunges over…Now she straightens her back and laughs again.
She takes a breath, then she says, "You really have pushed me this far. I am going to enjoy killing all of you."
She pulls out a scroll and says with crazed eyes, "Let it be known, I, Shinobi master of green flame, Kagura, will end your lives here!" The scroll was gathering energy.

Name: Kagura
Age: 18 ( -sama please don't look up Homura's wiki-page not same character I swear)
Height: 163 CM
Residence: Wherever she gets paid
Occupation: High ranking Renegade Shinobi

"Secret Ninja Scroll. Transform!", with that shout, clothes form onto her. She now wore a black sailor-uniform with dark-green lining. Besides that, she's wearing black fingerless gloves and dark green socks with black shoes that have its laces enlengthened to tie down her socks.
A green aura comes from her, as her depraved smile widens.
"Now, I can use it. My seventh sword…", she says as she draws the sword on her back.

This alone boosts her strength and changes her hair-color to bright green. The sword is flaming green and the six katana around her started to fly around her. She can freely control them in the air, like she is using telekinesis, but I guess it is more the sword and scroll giving her wind magic that is in sync with her other weapons.

I look at Sili-san, the battle has taken its toll on him. He has taken enough damage and his SP should have been halved at best. She, on the other hand, might've fully healed with this transformation. I don't notice any damage or any sign of exhaustion like I did before.
Sili-san is fighting an impossible battle, it is time for us to step him.
While I inform the others of a plan of action, the girl, known as Kagura, jumps into the air.

Her sword erupts into green flames, and with a swing, she shoots an inferno that covers everything in a green hue. Sili-san is wise enough to use his string to shoot himself into the sky. The green flame evaporated the entire glacier, even worse, the water is boiling now. We jumped away as well, but we need to move back even further. In the meantime, Kagura has blasted her way to Sili-san, seems she has more mid-air control.

Sili-san's strings are rendered ineffective, now that fire and six flying blades will easily get through them.
He blocks a hit from Kagura's sword and is send flying to the boiling water.
With Light Step, he can get picked up and thrown to safety. Kagura obviously pursues her pray, knowing she can move more fluently in mid-air than her enemy, as far as she knows.
Sili-san is send to the rest of the party with Reflection.

Kagura has already shot out green flames with the swing of her sword, but it gets cancelled out by a "UnionStar Light Slash!" She moves forward and pushes her flaming blade against the one of light. Probably figuring she can hit her enemy's back with her six katana…But her face suddenly looks pale. For the sword of white, was turning into a flaming green blade.

Spinning around in the air, her enemy moves away using the same kind of ariel movement she's shown. She already prepared a great fire attack, but that can be mirrored too. We watch a great green blaze in the sky as she descents to the waters. Despite boiling, she can stand on the water just fine. That is a Jonin shinobi for you. However, so can her opponent. Obviously, it wasn't me. Acclaim is the one who saved Sili-san and fought her this whole time.

She has been tricked and looks aggravated knowing it. Our masks make us unrecognizable, to the enemy, we may as well look like smoke covering a black figure with no characteristic.
"Impossible, You…You're the copy-cat? You even copied my ultimate ninjutsu?! The power from a secret scroll? The hard training I have had to do for this resistance to heat and cold? Only in a few seconds? I am going to slice you for dinner, you bastard!", Kagura rants.
It seems the ninja scroll itself contains a power boost that cannot be copied, however, her sword ability and skills are not divine nor mythical, so he can copy it, I guess.

While they are doing that, I have Theresa cast a great freezing spell to give us a foothold again. We didn't want to disturb those two, who are having a mirror match, disappearing with the shadow speed trick. And now they reappear doing the same attack on each other.
I cast Reflection on my feet, then, I tell Theresa, "I am ready."
While she nods to me, Sili-san is getting up from his back behind me, and he says, "I'm sorry. Leader. I failed."

"Don't worry about it. She had an unexpected super power up her sleeve, and it is one that counters your abilities. There's nothing else need to be said.", I reply as Theresa is chanting her next spell.
"Great Explosion!", she shouts as she generates an explosion all the way over to Kagura.
She guards herself from the explosion as smoke is blasting all around the two.

With Reflection Feet, I instantly moved in front of Acclaim. And with Reflection hand, I instantly shot him away. My other hand is busy charging my sword with light magic.
I don't say anything, I just swing my sword at her, which she blocks. I manage to pull her sword down, but then, she smiles at me, "I can see your friend casting another spell. She can't be all that quick and defensive, right?!", she says.

She moved through me like mist, and with great speed, she's heading over to the rest of the party. I cast explosion from my hands to move back onto the ice. She's heading for the figure shooting big Ice Coffin Spells her way. She dodges them, along with a bunch of weaker combo magical attacks like Blast Rush, or Flame and Thunder. However, close to her target, she swings her sword, only to miss.

Dumfounded again, she looks to her left, as she learns she had been fooled by Acclaim once again. With Acclaim having moved away with Light Step, Theresa is right next to Kagura. She hasn't even touched the ground yet, and Kagura is already going to get hit by Theresa's massive light beam spell. She is sent flying into the edge of the former glacier. Alongside that, Acclaim jumps into the air and unleashes a flaming slash and a Light Slash. Combining with him was Sili-san, using string to slam dozens of debris from nearby rocky hills.

Kagura breaks out of the attack with a scream and green inferno incinerating her surroundings. She jumps towards Acclaim and smacks him down with a strike combined with a gathered thrust of six katana. As he is flying downwards, she shoots another blaze of flames down onto him, melting the ice below him. Even with the surface being boiling water, Acclaim lands safely and is only moderately hurt.

The girl lands before him, and wastes no time. Quickly shouting, "EXE Drive Skill!"
Kagura's big katana is raised into the sky as it becomes a pillar of green fire. Then, the fire is split into many smaller flames, her six floating katana's getting imbued by them.
"Dai Hitsuden Ninpo.", she says as she sends her six swords flying, but they suddenly multiplied with the green flames. It is like Acclaim is being pierced by dozens of thrown knives.

From there, the six Katana rotate around him creating a green flaming tornado that slices him up. Suddenly, Kagura can be seen surfing over an air-current within the tornado, guiding her above it. After one jump, she raises her big katana again, and then…She disappears…
She passed by the tornado like a blur, dissipating it… or rather, it is compressed so it can explode into a giant green ball of fire that gets blown apart into pieces with a bunch of flaming knives flying out the flame like arrows. All the while is on the surface, crouched over with her blade in her sheath. In fact, it was the sheathing of her blade that made the explosion happen somehow, simultaneously saying, "Midori Jigoku"

At the same time of their battle, I am turning the snow around me into light using the snow controlling ability of my sword combined with light magic. Slowly, but surely, I am gathering more light.
Acclaim took a pretty big hit, but he doesn't die so easily. Sili-san uses his string to retrieve Acclaim from the air. He is doing that while also taking a swing at Kagura.

Of course, he is pushed by a wall of flame blown his way thanks to a swipe of Kagura's sword, with her commenting, "Your string won't work anymore, stupid!"
Acclaim, gets to the ground and is able to stand up just fine, although his movement is more sluggish. He stops Kagura by wrapping her waist with String. She stops for a second, but more surprised, she looked back at him with the face of, "Really?"

She cuts through the string, going back and forth on the attack as both Sili-san and Acclaim are shooting their strings at her. In the middle, she gets surprised by a sudden thunderbolt form the sky, of course, it was a great thunderbolt cast by Theresa.
This girl is tough enough to block a lightning strike, but she is pretty irritated by now. Despite of what I say, she may look frustrated, but looks to be enjoying it all, too?

Either way, she flies towards Theresa only to be hit by her smaller Explosion spell. It is bigger than a normal one, however, due to her high intelligence stat. She speeds through the smoke, only to have Theresa out of her sight. She does look to her left, however, probably seeing the light of magic gathering for another spell.
She shouts, "I am not falling for that again! Copycat!", with a beaming smile.

She jumps into the air, but is stopped by string.
By dumb luck on our part, she ends up getting smacked down on her butt.
She turns around and says, "I should kill the weak link first."
Flying her way over to commit a counter attack with her flaming sword against the one covering her in string. Even though it was looking like she is winning, she is eagerly pushing the blade back, only failing to realize, the one chanting magic before was the real Theresa.

She looked so thrilled, only to be blindsided as Acclaim puts a hand on her, and sends her my way using reflection.
Kagura rolls around over ice for a bit, before standing up. But by now, it is too late. She notices some snowflakes turning into white light around her. She turns around.
Now, she has a face of horror as my blade of light has a bunch of snow spinning around it, making it look like an expanding white tornado of light.

"ShootingStar! Light Beam!", I shout as I fire a giant white beam at her, not as strong as the one used before, because I am not transformed. The girl is tough, the beam does not appear to vaporize her, but it is pushing her. With its strength, it sends her flying. I push harder to make the beam last, I want her as far away as possible, out of our sight. And at last, Kagura is not within our vision.

"Guys, we have to get out of here. We can't spend too much energy on her.", I say.
"That didn't beat her?", Sili-san asks, I can hear the pain in his voice.
"That attack? She probably isn't even halfway done yet! Let's get out of here!", I tell them.
Reflection step is still active. So, as usual, I am sending my friends flying at Light Speed. They are used to it now, I think. And thus, we make our great escape.

We head into a maze of rocky hillocks. It isn't surprising that Ninjas have come looking for us after my beam as traveled across the region. I don't sense Kagura, however. Everyone in the area looked like scouts, with maybe an occasional chunin hanging around. Thanks to Wind Sense, I can tell where they are, the only difficulty is knowing whether or not one is hiding behind something, specifically if they are hiding west of it, for a heavy wind is blowing from the east, meaning the air barely covers them.

We go from one hill to another, sense out where they walk, also keeping track of their numbers to make sure all of them have moved in the area. Eventually, we come to an area that seem to have random wooden houses around the hills, some broken, others still intact. There might've been a village here long ago.
Maybe we can use the houses to our advantage. Even if we leave the area, there is no guarantee they will move out the same way.
"Guys, I have an idea for distraction.", I tell them.

I give them instructions to break off the wood from the broken houses. With Sili-san's string, Theresa's many elemental spells, and Acclaim's craftmanship, we made some dummies to represent us. We sneak through a window inside one of the houses and place them on some seats. I tell Theresa to cast some ice magic to create a haze.
I place my hand over every place, casting a timed Explosion magic onto it. Yes, they will notice our trap, and then, this whole house exploded.

I can't know for sure it will get them in time, however.
"Leader, is all of this necessary?", Theresa asks.
"Wouldn't it be quicker to run?", Sili-san gives me another question.
"Listen, these are master pursuers. Even if the chances are low, we lose nothing by distracting them, and perhaps having the chance to make them think the explosion kills us.", I explain.
The latter is very unlikely to happen, I think. Why would they think a random explosion would kill us? But who knows, maybe they are dumb enough to think we aren't the ones responsible for this upcoming demolition

"Everything is set up.", Acclaim tells me.
"Okay then. I want you three to leave. I will slam the front door close as hard as possible to make them enter this building." I give them their commands. After a few minutes, I am sure they are far away enough. I stand in front of the door. I cast Reflection on my feet. It will be clumsy, with all the furniture in the way, but I must escape with haste. I open the door…I take a deep breath…And I slam it hard enough for it to crack. After that loud noise, I moved at the speed of light, bumped my head and toes into some things. And through the window, I shoot myself away.

I does take me a bit to find my friends…I move around, practically warping from spot to spot until I see them…Ah. They are within my vision. I can't actually walk without Reflection Step losing its effect however. But luckily, our assailants won't show up anytime soon. A huge explosion goes off behind me. I don't even bother to turn around, I know what I did. All we can do now is head further and maybe find another house that is more discreet. Or make a temporary base.

As we get out of the abandoned village, we are heading downwards. All the way down, we encounter some wooden floors and small shacks. In the distance, we can see a bridge. Upon closer expectation, we are actually pretty high up still. Not to a crazy extend, but there is a small valley beneath us that includes a shallow river. The bridge itself was huge, it was probably about a hundred meters long, but more impressively, it was probably three times as wide.

What is that?! I sense a large figure slowly approaching us.
I hold my arm out and say, "Stop."
They didn't ask, the figure is already in sight.
A large humanoid is walking on this bridge, and on his back are numerous bags and weapons, more accurately, the bags attached to his back, legs and hips are all content with weapons.
He had a red headscarf that is attached to the rest of his cloak covering most of his upper body. Aside from that, he is wearing a lot of metal parts, one could almost confuse him for a cyborg.

His legs are odd to make out. At first he looks like he has short fat legs, but he actually has a thick black underbody with golden outlines and spikes, and underneath are four round thick skinned golden legs.
"Halt. Those that come here must be great warriors. Only worthy warriors deserve their weapons!", he calls out to us.
"Are you some kind of gate-keeper?", I ask him.

"I am he who gathers weapons from those unworthy. This is my home. But I take anything from strangers that wander this land. My name is Gilgasoft. I will acquire your weapons, with, or without your consent!", after saying all of that, he is looking at me…And now he is pointing at me, saying, "You specifically girl. Hand over that black blade, it doesn't belong to anyone!"

I grip the sheath of my sword tightly…I look at him. I feel kind of annoyed someone has to gal to make us out to be some idiots whilst thinking he doesn't sound arrogant at all. However, even if he takes my sword, I can just destroy the original by creating a copy using Weapon Create.
So I ask him, "If I give you this sword, will you let us go?"
He crosses his arms and said, "You are no warrior, not even trying to keep it. I have no respect. You four must all carry a weapon, hand them over, you are not worthy."

I guess Sili-san didn't even think of my ability, as he walks forward and said, "You really think you can decide who isn't worthy of their weapons? What is so impressive about you? Unlike you, we can't play around. So move aside!"
"So you won't submit?", he says, staring at us with an intimidating glance. We didn't speak. Should I say anything? I am debating in my head whether to deescalate and give him our weapons that I can easily remake…Except for Theresa's staff I suppose. But everyone here is riled up and ready to fight, Theresa doesn't care either way. I guess the battle is on.

"Then, I will take them from you, or your carcass…", he says as he raises his arms. Suddenly, he sprouts four more arms underneath his two, and his upper body grows a few inches taller. His arms are crossed as he grabs a myriad of weapons. A big red lance with a Chinese looking design in his right upper hand. A grizzly dark great sword in his left upper hand.

The middle right arm is holding a hand-axe. His other middle arm wields a broadsword. His lower left arm is carrying big hammer. And finally, his lower right arm has a rifle. Yes, he is indeed packing heat.
If there were anything I'd like to add, is that this guy has five health bars, two more than the Samurai, and three more than when we fought Acclaim. Of course, that is just how I imagine it, I think.

Me and Sili-san moved in, at the same time, Theresa is using her weaker combo skills, perhaps testing his elemental resistances.
"Flame! Flame Rush! Thunder Rush! Ice Rush! Air Blast!", I hear her shouting magic spells, she isn't even stopping when I take a swing at him. He block my blade with his own broadsword, then he aims his rifle at me. I jump back and cut a bullet after it's shot at me.

His beautiful red lance was thrust my way, I can sense air rotating around it at high speed, it is imbued with some kind of wind ability. I step next to it and feel a gust of air pass me, the strength of the wind shot out of the lance is enough to blow a hole through the average person.
I jump above the lance, I move down to avoid a swing of another weapon, my feet and hands are on the ground, and from there, I jump over to the side, his lance gets shoved through the wood of the bridge, and is quickly taken back.

Now, Sili-san has reached his side and tries to stab him from the flank…But, a yellow mist comes from a lamp strapped on his right hip. Sili-san immediately retracted himself, using his string to pull himself backwards. The yellow mist formed some kind of yellow body builder made of energy.
"A stand user?!", Sili-san shouts in surprise. I think I heard Big Sis talk about stand users but I don't know what they are.

Sili-san ands up getting a fist in his face. He has a bunch of nets in front of him, yet, he gets pummeled.
"He is going through my nets like they don't exist!", is what I made out of Sili-san's voice. He ends up getting knocked into the railing, nearly breaking it off.
Acclaim jumps between them using Light Step, and blocks a hit from the Stand.

When the stand tries hitting him again, Acclaim made a copy of it, stopping its first with a fist of his own stand. Gilgasoft now had all his attention on Acclaim.
"What's this? My genie is being blocked by a copy?", Gilgasoft spoke, but no one answers back, Acclaim is focused on returning the favor. The two stands throw punches at supersonic speeds, however, neither overcome the other.
I appear behind Gilgasoft to blast him with a UnionStar Light Slash, my entire attack is absorbed into him before exploding upwards, this should do minimum damage to the environment…

It only seems to have distracted him. I mean, due to that, Acclaim manages to punch the Stand in the face with his own causing it to retreat into the lamp, but I am unhappy with the little damage I did. I mean, it's an attack that creates ravines and leaves mountains scarred. I can tell he resists not only magic, but even a lot of elements as well… Does he resist every element? That would make this fight insanely difficult.

Either way, I am not the only opportunist, Sili-san was already behind him and hit him in the back using "String Cutter", but even the super sharp whip-blade string barely scratched him. The armor on his back must be high grade. He only glanced at me and immediately thrust his lance at me, I feel stunned for a split-second, now my only reflex is to block it with my sword, the blast of air being strong enough to push me to the railing of the bridge. At the same time, Acclaim has moved in front of him using the Ninja's feet skill.

"Ranbu!", he shouts while he does a fast flurry of slashes with a ninja blade, however, they all are parried or blocked by Gilgasoft's own weapons, though, it is mostly the broadsword that parries the attacks. Acclaim drops the blade and raises a bigger sword with his other hand. It is already bursting with light as he slams it down onto him, even then, Gilgasoft blocks it with all of his weapons.

Acclaim pushes and pushes, that is when Sili-san helps him out, entangling Gilgasoft's weapons and arms within string. He pulls on Gilgasoft's arms and weapons, leaving his torso open for attacks. First, a weaker strike comes through, then, Acclaim uses the six katana style from Kagura and slashes into Gilgasoft, however, this would not last long. Gilgasoft opens his mouth wide, a canon appears from his mouth, he ends up shooting a huge laser beam right into Acclaim's face.

Acclaim casts explosion from his feet and barely avoid getting blasted by it, instead, Theresa's barrier was hit instead, with her taking a little damage.
"Damn it!", Acclaim shouts, however, he is not free to do as he wishes, for Gilgasoft immediately follows up by rapid fire from his rifle like it was a machine gun. It seems magic can be infused with it to create bullets. It isn't much to Acclaim, but it gives Gilgasoft time.

I am quite a distance away, charging more light into my sword. I notice his axe getting redder and redder. He unleashes a fire ball that burns the string away. The fireball curves in a spiral as it is headed for Sili-san. He knows he can't do anything but dodge it, so he gets pulled to the railings with by string, however, once heated up, Gilgasoft's axe can be swung to shoot more fire balls. Sili-san dodges about two more whilst moving over the bridge before jumping off it. He gets catapulted into the air, eluding another fire ball. Up in the sky, he only nudged a bit forward using his string and dodges yet another.

"He is clearly slow! Take your distance and keep spamming powerful attacks! Even with resistance, we can kill him eventually!", he shouts. I wonder how Gilgasoft takes that?
Acclaim tries to hit him after using Light step, but Gilgasoft. suddenly moved away after flares coming from his back. He isn't fast enough to leave my sight at least, but speedy enough to the point I'd need to use Light Step to match him, he has moved behind me like he was hovering, and now three weapons carried by his left hands are swung towards me.

I anticipated this, so I can do a quick one-eighty. And with my sword already bursting with light, I am easily able to block it, albeit, the unexpected speed has my feet unbalanced, so I am flung into the railing to the left of the bridge. Gilgasoft, quickly flies into the air, avoiding some shots from Theresa. Once up, he slams all weapons down onto Sili-san. His weapons being blocked by string is only a minor inconvenience, with his hot axe, the strings are melting. He comes through and plunges Sili-san back down onto the bridge.

Gilgasoft lands heavily, blowing dust into the sky, making a huge 'thwump' noise.
As the dust surrounds him, his figure gives off an imposing aura. I can even see Acclaim falter. Even then, Theresa has her spell ready. She shouts, "Great Explosion!"
A condensed explosion if spawned into existence on Gilgasoft, erasing even dust from existence…Only for him to look fine. Now, I can tell it did more damage than most attacks, probably because it is elementally neutral, however, his armor most likely is made to give him high magic defense, also known as Mental.

His mental stat must be sky-high, and Theresa is still pretty low level.
I move in. He tries to stop me with his stand, I jump over a punch and I will cut his face. I temporarily destroyed his stand with a slash, which actually causes him to look my way.
"You cut through him? You must not be human!", he says. I'll think about it later, I want to attack him now.

I materialize a special hammer with jet engines to smash his face in. Except, he blocks the staff of my hammer with his great sword and the staff of his lance, he tries to stab me with his broadsword, but I use explosion magic from my feet and flip over his head. Within my flip, I try to hit him with my hammer as my head is about to face the surface. He still blocks it, this time using the staff of his own hammer. Now then, I am back on the ground, I must not spare a second, I will not give him time to counter-attack.

I jump at him and spin around shouting, "Tanzaerin Trombe!"
Annoying, his legs may be slow, with his jet booster armor compensating for it, but his arm speed is a whole other matter, he somehow defends himself from every axe swing coming at him using all six weapons. Even though I move like a high-speed buzzsaw, he is not taking any damage. My movement stops, now I can smash down my hammer onto him. He needs all six arms to block this one, and it seems he has no way to counter.

An explosion coming from the hammer upon contact helps me shove him away. It does seem to hurt him, but with his high health, it is but a drop in a bucket. I won't stop, though, I use Light Step to advance as I did a few spins. Once close to him, I will use the following SP move.
"Zerstorung!", I shout with one mighty hammer swing. However, he himself had been spinning his hammer in one arm and charged it with kinetic energy. In a simultaneous action, his muscles grew huge for a few seconds before swinging his hammer my way with great strength.

The force of our hammers was so great, we have to push against air just to reach the other's hammer. Wind blows from us and the wood is cracking underneath us. When our hammers touched, an explosive shockwave erupts from us. At the same time, he attempts to strike me with his axe. I shout, putting more strength into my arms to quickly push his hammer away, now I can move slightly. The axe that was above my head, may have passed me, but that was only one of his arms.

He swings his great sword at me, I thrust my hammer down onto the ground after a twirl, stopping the great sword, I immediately jump to avoid a bullet, not only that, I did another spin whilst doing that jump. Not only is it to push the great sword away, but I also need to parry his lance, which I am able to do by slamming my hammer into the staff with an added explosion, now My hammer is facing his eyes. I use Reflection from my hands to send it flying into his face at light speed.

An exploding hammer at light speed knocks him back, his eyes closing from the pain. I go back onto the ground, this fight is quite exhilarating so far, I am getting goosebumps.
The damage done to him still isn't anywhere near close enough. He charges at me with his lance, Theresa summons a Great Fire Wall around me. As she usually does, she curves it and shouts, "Fire Beam!", to blast Gilgasoft with a burst of flames that look like they've come from hell.

Despite that, he lance breaks through the fire. I can clearly see push back and his legs are nudged into the bridge, cracking wood as their toes are digging in. However, the damage is minimal. I see something glowing on his hips. Clearly, he has some weapons and armor to resist this much fire damage. He rushes through the flames and attempts to impale me with his lance.

I jump over the blade, I get onto the shaft of the lance and kick myself up. A hammer comes my way, I holds out my left hand on it as I thrust my left side downwards, then I put force on my hand to do a mid-air cartwheel over the hammer.

He swings his great-sword onto me, which I avoid my jumping to his middle with a small Explosion spell from my left leg. Following that, he tries using the axe, I use the staff as a handle bar to swing higher up. He tries stabbing me with his broadsword, I knock it out of his hand, at last, he attempts to shoots me, I cast explosion to gain a little height, I can easily cut the bullet. With one flip, I strike him saying, "CombinationStar Light Slash!"

He blocks my blade enveloped with light with the staff of his spear. Even if I pushed him back, I practically did no damage. Right after, Theresa summons a great thunderbolt and hits him with it. Oh, that is just how it looked like. His hammer absorbs the lightning, and with a swing, sends it back at her. I chase after it using Light step, while at the same time, I materialize my lightning absorbing sword.

I get in front of Theresa and absorb the lightning into my sword. I want to release it quickly to get it out of the way, so I swiftly move back to Gilgasoft. My sword and his hammer discharging and absorbing lightning until both had their limit, the lightning ending up firing into the skies. There is a brief pause between all of us as lightning disperses into the sky, even eliminating the mist that surrounds us for a while.

Out of a sheath, he grabs a sword. That blade looks like a katana, actually, it is a black sword like mine. I am laser focused on that sword, because these aren't supposed to be rare, but literally impossible, and now there is two of them!
I need to snatch it from him before he can do anything with it! So I put my foot forward, but then he blows a wind at me by spinning his lance around with just his fingers. This wind unleashes a bunch of flying razor blades made of air, and now I am busy deflecting them.

In the meantime, I sense him thrusting his blade upwards. I can feel air expanding below Acclaim. I turn to him and shout, "Claimer! Jump away!" I see he is baffled by my statement. I know for sure it is the mythical black blade, because Acclaim would've been able to see the attack coming if it wasn't. Still, he trusts me, so he will move away. Albeit, too late. He isn't in the center of it, but high pressured lava shoots through the bridge like the ground blew up underneath.

Acclaim is hit with most of the lava, screaming in pain as he takes enough damage to stay on his knees after landing.
That confirms it. This is the mythical black blade, The Sword of Magma.
He tries to thrust his lance at me, this time, I use my black Blade's ability to send a shockwave through the falling snow to knock his arm just far away for his thrust to miss its wind blast.

After the wind shoots past my leg, through the wood of the bridge, I immediately do a swing and cut his arm that holds the hammer to disable his use of Thor's hammer. I keep up slicing him using the snowflakes around him. However, they are only shallow cuts. I do this to give Sili-san the time to pull Acclaim to Theresa, she can use some healing items on him. Then, suddenly, a swing of my sword does nothing to him. I stop to look.

The air around him is bubbling from heat. One glance at his sword tells me it is producing enough heat to melt the snow around him. I can't hit him from afar like this anymore.
Now Sili-san dashes past me, shouting, "You'll pay for that!" He is not thinking straight.
"No! Keep away from him!", I shout at him too late, he already spread out a web of string, only for them to be weakened by the intense heat and easily cut through.

With a synchronized smash from the lighting hammer and flaming axe, Sili san is send flying back. I guess he realizes this is not his fight, for he is using his string to get close to the rest of the group quickly. As for Gilgasoft, he summons another pillar of lava, only this time, he pulls his sword backwards to turn it into a wave to engulf me. Well, that is fine. I can just jump over this wave using Light Step, with one big burst I get into the sky.

As the lava melts part of the bridge away, I see him gripping his sword tightly as he slowly raises it. The ground is shaking slightly and suddenly, a mountain behind me just shatters into pieces, large rocks from it being shot my way. The first one hits my back, feels unpleasant.
I gather a bunch of snow using my blade and knock all the debris coming to me away. I slowly turned the snow into light, the snowflakes are being absorbed into my sword's light.

"ShootingStar… LIGHT SLASH!", I scream, firing off a big blade of light at Gilgasoft. It is probably my strongest attack without transforming, excluding the EXE Drive. And yet, he takes it. Not only that, but he stops it from destroying the rest of the bridge. I can tell he took more damage than from Theresa's spells, but it is still trivial. Some of our physical attacks did more. This is getting frustrating.

I land down onto the bridge, a gap dividing us and him. I need to calm down
I accept this defeat. There is no way to win without us being at full power, even then, my normal form is just not enough. Worse, I can tell, my pains from the last fight aren't healed yet. I can't guarantee fighting him without breaking down.
"Gilgasoft… Let my friends pass, I will fight you alone.", is my request.
He crosses his arms and asks, "And why should I?"

"You want to see worth? I want to fight you at full power. But these three are spent. You want my weapon the most, right? If you beat me, it is yours. However, I can take you out using my full power. How does that sound? Regardless, I can knock you around enough for them escape.", I explain to him.
"Ho? Show me.", He says, looking at me. His eyes seem curious, but his whole demeaner lacks feeling.

My eyes start glowing, I speak with strength, "I will defeat you!" And now, a pillar of light blasts out of me. It takes my clothes with me, however, something unusual is happening. As my body is engulfed with light, a disc appears in front of me. It is like time has stopped outside. I look at the disc. I read it has some processor units, parts for my transformation.
I think I get it, such a disc appears in my subconsciousness when I used to be a goddess and transformed.

I grab the disc and raise it in the sky. I shout, "Snowstorm Processor Unit, set!"
With one foot forward, sharp dark-blue blade-like metal pieces attach themselves to a materialized white boot, my other foot soon got the same treatment. Two metal pieces fly against my hip, their mere existence materializing some type of white metal-looking looking shorts that had areas separated by gaps showing black rubber between. The metal itself had dark blue accents.

The pieces that are now attached to my hips look like big slightly curved white bricks that have dark blue pieces attached at the ends and a black drill on top, each corner also had some kind of black arrow as if they are small grappling hooks that can be fired off of them. Two dark blue shoulder pieces hit my shoulders, they are designed with three blades sticking out of them, each elevated over the other. They materialized some kind of white armor that covers a small amount of my upper body, only the shoulders, a bit above my chests and shoulder blade, and just a bit of my arms quite a bit before reaching my elbow.

Alongside a pair of white gauntlets with dark blue accents and dark blue parts sticking out appearing over my hands, the rest of my main-body is being covered by a black see-through mesh. Two light blue flames are being shot behind my back, part of it turning into white and dark blue metal wings that are hiding jet engines underneath. I weave my hand over my face as snow gathers there. After that, I have two metal pieces attached to my face right next to my eyes, then, the rest of the metal travels over my ears with spiked ends.

With that, the pillar blows open, a heavy gust of winds weights down on all around me. My eyes have turned dark blue with white power symbols for pupils. My hair's base color has changed only slightly, but a light blue hue is now over it, with the ends of my hair showing the light blue color more.
"I see. That is impressive indeed.", I hear him say, but that doesn't matter much.

I am engrossed with this new form. I look at my hand. I can imagine what I look like as if I have seen myself in the mirror. I have changed so much. Thanks to our questing, I have more share energy, that is what generated this new set of processor units. It isn't quite max power yet, but I feel way stronger. I look at Gilgasoft now, and no fear can be felt. I tell the three behind me with a cold voice, "Leave. This is my fight now."

I don't hear them reply. They simply get up and go past Gilgasoft.
First thing's first. Test opponents strength and make sure he has my attention.
I fly towards him at Mach speeds, throwing my fists at him whilst they are engulfed in Light. He attempts to parry them, but with each thrust of my fist, I speed up. I knock his arms away and force him into a defensive position after punching his face and gut a few times.

"Light Speed Fists.", I say as I push him back with a rush of fists that almost makes it look like I have grown hundreds of arms. He gets one big push-back after I throw one heavy hit into his stomach. It seems to hurt, but I doubt I damaged him, he feels more pain than he actually takes damage thanks to high resistance to elemental attacks. He thrusts his lance my way, I calmly step away to dodge a blast of air. Now he spins it around, I can easily dodge the wind blades unleashed, but that is clearly not his main plan.

He throws it at me like a saucer, I jump over it, avoiding it. However, it seems to be tracking me, so I fly over the air, dodging it multiple times. While in the air, he grabs two bows and puts them on his shoulders. He fires two arrows, the first one making me stop. The arrow flew beyond the speed of a bullet and pierced the heavens, clearly, those were dragon slaying arrows.

I looked at him as he fires another arrow. I fly backwards and do a flip as I avoid his saucer again. His lance is returning to him, but he isn't done. Now he shoots about a thousand arrows my way. Two can play that game. I grab my own bow and arrow and rapids fire my own back at him. He had explosive arrows, and so did I. Except, alongside regular explosive arrows, I can also just infuse the explosion spell into some normal arrows. They slip by him and explode near him, doing minimal damage.

Now, two cannons are built onto his shoulders, easily tearing through my arrows. I fly to my right just as they are getting close to me. I barely escaped their range as they blow up in the air. These cannons are quick and he can easily barrage me with them, they look very modern. A trail of explosions is behind me as I fly around him, on top of that, I have to change altitudes constantly to avoid extra arrows. I need to give myself a second.
I pick up my bow and arrow, and fire a few arrows that spread out into smaller ones.

While the smaller ones explode near his face, I materialize a spear and shoot myself down towards him. When the smoke clears in front of him, he acts swiftly to block my incoming plunge. He blocks my spear by pressing his weapons against my staff, the point of my Spear barely digging into him. Still, he appears hurt, probably by the wind coming from my thrust, as it still had a lot of power behind it.

I fly backwards before hopping his way, thrusting my spear repeatedly shouting, "Rainty Ratnapura!", to my surprise, he actually is keeping up with my speed, deflecting my thrusts.
I even finish it with a powerful slash that had SP energy within it, but he even manages to block that.
He swings his axe down imbued with a fire ball, I jump to my left, I grab my black sword and shoota small blade of light at him, it directly hits, meaning I have succeeded in the distraction.

Now I can freely fly past him. After doing so, I turn around and shoot the spear through him using Reflection from my palms. The spear goes through him at light speed, doing okay damage to him. He is too tough to instantly die from it, though. Not that I know where his internal organs really are. I fly towards him, and I materialize my exploding Jet Axe with a flip. Actually, I keep flipping over and over, activating the jet engine of my axe to make me spin over the bridge.

With gathered momentum, I smash my axe into him, even if he is blocking, this much strength combined with an explosion is going to push him back further, now close to the end of the bridge. He tries hitting me back, but now I can parry his attacks with much more ease.
What I can't do is top lava. He shoots a burst of lave from under the bridge, these ones aren't vertical through, more like high pressured beams of heat that are aimed askew.

That doesn't matter, however, he shoots out even more lava out of the ground, destroying the whole bridge. The lava is chasing me as I fly into the sky. With his sword, he spreads the lava out, having pieces fly above me, in fact, they are going past the clouds. He slams his sword down and shouts, "Meteor Shower!"
I look in the air and see the lava having combined into small meteorites. Unlike the spell, these will do physical damage.

On the other hand, I can cut through them rather easily as they come at me. I see now, this is a misdirection. I sense him coming to me with the jet engines attached to him. He flies right my way, I can easily dodge whatever he throws at me. A thrust from the spear, easy, I move down. A thunder strike? It has a wide range, but I fly fast enough, I can move a hundred meters to my left in no time. But once there, he flies down towards me at high speed and smashes all weapons against me. I block it, it barely does anything to me. I flip over to land on my feet down the shallow river below the broken bridge.

As I straighten myself, I see his drop shadow growing larger. I jump back. He lands in front of me, the water splashing into my face. I don't feel excited in this form. But I can still sense this tension. We pace to our sides for a bit.
"This form of yours is indeed great. However, power does not prove skill.", Gilgasoft says.
"I agree. That is why I practiced so much, and I will never stop.", I reply without thinking.
Now that I think about it. He probably has all of these magic and elemental resistance so he can test someone's true prowess with a weapon.

He uses his Magma sword again, the water underneath me turns to steam as I see red flowing over the ground beneath me. Now he makes small bursts of lava pop from under the ground. I fly over the water, avoiding it, but then, he has the ground blast earth my way. He is literally altering the terrain with earth patches moving around me like snakes. With swift maneuvers, I spiral around them to avoid getting incased by earth. At the same time, I had to dodge debris from him exploding hills with his blade.

I was so preoccupied with that, I didn't know he could summon a crooked spikey pillar of earth from my right in a fraction of a second. It slammed me to the left, in my normal form, it would crack my arm's bones. After experiencing turbulence, I place my feet onto one of the rearranged geography, and jump my way down onto the water in front of him.

With a burst of Light Step, I move in front of him, he tries to block me with his Magma blade, but that is my intended target anyway. I knock the whole arm away with a swing, he tries to hit me with his hammer, but I kick it away with an explosion. I deflect a hit from his great-sword, I move above his axe, and when he thrusts his spear forward? I kick my legs back to get my front facing the surface, I let the blade pass me and place my hand onto the staff.

I use reflection and throw him off by shooting his arm below me at light speed. All the while charging light into the blade using my left hand.
"CombinationStar Light Slash!", I shout as I blast his face with a sword of light. I quickly fly backwards into the sky, for I know he will retaliate. He shakes his head to shrug off my attack, and he quickly fires a thunderbolt from his hammer. I use my lightning absorbing blade to bounce his lightning back at him.

He casually slams the lightning into the ground behind him with the hammer.
I go back down, I charge both blade with light. They are now engulfed with a powerful white energy. I shoot myself forward, I have him on the ropes, deflecting each of his weapons. He tries something with his Magma blade, but I discharged the light from one of my sword as I knock him back. His arms recoiled as his weapons took the hit, now I blast him with the light from my other sword, getting his back into a rocky wall.

My toe touches the water, just so I can shoot myself forward. I do a spin as I turn the snow around me into light, I fuse my blades together as I am creating one giant sword of light.
Time to end this…
"ShootingStar…", I say as I get close to him. I do one flip as I am about to strike him from above. "Helios…!", I shout before moving my arms.
"ARGH!", I shout as I feel a grave pain shoot over my body. The light in my hands fade, my flight stopped.

He takes his chance and knocks me onto the ground with a jab from his spear. As I stand up, I am holding my side. I feel so much pain. I can barely open my eyes.
Not now… I haven't recovered yet. Not even transformed…
He moves forward, just a little. He says, "How disappointing. However, no matter what, a warrior deserving of weapons may not fall no matter what."
He raises his spear. But that is where I fooled him.

I already cast explosion on his lance. It won't blow the whole thing up, but it knocks his arm away. I hope he is surprised, because I am going to shoot myself up into the sky. The jet engines within my wings shoot light-blue flames as I get into the air. Now, quickly, I must get away. I feel desperate, I know he is shooting cannons at me from down there, but I need to get out. It is fortunate I am harder to hit from down the river…Hey…I don't feel any explosion behind me.

I turn around. How lucky I am. I guess our fight caught the attention of the ninjas. They have begun swarming him. I am not sure if they attacked him. But I see him attack them with deadly force. At least they will…Make the…Perfect…Es…cape…

I

Have

Fallen

I groan a little. I haven't really lost consciousness…Or, I have been close to losing it. I can barely keep my eyes open…My transformation…Oh…It is undone just now. The last flight made the pain more intense, I don't feel anything. I see three people walking my way…

"I wouldn't have lost to pain…If you had used me, you wouldn't even have pain"

My eyes open again. I can feel a hand over my arms. I see snow falling with hazy vision. Looking down a bit, I can see the clothing of Theresa and Sili-san…
"Oh, are you awake?", I hear Sili-san's voice.
Starting to see clearly, I have my eyes on Theresa, who begins to walk in front of me.
"You keep getting hurt…I put my faith in you, you know? I know you will overcome it, but that doesn't mean you should suffer.", she scolds me.

I see, I am being held over Acclaim's shoulder.
Looking at him, he makes eye contact with me and asks, "Was the enemy that tough?"
"He is tough. But in this case, I have a pain that made me immobile. I had this pain since I last woke up, but I thought I could go a bit harder transformed. In the end, it took everything to fly away from there.", I said.
"You really should tell us about these things beforehand", Sili-san tells me.

"There was no chance, by the time we walked together, one thing after another happened. Otherwise I would've fought harder the last few fights.", I explain.
"I noticed before Gilgasoft that you were mostly making stiff movements.", Acclaim says.
I nod. It does make me feel bad, having them do more work. But I know they don't want me to get hurt.
"We must find a place we can rest at. I need at least a day.", I say.

We all agreed on this. I am not the only hurt one, Acclaim took massive damage. Sili-san fought to his limit. All three have expanded their SP twice this day, we are all barely holding on. We can find a random house in this area. There seem to be some abandoned random houses across this snowfield. I say, we are just short of being north, and are completely to the east of this area. There wasn't a mountainous wall here before, supposedly, the sea is beyond the mountain.

Regardless, there is a house among the few small mountains in this area. I don't know what magic was used to have this happen. But we will take shelter here. We can dig a bit and rebuild the inside of the small mountain using the other houses to make a quick base that is well hidden.

Chapter 8

Evil awakens

We've made ourselves quite at home. Even if it is cold outside, we manage to get this place heated up well enough. We're eating some snacks, more impressively, we even got a BBQ going, this inventory that we have is super useful. Unfortunately, Sili-san is the only one that can actually use the BBQ. Acclaim can roast something over a flame, but that is it. Thanks for Theresa for stopping the house fire. Wind magic is also convenient, having the smoke just disperse before it can be visible in the air, perfect.

Yeah, we just made ourselves comfortable, despite the bleak situation. Maybe it was what we needed. I am reading a bunch, Sili-san is sleeping. Theresa is drawing quite a bit, practicing magical circles, perhaps? Acclaim is doing something in the background, I have no idea what. From time to time, we take in a Healing Pod to make sure we are ready for tomorrow. Though, I am the one that has to take most healing items.
We have got enemies everywhere. Ninjas. The Samurai. Gilgasoft. But we are strong. We can take them all out…After…We have slept… So…Comfortable…

I dozed off. Morning has come. We are slowly waking up. We didn't even get a bed. We were so relaxed, the floor and chairs were enough to put us to sleep.
We all sit on a table, eating breakfast…Well, they are only leftover snacks, but whatever.
"Well then. Now we are at full power!", Sili-san announced with confidence.
I nod. "That was rough, yesterday. We spent a whole day surviving. We came after one uber-powerful enemy, but now are stuck with more.", I comment on our position.

"All of them are capable…", Theresa said, she didn't sound scared perse, more like, admiring her opponents skills?
"We have one advantage. They are not friends. We could wait it out and have them wipe each-other out.", I state.
The three understand what I mean. Only Acclaim looks fine with it, however, even saying, "That is a sound plan…" On the other hand, Sili-san and Theresa actually look a bit…Bored?

That is fine. It doesn't sit well with me either.
I slam a fist down the table, not too hard, I don't have that kind of energy. I announce, "But that won't do! We are strong! And we must show them what we are made of!"
Sili-san cracks a smile and says, "That's what I like to hear. Honestly, I am done being in the sidelines."
Theresa grabs her staff, her face doesn't show it, but her body language indicates excitement.
"With my powered up transformation, we can definitely beat all of them. We have trained for this! Besides, only the Ninja are truly chasing us, they might as well treat each other like side-quests! There is no guarantee anything will be over if we laze around.", I say.

Acclaim looks like he is nodding with his whole body. He tells me, "That also makes sense to me. Whatever you choose, leader, I believe in your decision."
That's it. We are at full power. The ninjas have a few strong combatants, but even their special ninjas can be dealt with, with just one of us. I can defeat as many of them as possible in HDD, and on top of that, beat either Gilgasoft or the Samurai. If needed, the three of them can take Gilgasoft into a stalemate, while I defeat the Samurai. If needed, Theresa can teleport the group away, and I can easily fly out of combat.

"Okay then. I don't have much of a plan. We lack too much information. I suggest we go with something bold. We go all out from the beginning and defeat as many enemies as possible. I am sure we might have to retreat and defeat anyone else the next day. But I believe we can cripple them today. I will transform the moment we exit this house, and I will draw all enemies my way. Let's get the ninja out of the way first, for they are the most hostile. You three can defeat any special ninja, and if possible, team up against Gilgasoft. The Samurai is my target, and mine alone.", I lay down the rules of our next campaign.

They get out of their chairs, Theresa with her little hop. Sili-san, ready to run out of the house, and Acclaim, preparing for combat. We move out of the house, but before we do anything, Acclaim calls out to us, "Wait! I have something for all of you!"
We stop to turn at him.
He hands us some coats.
"Since last blizzard, I don't want the cold to hinder us again. Besides, all of your clothing have been torn.", he explains.

This must be what he was working on yesterday. I see, he bought the material before we left and finished finalizing them now.
He was right, most of our clothing has been damaged, so we gracefully take his offer.
I have a nice black coat made of cotton, it also looks like there are some sheep wool aesthetics made over some parts of the coat. Theresa is given a small coat, but with a thick white robe made of the same fabric as a winter coat, it also had red wool outlines. Sili-san got what looks like knight armor, but between each piece of armor is come kind of cloth that all comes together once put on. Also, the insides of the armor are made of wool as well.

"Damn, these are rather nice! You even took our looks into consideration.", Sili-san said.
"Hm…But aren't you cold?", Theresa asks, looking innocently over to Acclaim.
"I have metal arms and am already wearing a thick coat, I will be fine.", he responds.
I don't feel cold anyway, so this is more for the eye than anything…But…
"Thanks, Claimer…", I say to him. I throw in a smile for good measure. I don't actually know what my smiles look like though, I don't smile often.

I walk forward. We are all ready. Our enemies have probably already searched here. Regardless, if I fly around and cause havoc, they will come to me. Worst case scenario, The Samurai is nearby, but I have my doubts.
"Processor Unit! Set!", I call out. Whatever comes our way, we can beat them.
"Transformation!", I shout as I am engulfed in a pillar of light. I won't lose.
My clothes tear into nothingness, metal pieces fly to me and generate my new form.
I open my eyes with power symbols. For I have all my friends to back me up.
"Cold Heart, ready.", I say, fully transformed. And I am the best I've ever been…

I feel my body tense up. I bend one knee forward and place my hands on the ground, like I am about to sprint. In a moment's notice, a sonic boom blasts the snow in every direction as I am speeding over the white surface, my speed disparaging the snow underneath me. Then another sonic boom is made by me flying up into the air. I can feel the wind tearing as I get higher and higher. A hole is blown into the sky. It seems I went past the magic barrier.

As I slow down, I feel a little shaky. These new processors feel heavier than my last. I have to rebalance myself a little bit. I twitch my legs a bit, I lean back and to my sides. Despite having to get used to it again…It feels good to fly after so long. The sun just rising over the mist that is the barrier itself, greeting me. I have been overzealous. Calm…Calm. Okay. I can't see anything up here, I need to move a little below the mist barrier.

I catch my breath a bit while looking around. I can see the ninjas south and west from the three. Some are heading back, a lot are walking over this way, some are going north, and further from them is a whole army stationed. They are spread out, but not for long.
First thing's first, I must take out the ones that are getting closer to the other three, the rest will come at me.

Now, besides Wolf, I must not kill any of them. They work for Lowee, so as far as I know, they are only doing their job. That Wolf guy on the other hand, he appears to be immortal, so I don't need to worry about doing lethal damage. Either way, let's begin.
Flying down at a low speed I charge my black blade with light.
"UnionStar… Light Slash!", I shout as unleash the first attack. I see them pointing and gaping at the blade of light that is coming their way. They get scattered into the air by the huge explosion of light that came before their flight.

Of course, this doesn't knock out everyone. They will spot me as I fly close to them, shooting them with my arrows. I quickly fly down to the next batch of ninjas. My arrival near them created a wind blast strong enough to knock some over. They shout at me and each other, but I am not even listening. I feel a rush, but I also feel focused on my job to the point of tunnel vision.

"CombinationStar Light Slash!", I shout as I swing my sword like a baseball bat unleashing a burst of light magic that sends them flying. A handful are leftover on purpose, I want them to follow me. I fly away at a speeds high enough to make those behind me recoil. Any ninja in my way forward gets blown away by the mere swipe of my sword. They have finally gotten the memo and are throwing ninja stars and bombs at me. I slowly elevate myself as I curve into the air and fly to my left. I dodge more ninja stars. Wait! I sense something through Wind Sense.

I quickly maneuver downwards before doing a quick arc backwards over the ninja stars which had previously followed my downwards movements. I take a second to look, I senses new faster projectiles aimed at me. I see that they are using rifles. I suppose it isn't too odd for ninjas to have guns but…
I can create small magical footholds in the air using this form, with that, I use Light Step in the air to quickly avoid these bullets. Regardless, more enemies arrive.

I see them crouch down and they are unloading missile launchers, they seem rather high-tech too. Each carry at least sixteen missiles as they unfold and open up. A good hundred missiles are flying at me. I try to fly away from them in a straight line, but I will just get caught up between them, so I fly straight up instead. They are homing in on me, but that also means they will come close to me.

I slow my momentum a bit to let some of the furthest missiles catch up to me. Using a tiny bit of magic through my feet (Because aside from, explosion, casting magic from my feet is very difficult) I use wind as I slightly touch the tip of one missile with my foot before flying away, this will make it collide with another one, a small chain of them explode. I do this for a bit before I can take a bit more distance, and at that point, I can just fully spam Air Blast to blow them all up.

I take a moment, I can see them firing more my way. However, at this distance…
I don't know if this will work, but damage will be minimal either way. It is worth it.
Going upside down, I am ready to shoot myself down. I kick myself off with a sonic boom, my speed increasing to even Mach 5. I may have less control descending like an arrow, but I just need enough to tilt myself away from the missiles, sometimes it is easier to just do a little spin. After another fully charged Light Slash to take out the missile launchers, I flip around in time to land on the ground with a huge 'BOOM' I can hear even the ninjas yelp.

I let light burst from underneath my feet. Just before the missiles curve and come back down. Now, at a max speed of Mach 7, I blast away leaving a bunch of exploding missiles behind me. I still have many throwing ninja-stars and shooting Vulcan bullets my way, I do a crooked curve in mid-air while grabbing my bow and arrow. They may have those as well, however, my rapid firing speed is unparallel.

I fly around, raining arrows down on them. Making many explode in mid-air to stop their weapons, and a few more on the ground to create a smoke screen. It gives me the opportunity to go down and knock out some stragglers. Going back up in the air, I find them finally gathering to me, all armies coming my way. Some of them use Doton to shoot themselves into the sky.

One of them tried to assault me with two daggers, but I can easily evade it with a snap movement using Light Step. He immediately gets an arrow in the back from me as I am upside down above him. Two more ninjas are above me throwing various weapons at me, some of them just use guns. I fly down to avoid their initial projectiles before curving upwards whilst countering them with my arrows.

Suddenly, my left arm gets entangled, now I can sense a shinobi with a kite flying my way. It is impressive that he or she can do that from her. The kite ninja shoots a fireball at me from his or her mouth. The one that entangled me with rope gets flung into the fireball by me, taking the hit for me. The kite ninja jumped off the kite to try and cut me, but I blocked his blades with my bow, I kick myself above her before kicking her down below. I pursue her so I can use reflection to send her to the ground.

I fly over to the other unconscious ninjas and send them back. Reflection shoots you at light speed, but it envelops you in some magic barrier so you don't take much blunt force when crashing into something. I sense heat in the air. I do a barrel roll, avoiding a fire ball that explodes in the air. More Ninjas are shooting spells and magic enchanted shuriken and bullets at me. Whilst avoiding them, I use Light magic on my spread arrows. I haven't actually practiced rapid fire with these, but I can try.

Using Weapon Create, I can make as many arrows as needed. Now I shoot them into spreads of ten arrows, and I can fire about three every two seconds at max speed, so that is about thirty arrows every two seconds. At some point, the ninjas below get overwhelmed by a rain of arrows that turn more or less into beams of light. I shoot them whilst shouting, "Licht Regen!"

I've spend at least half an hour by now, blasting shinobi with Light Slashes both weaker and stronger ones, sometimes I come down to hit them physically before moving away again. It seems one of their main forces are here now… Actually, I notice them spreading around as well, but more suspiciously, they are not going near a plateau surrounded by cave systems. I let my instinct decide. I summon my exploding hammer and axe, now I dive down as with as much force as possible.

I slam down with my hammer and axe exploding upon crashing into the ground. Ninjas had been hiding into the snow, now they all jumped out. Even though I bet they didn't expect me to do this, they did not waver. All are coming for me like they have planned. But I won't let them dog pile me. I spin around, activating the magic thrusters of my hammer and axe, creating a tornado that is sucking them all up. A lot of other ninjas are coming my way, but it doesn't matter, the weaklings get caught up in it anyway.

I notice some bulky body-builder type ninjas. I assume they are tougher, so I will do the finisher of this move on one of them. I use the momentum of the tornado to move myself in front of one to smash both axe and hammer into him shouting, "Super Explosive Zerstorung!" I send him flying into a hill far away.
Another bulky one expands his muscles further as he jumps my way to punch me down, but I stop his attack with the brunt of my hammer, another guy tries to punch me from my right whilst the former is pushing my hammer down.

Strength is considerable, I think this may actually be from some buffing magic. Either way, I am using his strength weave over his back, letting my hammer get punched in the ground whilst I thrust my left shoulder into the air. With my back turned on his, and his friends getting close to him, I smack both of them with my axe as I turn around. Shuriken are thrown in front of me, but I stop them by spinning my axe and hammer with my fingers fast enough to deflect them. Now this move actually lets me see fear in their eyes.

Two lower level ninja snuck behind me, not knowing I can sense them. I do backhanded swings of both axe and hammer at the same time and knock them away with an explosion. Next, I stab the hammer and axe into the ground to block two red Ninjas, I can tell they are about to shoot flames from their hands, so I cast explosion into the two weapons before jumping away.

After the weapons both explode and create a smoke screen, the two ninja floor each other with the use of fire balls. Another red ninja did a spinning move with his two daggers in mid-air almost turning into a blue ring of death. But I blocked his slash, he instantly tried to stab me with the second hand-dagger, but I kick both feet into the air and move around his left arm, as he stabs air, I place the sole of my right foot on his neck and kick him into the ground with a burst of light shooting out of my foot.

Another red ninja launched himself my way using Doton, and then he tries to use Doton with the swing of his blade to impale me with a spear coming from the earth, but I swiftly move away, as if I was never there to begin with. I appear behind him, and as he turns around, I shoot him through his own earth spear using Reflection from the palm of my hands.

I dash forward and summon the Morning Star. This chained spike ball is rarely used, at this point I do it for fun. I swing it around and it essentially becomes a living snake of destruction thanks to wind magic making it easy to control. I throw it straight at ninjas, those that hide aren't save, as I can smash it down to their general area and have it explode, the spikes blasting out of the ball into them.

I can wrap the chain around one ninja and smash him into another. I can deflect projectiles with the chain itself whilst I wildly swing the weapon around without looking. At some point, a group of Ninja came together and fired off a Ninjutsu elemental attack, each representing one of them. Katon(Fire) Futon(Wind) Raiton(Lightning) Doton(Earth) Suiton(Water) Hyuton(Ice) all come my way. I use the chain to entangle a ninja and I hurl him in front of the attack. It blows up magnificently into him. I use reflection to shoot the chained ball into the wind Ninja's face.

The fire ninja was already preparing another flame attack, but I land on his face with my right foot, then I kick him away. The Doton user shoots a huge pillar of earth from beneath him my way, but I cut through it with my sword shooting a blade of light through him and knocking the ninja out along the way. The Hyuton Ninja tries to surround me in ice, but I just step on the service of his manifesting icicle so I can shoot myself towards the water ninja as he send off a Suiton at me.

The water would help freezes me, if I didn't fly past it. I land next to the water ninja and use Reflection to send him far away. The ice ninja tries to hit me with more ice, but I use 'Flame Edge' from my blade to melt the smallest amount of ice in my way, it's just enough to go through it, with the thrust of my sword I move into the ice ninja and blow him away. I quickly get up in the air before getting caught up in a surrounded attack by magic using ninjas. They had cast a bunch of spells that only ended up colliding into each other, as I, their target, have already fled.

They are not backing down anytime soon…
I spent another hour. I used multiple weapons and slowly reduced their number. Now that I have their attention, I take it easy and won't spend much more SP, reducing their numbers leisurely. Back up in the sky, I look at how the other three are doing. They have been following me at a slow pace, taking out stragglers. They have been pretty stealthy, I suppose all of them have learned from our crime fighting.

Theresa actually already has the stealth move to create snowy winds to cover herself. She then incases a bunch of Ninja using Ice Coffin. Sili-san and Acclaim mostly work together to silently sneak around the Ninja and tie them up. Acclaim already learned the stealth speed movement skills from fighting them, of course. I smile, satisfied on how it is going.

What's this?! It came out of nowhere, I see a grappling hook's rope wrapped around my arm, someone pulls on me. I'm far stronger though, he can't really pull me forward much. I breath in, preparing for a fight as a man flies my way. It is the special Ninja, Wolf. I stop his sword with my own as he flies by.

I dash towards him and try to get him with the palm of my hand, but he even parried my Reflection skill, knocking my hand aside. I could feel him about to counter, so I use my open stretched out hand, casting explosion to fling myself back, and away from his sword. I then back off further with Light Step, yet he still manages to hit me with a shuriken, which I did parry. He may be weak, but he is extremely skilled.

I let my sword burst with Light as he uses the grappling hook to pull himself my way. I let him, because I think I can just kill him with this move.
"CombinationStar Light Slash!", I shout as I unleash a blast of light from my swing, but through that light he comes with some kind of metal folding hat thing. Can it block magic? I'll have to assume that.

Once again, he gets close to me, but as he thrusts forward, I fly over him, once again making my sword burst with Light. As I have his back in sight, I shoot another Mid-tier Light Slash at him. He turns around, but can only block it this time as he is send to the surface near some other ninja. His legs are surprisingly durable, but I will end him here. I fully charge my blade with Light, even revving it up with a spin.

"UnionStar Light Slash!", I shout with a big blade of light flying his way.
He parried that too?! I didn't think it possible, but he just casually deflects the whole attack to his side, causing some casualties among the ninja nearby. He looks to the side with cold sweat, I suppose he wasn't thinking of them, but feels bad enough about his mistake?

I don't really care, he is the primary threat. I fly down at him, but even with great velocity and weight on my sword swing, he parries me, brushing me aside as he moves one step past me. I hurriedly place a foot down, now I can turn around and rush at him. He parries swing after swing, but if he can parry everything at all times, he would've parried my first Light Slash. it must be an ability that requires focus, I must throw him off.

Eventually, he hits my sword hard enough for me to lose balance, I almost trip over as he is about to stab me in the neck. But then, I kick myself into the air with my left leg, the blade going over my hair. I place both hands on my sword and do a quick spin in mid-air, cleanly cutting through his neck. I make a circle in the snow as I land. With grace, I place the sword back in its sheath, mostly to look cool.

I quickly hop back and gain a little altitude. I look at him. He may have lost his head, but I know that won't stop him. Cherry blossom leafs surround him, and a pink light revives him from the dead. He places his head back on his shoulder. After a few neck cracks, he raises his sword once more. I shoot blades of Light at him, but he is using his grappling hook to evade my attacks with great timing. Eventually, he hurls himself at me. He shoots a flame out of a vent in his prosthetic arm.

I guard myself against the flame. Then he rushes through and uses a spear coming out of the same arm, while it is on fire, he does a wide swing with it. I can easily dodge it by floating up a bit. I try to strike him with a sword of light, but he parries that, no surprise. Expecting it, I use the force of his parry to flip over and kick him down. I shoot another Light Slash at him, but he uses that hat shield thing to block it. Afterwards, he uses his grappling hook to safely move onto the ground.

I fly after him, intending to thrust my sword into him. But he doesn't parry it, in fact, he dashes forwards. Huh? I have never been so befuddled, he should have no strength as a human, but he kicks my sword into the ground and stops me. Then he jumps behind my back and impales me with his sword. I don't have any organs anymore, though. Little does he know, he is not the only one to come back from the dead. I touch his blade, then I must move away from him.

He was pulling his sword out, so I can easily get away with a Light step. I turn to him, and I see him raise both eyebrows ever so slightly. Well, this next one is going to be more of a surprise.
I run towards him, he is ready to attack me, but the moment he uses his sword…
'Boom!' Explosion magic I had placed on his blade triggers, leaving him defenseless against an up close slash of a sword engulfed with light magic.

After smoking him, I fly back into the air. But I hear the sound of his revival again. I guess he can revive more times? I look back down and I see the pink light. Maybe I must incinerate him instead…
He uses his grappling hook again to get close on me. He actually attacks me violently with aggressive strokes of his sword.

I am actually panicking. None of my counter attacks are hitting him, he is parrying every attack back despite him being in mid-air. He is above me, meaning he is practically falling onto me. I have to move backwards while finding an opening in his quick attacks, but I feel my overall posture weakening.

To my surprise, he pulls out a second, longer sword. It is a black katana, and as he performs a strike, a black-ish red aura is emitted from it. It isn't one of the mythical blades, I can tell.
Whatever it is, I can sense something ominous from it somehow. So I frantically get away from him by flying to my left, my right shoulder gets cut. This sword can kill me?!
I feel such genuine pain from it. My shoulder is actually damaged. This blade is not normal.

I fly over him and engulf my sword in Light once more. It gets more and more intense, whilst he is similarly charging his own blade with ominous energy. However, he doesn't account for our power difference, and it seems he can't parry with this sword. Because now that our swords are grinding against each-other, I can easily fly onto him to push. He can't get me off as I turn snow around me into Light. My sword absorbs more and more light until I shout, "UnionStar Helios Slash!", I give Wolf a trip to the skies where this attack will explode, leaving him as nothing but ashes.

I think about two hours passed? The number of Ninja was huge. I think they really assembled a whole army here. More just kept coming, others were revived or woke up from being knocked out. But now I have to actively seek out new enemies to fight. Abruptly, I feel someone is within my space. My eyes opened all the way as a feeling of some thought shooting through my mind has come upon me.

I feel a presence behind me, now knowing why, I feel fear, despite the lack of reason. I turn my head around behind me and see a Ninja cloaked in shadow, except for his white commander coat. It almost feels like he is flying. His knives are close to my throat, but I can quickly swipe my blade upwards whilst holding it horizontally, blocking the blades. I quickly let my sword get engulfed with light. I fly backwards and the concentrated light at him, blowing him to pieces… Odd…He just kind of, shattered like glass. It isn't natural.

I stop for a bit, I feel dumbstruck. Looking around, I don't see anything, but I feel like I missed a memo.
Something is coming?! A big thing is flying my way at high speed, I was too engrossed to notice it in time, but I can definitely feel the rough splitting of wind near me.
I look above me, as the thing, which is actually Gilgasoft, is about to smash me with an electrified hammer and a blazing axe. With small explosions, I am send to the ground.

Close to the ground, I see him flying straight at me with his lance pointing at me.
I cast explosion to do a back flip, now when I land, he will miss me. I place my feet on the snow and see a cloud in front of me. After the wind blows it away, it reveals Gilgasoft taking his spear off the ground.
"our fight didn't conclude. You still aren't worthy of the sword.", he says.
Very fixated and focused, is probably the best I can say about him.

He already has his black sword taken out. I am not sure if this is fortunate or unfortunate, as I am running dry of SP, but I can beat him one versus one, on the other hand, The Samurai is out there and the highest threat. Gilgasoft does an upper forward thrust of his sword to summon a big crooked pillar of earth my way, but it is then stopped by another smaller pillar of earth.
I heard a voice during that time, "Doton" It is the Ninja's earth magic, which is rare in this world.

I sense Someone approaching, with that figure, I know it is Acclaim.
He speeds in front of me using Light Step.
"I have arrived, Leader.", he boldly announces.
Gilgasoft is looking down on him, but Acclaim shows no sign of fear as he returns a glare.
"I will be fighting him. I have enough techniques to do so.", He calmly states.

I don't doubt it. If anyone can fight powerful beings one on one, it is him with his copy ability. Even if Gilgasoft has the black blade, this skirmish has given Acclaim not only all our techniques, but also that of the ninja. But why is he here?
"Acclaim. Status report.", I say.
"Yes, leader! Foot soldiers are scattered and lost. I saw Gilgasoft coming, so I told Silicon and Theresa that I would be fighting him. The other two are facing the Ninja commander, Gaiden.", Acclaim reports.

A ninja commander. We have heard his name back when we were hiding. The last commander I saw before him wasn't that tough, but maybe this one is different, if it takes both of them. Now that I think about it, wasn't the ninja that attacked me just now also a Commander? It can't be that he is in two places at the same time, right?
"Are they having trouble with him?", I ask Acclaim.
"I wouldn't say they are likely to lose, but it being a long winded battle without a victor is very probable. The enemy is skilled in trickery.", Acclaim tells me.

I see… My thoughts are stopped by the loud footsteps of Gilgasoft approaching.
"Hey, I don't agree with you just standing there. If you don't make your move, I will!", he shouts, already preparing a cannon of Lava.
Acclaim breaks through it, shouting, "EXE Drive Skill!"
"Dai Hitsuden Ninpo… Midori Jigoku!", Acclaim is shouting with every release of attacks that he has learned from fighting Kagura.

He is overwhelming Gilgasoft with a flurry of green flaming katanas and a following giant green tornado of flame. I know he wants me to leave, and this is the best time. I don't think Gilgasoft will let me leave after yesterday. I fly northeast of here, I want to get a bit closer to Theresa and Sili-san without their enemy spotting me. Their match up is mostly what we want, I am better off scouting and resting. I need to wait a bit for my SP to restore.

I leisurely fly in the middle of Acclaim and the other two, only a bit further north. I think I've flown for at least five minutes. I find time harder to tell at this point…I sense a presence. A shinobi flies my way after the use of Doton to propel her here. I turn around and block her six katana. I see, Kagura has come to take revenge. Well, this move doesn't use much SP…

I leap away from her, having her lose her posture in mid-air. Using Light Step, I move in on her with a punch, before moving away. I do this over and over again, increasing my speed each time. I practically pass her with every punch until I have her dazed. Then I appear above her. I let light shoot from under my feet, it's getting stronger, rougher, until it will explode and shoot me at her at my highest speed. Then I punch her to the ground shouting, "Reflection Punch!"

I think this will knock her out…Or not. She uses Doton to change the earth underneath her, somehow softening the fall. And she is back up, very tough indeed. I fly below her, I am interested to hear her speak, especially because she is wearing a confident smile.
"Yo. It has been a while. You dare just leave me behind without finishing me off? And to think you were a goddess, why the need for such tactics, huh?", is what she has to say.
"Sorry. I was hurt back then.", I reply to her with a fact.

"Hoo…I see. Even the immortal can get hurt. That's good to know!", she says as she slowly leans back whilst opening her hands and spreading her katana, "That means I have a chance to harm a god…I will pay you back one way or another!"
She then picks the scroll and shouts, "Ninja transformation!"
Her regular clothes get torn off, and in place, new ones materialize on her. She uses the Secret Scroll again, giving her the power to unsheathe her sword and unleash the green flame.

She uses large flame attacks, getting close means getting hit. I can only really attack her from a distance without getting hit, but that is difficult if I want to conserve SP. I've only gotten a little back. I can't use snow manipulation, for she will simply evaporate them. I just have to find an opening to fly in, hit her, and run away.

She unleashes a great wide green fire from an overhead swing of her sword, I fly to me left, I go clockwise around her. Whilst her flames are going out, she quickly sends her six katana flying with wind magic. I keep my pace up and fly above one as it passed me by, below the next, I hit the following away, then I cast explosion from my feet and flip over the next one, continuing from that I get to the ground below the previous four as the fifth one flies by, and from there I leap backing into the air and maintained flight avoiding the last sword.

I can sense her putting her right foot behind her as she turns her hips, her sword already above head, ready to swing it where I'm flying towards. To stop my momentum, I cast Explosion Magic from all hands and feet into mid-air black flip to dodge another row of fire. It almost got me too. I swiftly fly up higher, as she swings here sword from there to her upper left, where I was. Now I have to fly back down again as she shoots another burst of flames my way, yet again, I quickly get off the ground to fly around her clockwise before she strikes her sword down, the blazes falling onto me, I barely escape to the ground besides it.

I see her holding her sword above her shoulder, ready to do a spin-slash. I fly as high up as possible as she does this spin that turned the whole battlefield into burning hellfire. I use a bow and shoot some arrows at her, but as I expect, she simply burns them to a crisp. I've tried making fireproof arrows instead, but the air is denser making it harder for them to hit her, and her six swords knocking them away doesn't help.

From under her left arm, she swings the sword up, unleashing a pillar of flame. I dodge it, now I am going to fly upwards spiraling around it. Once up a certain altitude I fly a bit further away from the fire and look down. She sends her six flying swords my way, but on top of that she uses, "Doton", to shoot herself towards me by blasting a pillar of earth out of the ground. I easily knock the six sword away, but now she us up in my face.

I dodge a slash of fire, casting explosion from my feet into a front flip over her head. I level myself to her, back to back. With no pause, I swing my blade as I do a 180 turn and hit her in the back sending her a small distance away from me. I know she can't fly, but she turns to me with a smile and looks like she is about to say something, so I fly down with her as she is speaking to me.

"You really are amazing. And incredibly fast!", she says, before letting go a small laughter.
"But we are all prepared to kill any target no matter what!", She declares with a crazed smile as she holds up a cylinder…No, it is a gas canister. As it's spraying gas, she throws it at me.
"Futon!", She shouts with her hand spread out in front of her. The wind magic blasts the canister my way, spreading the gas even further. I fly down a little to avoid it. I look above me.
It has no color, It doesn't seem like any special type of…But fire does. She is going to blow me up! I realize I need to get away right now.

I fly downwards max speed, I can only her the sizzling of her blade as she swings it, and following that, a big 'Kaboom'! I can feel the heat on me as I land down onto the snow. Above me is an enormous ball of fire. Naturally, she comes back down. I leap far away to avoid a beam of flame smacking into the ground, spreading more fire as she goes down. At this point, there is no snow surrounding us…Well, there shouldn't be. But everything is still white and the texture looks the same.

I slightly tap the tip of my boot into the ground a few times and it sounds super hard.
This hardened to rock? I am caught off guard by her six blades, which I easily avoid, but then she comes at me, flying my way using a smaller explosion behind her as a boost to get to me quickly. I block her sword, but the emitted fire still hurts me, and so, she is able to easily hurl me over the ground with a good push.

"Hehe…I could strike a god…", she says to herself, she sounds creepy.
That kind of ticks me off.
Maybe I should be more aggressive to get her on her toes? I fly over to her, of course, she is going to shoot another beam of fire, so I cast explosion from my right foot, sending me into a spinning motion to the left, evading the fire. Then, I use another Explosion to fly next to her. She is about to swipe me with her sword, but with Light Step, I can instantly close the distance. I place my hand on her, and Shoot her away with Reflection.

That was the plan, but I see she resisted it, she stands there, almost about to fall on her back. She is holding on and returns a smug face to me.
"That will no longer work on me…", she says confidently.
She might've fought some monsters and raised her defense stat. Alongside her just getting used to that technique, I suppose.

The fight goes on for ten minutes. Evading her flaming attacks, then I come in to strike her, but she usually defends herself pretty well. I don't want to use any SP move on her, but as this fight goes on, I might get away with doing one attack, I hope it will be enough to defeat her.
"EXE Drive Skill!", she shouts. This gives me goosebumps. I stand guard as the air gets dense.
"Dai Hitsuden Ninpo!", she screams as she puts a scroll in her mouth and unleashes hellish flames from her sword.

The green fire spreads and fuses with her six katana. They spread out into dozens of flaming knives. I can move only slightly, but I am strong enough to block most of them. Of course, this is just the beginning, her six katana are going to surround me and create a green flaming tornado. Inside the tornado, I can feel being burned, I should count my blessings, at least the pain is minimal with me not being alive enough to feel all of it. The six katana occasionally come in to slice me, I can block some, but other times I get cut.

I can see Kagura above me, she must've already jumped off the tornado.
"Midori Jigoku!", I hear her shout as she passes through me with one cut. The fire explodes around me. However, I will not lose. I wipe away the flame and smoke, very aggressively. I look down at her, she is crouched over, but she turns around and seems scared. She should be. I fly down at her and strike her with a light engulfed sword. She manages to block me, but I can see her arms can't take more.

I push her with my feet, I release the pressure onto her sword, so I can quickly turn my wrist and hit her sword to my left, almost disarming her. She looks dumbfounded at her sword, it is the best time to kick her away, using the momentum of my sword swing. I do a spin right after my kick to rev up my sword, then I unleash a burst of light at her shouting, "UnionStar Light Slash!"
She crosses her arms, and while the hit is direct, unfortunately, I can see her still standing. Her clothes are tearing a bit, and I see some burn marks over her arms, but she seems fine enough.

She opens her arms and still looks excited, even if she is breathing heavily.
Damn it. I can't take more of this. I might have to run and hope for one of the others to face her.
Luckily, my mental call has been answered. Kagura looks to my right intensely, then she dodges some missiles. Through the smoke of the blown up missiles, Acclaim arrives using Light Step.

"Tch…Is that you, copycat?!", she asks rudely.
Acclaim walks over to me, not even paying attention to her.
"Bios. It is urgent. You need to get to Theresa and Silicon and tell them to retreat.", Acclaim tells me.
"Status report?", I ask him.
"Yes. The Samurai has arrived.", that alone sends me shivers, but then he also adds, "He is fighting Gilgasoft as we are speaking. However, since both have existed in this place, I doubt that fight will have a victor. Both will come for us at some point."

After a nod, I look at him with questioning eyes. I know he isn't done.
"Of course. I will take over this fight. I know your priority is the samurai, you can't waste your energy here. Don't worry. I will hold her back and flee, myself.", Acclaim elaborates.
"Understood.", I say, and to that, Kagura is complaining about this arrangement, but I don't care to listen to her words.

I fly up into the sky, I watch Acclaim use another EXE Drive attack the second the fight starts. He must've saved some energy from the last battle.
"EXE Drive Skill! Hiden Ninpo!", he shouts as he does consecutive flaming cuts with two swords at a bizarre speed, then, he summons four flames and combines them into one sword. He then flies over to Kagura whilst the emitting flames make him like a fire bird.

He blows her away with a sword of flame shouting, "Midaresaki!" I know how the attack goes, I stop looking and keep flying, at the same time, a huge pillar of red flame ignites behind me. I go up really high, and I do see The Samurai and Gilgasoft fighting. Gilgasoft's defenses are crazy enough to resist splitting up from his air sword attacks. He also doesn't give the Samurai the chance to do many of them, constantly barraging him with projectiles and using his own black sword.

The Samurai can use some of his attacks and delayed cuts to slice his arms and disarm him from some weapons, with exception to the black blade, of which he never lets go of. Either way, I don't know how that fight will end, so I must get to the others. I see three figures up ahead. I must fly faster. I am really trying to focus my vision on them…

…

I see them now. Theresa and Sili-san look barely harmed, maybe a few scorch marks and cuts on clothing. I am more intrigued by how stationary they seem. They aren't even really fighting. Gaiden is also just staring at them. What is going on? Oh, Gaiden has begun to move. I shoot a weaker Light Slash at him, "CombinationStar Light Slash!", with that shout, the sword slash between the two parties interrupts the fight. Soon after, I can land between them.

After my landing, I hear them call my title, I look at Gaiden. The most notable thing about Gaiden is how plain he looks. There is no flair, his face is the most basic you'll ever see, he has the most popular office worker hair-cut. His clothing is not special either. When you think about it, he is the perfect Ninja, you'll never notice him.

"Leader. What are you doing here?", Sili-san asks.
"Ha. I knew you were the leader. So this is your true form?", Gaiden says.
I look back to Sili-san and say, "Good job."
"Aaaaah…Damn it. Sorry.", He says, I can hear his brain fart. Theresa responds to him with, "She complimented you, why do you look upset?"
I walk away from them as I hear, "I'm going to teach you the wonders of sarcasm later."

Gaiden looks smug at me, but something is off. Like he isn't reacting naturally.
Whatever, I don't have time for this. I shoot myself at him with Light Step, then I hit his side with my sword. I can feel pain within my own side, like the attack reflects back at me. In the corner of my eye, I see a dent in my side, but nothing else. I see how it is.
I hear my friends shouting at me to stop, yet, I cut through him anyway. It is a rough split, but he is in half. I can feel the same pain of being halved, however, I don't die. My body is immortal, unlike his.

This pain is not enough to make me faint…
I look over to the other two.
"That's not the real him!", Sili-san shouts.
I see. That was a shadow clone, maybe with some embedded technique to reflect damage.
"Leader really is amazing! We weren't able to attack knowing one of his clones will hurt us in return, but you just beat him!", Theresa says excitingly.

"So, what is the deal with him?", I ask.
"Illusion magic or something, and other odd Ninja tricks. But we can take him.", Sili-san says.
"I don't doubt it…", I pause while looking around for Gaiden, then I continue, "But the Samurai is here. I need you to gather with Acclaim and make a run for it. With the three of you together, I think any other enemy will be unable to beat you. That guy however? He is beyond you.", I tell them.

"I see, it is already time for the temporal retreat.", Sili-san says.
"Don't worry about Gaiden. I will defeat him. You must run away. Go north, and a bit to the west. Acclaim should be able to find you.", I tell them.
They get ready to run while telling me things like, "Be careful", and what not.
I am still actively searching this ninja. He is even able to hide from Wind Sense. I am certain the real one is hiding here.

After Theresa and Sili-san are gone, I feel a random presence in the wind. No, it is Gaiden coming out of hiding. I turn around to see him up a small snow dune.
"Oh, you can follow me? Very impressive indeed. But this means nothing. Without your friends, you are just prey. I will hunt you down and fulfill my mission.", he says.
I don't even say anything. I grab a knife and shoots it through his chest at light speed shouting, "Reflection!", This alone downs him.

He crouches down while I grab my bow. He tries to get up, but I shoot an arrow in each knee and have them explode. On his damaged knees, I fly up to him and materialize a hammer, just a regular silver one this time. I smack him on the head and knock him out.
"I don't have time to play around.", I say quietly.
I look to the skies and think. I must get to the others as quickly as possible. I've fought enough crazy people that think they're cool who then will do a bunch of crazy techniques.

I fly away from him. I try to find my friends…Alas…Even after five minutes, I see nothing. In fact, a fog is covering me now. Again, this weird feeling. Someone is behind me. A ninja covered in shadow, with only the white coat visible. I look over my shoulder, and see him flying to me about to stab me. I use a magical circle to do Light Step and increase the momentum of my flight. But to my shock, he is still behind me!
What the heck?!

No matter how fast I go, he tails me, in fact, the distance stays the exact same!
Maybe some kind of magical tether or skill?! Confused as I am, all I can do is turn around a deliver a hastily cut to his neck. When I did that, it disappeared into the mist. Once again, a ninja with the same built appears to my left, just a little below me. Somehow, he is floating upwards. He tries to stab me, but he crumbles to dust with just one strike.

One behind me. One below me. One above me. One right in front of me. Each just appeared and died easily. Are they even real? To test out, when the next one appeared, I move into him with a punch to stop his advancement. I feel his knife for a bit, with some pressure, I can feel the sensation of getting cut. I kick the ninja away and look at my hands.
If they hit me, it will do real damage? Is this real? I somehow feel fear. I am now surrounded by multiple of them.

I am able to kill most with simple attacks, but I feel overwhelmed, a few shallow cuts later, and I use a sword of light to cut through a group of them. Some do hand signs whilst moving above me, and I can see flares appearing.
"Katon!", I hear from a hollow voice. I move down to avoid the raging flames spewed on me. I touch the ground and am not only surrounded by Shinobi with the same white coat, now a bunch of weapons and elements surround me.

Within a few minutes of cutting and dodging things, I feel I am not getting anywhere. The panic is starting to fade however. I have not been thinking clearly. I close my eyes and use Wind Sense. Some of the Ninjas are real, but others aren't…The wind doesn't detect anything but only a few of the Ninjas.

In that case, let's do one attack that can hit everything around me. I grab an axe and I take it for a rapid spin as I shout, "Tanzerin Trombe!" After a great number of Ninja are gone, I can sense one man in the distance. It is faint, But I can sense him. I don't need to open my eyes, I just use Reflection. He is knocked over as the axe slams into his face, only the blunt side, though.

The mist fades away. With no time to spare, Gaiden appears in front of me using his Ninja Stealth speed movement. I spot a comically large bump on his head.
"Surprising as it is getting my illusion broken, It won't mortify me, considering I am fighting a goddess.", he says.
He isn't the only one to notice this form, my mask is gone after transformation. It's something I might need to fix.
Now then, I have a question, "You know what I am, why fight me?"

"As far as I'm concerned, you are an enemy CPU. The others may not know yet, but I am certain you are the leader of the vigilantes. Though, now I am more concerned you are from an invading nation.", he explains to me.
"Would you second guess yourself if I told you I only want peace for Lowee?", I ask.
"Irrelevant. I am a ninja, and my mission is to take out the Vigilantes, your true identity be damned! Once initiated, we only die or get ordered to quit, that is your only ticket to survive!", he states this with pride. His voice loud, his face stern with determined eyes.

But for a Ninja, he is blabbering a lot. Could it be that pride, or maybe…Is it to mislead me to think he won't be as skilled in trickery?
Regardless, I am not going to give him any time to prepare. With a swift use of Light Step, I move past him, a swing of my sword having already gone through him…No, I ended up cutting a mass of snow.

Is this the legendary substitution technique? How does it work?
Since he used snow, I might be able to catch him. I swing my sword around following whatever space has a lack of snow now. With snow manipulation, cuts transmits through the snow, I hear the sound of skin stripping off and a 'thwomp' on the snow. I turn to the sound and see him on one knee, although, he quickly gets up.

I leap towards him whilst he is using hand signals, I suddenly see three copies appear near him from a cloud of smoke. Shadow Clone Jutsu? I've read of these techniques in books, since Lowee has a history hiring ninjas, and then some got used in a popular anime, but now most don't know what comes from the anime and what is used by the real ninja.

Either way, there are two clones covering each flank, and the third one is running towards me. I cut through the first before jumping into the air, I can easily use explosion magic to quickly dive down into the real Gaiden, oddly enough, I don't see him moving, his other two clones are running into opposite directions, for some reason. Going down, I cut Gaiden in half, now I realize that I destroyed yet another clone.

I figure he must have swapped places with the clones, but I didn't see them move around much at all. Is this another version of substitution magic? Unlike Illusion Magic, the Shadow clones have a level of SP contained within them, because of that they become physical entities, but with poor resilience. Due to this, Wind Sense picks them up. Last time, he must've used them alongside the illusions to trick me.

Anyhow, I stop the running of the clone on the left making snow curl around him and harden with movement, then I slice him up. Shallow as the cuts are, cutting him enough through the snow will destroy the clone. Then I go after the remaining one, however, he quickly made another clone just before I got to him, now I have once again, cut through nothing. I am looking at him run now. I need to speed up my attack or increase range or he will keep escaping.
Snow scatters as I make my way over to him with high speed, with his turn, he uses Doton to summon a pillar of earth in front of me, which I can easily weave. If he is going to summon another clone, I will simply cut him down in an instant. Instead, he uses the Substitute Jutsu to swap with the pillar of rock he summoned out of the ground.

I turn around to see ropes in his hands. He grins as he opens his arms and the ropes pull carpets of snow into the air, raising a network of bombs tied with ropes. It seems they get ignited by absorbing oxygen to ignite whatever flame is inside them, or at least, I sense them pulling a lot of air inside. It's useless, I can easily cut these ropes with snow around them before he can swat me between the two networks of bombs. I see him close his arms to no avail, as the bombs just explode in the air not even near me.

I have already flown to him, I thrust my sword into him, only to find out it is another clone.
Tch, he keeps making them. There has to be a limit right.
I can only assume that his limit is the amount of something he can do. If it is strong ninjitsu, or it is complex or a vast amount of something that needs to be made, he needs more hand signs. Something like a single clone is quick, but three takes at least ten seconds.

Unfortunately, I have lost sight of him. I look behind me to see him jump at me out of nowhere. My instinct is to raise my sword on him for a counter, but then I thought, But he uses Illusion Magic.
With Wind Sense, I sense only the knives being physical, possibly having some SP infused in them, the body itself is an illusion.

But behind the illusion is a real presence. With my small stature, I easily launch myself through the fake body and destroyed a shadow clone behind him. Now I have a problem, I am detecting multiple presences around me thanks to Wind Sense.
I can't close my eyes to concentrate this time, however, the illusions need to be seen to accurately weave around them or go through to take out real targets. It is impossible to discern clone from real, since I can't sense magic.

Over and over again, I take out a clone coming at me with an illusion. As time goes on, their attacks get more complex. Illusions sometimes come out of nowhere to try and scare me, sometimes even making fake spells to trick me into dodging. Now the clones come in groups together with illusions. Sometimes they even shoot real Spells with the fake ones. The problem with the clones really is, is that their minds are still linked with Gaiden and can easily cast magic.

With how things work so far though, I have noticed that the difference between Ninjitsu and straight up magic is how the two cast them. A mage will use magical circles to cast a 100% Certain spell. Technically, the magical circle isn't required for a spell to simply happen, it is just assured it does as intended, and it can more easily be boosted by SP. Ninjitsu is the same principle, but it is hand signs instead.

The strategy for Gaiden is to just sit back and wait for me to wear myself out using his clones. I don't know how large his SP pool is. Mine is large because I constantly trained using a bunch of SP skills with different weapons, a mage would have a similar amount of max SP. A ninja would probably have more than average. Since Gaiden doesn't use powerful spells, I figured it would be the same for him, but then again, he isn't as physically strong as the other special Ninja, so perhaps he has more.

On my end, My SP is short now after defeating so many enemies at once. I have a bit more than before, but using much of it puts me at risk of fighting the Samurai at a disadvantage.
His tactic, however, isn't as well thought of as he would think. I can sense one presence garnering more distance than the rest. He is trying to run away, I guess. He must be thinking to defeat me in surprise attacks only. I won't allow it.

I shoot myself up high in the sky, I know exactly where he is.
"GatheringStar, Light Slash.", The weakest version of Light slash, a quick small blade of light hits him directly, albeit, he quickly substitutes a clone in his stead, but now I know he is among one of them. While in the air, I shoot more small blades of lights at the clones. Any 'Gaiden' appearing near me is an illusion, they are ignored.

I use a few knives to shoot them at Light Speed, killing more clones, at the same time, I shoot one final Light Slash until only one remains. I fly over to him, and he uses substitution jutsu to escape me once more, however, he clearly is panicking. He used snow again, and I am certain he knows what I can do based on him not using snow the last time. Worse for him, I now know of his technique, and can accurately follow him with Wind Sense.

This time, I precisely capture him within the snow before turning it into light.
"UnionStar Helios Slash!", I shout as I move in to cut him with a great exploding Light, which flings him into the sky. He looks like a ragdoll at first, but he actually manages to recover, I see him landing gracefully enough.
Wounded as he is, he grits his teeth and uses a bunch of ropes whilst shouting, "Doton" It seems he fuses earth magic with the ropes themselves to alter terrain, the ropes themselves have Kunai materializing out of them, and they are shot to me like arrows from a bow.

Next to that, he controls the earth with these ropes and uses that to try and slam me between.
Of course, I can quickly hit away any projectile with the use of snow, and the earth won't swallow me, for I can fly. I see the land amassed by him collapsing upon collision. I move to Gaiden and cut him. Another clone. This is frustrating. I might just kill h- No no…He isn't doing this out of pettiness…Actually, this fighting style isn't so different from mine.

I turn around and see him do quick hand signs, he looks like a madman as he is chanting and an aura surrounds him.
Lots of magic is gathering around him! He is going to use something troublesome.
I hurry over to him, actually, I stop halfway, because he is already finished.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!", he shouts as I am surrounded by a thousand clones. Maybe more.

The clones may die in one hit, but they all distribute equal power in magical attacks and physical prowess. Wiping them all away with a giant Light Slash is easy, but that costs SP, which I already wasted on the last attack. Fortunately, I can also gain SP by doing normal damage to all of them, defeating them may even grant me a level up, also restoring SP.

They are all coming for me. Charging at me holding daggers in each hand. I make snow move and combine, waves of snow dance in the air as I move my black blade. With speed that turns my right arm into blurs, I make all the thick snow cut the Ninjas in the frontlines, a lot of them I hold back with snow, though trying to make snow solid against this large of a group from all directions is too difficult.

The attacks through the snow by themselves are not strong enough, I could turn them into Light, but that would cost energy. Perhaps my concern for SP efficiency shouldn't have been my priority. Now they have come close, they are grabbing me, body slamming me, and stabbing me all that once. It barely hurts, but my body will cease movement if they keep this up. I spin my hand with the sword gripped tightly, creating a whirlwind of snow, then I turn it into light that blasts the Ninjas holding me, then I fly into the sky.

They use Doton to launch themselves into the air, I fly through them to the south, I try to go as far as possible, but I can't make it to the end of the horde, for they will use projectiles to shoot me down, which I doubt I can dodge considering the numbers. I have to take control of this battle's pacing. I materialize an axe and smash down into the crowd with an explosion. Then I swing the axe around to eliminate a bunch of nearby ninjas.
"Tanzerin Trombe!", I shout before smashing my axe into the ninjas to the south, I left my axe there to explode, making the ninjas to the south flinch, giving me the opportunity to jump over them.

Once I land behind them, the entire horde is in front of me. I know they will divide and run around me, but for now, I will hold them all back in the same spot with a lance. I move forward and do a combination of rapid thrusts, even my after-images can stab these guys when I shout, "Rainy Ratnapura!", I shouted before sending ten flying against other Shadow Clones with a burst of energy. For now, I keep using Light Step to hastily move in front of the horde, culling them with my spear.

My flank is not being attacked, most likely, they want to sneak up on me from the back. They may think I have tunnel vision, but I know who's behind me. Ninjas jump above me and fire Shuriken and Kunai my way. I use the right hand for my spear as I spin it with my fingers so fast that it deflects all projectiles, I do so at the same time as turning around to jump to the approaching Ninja to my rear.

"Purpurascens Burst!", I shout as I do the finisher with one hand, a modified version of the SP move. I mow down the enemies behind me with a slash from the spear that is combined with a green burst of energy, and immediately following it was a swing from my black sword with my left hand as I shout, "CombinationStar Light Slash!", wiping out a few dozen more.
I can sense them about to use magic on me in the back, so As I turn in recoil from my last attack, I will shoot the spear at them at Light Speed using Reflection.

…Five minutes have passed. I feel exhausted. Suddenly, they slide to my side with their Stealth Speed move, then they shoot great flames from their mouths. I get airborne to dodge them, only to have to force myself to move further as a bunch of fire balls are about to collide into me. They explode upon contact, I only get hit by the actuall explosion, which did blow me further up into the air. I can feel sweat drip off of me. I feel unfocused, like my eyes aren't working. Then I blink and I see them having gotten to my height.

"Raiton!", they shout, I know it is a lighting spell, so I use the lightning absorbing blade to counter them. Lightning strikes me, but the sword takes it all in. Then I swing it down onto them and eliminate a couple of dozen with lightning discharging out of my swing. Then they cast Doton, to my surprise, they use it to shoot large thick rock spears my way. I can weave them and cut a few, but then my Lightning absorbing blade just gets shot out of my hand with a concentrated, "Futon!"

On top of that, a bunch jump in front of me and use the same wind magic to send my flying to the east, where a bunch of Ninja have prepared a water spell, "Suiton!" This version of it uses water manipulation as some kind of saucer blades, and a few use them in the form of bullets. With the air resistance, I can only dodge a few of them, getting cut as they pass my sides and a bullet grazes my face. Then above me, all the water just kind of explodes and rains down on me.

I quickly fly back west, but now I realize their plan, they use the ice spell, "Hyuton", right after. With me wet, they can not only incase me with ice, but freeze me too. I quickly cast fire infusion into my sword, giving it the heat element. At first, I can feel myself unable to move. But the sword slowly thawed the ice slightly, just enough to get myself out with a few Flame spells. Though, I did have to break the rest of the ice with a sword swing.

I see, I am surrounded and they tried to set me up, casting Doton to squash me between stone pillars and then incasing me in earth.
"Critical Edge!", I shout as I turn into a blur, slashing into one ninja as I move behind his back, with my speed, I easily got between the earth pillars before they could reach me.
I move forward to defeat the crowd, slashing through them while shouting, "Cross Combination!"
I wanted to conserve energy, that is why I didn't blast them with UnionStar Light Slash…But at this point, I've used more than I've gained… And five-hundred are left.

…

…

…

"Fall Down Slash!", I shout as I shoot a blade of raw energy down onto the ground, wich erupted into a burst that took down the remaining Ninja. Actually, there is one left standing, whatever. I simply cut through him, he didn't even resist.
Suddenly, I see a magical circle formed below me, it was huge, it actually covers the whole battlefield. I see the energy gathering, this is an explosion spell. I need to get out of here!
My panic doesn't last, though.

No wait. He is a master at Illusion magic…
Ninjutsu requires no magical circle. This is a bluff. I hope it is at least, because I am taking this bet. I Cross my arms and let the explosion happen. There is this giant Kaboom that might rival a nuke, and yet, I take minor damage.
There is a little SP into this move, just like the clones and the knives the illusion holds, but it is just to make this illusion feel more real, the actual damage output is no different than when I cast explosion.

Through the explosion, I sense a presence breaking through, attempting to stab me. Of course, Gaiden's plan was to wear me down and take me out once startled by the Explosion. Must he be surprised I instantly moved past him and delivered a clean stroke through him…Looking back, however, I see him just vanish.
Ugh…Another Clone

Who's to say how much SP he has left, but I am expend…
I look at my blade, I sense I am literally one EXP point off of leveling up. Darn.
How annoying I am suffering from this with my limit being reached. A level up would grant me full SP.

In and out, my breath feels heavy. I revert back to my human form. My arms feel heavy, I feel like I am about to drop. Being transformed for so long is greatly draining, I think I've gone through most share energy at this point. I didn't feel how truly tired I was until going back.
I exhale. I lean backwards, then I stomp my foot on the ground. All right!
Mentally preparing myself, I shoot myself forward with Light Step.

I can't sense Gaiden anymore. He definitely ran away. I must find my friends, then we can think of a follow up
I need to keep moving. Can't give up now, can't let my exhaustion get the better of me.
Dragging myself through the snow desert, I come into a rocky area, I think this is the maze we were in last time…I sense a big object…It must be Gilgasoft! My breath is taken.
I can't fight him now. I hide and conceal my presence. I hear his loud footsteps as he is walking by. He stops a few times to look. I don't sense any Ninja around, so he must not be on guard.

He simply walks west of here. I release my breath. I think I will move north. We had our plans to get to the end of this area anyway, they most likely went that way. I can feel myself get a little better. I reach the end of the rocky hills, I only see one mountain in the distance. I drink a bit of Nepbull, this will heal me slightly. I empty out the can and take a close look at the mountain. I see fighting in the distance…Wait. It's the Samurai!
I lean forward to look who else is there…It's them. They are fighting the Samurai. I don't even think, I rush forward.

They put of a valiant effort evading and parrying the Samurai's attacks, they look wounded, but that doesn't detract from the clear lessons they've learned from the last fight. Alas, The Samurai is on a whole other level. He did a sudden movement where it looked like two more of him appeared and did a slash together with his real body, then he moved back. A green eerie aura glows as he sheaths his sword back. I see the green energy slashes around them.

Coming closer, I see their faces distorted, Sili-san is shouting and Acclaim already moved to try and help Theresa. But upon sheathing his blade, Acclaim's arm is almost in two, Theresa's back is cut and she fall over, and Acclaim is cut from the shoulder down to his waste, his armor breaking.

Actually, they have only barely avoided a direct hit, all slightly off from the actual attack. They'll live, but I can see they are unable to move. Acclaim's legs have already taken more hits. Theresa can barely get to her knees, and Sili-san is leaning on his sword. The Samurai is about to finish them off with a slash, but I jump in and counter with a mirrored stroke, I immediately jumped with that slash to get my foot on his face.

Considering his sloppy response, he did not see me coming. I generate Light Magic from my foot as I shove it further into his face, sending him a dozen meters back. I land, pointing my sword at him in a Chudan stance…Except, my arms are trembling. I don't feel at my best.
They are calling my name, I tell them with more emotion than usual, "Leave this to me! And run!"
I give the Samurai a fierce look and say, "You are MY opponent! Don't you dare fight them!"

He hasn't raised his sword yet. He actually walks to me, he feels more intimidating than normal as he asks, "And, did you have that respect when ambushing me?"
"You WILL fight me…I will give you the challenge you crave!", I speak to him with full hostility. I am not thinking rationally.
My eyes glow with Power symbols, I feel the three gathering to make their escape. Acclaim can only help carry Theresa, but I know they will be fine together.

The Samurai was moving in, but my transformation stops him. The light itself had him stiff.
"Now…Let us fight for real.", I say that, but my SP is only enough for one Light Slash…And my share energy is running dry as well.
He is stunned, however. He looks at me, for the first time, I see the light in his eyes.
"A goddess?", he mumbles. Either way, I fly in to deliver the first blow. He blocks it with his sword, but barely resists me, I easily fling him over the ground.

I stop and observe him. He is behaving oddly.
"You are…A Lowee CPU…", he says, he sounds perplexed.
"You can tell? Well, it's a bit complicated…", I say. How can he tell? Not even the Ninja noticed anything about me to identify me as such.
He gives me and bow and says, "My Goddess…To have graced me with your appearance after all these years…I have fought for you…for so long…"

Huh? What is happening? Should I thank him? Is he connected to Lowee?
"Is it finally time…To fulfil the promise?", he asks me.
I only look confused at him. What promise? I have not been told about any of this?

"Um…", I try to speak, but he is staring so intensely at me.
"Sorry, but what is that promise...?", I ask him.
His eyes give me the saddest look I have seen. He looks like I just drained his soul right out of his heart. He asks, "You don't…Know…?", sounding like he is about to break into tears.
"Well…I don't know anything about this. Can you explain…?", I ask him.

I see that I was unwise. He is trembling…But I can tell, his voice is getting groggier, then he asks, "You mean…You have not been told?", his quiet voice is actually getting louder.
I must not say too much more, maybe I should play along and pretend I know.
"Ah, I think Big Sis might've said something, but it was a while ago…", my acting is bad right now, I am too delirious to come up with anything.
"YOU MEAN YOU'VE FORGOTTEN ABOUT OUR PROMISE!", he screams at me.

He jumps towards me, his slash unrefined, but with strength to shatter mountains, I am almost blown away despite blocking it. He keeps hitting me with simple strokes as he speaks, "I've been fighting for Lowee…For so long…I've fought for Lowee CPUs…And you can't even remember our promise?!", and then he pushes me away with his sword.
"Did our words mean so little to you?!", he cries out. His voice is full of regret and pain.

He flies over to me again, he infused his sword with green energy, blasting me with power with every swing and thrust.
Eventually, he blasts me into the air, even if I parried his attack, he just puts so much force into it.
"Fulfil the promise, Goddess! Fight me!", He shouts.
"Sorry…Right now I can't do that!", I answer him, while also preparing one big Light Slash.
He charges his blade with energy as he asks, "Why not!"

Snow gathers as light into my sword as I swing it down, "UnionStar Helios Slash!", I fire off my attack first to quickly stop his own burst of green energy. The shockwave of out attacks will affect him more. I shout, "Sorry!", before leaving. I hear him screaming after me, "Don't run away! Coward! Fulfill the promise! Face me!", eventually, he stopped. I looked behind me, and I see Kagura and Marvelous have come up to fight the Samurai instead.

I bet they didn't see me, I am already out of their vision after all. Well, it is good the Samurai is going to be held back by them. I am in no condition to fight him…Not only that.
What is this…Promise…Big Sis…Do you know? I feel so sad…
I am not mentally well enough to fight him either.

I fly further to find my friends. I turn my head every way I can move it, I know desperation won't get me far…But…Darn it!
I can hear faint voices. I look down to see them waving at me. I can't help but be anxious, but I spent no second, immediately diving their way. But then, I see their shape change.
An illusion?! They turned into a giant fire ball headed for me. There is only enough time to move below it, but its explosion still ends up hurting me, even if it didn't hit me directly.

I see Theresa about to get stabbed in the throat by Gaiden. I fly over to her, but crash into something invisible, and in no time, the invisible object ejects spikes out of itself sending me flying. The actual stabbing was an Illusion. I saw them vanish in smoke. I close my eyes, but it is no good, I sense many presences below, and see nothing but a blizzard and flat lands…There are some above me!

I look up but see nothing, they must be covered by the illusion. Either way, it is too late. Some crystals are dropped near me, and by some light, I get shot down, crashing into the ground. I feel something tingle inside me, it hurts. I struggle to get back up. My flight has been disabled. Suddenly, I see a bunch of power generators. And now, Ninja appear to capture me in some kind of rope.

"Raiton!", they cast, the power generators reflecting electricity into me and the ropes, the ropes conducting said electricity, making sure to hurt me more. I scream…And drop down to one knee…I am able to cut the ropes, though. After I did that, the blizzard is fading. Or rather, the illusion is broken. This is actually a small valley, and I am below between mountains. Gaiden is at the top. And I am surrounded by normal Ninja.

Gaiden looks down at me smugly, "So, we finally captured you, Goddess. How do you like our anti-share crystals? Their usage is only permitted by the master Ninja of our village. Though, I suppose they are weaker versions, specifically tailored to get rid of flying, they only work when you actually are in the sky, so thanks for flying so high.", he tells me.

I try to get up, but he says, "I would not do that if I were you."
I look around to see on the same level, Theresa, Acclaim, and Sili-san are being held by Ninja and they are aiming their blades at their vital spots. They've been weakened by the Samurai, they can't escape. If I don't think of something, they will die…Just like…
"You see, this is all planned. I would fight you after you take most of us out, leading you into a false sense of security. Of course, I'd have to gather info on you.", he keeps talking.

He walks around and continues, "And you easily handled me the info of your compassion to your friends. I've waited a while to tire you and your friends out, captured them, and through illusions, trapped you in this one spot without the ability of flight. Even if your friends weren't captured, we would still have you surrounded…"

He is right. There are at least two-hundred Ninjas on these mountains, fifty of them being close to me. On top of that, the other special Ninja, Wolf, was next to Gaiden. How is he still alive? What is his secret?
Making matters worse, Gaiden pulls on some ropes and reveals cannons and bombs installed on the mountains. This is almost he worst situation. I am weakened…And still. These Ninja shouldn't be too strong…No…Wait…Those footsteps are.

No ninja is really standing on top of the highest point of the mountain on the opposite side Gaiden is standing on. But on the other end of the mountain, I can see Gilgasoft approaching. His footsteps making thunderous sounds as he gets closer.
No…This is over…There is no way… I revert back to my normal form. I am out of energy and I have no will to fight…

"Please…", I can barely speak. Gaiden holds his ear out and asked, "I can't hear you?"
"Please…Do we with me as you please…But let my friends go…", I plead.
"Hoho…How about that…What a good deal.", he says.
I felt relieved, until he adds, "But you haven't specified how we must let them go, I think I will throw them against that warrior and make a run for it…Don't like it? Tough luck, you're already weak! In fact, go fight him or I'll stab your friends!" His words pierce my heart combined with his evil smile.

I see my friends, shouting for me. I see the inevitable end. Again? Will I fail a friend again…Fububi…You died for me…This time even more so…I…
"Not doing it?", he asks me mockingly.
How dare you…
Gaiden waves his hands, readying the Ninja to attack me first, and also signaling the others to kill my friends.
"Stop it! Don't you dare!", My eyes feel like they are about to burst, my head about to split open.

I will kill all of you
"I WILL…NEVER…"
My head's hurting. I scream. I don't even recognize my voice right now. I don't even really feel like, I am inside my body.
A pillar of light appears, freezing everyone in anticipation…But then, something wrong happened. The pillar of light, cracked. The light itself frozen in time, until it shattered like glass, even the noise was like glass breaking.

And then, a creepy laughter can be heard. Laughter only a small girl could make, but one filled with malice. A cruel high pitched laugh.
Gaiden looks at me and asks with cold sweat, "Why are you…Laughing?"
A voice that didn't sound like mine came out of my mouth, saying, "Bloody Blizzard Processor Unit, Set!" A disc is materialized in front of me, and I grab it to raise it above my head.

With a flash, new parts flew out of them. On her shoulder attached sharp pointy dark-blue shoulder parts, and they have some clip to attach the matching dragon-like wings of dark blue metal with pale-blue metal webs. From the shoulder parts came a black see-through veil that went all the way down below the knees. The chest is covered by two black leather pads. The slightly lighter blue metal hip parts almost look like a floating round chair with thin circular arm rests encircling the hips, this one is floating a bit further behind.

The bottom is covered by black panties the size of that of a bloomer outfit. She raises her heels, and under it came a pair of thick metal heels colored like how some imagine ice, with lots of spikes and a few miniature carvings of dragons. Within these heels, she wears black socks. With a smirk, she holds her hand over her head, and summons an ice Tiara, although, it doesn't look elegant, but rather dangerous with how many sharp spikes there were on it, not to mention to dragon shape finishes to the sides.

A shockwave shakes the Ninja around, that means, "Transformation…Complete…" A voice is coming from me, but it is higher pitched than usual, in fact, I speak often with a reserved tone, but whoever has taken control talks freely and impudently, actually, she sounds like she is mocking the world around her. Her…Or…My hair now has a red tint, and my eyes have turned dark blue with red power symbols.

The energy radiating from this 'me' is staggering. Vast power surges from within. But how? Did we not come close to running out of Share Energy?
…I can't move my body…No wait, I can't even feel it. What is happening?!
Small creepy laughter comes from the mouth as she looks at the Ninja approaching her.
She, or rather, 'Me', flies forward, not caring at all about Gaiden's ultimatum. 'Me' cuts the most middle Ninja in half as 'Me' passes by the group.

The group of Ninja stopped moving when their encirclement got close to each other. 'Me' doesn't give them the time to react, she doesn't even turn as she quickly does a bunch of small swings and thrusts with her sword, using the snow's shockwaves to knock them over.
"I must thank you for the SP…That ninja was all I needed to kill to win…Hehehe…", words come from my mouth but they were never once constructed in my head.

Gaiden looks at 'Me' with strained eyes, the blood draining from his face.
"H-hey! You do understand we have your friends, right?! We'll kill 'em!", he shouts.
I bet he doesn't know what to do at all, nothing like this would ever happen in his career.
Yet, 'Me' only returns a smile that could be alone to kill a man.
Gaiden flinches, in that exact time, 'Me' uses Light step to move towards him, it doesn't even take a second to get on top of the mountain.

Wolf tries to intercept, but 'Me' quickly gets a large dagger as the sword in our right hand gets parried. She quickly stab Wolf in the throat, surprisingly, this doesn't kill him. However, she Uses the dagger and pushes behind his hamstring to manhandle him, switching places with him. Quickly, 'Me' shoots Wolf through the opposite mountain, and quickly blasts a hole into the mountain whilst shouting, "UnionStar Light Slash!"

Gaiden shouts in a panicked voice, "KILL THEM NOW!", like his minions are being idiotic. I did notice the Ninjas holding our friends zoning out, I am sure they are even more dumbfounded by this chain of events. Either way, they attempt to slit the throats of Theresa, Sili-san, and Acclaim, who look more worried about me than themselves.

But, maybe that is also me seeing them in the future, for 'Me' decides to just speed her way to the three ninjas, first cutting off the hand wielding a knife of the person about to stab Sili-san, and then she kicks the person holding Theresa away with her legs, probably because they were only lightly holding Theresa. And for Acclaim, she just casts Explosion against the ninja holding him, though, he was being held by three Ninja, so that was only to save his life temporarily.

Strength, speed, even intelligence, all have been boosted with this form. That explosion that would only do minor damage would now be equal to my regular sword swings. 'Me' grabs two knives, holding it between two fingers each then, 'Me' uses Reflection to shoot them through the hearts of the two ninjas holding Acclaim.
"You think you have the right to kill?", 'Me' asks as she turns her head to Gaiden.

"That authority, belongs to me. Don't get me wrong, I love seeing people die. But…I am only satisfied when it is by MY hands…Hehe…", 'Me' she says, stunning everyone around her.
Except for one ninja, who is pretty angry at 'Me' for taking his hand. Those words only made him fume.
He runs towards her with a kunai, shouting, "Don't screw with me!"
'Me' doesn't even look, she wings her sword in eight directions against the ninja's torso with great speed, it only looked like he was a cut once, and he just spontaneously burst into pieces.

"Hehehe. You are all going to die anyway, but don't anger me, I do choose HOW you go after all…HAHAHAHA!", is what 'Me' says.
The Ninja she kicked away tried to sneak in some kind of magic based Ninjutsu, but the moment he was done with hand signs, his head is extinguished by a flying blade of Light.
Another Ninja tries sneaking up on 'Me', this was the one that got hit by Explosion. To show her incredible movement speed, 'Me' ducks under the Ninja's bomber suicide attempt and stabs him three times, once above the chest, once through the stomach, and once through the pelvis.

To finish her combo, 'Me' steps in front of the Ninja before he can even begin to fall, she smashed her hand into his chest and aims him at Gaiden. With Reflection, she sends him flying as the bombs go off. Gaiden has a substitution Jutsu prepared beforehand and switched places with snow. But 'Me' has the same knowledge as myself, she swings her sword and the snow cuts through Gaiden, flinging him onto the ground.

She walks to him, but we can see in the corner of our eyes a light, it is the light of some fire balls shot our way. 'Me' easily jumps above it. The ninjas below the mountain have no chance, they can't even react to this speed so incredible, it actually slightly trumps my speed when I was a full-fledged CPU Candidate. After one Sonic Boom, she is below the group of ninjas, 'Me' already diced through one ninja, and that sword swing combined with her landing made ninjas around us fall over due to the wind blowing from her force.

"Couldn't wait your turn…That's fine…", 'Me' smiles at them as she gets up, and finished her sentence with, "I am VERY efficient…"
The ninjas, who have never shown doubt, hesitation, or angst before, have their arms trembling. They look more like they are about to guard with their short Ninja blades rather than attempt another assassination. They are easy pickings for the deranged murderer they are about to face.

Quickly, 'Me' steps in front one of them with Light step, he tries to block her sword swings, but his hands can only move weakly before getting cut off, leaving no defense for the finishing blow. She quickly goes to another, who also moving too meekly to stop her from knocking the blades out of his hands before slicing through him. A ninja tried to thrust his blade forward into 'Me', but 'Me' weaves around the arm, and with one turn, she swings her sword upwards to cut off the arm, so she can grab it.

She grabs the arm, stiffly holding the dagger, and she shoves it through the ninja's mouth. 'Me' throws the Ninja to another Ninja to catch him off guard, the Ninja responds to jumping aside, but couldn't help but stare at his friend with an arm stuck in his mouth. He quickly tries to fight 'Me' off, but his first hand gets spliced, the dagger that was held gets grabbed. Whilst me 'Me' spins around her and disabled the arm with a spin-slash, she stabs the Ninja behind the neck with the dagger, then she quickly takes the dagger out and shoots it through another Ninja using Reflection.

There are only two left of the group 'Me' assaulted. The second-to last one gets vertically halved, and now, the last one is turning tail.
"You should just stand still. The end result is less painful that way…", 'Me' says to herself, though with the small giggles in between, it is hard to tell how sincere she is.
She flies forward with her sword and thrusts through the Ninja, when she takes the sword out, she slams his head into the ground.

Light gathers in her hand as 'Me' says with a face of pure joy, "Explosion!", she casts explosion a few times until the Ninja stops moving altogether.
With a satisfied smirk, 'Me' stands up and slowly walks forward. Her prey already assembled in front of her. They are backing off, or rather, they aren't afraid but take their distance to keep fighting with ranged attacks. Most likely, they know by now close-quarter-combat is impossible against an enemy of this speed.

Regardless, their projectiles in Kunai, Shuriken, Fire balls, paper bombs, are all meaningless. 'Me' swipes all solid projectiles with ease, and the snow being an extension of our sword allows her to also deflect things like bombs. Although, we also have to deal with Ninja's hanging off or standing on the edge of the mountain to our right, the one Gilgasoft is on top of. I think he is fighting some of the Ninja too.

From above we get blasted by magic, Fire, Lighting, Wind, Ice, Water, Earth, all formed into explosive bullets or huge spheres. Demolitions rain down upon "Me", and yet, it is useless. She dodges around them, and if she does get hit by one, she doesn't even wince, her smile doesn't fade.

'Me' leaps to a ninja, holding out her sword to her right. It's changing shape as 'Me' says, "Weapon Change…", 'Me' has turned the sword into a spear. She impales the first Ninja she gets to. When she takes the spear our, she swiftly jumps over the falling ninja with a flip, into a spin as she lands, slashing the necks of five nearby ninja, holding onto the end of the Spear's staff.

She flies over a few well-aimed fire balls, and flies in a backwards curve, then she flies to one of the ninjas holding on to the mountain's wall, she grabs him from the mountain and drags him into the air, cuts him in two, and then sends the two pieces flying into two other Ninja. Shen she drops back down to the ninja on the ground and assaults them as they try to back off and hit her with spells.

'Me' fights them for a few minutes, just having fun. Constantly laughing as she cuts the ninjas, who were slowly weakening in resolve. When 'Me' starts an attack, she is precise to the point of absolute elegance. But her follow up attacks and general style is vicious. Always grabbing enemies, manhandling them, taking their weapons and using them against them. She fights in a way that is crude and dirty, but intentionally so. It's like she puts an effort to maximalize the amount of pain her enemies feel, she can easily cut through them in one hit, but she does a few non-killing attacks before finishing them off, to make sure they truly felt it when they died.

At some point, she gets bored of the ninjas on the wall and pins them against the mountain with a bunch of arrows, who 'Me' infused with fire magic to make sure they slowly burn the ninjas. The ninjas on the ground began to flee. She begins by dragging them to herself using the solidifying of snow. She attacks them to make them scream, instilling more fear into the comrades that are running away. Now they are getting out of the valley between the mountains, and 'Me' finally picks up the pace and flies after them.

No amount of screaming stops her from laughing out loud as 'Me' tears through ninjas with her sword.
"So far for the 'fearless' Ninja! What was that again?! You give your life for Lowee?! THEN WHY AREN'T YOU HAPPY?! Huh?!", 'Me' shouts, her tone is mocking, yet she sounds a little angry, then again, she is laughing. The overall condition of the ninjas weaken, fear has taken a toll on them and they can't help themselves anymore. 'Me' pins some of them on the ground with her foot, and following from that, she stabs them through the head, piercing the ground below.

'Me' turns around to the valley and sees a giant fire ball made up of the collective of ninjas left alive on the mountains. There is no change in mood, she just blasts of and goes straight into it. I can feel it burn, still, 'Me' pushes through without even flinching. She pierces through a ball of flame that looks like the sun. It will certainly explode behind her, in fact, it would normally explode upon touch, but 'Me' went through it so fast it never had the time to.

'Me' looks down at the ninja at first, but then she has to dodge a sharp gust of air. We see that Gilgasoft is out of enemies to fight and is promptly attacking us.
"I see, it is time for the special guest…Am I worthy of my weapons? Who are you, so arrogant to ask?!", she talks to him with animosity.
Dodging missiles and bullets, she flies to Gilgasoft. With her sword bursting with Light, she strikes at him shouting, "Weapons are tools for killing!"

Gilgasoft blocks it at first, but the initial clash releases more Light magic than he is expecting, he ends up getting hurt by residuals, on top of that, he quickly had to use all six arms to keep 'Me' from cutting through his defenses. Even he looks at 'Me' with a great mix of emotions.
"They are made to be used by anyone! If they can't kill they must be thrown away! I don't need them, they are just nice extra's! Anything seen will be used to kill and hurt!", 'Me' shouts.

A conflict between ideologies should form a fierce clash, and yet, the fight feels more one-sided than ever. I am…Not witnessing perse, but experiencing 'Me' simply knocking away all of his weapons too quickly for him to counter with. He can use his black blade to spout lava or move the earth, but this 'Me' is fast enough to easily dodge the lava by flying around, and strong enough to cut through earth. Not only that, The Light slash she uses is of such high power that even the elemental resistances aren't enough to nullify damage.

How is this possible? I would say, even if I were alive, I wouldn't be this strong… And that version of me would still take a while before beating Gilgasoft without the use of mass Weapon Create…What are these processors? I can't see what they fully do but…I can feel Share Energy from them, but only a little of it is being used in these attacks…What else can it…

I have come to a realizations. These are fused parts. I do not know how to attain SSD, but some negative energy has leaked out from my emotions. This 'Me' is using reverse-share energy. She is already this strong would just half of its output? I guess the mixture allows her to draw more strength, or maybe she needs the share energy to use HDD because SSD is not available.

Share energy or reverse-share energy, the point it, she is overwhelming Gilgasoft with big, powerful attacks designed to blow hundreds away. Gilgasoft is having trouble standing his ground. Despite that, 'Me' isn't able to really throw him off with constant Light Slashes. So, she speeds up as she moves past him multiple times, whilst making good sword strokes that go between his weapons. And with each swipe of her blade, snow around her turns into light. After speeding up enough, 'Me' stops moving and lets light burst from under het feet before shooting herself at him.

'Me' made a misdirection by waving her sword around, instead she eludes all weapons aimed at stopping her sword and punched Gilgasoft off the mountain. One of her swords has already been charged with light, and 'Me' summons another sword that gathers the light of snow. She fuses the blade together as she blasts Gilgasoft away with a giant blade of light shouting, "ShootingStar. Helios Slash!" The attack is power enough to make Gamindustri Shutter, snow is scraped off the ground Gilgasoft is sent to below, Nearby hills are wiped from existence. What is more impressive is Gilgasoft's vitality.

Sure, he is pretty badly hurt, but he does look healthy enough. Normally, his body should've evaporated and the ground split into a huge rift.
Further ahead, I spot The Samurai. He probably saw the giant explosion. And it isn't hard to think he easily beat Kagura and Marvelous.
'Me' turns around and looks at the few ninja left below her.
Twisting her lips, 'Me' says, "Well, I still have some guests to attend to. I did promise efficiency, did I not?"
Who is this? Why are you so intend at killing all of them?

My eyes open up in a void. There is nothing but darkness, yet I can stand on something. I am in my regular clothes right now, not transformed.
"Where am I? I was fighting a minute ago.", after saying that, I notice I can still see myself fighting ninjas.
What is this? There is no screen, no visual, I can't imagine any image, yet I see fighting?
"Strange, isn't it? You see, feel, hear, taste, anything outside of here, yet you're not really there?", I hear an eerie voice. A high pitched tone, but calm enough as if belonging to an assassin who has your throat hostage.

I turn to see who the voice belongs to. I see dark blue eyes with black reversed power symbols. This voice. It is the same one coming out of 'Me'
"Who are you? You took control of my body?", I ask her.
"Isn't it obvious? I am you. This is OUR body.", she responds with laughter.
"How are you here when you are fighting Ninja?", I ask her.
"Bios. Bios. Bios…", she condescendingly calls my name before answering me, "You can see me, and you can see outside, can you not? In the same way, I am moving us while talking to you."

But how does that work?
"Okay. Basically, imagine if you had two brains that share information? You can be at two places at the same time, instantly share memories, feel everything in sync, controlling two bodies. Does that make sense?", she explains more thoroughly.
Is this place my mind?
"Yes. And our thinking is in sync… Oh, but you don't hear my thoughts, you might be thinking. I don't really like thinking much, I already have all my answers. You are the Core after all.", she says.

"How is this possible, though? And why can't I control my body?", I ask her.
"It is quite simple. Your mind is shattered. You have been mentally split apart. Right now, the mentality you've been missing is desperately needed, that is why you were stuck seeing your friends. You mentally froze, and so, I, who has the right mental state, can take over. Of course, I should mention, I am NOT going to let you be our 'core' forever…", She says.

"When did my mind, 'shatter'? I can't remember it. But I turned vicious and out of control when I transformed once or twice, and my sisters called me out.", I speak out loud.
"No, no, no. Bios. You don't get it. It is normal for personality to alter when you transform, but your mind was still the same. You always have had feelings, but you denied them. In your goddess form, your filter is completely off…However, your thinking already gave you other personality traits that inherently clash with your true feelings. Thus, the calm and calculating goddess, and the ruthless maniac goddess can come out of you randomly.", she gives me so much to process I barely understand what she is saying.

"But, if not then. When did this happen?", I ask her.
"Let me enlighten you. Kind of ironic, I am a dark force…Hehehe…It was when you were charged with negative energy and reborn.", she tells me.
It was then? Something changed me when I revived? Not just physically?
"Ah yes. To give you a better idea. You rejected the negative feelings. You rejected…ME. I am given life by the dark energy you refuse to harness…", she answers me.

I can see her clearly now. Yes, she looks exactly like me. her face is the same, even her hair color is the same. Besides the eyes, her outfit is a rough long black cloth split in three pieces that wave in the wind.
In the meantime, all the Ninja besides Gaiden are now dead. He has been watching this go on, too stunned to move.

'Me' looks at him, her smile warped as she says, "Enjoyed the show? You were so committed to fight deities for Lowee, did your lovely plan fail? Did that clamp you up? You were so cocky back there. You thought you had a perfect execution, only for it to backfire, and now you are cowering. Isn't that hilarious?"
He takes a fighting stance, but no respect gets returned, only snickering.

'Me' flies over to him, her leg get wrapped up by rop, it comes from the arm of Wolf's hook shot. It seems he has revived and bided for this very moment. Even if unexpected, 'Me' reacts immediately, kicking wolf up to her so she could stab him. Any attempt at counter-attacking is met with 'Me' just taking it an not caring for any damage. When she takes the sword out of Wolf, she kick him towards one of the mountains. Then she flies behind his back before he can land and kicks him back into the air again.

She treats him like a ping-pong ball as she hits and kicks him all over the place. Wolf tries to stop her with his hook-shot-arm, but she just grabs the rope and spins him around at a great speed. She lets go and sends him flying above the clouds, where she then moves beyond before Wolf can even slow down. Seeing Wolf get close to her into the sky, she dives down and delivers a drop kick that breaks him through the corner of the mountain Gaiden is not on.

As a finishing move, she shoots a huge Light Slash that demolishes that side of the mountain, and probably Wolf along with it. She watches the destruction with a smirk before gracing Gaiden with the same expression. Gaiden already gathered a thousand clones to fight back. With his plan failed and no idea what 'Me' even is, he has gotten desperate. I am starting to wonder if 'Me' has a passive skill to instill fear into anyone to the point they make no rational decisions. He doesn't even kill our party, just tries to overwhelm 'Me' with numbers.

And all of that doesn't matter. She flies down with insane laughter as she has her sword burst with great flowing light. Gaiden snaps at her, "You can't?! Aren't you concerned for your friends!"
As much as he should be right, this 'Me' does not care for any collateral damage. Maybe they have lost reason, because even 'Me' doesn't show any common sense either.

"UnionStar Light Slash!", she shouts as she wipes away all clones with just one attack. The mountain is cut in half, at least it isn't completely destroyed as the mass amount of clones have weakened the initial impact. Acclaim and Sili-san helped Theresa take cover, and Theresa casts a barrier to protect each other. One Gaiden is left standing, the original. he is wounded, though, 'Me' isn't even looking at him getting up.

She lands on the mountain and is basking in victory, simply laughing.
"You bitch!", Gaiden says as he is struggling to get to her.
"You think you've won, but I can easily give up my life to kill you!", he shouts that as he grabs a dagger and tries to thrust it into her.
'Me' steps back for a hit, then grabs Gaiden's left arm and stabs him just next to the heart.
He is holding back pain, and he still makes out, "You think this will stop me. I've already prepar-"

He was sure to win, speaking as he is trying to perhaps do something similar to suicide bombing. But then he gets stabbed repeatedly by 'Me'
It seems to never end, the thrusts are fast enough to give the effect of having grown multiple swords, holes just appear in Gaiden, but never does 'Me' hit a vital spot. 'Me' wants to keep him alive as long as possible to feel this pain.

Then, when there is no more hole to make without killing him, 'Me' makes eye contact, we see him genuinely angry at us, and of course, 'Me' only returns a grin.
She smacks his middle with the palm of her hand, and shoots him far into the sky with Reflection. Then 'Me' revs up her sword with Light Magic.
"UnionStar…", she says as she does a spin before motioning a strike.
"Helios Slash!", with those words, she forms a blade of light in front of her, which is then shot off towards Gaiden.

In the sky, this slightly big sword of light explodes into a giant burst of energy that scatters even the heavens.
After laughing like crazy, 'Me' holds out her hands and said, "Do you see this?! Theresa, Acclaim, Silicon! Aren't the fireworks amazing?! HAHAHA!"
I can only feel anxiety from the three, as they are tensely watching me in silence.
'Me' lowers her arms and slowly turns to them starting a sentence, "That said…"

"Now that I think about it…Isn't all this…Your fault?", she asks them with such a snide a foul face, aside from fear, it would make you hate 'Me'.
What does that mean? What are you doing?!
She slowly walks towards the three and says, "You know, your weakness is a crime that made me so upset. Gaiden is just the fool, But anyone that upsets Bios deserves death? Don't you think?"
What was that?! Stop what you're doing! Just killing the ninjas was already too much! HEY!

"B-bios…", Theresa meekly calls out.
Sili-san gets up, not even his wound can stop him from shouting, "Hey! Stop joking around?! What happened to you?!"
"Bios? Ah…You don't know…Hehe…That is not my name.", 'Me' says before speeding past a puzzled Sili-san, right in front of a stupefied Theresa. Both of their faces are those that can't process what is happening, 'Me' just is too fast for them.

Luckily, Acclaim has the same Light Step skill. 'Me' was about to strike Theresa, but Acclaim block her sword with his own blade that is engulfed with Light, and to make sure 'Me' can't overpower him, 'Me' is being hold back by Sili-san's strings. Theresa's eyes open wildly, you can almost see her heart shatter.
But Acclaim gives the others a critical statement, "That is not Bios! Don't be fooled! We need to fight her until she gains control or knock her out!"

'Me' uses fire magic and burns the string, then she gets into the air as to not get attacked between the group. Acclaim uses all the ranged attacks he has available right now. Whilst that fight is happening, I am stuck in this void world.
"What are you doing?!", I shout like my chest is about to explode.
The other 'Me' just looks at me with a smug expression and says, "What? Killing a bunch of trouble makers of course. We don't just not need them, they are going to be a burden. I better eliminate them!"

"W…What?! I can't allow that! Aren't you me?! You have to stop this, that is an order?!", I shout at her.
But 'Me' just scoffs at me and replies, "I don't belong to you anymore you belong to me. You have weakened, and now I decide what will happen."
"Aren't you my feelings?! I would never want my friends to die!", I shout.
She raises a finger and says, "Ah, let me correct you. I WAS your feelings. Your hidden emotions, but now I have gained my own sentience. My OWN personality. And I want nothing to do with YOUR friends. If you wanted them to live, you should've made them unable to indirectly hurt us.", she says.

I can feel myself shaking with rage. But I am not helpless. This is my own mind, shouldn't I be able to do everything I want without limit. I can just imagine my sword…
I create my black blade in front of me. I jump forward and shout, "I won't let you!"
The moment my arms reach below 'Me', my sword just disappears.
I look dumbfounded at my hands, but I can't think about it, because she just kicks me down…Somewhere.

She uses Light Step to close the distance and has the black blade close to my throat.
She sounds angry now, her smile be damned, she lays down the law, "Let me clear this up. In here, I am the boss. Even if this is inside your mind, it is also MY mind. Inherently, I am a stronger version than you. And this sword? It is made using MY power. Only I decide if YOU can use it here."

I look at her, If eyesight could kill…
"With that said…", she says before impaling me with the sword, it hurts a lot more than usual.
I get to my knees as she keeps talking, "If you don't want to watch your friends die, just go to sleep. I am in control now."
Throughout our exchange, I have seen my friends pull off a desperate effort to fend 'Me' off. Helping each other dodge attacks despite their wounds. Theresa helps a lot, for she can teleport a few times and cast major spells that are good enough to hurt 'Me'.

They even manage to hit me with their EXE Drive attacks. But in the end, it is not enough. 'Me' was only playing with them, and now, Sili-san is hit onto the ground, and Acclaim's legs have gotten hurt, maybe a nerve was cut. 'Me' walks towards Theresa, who has used up all of her SP do deal as much damage as possible. Honestly, I think 'Me' is close to her limits too. No matter, 'Me' can just fly to Theresa and end it there.

I don't even feel like an entity…More so, I am so focused on my right arm holding the sword…
She thrusts her blade forward, but then, 'Me' is stopped. Her arms are shaking badly, the sword misses Theresa altogether. She looks at her right arm that is moving on its own, it actually keeps her whole body unbalanced. She is stiff, and only responds with commenting, "Ah…I really am not allowed to kill them, huh?", sounding mildly disappointed.

'Me' gets her feet on the ground as her arm is slowly making the sword reach her neck.
She stops the arm I control with her own arm for a bit whilst speaking, "So…Your feelings of hatred is weaker than the feelings you have for your friends. I will remember this, Bios. I will be back. And one day, I will be the core, and eliminate them to spite you!"
Finally, the sword is thrust through my torso, and 'Me' disappears…I revert back to my normal form. Theresa looks stunned, tears in her eyes.

The other two watch me fall with their mouths agape….I can't really see anymore. Wind Sense is the only thing I have left…But that is also…Fading…

By the time I wake up, the night has already reached its darkest hour. I hear the heavy grunts of Acclaim and the quiet whimpers of Theresa. I can barely see, but I am being carried on Acclaim's shoulder. I feel scared. I look my hardest, my vision is sharpening too slow for me. I want to know if they are all okay. I see them, struggling to move. Acclaim's arm is broken, Sili-san is using string to simply walk. Theresa is being held up with Acclaim's non broken arm, he lacks the strength to fully carry her.

Sili-san and Theresa must have actually used up their healing items to fight me. Not only do their wounds not seem to be completely healed from the Samurai, but they aren't healing any superficial damage, otherwise they could at least walk. The cold wind must make this even harder. They are going down-hill, so they must have a hard time not falling over with their worn out legs and scratched bodies. They persevere, even shouting to hype themselves up so they can move forward. I feel ashamed. I am the one who caused is. I don't even want to say anything.

Of course, If I could help, I would take that shame and tell them I'm okay. But I can't lift a finger. I have used up all SP, have used up most of my share energy, even used up a lot of negative energy, and after stabbing myself and "Me" taking damage on purpose, my health is also not at its best. Acclaim stops, Theresa is on her knee and he can't get her to move forward. I hear her voice trembling.
"There is something…", she speaks like she aged by a hundred years, but I can hear a faint relief.

"There is an enclosure…We can rest…!", she says.
Sili-san almost breaks in laughter, the party finally looks forward with hope.
"We finally reached the utmost northern part. The rest is sealed off by mist. That crystal cave might have something special. I can see we are the only ones here for now, if we can hide in this crystal cave, we can rest for a while.", Acclaim tells them. I only hear them express bliss.
"Theresa. If you will.", Acclaim orders her politely.
"Yes, let's not tempt fate.", Sili-san adds.

Theresa nods. The two use string to help her move. She makes a teleportation circle.
She must've kept enough SP to do one Teleport to safety, just in case. Otherwise they would continuously teleport instead of walking in their condition.
Within a moment's notice, we are in front of the cave.
"Wahaa…This entrance is huge!", Sili-san comments.
"The opening being big is not so great. Silicon, we must use string to block the upper part of the entrance.", Acclaim seems to bark orders when I'm not conscious.

"Yeah. We can later use Theresa's magic to make a cover using blizzards.", Sili-san says.
"Once my SP is back, I can make sure no one notices this place!", Theresa speaks with glee.
She looks at me and asks, "Is Bios still not waking up?"
"I hope we get our leader back…That was one nasty spirit, or whatever took over.", Sili-san says.
"Don't say it like that. The real Bios stabbed herself to let us live. We must trust her.", Acclaim says. Theresa gives him a sorrowful look, but she does nod.
"I think this is a good time to check up on her thou-", as he is saying that, I feel a bit jumpy, he looks at me the exact time my eyes opened. We kind of stare at each other.

The other two ar emaking weird noises, so they must've noticed too.
"Eh? Bios?!", Theresa reacts with a high-pitched noise.
"You're awake! Um…The good version, right?", Sili-san asks.
I look at him… I don't know what mood I am in, I only end up reacting with a nod making a, "Mm Hm…", sound.
Acclaim lowers his shoulder to let me stand. I haven't tried to move my body in a while.
I can inch my way onto the ground, but as soon as he raises his body, I almost fall over.

I latch onto his leg in other to stay up.
Sili-san and Theresa are about to catch me, only stopping to ask me if I am okay.
"I'm fine", I say that…I don't want their help after hurting them so much.
I don't want to fall either, I want to appear as though I am still going strong. So I do my best to stand up straight, my body is still shaky.

"So, what happened back there.", Sili-san asked.
Theresa just looks at me anxiously, holding a clutched fist on her chest.
Then she turns to Sili-san with an annoyed face saying, "We must rest first. Look, she can barely stand either."
"I agree, we can talk when we've settled.", Acclaim reinforces Theresa's point.
"S-sorry…", Sili-san apologizes, and now he enters the cave without a word, looking down.

I follow them into the pink-purple crystal cave. There isn't much inside other than more crystal walls. We all kind of drop down. Even if we have to heal a little bit, we can do something about the open entrance. It is too cold to fall asleep now, I am the only one that will live after sleeping in this condition. We all take our time. Catching up to our breath. Calming our minds. I am sitting the furthest away from the group, in a dark corner.

I am depressed over the situation I caused, but I am also terrified…What if that THING comes out of me again? But she was much stronger than me? She could defeat any enemy here, but she also hunts friends. What do I do?
After a while, I am asked by everyone, what happened to me?
"I was…", I say something, but stop. How do I even explain this?

"I was angry…Then I suddenly lost control of my mind…When you turn into HDD, your personality changes alongside getting a rush of adrenaline in your head. Normally, you still have the same mind, just a bit altered…But my mind got torn. I have formed a shadow in my mind that will use the powers opposite to that of a goddess. IT is supposed to be me under HDD, but it gained its own mind and grew its personality further…", I speak, I don't even pay attention to what I say. I am too busy thinking about my failure.

"That thing. You can't control it?", Acclaim asks.
I shake my head. "I don't know much about it…It just talked to me in my mind…", I say.
"So…This what it means to lose your mind…How can we help her?", Sili-san talks first, then asks Acclaim what we can do about it.
Acclaim just looks at Sili-san with a troubled face.
"So…", Theresa starts a sentence, she sounds a bit stiff, but she has our attention.

"You don't hate me…Right?", she asks me, she's looking at me with sharp eyes.
I look at her with my mouth agape.
"That wasn't you who tried to k-kill me…I was…", she starts crying, she continues regardless, "I was scared I did something to make you hate me!", she says.
"Of course I don't hate you! Look, that other me is the only one that was out there to hurt you! Her feelings aren't mine anymore! So whatever she does, it isn't because of me!", I answer her question with haste.

She starts smiling instead. She's still teary, but she is genuinely grateful when she says, "Thank Goddess…I really…I really am happy it wasn't you that attacked me. You are the only one who befriended me. You saved me…I couldn't…I don't know what I'd do if the Goddess I put my faith in wanted me gone…"
I watch her cry. She's not lying at all. I can trace my source of share energy, a lot coming from her. She believes in me, even now…

I must never betray that trust again…I wonder if I can…Convince "Me"…
My mind wonders off. I don't know what to think. At least, I can handle the cold a bit more. And my body recovers quicker, so I can move first. I carve things out of the crystal. Make a bit of furniture, block out bits of the entrance. Acclaim and Sili-san help me string up the carvings. When Theresa gets better, she can heat this place up. We did bring a bit of fire wood too, we can use magic to make them burn indefinitely.

I am not great at cooking, but I can heat things up until they are edible. I am the first to recover enough to be precise.
Right now, we don't have any doubts in our minds. The people trying to kill us, the magical lands outside, the mysteries past the mist, my transformation, it all doesn't matter, because we must survive.

I roast some meat and fish we have…Wow, it's heating up pretty quickly?
Confused, as I am, I continue holding food over the flames, we do have a pan as well, so that makes some of it easier. Still, the quality is actually not bad? I want to take a bite…
I take a bite out of a big fish and one wolf-steak…Yeah, they taste pretty good?
Theresa is looking around. She looks at my food as well. She twitches her head.

"This place…The crystals emit magic energy.", Theresa says.
I get it. There must be some magic interfering with the flames.
Acclaim looks at us and says, "Perhaps these crystals come from the catalyst made by the destruction of the Golden Tower. It is magic that infects the surroundings. Even by staying here, we might heal grave wounds within a day."
These crystals are magical, spawned from the Golden Tower…We've seen a lot of monsters with the same crystals…

We can do all the thinking we want, but we are too weak to do anything. We sit down, and after eating for a while, we feel our aches slowly turning into a bad memory.
I see Acclaim ate his food way quicker and has pulled out a carpet with a bunch of monster materials. Hm? His shattered arm is bigger?
"What are you doing?", I ask him.
"Ah. These arms are supposed to be unbreakable. But, I guess that Samurai's attack is just that powerful. Luckily, they did give it regeneration.", Acclaim says.

"I've fought regenerating machines before, but how do they work?", I ask him.
Sili-san just comments, "They exist? But it doesn't even make sense?"
"There are different methods. In my case, these arms function with life energy in my body, they are made with bio-organic tissue inside that remembers the materials like genes. The brain is linked to these arms, so it knows how to regenerate it. I just need materials to compensate for the metal lost. Machine monsters tend to be "Alive" to an extent, so their materials can heal this arm. Albeit, slowly.", Acclaim explains.

"Damn, you're lucky. I have to stitch my wounds until we get back and buy healing items! I hope we are quick enough so they don't become scars…", Sili-san says.
"When we get back…We will rank up, right?", Theresa says.
"Oh! You're right! Let's get some nice stuff with the money we get from the quest.", Sili-san responds as he stands up with glee. I see the three of them looking forward to coming home.
I just sit in the corner. They all are looking forward to return…I must. I need to defeat them all. But what if I transform into that again? But if I do…I can…

We spent about a day in here. The crystals actually do infect us, I suspect we are fine as long as we don't overflow with SP. We might mutate like some of the monsters have by staying inside here. The solution is to simply use a bunch of magical skills outside to lose all of it. Acclaim is almost done having his arm repaired, and Sili-san and Theresa appear to be playing some card game about monsters that are dueling are something.

I have been reading the history of Lowee through this book I got from the library in LAN-Castle. I want to know more about this Samurai, since he has made a promise with a Goddess, he must have some significance…I have been reading until nightfall, and the only thing I've got so far are mentions of him. He isn't named, but "The Great Samurai", can mean no one else, I imagine.

I have not spotted anything in history before the second generation Lowee Goddess, Color Heart. I can only assume he was made during that Era. In that era, Planeptune and Lowee were at war with each other, it was the first time in recent Gamindustri history that two nations were close in shares. But there was another force that tried to take Lowee, and the Samurai is the one who has been told to foil most of their plans…With how this book is written, just like some other special figures, he must have an entire page dedicated to his story. This book is so thick, it will take a while for me to find it…

The sound of an explosion alerts us all. I look to the entrance of the cave, and have an ominous feeling. It's not from the Ninjas or The Samurai…Something else is out there as well.
"Hey…There is fighting happening…But it sounds more intense?", Theresa says it, she shouldn't have any detection ability, but I guess we all feel something is off in our bones.
"This kind of feeling…Like when a horde of strong monsters appear.", Acclaim says.

I can hear the battles going on outside. There might be a bunch of enemies at once fighting each other.
"If they keep using explosives, our cover will eventually be blown into the wind.", I mention.
"So, then. Break is over.", Sili-san says casually.
They don't sound disheartened at all. After losing twice, you three are still certain of victory.
I don't feel ready at all. But obviously, I will fight.

We get out of the cave. The night sky brightens the ground with auroras of multiple colors. And further, clashing lights of red from multiple explosions illuminates the battlefield. We can see Ninjas fighting monsters mutated by crystal. It is mostly the weaker Ninja struggling, the Red Ninja are easily beating them…Oh no, one got crushed by a big crystal monster. I haven't seen some of these monsters. One of them is bigger than a house.

I do catch some Ninjas looking our way. I think they were weary of us, they must've figured out we were hiding around here from the beginning.
"You four!", we hear Marvelous shouting. She jumps from seemingly out of nowhere, holding her two Ninja blades up and telling us, "You ran away last time. I cannot allow you to cause any more problems!"
"You're the one causing problems…", Theresa sounds like she wants to shout back, but is too timid to fully commit, her voice being way lower than it needs to be.
"You have got it backwards lady, we are the ones wanting to do good.", Sili-san says.
"I won't be tricked! You killed the commander and his company! You're friends with an enemy goddess!", Marverlous shouts what she's been told.

"Guys. You three can handle her, I believe.", I tell them.
They look at me slightly confused.
"We could, but where are you going?", Acclaim asks me.
"I am sure you three can survive as long as you stay together. Don't separate. Once you are safe, head west. There might be another crystal cave there. I am going to fight the Samurai whilst I am still at peak condition. He is your biggest threat.", I explain my plan to them.
"Heh! Don't worry Leader, this woman will regret coming at us four on her own!", Sili-san replies to me arrogantly.

"That's kind of rude. It takes bravery to fight many enemies, you know.", Marvelous sounds kind of playfully sarcastic with her response.
While I run away, I see them fight. This time, they can see Marvelous' attacks coming with ease, and she can't dodge everything with barrages of attacks that affect a wide area. They use Theresa's teleportation magic and pull each other to different places with string to trick her into an opening. Well, that is all I can see. I am speeding over the monsters and ninjas fighting, they will just waste my time.

Some ninjas try to hit my from behind. I drop on my hands and cast a Mine spell into the ground, I go into a handstand before jumping off my hand. The ninjas land on where I placed the Mine Spell, and I set it off. This knocks them over, but I doubt I hurt them much, they weren't the lowest ranking ones after all. Any ninja coming close to me can be sensed with Wind Sense and I can easily deflect their blades and knock them back, still maintaining my running and leaping.

Must a spell be used against me, I will jump over it and use a bow and arrow as counter.
For now, I am heading south. The Samurai could be north into the mist, but I am not sure I can enter there. We saw him south the last time, so maybe he hasn't come here yet. There were still enough enemies to fight there after all…

I have gotten about an hour's worth of distance from the fighting. Now I am in front of a blockade of Ninjas. I don't know what their purpose here is, they are blocking nothing? Maybe they don't want interference with a fight against The Samurai or Gilgasoft, or something? That doesn't make much sense either, overwhelming them with numbers is their only real chance.

Regardless, I have their attention now.
"Let me go through.", I order them. My eyes are barely open, I feel mentally drained.
They slowly get closer and respond, "We have orders to eliminate you on sight…"
"You could surrender yourself. We recommend it. Jail is better than death…Oh. But that would be boring. So please, try to fight us.", another one of them tells me.
I am sick of this. Are all of you so stupid?
I guess killing all ninjas while going crazy has left them in the dark of how a hundred of them died at the valley. Even then, they should at least know they can't beat me without a Special ninja.

"Whatever…I am done…", I mutter.
I look up in the sky…I should spare them, right? But they have no courtesy for us…
"Hey…You…Inside my mind. You like destruction, right? You are stronger than me…Want to be let loose for a while?", I talk to myself.
I hear the Ninja shout, "What?!", they can't hear "me".
"Oooh. After rejecting me, you now want to use me?! You want my power to help you beat The Samurai, is it? And what do I get out of it?", I hear the voice of "Me" in my head.

I see a vision of her, I say that because no one reacts to her appearing. She walks over me, pats my shoulder.
"I told you. You can chaotically mow everyone down…Isn't that enough for you? It will only stop at my friends.", I tell her.
"Hm…Does sound enticing. But can I really not kill your friends?", she mocks me as she stands behind me, whispering in my ear, "Do you think I will help you?"
"You are never allowed to hurt my friends. But anyone else here…Do as you please.", I say that.

I can feel my eyes darkening. I almost feel like I am about to go numb.
Who cares about any of this. They just want to return home. If they want to fight to the death then…
"Okay. I suppose any control is good control. Hehehe…", "Me" says that as conspicuously as a neon sign in a wasteland at night.
They can't complain…Can they?

"Processor Unit…Set.", I say quietly. As light gathers around me, the ninjas' faces turn pale, that being so, they assume battle stances.
A pillar of light shoots into the sky, than cracks and shatters like glass, with the pieces dropping all over us.
Eerie laughter is the sound that dominates this battlefield.
"Welcome to the slaughterhouse…Don't worry, I won't waste much time on you. We got a V.I.P after all. You're lucky, for your ends will be quick.", "Me" says with a smile.
Instantly, she binds a good fifty Ninjas with snow, when she turns that snow into Light, it is over, for a single slash obliterates them. A group of ninja use hand signs to prepare a spell, but "Me" just storms through them and shoots them into the sky with the swing of her sword.

This isn't a fight, but a massacre. She uses an axe and hammer and swings them around too fast for the Shinobi to counter. Never mind that none can catch up with her speed. This fight won't last even a few minutes. The guns they have are outsped, the skies are owned by "Me", so the kite fliers only end up dead. And everyone on the ground are only alive long enough because we want to conserve SP for The Samurai. But it isn't mercy, for when "Me" comes down, a dozen more die. There were two-hundred here, and now none. Whoever comes in her way, "Me" is unleashed and no one is safe.

We flew for about half an hour. I see him in the distance.
He just fought a bunch of Ninja by himself. But there aren't more? Despite the blockade in the front? What was it for?
"Me" just giggles before nose diving into The Samurai. Her sword is engulfed in Light Magic as she strikes him down, with he immediately reacting with a block, his sword emitting green energy to cancel out the magic damage. However, "Me" is strong enough to push him around.

"You finally decided to face me, Goddess…", The Samurai speaks to "Me" with distain in his voice. But he also adds, "Finally. The promise shall conclude."
"Eh?", as if laughing at his face, "Me" reacted with disrespect, astonishing The Samurai as she replies, "I don't know anything about a 'promise'? Who cares about that nonsense! I don't want to FIGHT you. I arrived here to KILL you.".

The Samurai is shaking with rage.
"How…How dare you mock our promise! DID IT MEAN SO LITTLE TO YOU ALL?!", the Samurai screams, only to be met with more tomfoolery, "Of course it did. After all, I was never told about this. Hahahaha! You never were even a subject! Who are you anyway?!"
The Samurai charges in, he used energy charged into his leg with his sword to move to "Me" with speed, his sword swing was filled with fury, but as strong as it is, it lacks the same skilled stroke, it is easily predicted.

"Me" just ducks under the first swipe, then she side steps a crooked overhead swing, which she pushes the blade into the ground and gets uncomfortably close to the Samuria, telling him, "Is it that bothersome? But you hurt my friends? What is this honorable promise worth to me? Everyone just wants you dead now."
It might be part of her plan to enrage him so he doesn't use his skills and just flails his sword angrily.

I can hear the Samurai breath through his teeth, or it sounds like that rather, either way, he must not have expected combatting a stronger version of "Me" for he reacts slowly to his next attack being easily deflected into a small Light Slash that knocks him over the snow.
Laughing, "Me" pursues him constantly striking at him alternating from left and right, blasting him with Light Magic. He backs off while trying to block the attacks, but I can see his arms getting scratches.

Eventually, he releases an explosion of green energy before jumping back. He needs this distance to do those air-cuts to slice through "Me". On the other hand, "Me" is a lot faster. Wind Sense lets her predict the movement he makes and then quickly fly over the slashes he unleashes. He does this while shouting, "I have been fighting for Lowee for you! I have been stuck in this body for you! How could this promise not mean anything! I gave everything for Lowee, and it was all a joke to you! I put all my faith into you!"

He…Is crying for help. The more he screams. The more he sounds desperate for an end. Is that why he wants to fight? A duel is part of the promise…But that can't be just it either, right?
Either way, "Me" flies forward while evading a few air thrusts, she quickly steps to the Samurai's left and waves at him. He immediately swings his sword her way, "Me" flies up and dodges it, the air-slash flying into a mountain, cutting a huge majority of it off.

"Explosion.", she calmly says as "Me" uses an explosion to headbutt herself into the Samurai. She follows that up with a front flip into a Light Slash. The two have a hard to follow duel of white and green swords clashing as they dance around at exhilarating speeds with "Me" shouting, "I don't care about any of that. You fought for Lowee? So what? That's nothing new. YOU'RE causing problems for it now, and you have the gall to complain? Heh. Well, I will put you out of your misery. Emotional damage is the only thing you react to, and even that fun is thinning out."

Using the snow, she binds his legs, and with a back thrust, she hits his legs to get him to his knees. He tries to withstand it and do a vertical air-cut, but before he can swing his sword, she hardens the snow around his arms and binds them, then she swings him around like a Morningstar, she slams him into the ground a few times, and she hurls him over the snow while laughing. Eventually, the Samurai breaks out, generating heat from the energy granted by his sword. With the electricity sparking in his legs, he jumps high into the air to avoid the snow on the ground.

He unleashed a bunch of air-thrusts and cuts, creating deep rifts and holes that spews magma. Of course, it is no challenge for "Me" to dodge it. It serves more as a distraction so he can come down and land a hit safely. But it is pointless, even with the heat melting snow, the best he can do is kind of annoy her. The two clash with green energy and light magic, but it just pushes each other back.

After the two have stopped moving, the Samurai shoots a big green beam at "Me", in response, she simply flies fast into the sky, the explosion being hundreds of meters away by the time she is done going up. The Samurai quickly summons a few dozen energy orbs that he can make chase after "Me" Of course, at her speed, "Me" can easily fly over them using evasive moves. Once she is past them, she converts snow into light, including the snow she surrounds the Samurai with.

The Samurai attempts to stop her with a thrust, but she creates a shockwave using snow that slightly alters his aim, thus missing her.
"FusionStar… Helios Slash!", she shouts as she strikes the Samurai up close, he had no time to block this attack, so he is sent flying over the surface. This did major damage and I can see dents in his armor, still, he is very much combat ready. The green orbs behind "Me" fly past her and explode on the ground, leaving a curtain of smoke.

The Samurai fires another green beam at her, which "Me" was planning to stop, but then the beam just spreads into more energy orbs. She decides to deal with them this time, slashing them into pieces with flying blades of light, quickly firing small attacks off strong enough to stop them. The Samurai most likely dove into the smoke, because he is gone from our eye-sight. Of course, his plan is obvious and we know he is coming. He appears behind us after a jump.

"Me" casts explosion to dodge a sword swing. In the air, she is in control, and she kicks the Samurai higher up into the sky. He retaliates with Air-Cuts, since "Me" sees that coming, she easily dodges them and gets up close to smack him towards the mountain with her sword bursting with Light. The Samurai looks behind himself, he unleashes green energy to clear away the rest that was still on top of the mountain and makes a safe landing. Now, the mountain is but a wide open stump. Perfect for an arena.

"Me" shoots herself down on him with her sword bursting with light, but the Samurai turns his sword into a dense energy blade to deflect an up-close slash, it did burst into some kind of explosion of light, but it goes past him. He spins his leg a full 360 degrees charged with lightning, but "Me" is much faster than when I was fighting him, and so, she dodges it with a Light Step backwards

The two aim their swords at each other's eyes. They strain their arms as the leap forward. Her sword gathers more light into a spiral, while the Samurai's blade is getting denser with green energy. They thrust forward, the points of their blades not being able to collide due to the dense magic and energy clashing, as time goes by, the light magic and green energy grow into huge bursts of green and white that reach the ends of this arena. They push and push, but as expected, "Me" is just that much stronger.

Though the Samurai was a close match, she pushes through his energy. On the other hand, her frontal attack is now weakened to the point that she can't even penetrate the neck upon hitting it, even if that pushes the Samurai back. He holds his hand over his neck. So despite all the evidence of him being a machine, he needs oxygen? Or did it hurt that much?
That aside, he seems calmer.

He talks to us, almost at peace, "You…Are not the same person, are you?"
"Hoho?", "Me" reacts nonchalantly.
"You weren't this strong the last time we fought. Even then, I remember you not being this talkative. If anything, your personality doesn't suit prior actions. That's it. You must be possessing my Goddess…"
"Oh my, you got me…Hehe.", is her reply, holding her hands up to say, "I'm guilty".
The Samurai holds his blade next to his cheek as he says, "For the sake of Lowee, I will drive you out!"

He doesn't have any intention of killing me…? He wants to free me? But I sent her out…Did I mess up? All of them are fighting for Lowee, but they wanted to kill my friends, which I ended up prioritizing over.
"Hey", I hear her voice. I am back in this black void that is my mind, "Me" walking up to me from behind, she strolled playfully, it almost looks enticing, even to me.
"Are you thinking of backing out now?", she asks me.

"He…He wants to help me. He has been fighting for Lowee for a promise, and it has been forgotten. Don't you think it is cruel to kill him now?", I ask her.
It seems I have become emotionally vulnerable after giving up my body for strength.
"Me" smiles at me, and I realize I asked the wrong person.
"He is in the way, isn't he? It isn't OUR problem. He fought for Lowee? Don't make me laugh!", after her speech, her facial expression looks warped with anger.

Suddenly, her voice comes in heavy as she says, "He is causing problems for all of us now! And he thinks he deserves this promise, whatever it is?! Ridiculous! But let me tell YOU, Bios.", she points her finger at me and continues, "Why do YOU care? YOU are not actually a goddess! You know that! I am here because of what you really are! Lowee doesn't matter! You have your own objective, and it is to rid trouble makers and help your friends! And eventually, to deal with your older sisters. NOTHING ELSE matters! So don't give me that crap about "cruelty"! That same cruelty is what helps us!"

The minute we are discussing our feelings, a lot of blows have already been exchanged in the real world. I…Don't know if "Me" is right…I don't have any control either way…So…
"Me" Appears next to The Samurai, she misses a horizontal sword attack, however, she chants, "Weapon Change", her sword turning into a morning star, the chains wrapping around his neck, and partially, his torso. She spins him around before slamming him down onto the ground with explosion magic as the finisher, the spikes of the morning star made to shoot out with that magic.

However, we see the chain was cut by a sword.
"You've cut the chain before the explosion could reach you…Good job.", "Me" says with a giggle.
The Samurai is behind the smoke, and there is no time inbetween, for "Me" immediately uses Light Step to thrust her sword towards his neck, he blocks the hilt of the sword with his blade, but them, she shouts, "Weapon Change", and turns it into a spear. Because the weapon is longer, the Samurai takes a blow to the throat which pushes him back.

"Shadow Weapon Create!", whenever she changes weapons, she destroys Yukishihai, our black sword, for the new weapon, and then recreates it right after in another hand.
She shoots the spear at the Samurai at light speed, but with insane reflexes and instinct, he manages to knock it away with perfect timing. While she is turning snow into light and infusing our black blade with light, she throws a few knives at light speed as well.
After deflecting all of them, "Me" says, "I see such easy assassinations mean nothing to you"

The Samurai seems ready to run at her, but then she repeatedly casts flame magic at multiple spots and a few ice spells.
Afterwards, she uses Weapon Create to make a high quality silver sword, which she fuses with the black sword using Light Magic. At the same time, snow around her is lighting up and fusing with the blade of light. The Samurai uses and Air-cut, but he only slices up a mirage made by the carefully aimed magic spells.

Of course, we are fighting someone with enhanced instincts, it doesn't take long for him to figure out "Me" is behind him. He does a spin kick without turning around, but "Me" jumps over it. He turns around his body for a slash whilst she is still airborne, but "Me" can still use Explosion from her feet to go a big higher. "Shooting Star…", these words prompts the Samurai to guard. However, he doesn't have time to generate enough energy from his sword.
He gets launched near the edge of the arena after getting blasted by a great white light as "Me" shouts, "Helios Burst!"

"Shadow create!", once again, she brings back Yukishihai. On top of that, she creates another sword and a spear. She also hides a knife, she actually stabs it into her hand to properly hide it, she doesn't feel pain, so it won't bother her. While charging light into the generic sword, she shoots small flying light magic blades at the Samurai, simultaneously moving forward. He deflects them with his own sword glowing with green energy, he fires off a few beams back at her.

After dodging a few attacks, she does a flip to release the spear from her grip, once the spear has fallen low enough, she kicks it with great strength, her feet bursting with light as she does it. The spear is easily deflected, but it is a distraction. The knife she had hidden is shot at his sword at light speed. The knife hits his sword out of his hands.
In that one moment, she does a Light step and then uses a bunch of explosion spells to make her spin over in midair whilst revving up the blades into a fused blade of light.
"You're finished!", she screams while smiling madly.

However, within that moment, an event took place within our minds.
"You should really stop this here! I don't think killing him is wise!", I tell her.
"And what are you going to do about it?! YOU gave ME control of our body! The deal was, I help you in return for carnage, and I so gracefully granted your friends safety! You don't get to ask for more, and you are too weak to stop me.", she talks down to me.
Do I have to accept this? I caused this, and I can't undo it?

Unexpecting, a light shoots down onto "Me" she jumps away in a panic.
"Tch. I thought you wouldn't intervene.", she says.
I see someone else appearing, she was glowing. A beacon in this void.
"You thought I would let a mistake like you control our mind? Leave now, your villainy isn't welcome.", a monotone voice bereft of all feeling spoke to "Me".
It is quite odd, once again. I see another me. However, this time it looks like my HDD before I died. My original goddess form.

I will refer to her as "Snow Heart", from now on.
"Call me whatever you want, do gooder! But you are the one out of place! She is not a goddess, your existence makes no sense!", "Me" shouts back at her.
"Not as long as I can think. I won't allow this mind to be corrupted by evil. Nor will I let you hurt our master.", Snow Heart says back to her.
"Master?!", "Me" shouts back in a scoff, she continues, "I thought you would want to take this mind for yourself, but you're submissive to her?!"

"She is our true self. She is the core. It is her right to be our master.", Snow Heart states.
The two stare at each other for a while. "Me" sighs and backs off, saying, "Fine, I don't feel like fighting right now anyway. Do as you please, your power in share energy is low anyway, giving you control means nothing to me." I see "Me" vanish into the distance.

What is going on? My mouth is wide open. I never imagined anything like this happening.
I look over to Snow Heart, who approaches me.
"Master. You are okay.", she says to me.
"Thanks…?", I reply.
"I see, you are confused…Allow me to make things clear for you. Your mind has split in three after dying. Negative energy fused with your anger, sorrow, joy, all forms of extreme emotions and cruelty. Creating Cold Soul. I am Snow Heart. I took the power of Share energy and manifested with your logical thinking and sense of justice.", Snow Heart explains to me.

Now that she mentions it, I don't see a hint of emotion on her face. I have felt like that too when transforming. An odd mix of nothing but mission focused thinking with no room for feelings, then sudden bursts of pure anger or delight.
"But how come I am the core, anyway? If you are the Goddess, and she is the Devil. Then, what am I?", I ask her.
"You are the bridge that connects Logic and Emotion. Therefore, you are the master. Unlike what she thinks, your power matters not, for your mind it the connection that makes our consciousness.", Snow Heart answers.

"I see…", well now I am not confused anymore. But I am still having doubts on another subject.
"You are not satisfied with Cold Soul leaving you alone?", Snow Heart asks me.
"I mean. I don't like her…No, I hate her. But. Isn't it true that her strength is necessary? What can I do about the Samurai now?", I ask Snow Heart.
"It is correct, outside of the mind, Cold Soul is the strongest. But you have already come with an answer, haven't you? It isn't strength that you need.", Snow Heart tells me.

I look at her questionably.
"Bios. If strength is all that matters, good and evil won't be a question, it will only be a minor description. Evil can rule if it is stronger, and then what? We should let that happen because we are weaker? Strength is important, but the mind and heart can overcome that difference. Your perseverance to do the right thing will grant us OUR strength. Right now, You don't need to obliterate The Samurai. You know that…That is why you plead for her to stop. That Samurai wants YOUR help, because of you. Not because of the strength you may wield.", Snow Heart is basically saying what my sense of justice would've said.

"Might doesn't make right?", I blurt out without thinking.
Snow Heart nods, and she says, "If it did, we might as well let evil rule. Villains in stories always are in smaller groups of much greater unquestionable strength. But they rarely last, don't they? Because they are mistaken. Your stronger power may be darkness. But it isn't the right power for you. Killing the Samurai isn't right. If you do so, you will ultimately lose what is important…You will lose what made you take this path anyway.", Snow Heart says.

My path? I took this to…Help Lowee. In my own way.
I feel better now. I raise my head and say, "I need to help him, because he was an important part of the nation I love."
Snow Heart nods, "That is correct. That is what your decisions used to be based off of. Don't choose between your friends and nation. The right thing is to do both, and take any hardship you get.", Snow Heart says.
I smile at her for a bit, then I get a bit puzzled, "With that said…Why don't you take my body?"

"There are two reasons. Reason number one: I respect this body as master's, thus I have no desire to take over. Reason Number two: Master's body rejects share energy, I am pure share energy, my power won't be utilized any more than master knows how to use. Unlike negative share energy, master already knows all techniques to use share energy to the limit of her body. So there is no benefit in me controlling master's body.", Snow Heart explains.
"I understand…Thank you, Snow Heart.", I reply.

"Thanks are unneeded. Snow Heart does what is right.", Snow Heart tells me.
"Right…", I say as I close my eyes. I will continue to fight the Samurai.
Of course, Cold Soul was about to finish him off, but I make a hole through the arena with the great Light Blade she has made, stopping the attack entirely.
The Samurai looks stunned at me. He must know I have no reason to stop.
I stand still and stare at him. He is waiting for me to speak.

"I'm sorry.", I say to him.
He is taken aback, he sounds like he is about to say something, but speech eludes him.
"I wasn't myself back there. I fought you with power that the real me can't even use…And on top of that. I couldn't fulfil your promise… For that, I apologize.", I say to him.
"…My Goddess. You have returned?", he asks me.
"Yes… So, Samurai. I understand, you have been fighting for Lowee for a long time. I don't know how to fulfil your promise…But. If you want to fight me…If that makes you feel better, then. Let's dance.", I say, before pointing my black sword at his eyes.

He walks over to his sword and grabs it. Then he looks back at me. He readies himself and says, "Thank you."
He sends energy into his leg by the power of his sword so he can do some kind of super leap forward, it is a similar speed to my regular Light Step. We move to each other at as fast as a jet, we bent our arms as our swords slide into each other, stopping our points from reaching our faces. We push forward, causing air to shoot off of us, then we move away. The fight soon speeds up to be unfollowable.

Across the Arena we leap at high speed, only I am a little faster and can escape his attacks more often. But his instinct is so great to predict any simple attack I make, even then, I only barely am able to penetrate through his armor. Never mind having to get used to these 'Death Blizzard' Processors.

These processors can process both share energy and Negative energy. Though it seems it can only process about 50% each at most. This is good to keep Share energy consumption low, and my SP consumption is lower as well. These processors give me a big boost in both physical and magical attacking stats, my speed is increased as well, however. It sacrifices defense in return for that. Now it is even crazier Cold Soul would just take attacks on purpose.

"Flash Step…"
"Iaijutsu…"

We dash over to each other, and all acceleration just suddenly ends when we get close to each other. We both draw our blades from the sheath, his attack slowing down time as he does his swing, or rather give the perception of such.
"Kyōfukiri", he says as his sword is close to reaching my neck. But, I use the snow with my blade to knock his own back, which has him lose the fear aspect that alters my perception of time.
"Terakami!" I shout as I hit his sword with enough strength to push his arm behind his shoulder.

I have prepared another sword, with a sheath that is on my back. Since I drew with one hand, I can draw that sword with my other hand right after.
"CombinationStar…Light Slash!", I call out my attack as I knock the Samurai back with my secondary blade beaming with light. The cut itself exploded with light, doing decent damage.
After his feet is dragged over the solid ground, he dashes back to me at full speed with a thrust. I hold my blades in a cross and duck to receive his attack.

His sword is stuck between my blades, I do a trick where I come close to dropping on my back after kicking both legs to my right, I bend my feet as far back as possible, now I cast explosion. I still hold onto his sword with mine crossed, but I end up twisting his arms as my body flies around his sword, I land a double kick on his head, and that is when I release his sword. I do a crooked flip as I let my two swords burst with light.

Shouting my special move once more, I shoved him a few dozen meters away.
"Tenkukan Giri!", he shouts as he launches an air cut at me. I jump over it. He actually is going to do multiple air-cuts in multiple ways. Using Light Step and predicting his movements, I dodge them whilst shooting small Light slashes back at him with the occasional bigger one to mix things up.

He cuts through a few, the big one is split and explodes behind him, that being so, he does appear to be overwhelmed. He uses green energy instead to deflect and blast back at me. We get closer and closer. Inching our way forward as we evade and unleash magic and energy from our swords. Until we were arm's length away, then we slam our blades into each other, one engulfed with light, the other emitting green energy.

The Samurai gives me a rough strike that nearly cracks the ground beneath me, but this isn't something I can't block. I sense energy in his leg too late and get kicked in the head, myy feet grinding through the ground as I am pushed back. It was a blow strong enough to redden my forehead. I had my eyes closed because of it. Now I open them and try to move, but I am paralyzed. I can only move sometimes.

He tries to blast me with energy again, so I take off into the air. Energy blows up below me, but even paralyzed, I might be able to make a simple move into the air until its effects are over. He will have a harder time hitting me up here. I watch his next move carefully. He shoots a green beam at me, which then spreads into a hundred green energy orbb. I make the move to avoid them. I fly around the Samurai by about ninety degrees. Once I feel up to it, I dive down at him at max speed. I fly through the storm of green energy balls combining in explosions. He sends one of them straight at me, so I cast explosion to quickly move next to it.

But this was his strategy, he quickly thrusts a piercing blast of air with his sword and hits my side. This hurts a lot, this is damage that takes more than a day to heal. However, I can't give up now. The moment he uses that attack, it means he lost control of the green orbs, for the energy in his sword went into the air-cut. I have a secondary sword shot at him at light speed whilst I continue flying right at him. He deflects it, but I cast explosion magic on it beforehand. So it blows up right next to him. This won't do any damage, but on the other hand, the smoke gives me a second of his time.

He swipes the smoke away, and I strike him with my sword as it is lit up with magic. He is blocking it, of course, but then, I cast explosion from my feet while loosening the pressure I put on his sword. My head crashes into his, making him flinch. I do a front flip over his back right after. I cast Explosion from my feet again and do a spin slash on his back before landing. He turns around to strike me down, I remain somewhat crouched and receive his blade. With Light coming off my feet, I jump forward from my crouched position and place my hand into his gut. "Reflection!", I shout. Since he is used to this, I can only send him about twenty meters away, but that is enough distance to keep me safe. I hit him with another Light Slash right after.

Meanwhile, the Samurai sheaths his sword. Suddenly, my shoulder is cut by green energy.
He left a space cut after I sent him flying with Reflect?
Both of us have taken plenty of damage. I think the time has come. I see a murky aura come from his as he holds his sword. In the meantime, I create a secondary blade. I light them up with magic.
We leap forward and shout, "EXE DRIVE SKILL!"

We go beyond our limits as the color is drained from our surroundings and birds pass through this dense air.
It is like he multiplied, his illusions that are made by his great speed come at me to create a bunch of space cuts, though with this attack, their slashes are both a delayed one and a weak active one. I use my blades of light and acrobatics to cut through the illusions as I go forward. Occasionally, he cuts my anyway.

I move around him at high speed and slash into him many times with my sword, with him sometimes getting me from behind with his illusions. In between attacks, I thrust a spear at his illusions and I stab him a few times with it, before turning my weapon back into a spear and hitting him with spreads of arrows. Most arrows get cut by his illusions. I jump next to him, and with a spin, I send him flying forward with a hammer. After that swing, I let the hammer's weight guide my body into an overhead swing onto the ground, its shockwave stopping some of the illusions.

Then I do a front flip over him whilst hitting his shoulder with an axe. I do a few spins to grind my axe into him before letting is explode in full. Then I hit him upwards with a bunch of spin slashes of my two swords as their lights became brighter and spikier. Afterwards, I hit him down and generate light by gathering the snow around me, as for his actions, he has a bunch of illusions cut the air in front of me to create a web of green spatial cuts. Each green cut that stays static in the air will slash into me the moment he closes his sheath, if I am close to them.

However, I need to go through in order to finish my attack.
I look for the widest gap possible and avoid my neck being cut. Into the web of space cuts, he closes his sheath and shouts, "Gyōketsu Jisoku…Hyakku Iai-Giri!" All the slashes that distorted space and time are now dicing into me. It hurts a lot. I feel like I am about to drop, but in my hand I have a fused blade of light. I can't let this one chance go!
"ShootingStar… HELIOS SLASH!", I scream as I strike him with a giant blade of light that bursts open and obliterates the edge of this arena.

Yet, he stands tall. Smoke is coming out of the cracks of his armor, yet, he sets his foot down like he has only fought a single round. Cloth is torn, armor is broken, creaking noises come from him as he moves, but he is ready to fight.
I'd say, he has about a third of his health left.
This guy really is tough. I am getting close to my limit as well. That last attack did a number on me…
I raise my swords. I can feel my arms urging me to let them rest. I can feel the weight of my legs. But I resist all reactions of pullback.
I can't lose now…He is reaching his limit too…Actually, I feel pretty good despite everything.

"Round three.", I say.
"I'd want no more.", he replies.
Without warning, I sense three figures behind me. I want to turn around and stop them, but the Samurai is taking the initiative and cut the three using his Air-Cut.
"We are surrounded.", the Samurai's instincts prevented an assassination, regardless, we are surrounded and not just by ninjas. Around the arena landed a few mecha's. Planes fly over us on top of that.

It is Lowee's national army. They wouldn't be here just for me, but they probably are aware of us being here, so they came to assist. More likely, something else caught their attention, but what? I dodge a few missiles and blew up some bombs dropped at me, the Samurai parries incoming ninja attacks and cuts them up. He cuts one Mecha in the distance in half, which causes it to explode as a whole. He says to me, "Goddess, I prefer you to run."

Looking over to him, he elaborates, "There are far more enemies here. I can hold them off and get away. You must not lose to them in your state. I want to fight you, uninterrupted."
Next time, we get rid of all other enemies. Our fight so far will not be an equal duel. That's what you want. And it works out for me, too.
I nod and say, "I understand, Samurai. I will return." And with that, I fly away.
Of course, I am being chased.

The Mechas are busy with the Samurai, a few planes are coming after me. They asked no question, immediately unloading missiles at me. With evasive maneuvers, the missiles eventually lose track of me. It is easier to do when you make one of the planes your destination. I placed my feet on top of the fighter jet, it's a one seater. I punch through the glass and pull the pilot out. Before the plain could even crash, I use Reflection to send him on the surface. He might be knocked out or nauseous, but he will survive.

Of course, there is a second Plane I have to deal with. I use Light step to quickly pass it and cut the wing off. With some of the safety measures, the pilot should be fine. A few more are headed this way, some of them already firing bigger rockets. The rockets are less accurate but travel a larger distance, I guess. I shoot a Ligth Slash back to create a smoke cloud. I am thinking of creating a mirage using fire spells, when the smoke is cleared, I'll make them think I'm flying up.

Heading down, I hear gunfire above me. By the time the illusion breaks, I'll be hiding in the snow. Using Yukishihai, I can create a cover of snow, staying camouflaged. I also revert back to my normal form. I am already running out of energy, and I will be more conspicuous transformed. Now I won't glow as much. The only downside is, I can feel the damage I've taken a lot more. I promised to go north-west. So my destination is already set.

On this cold night, I march on. No snow storm will stop me. Snow blindness is barely an issue, even during snowstorms, the sky is clear at night. I don't really get it. But I can see the auroras above me, and the colors and shapes differentiate. Once a shape is taken, it stays like that until the night is over. Because of this, I have an idea of where I'm going. Unfortunately, I won't make it any time soon. That thrust attack has me barely able to stand up straight. I cover my side as it keeps hurting badly.

Around me, I see bright red explosions in the distance.
What is happening? A war?
The army is here. The army only is involved when facing a national threat. Usually war against another nation…Or a monster invasion.
I hear them walk by me. Maybe it is the latter. In the sky, I see planes fly by…And now, they have crashed thanks to a few magical spells. The snowstorm is fading, and I see some kind of crystal golem…Actually, there are multiple. They walk away after the fighting is done.

I don't have the strength to be involved. I try to avoid conflict. About an hour of walking passes. I am behind a pretty large mountain. It is neatly blocking the wind for me. I might rest up here before continuing…Or so I thought, I sense someone behind me.
A ninja, tries to ambush me. I block his sword, then I use Light step to step aside him. With his target lost, he rolls over the ground. Behind him appear two more ninja.
"It's the vigilante! Take him down!", the one who ambushed me said.

Looking at their clothes, I see two lowest ranking Ninja and one Genin.
They are interrupted however, after the screams of the one most far behind. I barely noticed it. Wind Sense is weaker behind this mountain. A big crystal monster slammed one ninja down, ultimately defeating him.
"What is that thing?!", his friend who is the closest shouted that.
We see three crystal golems, one of them is giant. The two others are merely three times as big as a normal human.

"Katon!", the two ninjas shoot flame spells at it, but the damage was zero. The big crystal monster charges through to do another attack and the two jump away, they avoid getting squashed. The lowest ranking Ninja tries shooting a "Raiton" at it, but that did no damage either. Instead he is launched into the sky by the big golem's kick. He isn't even safe there. Light generates on the Golem's head, it fired off a beam of light that obliterates the ninja in the sky.

The Genin tries to fight back, he used his blade to spin across the giant's arm. Once again, his blades did no damage. Above the golem, he threw a bunch of weapons and explosives at it, with no avail. He stabs it with a fire infused blade, doing about 10 points of damage, I guess. I would rate it as such. The smaller golems are a lot faster, even if they are also huge. They did a spin kick, making the ninja crash into the mountain.

The ninja tries to get up, but can only observe with fear at the Golems chanting their next spell. An Ice coffin Spell incases the ninja, freezing him.
I already figured I was in danger too. I already prepared a great attack. I appear behind one of the small ones and shouted, "FusionStar Helios Burst!", blowing it up on the first turn. They turned around. The smaller one does a few flips before throwing a kick down at me. These guys are far more nimble than they look.

I materialize a shield whilst using Light Step to move away from the first golem. The giant golem blasts me with Flame magic, but my shield can block the damage. I am stunned because of the pain in my right side. I cast reflection on the shield to block whatever spell the smaller golem was using. immediately, I cast reflection on my sword. I move past the big golem, I only can cut it in half for about a second. But that is enough.

Once he is back as a whole, I place my weapon between him. A huge great-sword with explosion cast on it. "UnionStar… Helios Slash!", combining snow and light, I slash at him with great light magic. With how much weaker I feel, it wouldn't do enough normally, but with the great-sword exploding inside it, a few holes are drilled from within it, weakening its crystal armor. Now it crumbles, leaving only the smaller golem.

The pain is making me blur my vision. I am drawing breath roughly. My SP is running low as well. It shoots a beam of light at me, but I just deflect it through the mountain using my reflective palms. I don't really move my legs off the ground, I just let Light step shoot me around the Golem and do pot shots using Flame Edge. The moment is shows me an opening, I am just going to repeatedly cut into it. Ugh…I feel so…
Kill it kill it kill it kill it kill it
I stab it over and over and over again after punting it onto the ground. Finally, it disappeared into data…

I hold myself up with my hand on the ground. Sweat drops onto the snow. I hear footsteps behind me. I look behind me, scared to find more enemies. Using Wind Sense, I can feel more Ninja approaching me…I also sense a few monsters on top of the mountain.
"My last remaining SP…", I utter as I infuse light into my sword.
"Combination Star…Light…Slash.", I can barely speak, I swing my sword one last time, the attack hits the mountain and garnered the attention of the Ninja and monsters alike. Now, I cover myself up in snow with my sword and slowly walk away, hoping they are too busy fighting each other. I can hear shouting and spells going off behind me as I keep walking.

Even if I can't feel cold, I can feel some of my body getting jammed. I look at my fingers, hardly able to move them. Thanks to Acclaim's coat, I can still move somewhat. Not feeling cold aside from strong ice spells had a downside, I guess. I can still get frozen. I need to cast Flame spells to keep me awake. I doubt I can recover my SP, even if the day ends. I don't have any healing items with me either…

The blizzard finally fades…I can see half of the moon's light already disappear behind the mountains behind me. I only now understand I have been walking all night. Maybe eight hours. My eyes feel weary. I can't fall asleep yet, I might end up freezing here. This might be the coldest place in Lowee. Since the stronger monsters are, or were already in combat with Lowee's forces, only weaklings show up in front of me. Usually going past them and cutting them in halve is enough.

I've passed mountains. I have seen massive snow-pits as I call them. There was one entire field of nothing but huge wide open pits of snow. They actually look like perfect arenas. The area I've walked into actually has more greenery. Mostly some random patches of trees, I would not call them forests. The sun is rising. It's light in form of aurora greets me…Its blinding light is almost…Knocking me out. My legs are starting to give out.

I can sense two people with Wind Sense. They were dashing around in the trees. The only thing I can do is place some Mine spells or explosion onto my equipment, even this coat, just to make sure they are defeated. After I do that, though, I will drop. Unfortunately, that is my only hope against them. They are Red Ninjas, too, meaning they are specialized in fighting in the open.

Past the trees, they probably know they have no more hiding spots for the next few kilometers. They run my way. I don't have the strength to keep fighting.
I turn around to see them stopped. I observe them for a minute, and notice them stuck in string. Is Sili-san here?!
But even more baffling, a…Yellow ball flies by me? There is a girl on top of it, she is even smaller than me and Theresa!

The tiny girl with a cat ear headpiece on grabs her big yellow ball, its size is actually a little bigger than me. And she just slams one of the ninjas few dozen meters away. The other ninja looks stunned, but he is mentally prepared for any situations. He burns through the string and shouts, "Katon", as he unleashes flames onto the girl. But the girl jumps away, when she lands, she shouts, "Aquarian Age, Nyu!", and hits the ninja with a lot of water. In this wheater, it must hurt him a lot. Though, he is a ninja, he must be able to take it. On the other hand, he must be a chunin, for his movement got slow enough for the tiny girl to get to him. She repeatedly hits him with the big yellow ball, "I make you black 'n Blue, nyu.", she says on top of that

When the ninja passes out, she just calmly says, "Six hits is enough, nyu."
The other ninja she knocked away begins to run at her. She just throws her ball and says, "Do your best, Gema, nyu." And upon contact, the ball explodes and renders the ninja unconscious.
What just happened? Why do the most bizarre ones always help us? Is she from Planeptune?
Also, even though I am certain that yellow ball blew up, she is holding it again. What is that thin- it has a face. What am I looking at?

My legs finally give up, I land on my knees. I pass out yet, though, I desperately want to know more. Not for survival, no, I genuinely feel like it is my life's goal now to understand what is going on.
Before I knew it, Sili-san stood behind me. He calls out to me, but I cannot hear him, I am more focused on the big wolf-like monster approaching the tiny girl.
It has crystals going out of it and looks to be more insane than other monsters.

"Mekera Beam!", she shouts as the light of magic surrounds her…And then some green goop just spills out of her eyes. She looks at the ground and says, "I failed, Nyu."
The monster wildly runs to her, it is quite fast, I would say, maybe a threat to someone at level forty? Luckily, he gets stopped as a flame of fire surrounds the tiny girl. Then it gets curved and blasts the wolf with an inferno. I sense Theresa is behind me.

"Miss Brocoli, you must be more careful!", Theresa shouts annoyed at the tiny girl.
Brocoli, I think her name is, responds, "I'm sorry, nyu. But I wasn't in danger, Nyu."
Regardless, the wolf may be recoiling in pain, but that won't last. Though, the damage is big enough, so when Acclaim jumps in front of it, he can just use my "FusionStar Light Slash", and finish it off with a big explosion of light.

I get grabbed by Sili-san, he is asking me again, "Hey, Bios! Are you alright?!"
I can barely understand what is happening. I may not be alright at the moment…
"I need to rest…", I give him a weak reply.
"Well, it's bad when YOU say it.", he says before shouting, "Guys! Let's get back!"
He helps me stand up and walk.
Brocoli gives me a can and says, "Here is some Nepbull, Nyu. It will make you able to walk well enough to reach my home, nyu."

I take it. NepBull tastes bitter, but it does actually have healing properties, though it doesn't close wounds like some other items do.
After everything is said and done, we reach the living space of this girl. I can barely see at this point. The first thing I did when reaching a safe place was fall asleep…I feel super good in here. I already have my eyes closed, but this bed feels nice…

Chapter 9

The Promise

My eyes are finally open. I can't be entirely sure how long I've slept, but it is still daytime outside, judging from the bright light shining into this room. I open roller shades and look outside.
It's the ocean! And the sun! Normally it is covered by mist…
It feels very comforting to see something is natural as the ocean after seeing so many bizarre landscapes. Not that I had no sense of wonder seeing the latter, but I have been here for so long.

From my recollection. I was saved by my friends and some girl named Brocoli. This is her home.
Knowing at least that, I think I can relax. I take my time looking around as I exit my room. Everything is pretty clean upstairs. Mostly white walls, a few posters taken from, what I assume, game magazines. Most of them have the GAMERS. Logo on them. The upstairs hallway has plenty of other rooms. I would say her house is medium sized. Large enough to fit a family of five.

Going downstairs is the living room, which is cozier than I was expecting. There isn't a lot of space, but that is more so because there are many items gathered here. It's not messy, really, it's just that there is a LOT of items like shelves, game machines, a couch in front of one CRT TV as well as another spot with bean bags and a flatscreen TV, in the middle is a dinner table and on top of that there is a fire place. Everything looks like wood, there actually are a lot of decorative fake greenery along the wall and on the ceiling to give off the feeling of being outside. With the window showing a winter wonder-land outside, living here must be very relaxed.

I see Brocoli playing some older game on the CRT TV. I can see plenty of game consoles attached to both TVs and on the table is a collection of GAMERS.
She is sitting on that big yellow ball…It has a face and looks pleased…Gross. It also has miniature arms and legs. What is that thing?!
I walk into the room, I am sure she noticed me, for I see her twitch.

She pauses the game and turns around to me asking, "Brocoli, right."
"Yeah. Brocoli is my name, nyu.", she says, seeming somewhat pleased for whatever reason. What? Do people get her name wrong often? Whoever gets it wrong must not be so smart.
"Um…What are you riding on?", I ask her.
"Gema, nyu.", is her response.
"…What is Gema?", I request elaboration, but she just reacts with a straight face as she says, "Gema is Gema, Nyu."

I'll never find out, I guess. Well, I feel a lot better, so my interest isn't as peaked as when I was still in an emergency situation.
"I see, Gema is Gema.", I say. Whatever, I suppose I'll just have to leave it at that.
"Good. You get it, nyu.", Brocoli says.
I can sense someone sitting on a chair against a wall with his arms crossed, simply observing Brocoli. Acclaim looks settled, his guard is so low, even his mask is off.
"Acclaim. Why do you have your mask off?", I ask him.

"There is no point in hiding our faces. We've come to an understanding.", he responds.
Brocoli is continuing gaming whilst advancing the conversation, "Hm. Brocoli's house is safe from ninjas, nyu. No one comes to bother Brocoli, nyu."
"Is it because it is within the mist?", I ask.
"The mist just happen to appear whilst I lived her, nyu. I thought it was a pain, nyu. But monsters can't get through, nyu. So it is more relaxing, nyu.", she answers.

"I see.", with that reaction, I walk over to the dinner table.
Whilst I grab a seat, she says, "Ninjas don't come here, nyu. They know where I live, but they know how to get information, they know Brocoli helped the goddesses, Nyu."
I sit down. I just hear what she said…Now that I am sitting here…Wait a minute.
I turn to my right to look at her and say, "The goddesses?"
She knows big sis? Sisters Rom and Ram too?

I ask her, "But, you know we are considered enemies of Lowee right now, right?"
She must know this. Acclaim said something about an understanding, so what convinced her?
"Of course, Nyu. But Lowee law concerning things like vigilantism isn't my business, nyu. I hate people that cause problems, nyu. I beat them to shape, nyu." she responds. The way she talks is always a matter of fact kind of way. Not quite monotone, more like, she doesn't really care what we think.

"I guess I'll have to ask what happened…", after saying that, I look at Acclaim and ask, "Where are Theresa and Sili-san?"
"They are probably still sleeping. We all rested a bit before looking for you. Those two needed a bit more time to sleep, so they went to bed after you. I am sure they are well rested enough, allow me to get them here.", he explains. Now he stands up and heads upstairs.

I await the gathering. Theresa comes down in some white bunny onesie. These onesies have become popular in Lowee not too long ago. Sisters Rom and Ram have light blue and pink colored ones respectively. And Sili-san is…Wearing his armor.
"Sili-san, did you sleep in your armor?", I ask him.
"Yes.", he replies with no hesitation.
"Why?", I ask him.
With no hint of irony, he says, "I feel more comfortable that way."
…No, I am not going to press any more. After that yellow ball, can this really be considered weird?

We all sit on the dinner table, except for Brocoli. She just turns around and sits on Gema.
They are basically telling me the story of what happened after we split.
They did defeat Marvelous. Of course, they only weakened her until she was unable to fight. Knowing her skill-set, countering her wasn't so difficult. After that, they quickly headed west as promised. Acclaim mostly took the frontline attacking any monster in the way, whereas Theresa handled the ninjas with wide range magic.

Sili-san was mostly the bench sitter, only really intervening when a stray attack or Ninja comes through and he needs to stop them from moving. They wanted to keep his SP up for later. Because once they leave the war zones, Sili-san's string is mostly used for scouting. Sili-san's string cost SP in and of itself, so they could not afford to waste it on the first battle. It is a wise decisions, a lot more monsters popped out and they were way stronger.

On top of that, they had the bad luck of running into Gilgasoft. They knew they couldn't beat him, but with three of them and the knowledge of his equipment and powers, they already had devised a strategy. Acclaim will counter most attacks, with Sili-san acting as back up. His string won't be affective against Gilgasoft, but he can use them in the distance. Pulling Theresa or Acclaim to different directions, or intercepting physical projectiles like missiles. And Theresa's attacks were mostly used as distractions, with only an EXE drive being damaging enough despite the magic resistances.

Eventually, they gave him the slip with a teleport spell.
They made a slightly less arduous journey to north-west than mine. Eventually, they encountered Brocoli in the woods. They watched her kill something for food.
Acclaim and Sili-san told me they remembered being mesmerized at the sight of such a small girl killing big monsters easily on her own, but then again, they know me and Theresa. Brocoli looked at them, which had them ask, "What are you doing here?"

Brocoli looked annoyed, saying, "Brocoli lives here, nyu! You can't ask that when you are not meant to be here either, nyu. It's rude, nyu."
They were stunned by her sharp tongue.
After staring, Brocoli just asks, "You three, you are those people from the news, nyu."
Sili-san, of course, replies, "Well. Yeah. But I swear, we don't mean harm. We don't even know you. We actually are just lost."

"Brocoli figured that these three may not be terrorists, nyu. They are too nice to me, nyu. Criminals often sound stupid in a different way, nyu. So I asked them what they want, nyu.", Brocoli is adding that to the conversation.
She also says that she thought fighting them would be foolish. Especially after they told her of defeating Marvelous. She is friends with her as well, and she knows Marvelous is a bit stronger than her. So if Marvelous can't win, neither could she.

"Brocoli is not bothered by Samurai or that other weird weapon fetish man, nyu.", she says after we talked about explaining to her about our quest to defeat the Samurai.
Apparently, Gilgasoft doesn't care about her, because she has no weapons. And the Samurai only fight warriors.
Anyway, my friends had told her what our goals here were exactly. And when she asked about our 'terrorism', Acclaim only told them we saved some children and the people we fought were using giant robots to fight us.

Brocoli kind of understood what we are talking about, only saying, "Heroes are cool, nyu."
I guess she has some things she cares about, and others she doesn't. She tells us what her deal was. She basically lived here before the golden tower even was a thing. She even comes to Lowee. Sometimes, she screws with some game related things. Mostly, she is a fan of GAMERS. And spends a lot of time going to events and buying their stuff.

On top of that, she journeyed with Nepgear and a few others, which eventually led to fight together with big sis and the other goddesses against the four felons and the Deity of Sin, though I doubt she fought much when the enemies were that strong. She tells us she met Nepgear when she, IF, Compa, and someone named, RED, were troubled by a broken disc.
The disc contained the mascot of Lowee and they needed that mascot. After reading a GAMERS. Article about fixing disks, Brocoli fixed it for them.

I suppose I should describe her full appearance.
As stated before, she is a tiny girl with brown eyes and long brown hair split into pigtails that are tied by two small golden bells at the ends. On top of her is a rather large yellow cat eared head piece she wears behind two strands of hair that are standing up, one bigger than the other. On the headpiece is a white flower and a smiling cat face. Other than that, she wears a basic sailor uniform; white shirt, black skirt with green lining and a scarf matching the skirt, tied with a light red ribbon. Below, she wears black shoes and green socks. She also has a yellow tail…But I don't know if that is real or not. I don't want to ask.

Name: Brocoli, nyu.
Age: Yesn't, nyu.
Height: Unknown, maybe not even a meter, it is a pain to measure, so I don't bother, nyu.
Occupation: Brocoli works when Brocoli wants to, nyu. Job is whatever I feel like, Nyu.
Home: Lowee, nyu. Unless I feel like moving, nyu.

Since when does other characters write their own profile?!

Well, now that we understand where we stand, I guess we must take this opportunity to rest. We could go out and fight right now, but that wound the Samurai gave me still stings. And even without that problem, I need more information. For now, we are safe here.
Later, I get to see the full picture. This house was built on the coast. It is super small as a beach, and a small forest is right next to us. because of that, it was easy to plant a few trees around the house. Aside from it being between the mist, which is what allows us to stay safe, it all looks very comforting.

The ocean is in view, the yard around the house is green with lovely decorate tiles that lead to the front door. There is plenty of nice looking furniture outside with another fire-place too. Even if it is snowing, some of the heat projected here stops the yard from being covered in snow. One side of the house is a winter wonder-land, on the opposite, is a tropical sight. Brocoli is surely living the life here, even if she is far removed from Lowee.

Right now, everyone is just doing their own thing. Theresa is playing a few games with Brocoli, this would be her first time playing games. Brocoli is teaching her slowly, though she seems pretty critical with her sharp tongue. I thought maybe she is being too harsh, especially when you're supposed to be having fun, but looking at them, I don't see them actually having a bad time. I am particularly surprised Theresa is smiling despite some of the harsh words thrown at her.

Now that I think about it, I suppose my sisters make fun of me too while playing games sometimes. I guess it is normal.
Sili-san is fidgeting with some pinball or arcade machines, and in between, he is watching the two play games, sometimes joining in on a conversation. Acclaim is taking a walk outside. As for me, I guess I am relaxing the least. I have this big history book open. I want to know about the Samurai. I am hoping to find his promise in this book.

I've been reading for so long. The sun has already gone under. We've had dinner by now. Brocoli uses the fire place to cook her food, though, she says she actually used to order more often or go to Lowee to eat after being there for a while. But since the mist appeared, monsters that are far stronger are roaming the lands, the lands themselves having become hard to navigate. Now barely anyone enters or leaves. She doesn't want to leave her home behind for too long. Worried it might get invaded one day.

After eating some pastries and meat, I continue my reading.
Finally, I found the section about the Samurai.
Long, long ago. During the rule of Color Heart, the war against Planeptune's CPU was at an all-time high. It doesn't help that not everyone is on board with this war, soldiers of either side express liking both games from both nations, but that was not an option.

Shares kept being run dry. Only later was it known that the witch known as, "Arfoire", was the one straining share energy. Little is known of her, other than being born in Lowee and spread more monsters throughout Gamindustri. Since she has her base in Lowee, Color Heart has to fight on two fronts. In the meantime, there is a young man who fought against Gilgasoft. Gilgasoft is centuries old as well, he wounded the young man to the point of dying.

Cursing each other to their final breaths. Their bodies combined whilst the soul of the young man roamed throughout the lands, whereas the soul of Gilgasoft possesses the fused mess of bodies, creating an entirely new existence.
Color Heart saw this spirit who roamed the north. She heard his roar of battle. He wants nothing more than to defeat Gilgasoft, and his master, Arfoire.

His DNA was preserved in these cold lands, and taken with his soul. With some of the most brilliant mages and genius scientists, they've made him a body of steel. Infused with his DNA, they created a machine lifeform in the form of a Samurai. The Samurai agreed to help Color Heart defeat Lowee's enemies, specifically, Arfoire in return, Color Heart granted him life once more.

Their deal goes as such; Whilst the goddess of Lowee of any generation is out to fight a bigger threat, you shall protect Lowee with a nearly undying body. Once Lowee is at peace, we promise to free your soul after a duel, so it can rest eternally.
The promise is for a honorable duel, and then, the freeing of his raging spirit. The Samurai was apparently close to becoming an evil spirit with hatred and regret.

His only purpose was revenge. He did get it. The book describes him defeating Gilgasoft. However, it did not give him tranquility of mind. His fights to protect Lowee from Arfoire. For years he fought outside Lowee, intercepting forces of evil, all on his own, without anyone knowing. He became an honorable warrior with love for battle, but even more so, a love for strong fighters with honor. With his view of a Goddess as the highest honorable being, fighting one in a duel is his biggest dream. That will surely put his soul at peace, and then, it can be freed from the chains that bind it.

I guess he was stuck as a vengeful spirit, the armor itself chaining him down even after his soul becomes peaceful. Most likely, only a goddess can severe his mortality now. Mortals don't feel good living forever, actually, that may include the immortal as well. After fighting for so long, the Samurai froze and lost power during the fight against the Deity of Sin in the time period before Neptune and the others. He was forgotten there.

The crashing of the golden tower must have woken him up. Then there is Gilgasoft. From what I can find about him. He used to be a man obsessed with collecting swords. Some of the weapons were cursed, which is what gave him the new body. Alas for him, that body was destroyed, along with part of his soul. Another curse trapped a part of his soul in these lands, he formed a new body and has been collecting weapons for ages. He has been here even before the Deity of Sin gained form. If I hit him with enough share Energy, I might stop his soul from forming a new body.

I finally go to bed. Weighing my options.
Staying here until the storm blows over isn't the worst idea… But we aren't really about that. On the other hand, I do remember last time what happened when I said, "Let's go!", so it isn't the immediate route I want to take. Tomorrow we might be fully healed. Lowee's army and the ninjas are both here, but the Ninjas must be slowly retreating with their superiors wounded or just dead. Never mind most of their ranks being hospitalized. They sure brought a lot here, though. With the Samurai not doing any surprise attacks, I guess I have to defeat Gilgasoft, and those three can handle anything else…

With all that said…I fall asleep…

Nothing really happened next morning. It is mostly relaxation. Playing some games. Eating snacks. Acclaim doesn't really do a lot of recreational stuff, he'd rather just sit and do nothing. Maybe that is fine. Ario Kart only supports 4 players after all. I constantly become 10th, at least that isn't last. At first, Theresa is either close to me or loses to me, but now she often gets around sixth and sometimes even third. Sili-san and Brocoli are the only ones competing for top, though Brocoli clearly had more time to play games and is just more experienced.

At noon, I see them having a conversation.
"You said you could shoot a beam…But out of your eyes came that weird goop?", Theresa speaks to Brocoli.
"Yeah, why didn't you shoot the beam?", Sili-san asks.
"Mekara Beam only works 50% of the time, nyu.", Brocoli says.
"Huh…Does that mean it will work now that it failed once?", Sili-san asks, rubbing his chin.
"It's not 50/50, nyu! It's not how odds work, nyu!", Brocoli replies, almost sounding like she is insulting Sili-san's intelligence.

"So? Can you do it?", Theresa asks her.
"Let me try, nyu.", Brocoli says casually.
"Wait, wouldn't that be bad ide-", before Sili-san could finish, an aura appears around Brocoli.
I guess her smarts mean nothing, for she has the most uncaring attitude…
"Stop!", whatever is yelled at her is useless.
"Mekara Beam!", and of course, instead of sludge, two big blue beams are shot from her eyes, obliterating the front of her house, luckily, there was a monster right behind that wall that died thanks to that attack.

With the hole in the wall, we can see a bunch of monsters are gathered up outside.
How much coincidence is this?!
We all stand tall, getting ready for combat.
"I see, Brocoli must've known there were enemies and surprised them.", Acclaim says.
"I didn't, nyu.", she says whilst making the biggest, "Are you dumb?", face in existence.
I think Acclaim gives people too much respect and doesn't think some people may just act foolish.

There are three large ones, their shadows cover the house itself. One of them was a dragon standing on two legs with long arms, his body is filled with crystals. The second one is some kind of wolf with multicolored crystals sticking out of its body. And an eagle made of crystals, actually, it more so looks like a golem in the shape of a bird. Behind them were medium sized monsters with crystals sticking out and crystal golems.

The three big monsters are all inflating their throats. Actually, magic is being charged, they are going to fire something at us.
The dragon shoots a big fire ball, the wolf launches a sphere of lightning, and the eagle blasts a tornado out of its mouth.
"Great Ice Wall!", Theresa doesn't hesitate, immediately placed a wall of ice between us and them. The ice wall gets easily destroyed, but Theresa put a lot of SP into it, so the projectiles didn't pierce through.

Due to the heat of the attacks, steam keeps us undercover.
"Attack them while they cannot see us!", I shout at them.
Acclaim immediately springs into action. Sili-san and Theresa sneak to different positions. I decide to sneak past them using my speed.
Acclaim jumps between the three monsters, avoiding a swipe from the dragon and a bite from the wolf using his strings.

He captured the three together and uses their weight against them, making them collapse into each other. Knowing it won't last long, he jumps high in the air and yells, "SP skill, Blade Burst!", He forces heat into his sword until it bursts into flames before chucking it down on the monsters, exploding in their faces. This hurts them enough, but won't kill them. Their strings are burned off and the dragon almost falls over. The wolf barely keeps its footing and charges electricity from its fur to the crystals, attempting to zap the airborne Acclaim.
"Raiton!", Acclaim shouts as he infuses his blade with Lightning and deflects the lightning behind him.

At the same time, Sili-san comes in, as he uses the left over string with his own to grab the wolf and slam him down onto the ground. He didn't let the wolf escape, even for a second.
"Projectile Netweb", he says as he lets his sword bounce between a network of string.
The sword pierces through many parts of the wolf's body until Sili-san jumps on one string, he bounces off it whilst he grabs his sword to shove it further down into the Wolf's head whilst screaming, "Spider Stinger!" The wolf died.

Acclaim is still in the air, he got caught up with a fight against the eagle, who had flown into him.
The dragon looks at him and tries to blast him out of the sky with a fire ball. However, Sili-san jumps on top of the Dragon and uses his string to shut the dragon's mouth, the fire ball blows up inside the dragon, it takes a few steps back to stay in balance. In that time The Eagle dodges a quick slash from Acclaim and kick him down with a spin-kick.

Acclaim looks where he is falling to, and sees the dragon. The dragon angrily swipes at Sili-san, he dodges the first attack, however, the dragon is faster than his appearance would suggest, and actually delivers a swift skillful punch at him. Even if he uses a web to shield himself, he is still send flying onto the ground.
Acclaim uses this time to knock the dragon over, with the help of the 'Stand' he got from Gilgasoft, he and the stand each grab a shoulder and threw it on its back.

That is when Theresa summons two magical circles above it. She had been chanting this spell in hiding for a while. A super-powerful lightning strike the size of a beam annihilates the dragon. The eagle is certainly the biggest threat, he outspeeds the two naturally, has great air control, great strength, and even powerful ranged attacks. Its tornado already makes them scatter to elude it.

I have been eliminating all the medium sized monsters in the meantime. They are actually pretty tough and agile, but I bait them into an attack after letting them dodge one of mine, in the end, I easily finished them off with a Sword bursting with explosive white light. Seeing as the eagle is the only one left, I hurl myself at it. It must also have good instincts, because it dodges me like it just teleports behind me.

I dodge a spin kick with the explosion spell, but he immediately smacks his left wing against me, although, I did block that with my sword so it only pushes me.
Right after, it fires a bunch of sharp crystal feathers at me, their speed were close to that of a gatling gun. I try to swing my arms beyond my initial limits. I'm trying to see if I can go faster and faster. The snow kind of helps deflect the feathers, as for myself, I am hurting my arms to stop every feather from getting me.

Following up on that, the eagle flies straight at me. I cast explosion from my legs and Reflection on my sword. I cut it in half with my Reflection Blade, but it won't last long. I throw a spear in between its halves so that it stays stuck inside the eagle when it gets recompleted. The eagle quickly turned to me, diving down with my descend. Theresa casts explosion on its feet, it is a lot more powerful than my version of that spell, so it actually hurts it.

This gives me a little time to move in and cut him. But then he shields himself with his wing. Upon closer inspection, he surrounded himself with an air barrier that is getting thicker and thicker. My instinct tells me to get away. I get back on the surface and hold my ground as he wraps open his wings and unleashed an explosion of air from its entire body.
Only a few seconds later, and it dives towards me. It looks perplexed when it suddenly is unable to move. His wings and legs are especially withdrawn.

Sili-san has stopped it with his strings. That is good enough for me to assault the spear stuck inside its stomach.
"CombinationStar Light Slash!", I shout as I blast the spear with a blade of light, letting it explode with more magic This spear was created be me to be detonated by light magic, it shoots a bunch of paralyzing shells from inside the staff.
I am not sure how effective paralysis is on a crystal golem, however.

Either way, Theresa combines a bunch of magical skills to shoot the bird up with a flaming tornado. With the tornado fading, Acclaim has gone above the monster after having jumped off of Sili-san's string. He uses jet thrusters like the ones Gilgasoft has and punches the monster down into the ground, creating a small crater. His metal arm is definitely tougher than the crystal body of the golem, his hands went through it…And now it disappears into data like the rest of them.

We gather together.
"Those monsters vary in strength, but all of them would be trouble for most adventurers.", Acclaim says.
"Yeah. I suppose this also shows we've grown just that much stronger, too.", I say.
"It's rare for you to praise our strength with yourself included.", Sili-san comments with a wry smile.
"Well. I just think about how even skilled fighters that give us trouble would find these guys to be the major threat of their month, or whatever.", I reply.

"Hm…But if that is so…Do you think the army stands a chance?", Theresa asks.
"I can tell you would prefer no one get hurt by these monsters. The problem isn't a few boss monsters appearing, these guys are a giant horde that even a goddess would take issue with repelling. Of course, the army has their numbers at least.", I say.
"So, what do we do, leader?", Acclaim asks me.

I have my war face on, but it is broken when Brocoli says, "You're just going to leave, nyu?"
We look at her awkwardly…Then we look at her house.
"Um… Well…We don't want to leave you alone in this troubled time… But…", Sili-san says.
"At least help me close off the front, nyu. Brocoli fights monsters too, nyu.", Brocoli speaks in an irritated tone.
"Ah…Right I guess we can do that…Uh…Wait, you're going to fight?", Sili-san communicates with quick changes in attitude.

Well, this IS her home after all…
"Of course, nyu! If more monsters show up, my house will be gone, nyu!", Brocoli speaks back looking a little angry.
"Guys, we know she's pretty tough. Brocoli has every right to protect her home.", I tell them.
"You got it, nyu. Brocoli fights monsters for friends, too, nyu. I can't fight the army, I won't be fighting alongside you, only reducing monsters to make it easier for you, nyu.", Brocoli expands her reason for fighting.

While Acclaim and Sili-san patch things up, I ask Brocoli something, "Do you know how these monsters passed the mist?"
"Brocoli knows little more about the mist than you do, nyu. However, I suppose the monsters being in such high number and strength, they only need to sense someone through it to reach them, nyu. That is my theory, nyu.", she tells me.
With that said, the patch-work is done and we are heading out. Brocoli goes ahead to fight monsters.

As for us, I have to brief them our mission.
"All right. This day is going to be our final fight here, so listen up. The ninjas have been greatly reduced after out fight two days ago, and their only special ninja unscathed might be Wolf depending on his revival. On top of that, the Samurai won't attack any of you. This leaves the army, monsters, and Gilgasoft as only threats.", I explain them the situation.

I draw some lines (badly) into the snow to make some kind of map.
"Gilgasoft and the Samurai will be left up to me. I assume they are further South, but that is only a guess. I want you guys to stay north and fight both the monsters and the army. You three together should be safe from anything else, except for Gilgasoft. You can flee if he appears, he is my target.", I give them their instructions, but of course, it begs the question, "Why must we fight the army and monsters in the north?"

"There are two reasons. Number one, I have reason to believe there is something special beyond the mist. The army would have little information to go on in terms of monster sightings. I believe their secondary jobs alongside the ninja is to pierce through the mist. You must prevent them, I don't know what is beyond, but it may end badly. On top of that, some may back up whoever is South from here and get in my way. I want you to make sure they won't leave this battlefield.", I explain.

With all of them agreeing to this plan, we head out. For my part, I need to conserve energy and not transform with anyone nearby. I need to be discreet enough to reach one of my targets without anyone following me. Outside the house, we see what is happening back at the overall region. We first head to the east a little so we can observe the middle, where most of the fighting is happening. Just as I thought, there are no mages or troops, only the mecha of the army are here. Usually, all get send to the battlefield for monster invasions.

Now that they have confirmed there is one, they are most likely in fierce battle with them. I see Brocoli running to a unattended group of monsters on her own. Well, we must get going as well. Theresa, Sili-san, Acclaim, those three run off to fight this war. They already assigned positions. Theresa takes care of Ninjas and mechas. Acclaim is mostly monster hunting, and Sili-san focuses exclusively on Mechas whilst also putting defensive measures for anything else.

Theresa actually gets the least to do after a bit, there are barely any Ninja left. But she will unleash a great spell when there are numerous mosnters around. Acclaim has gotten so many skills during this trip, and he uses all his new SP Skills and EXE Drive attacks. It is unfortunate most of it will be gone in two to three days.

Now then, I suppose I must get going. I make multiple leaps using Light Step, it is faster than just running. I barely see any enemies, but I am also going past a few that only look over confused. I guess they think I was just in their imagination. Then I reach a small forest area. One more leap, and I sense someone coming from behind a tree. I stop myself to intercept a slash of a large knife with my own sword. Then me and the other figure jump away from each other. I observe her, I see a girl with unique clothing. She is probably not a ninja.
What is her deal?

A girl bigger than me with slightly tanned skin, choppy blonde short hair and green eyes. She has pale-yellow markings on the sides of her face, shoulders, torso and her thighs, the ones on her torso and thighs looking like thunderbolts. She wears a black and white animal eared hat with yellow and green goggles on top of it. She wears a white top with green and orange-yellow-ish accents with a black undershirt that is only slightly visible. Her midriff Is exposed, so are her shoulders.

She has disconnected black sleeves held down by two orange straps at the end, those are worn under white and green gloves with golden blocky wristbands. She also wears white and green shorts with an orange belt with a green buckle that has a white logo on it, specifically, a big C followed by a small c and then the number 2. She wears black spats underneath, slightly longer than her shorts. Below, she has white boots with green accents and green jewels on top of her feet. She also has a black wolf tail with a white point.

Name: CyberConnect2
Age: Probably an adult.
Height: I guess she is a bit taller than Nepgear and Tekken, but the hat is also pretty big.
Occupation: Unknown.
Citizenship: Unknown.

"Who are you?", I ask her.
"It's rude to ask for names without introducing yourself first.", she says, her tone of voice makes her sound relaxed even if she looks cautious.
"Some call me Leader. Some call me the Switcher.", I tell her.
"I'm going to be honest with you, that doesn't sound very good.", the girl responds to me, she almost looks disappointed.

"Well. I didn't give myself that nickname. I more so want to know what you have against me? You're not a ninja are you?", I question her after my response.
"Well, you guys hurt a friend of mine, Marvy. We're not THAT close, but I do consider her my friend. I was asked to come to take care of this monster invasion, but I came across her. After seeing her unable to fight, I feel I need to settle it with you first.", she explains herself.
So she is mostly uninvolved, she's just helping a friend. I can respect that…But…

"I'm sorry, my friends should only have wounded her as instructed. I don't want to hurt anyone, but there is something we must do as well.", I tell her.
Though, I'm certain you will fight me regardless.
"I don't know you. And you're not willing to show your face. I will not let you go unscathed at the very least.", she replies to me.
She relaxes only for a second to say, "Oh, and my name is CyberConnect2."

Outside of battle, she must be very easy-going.
Putting that aside, she grabs two white metal blocky dagger-like things that actually emit green laser daggers that are separated into three pieces, the top one being the largest and curved, and then getting smaller with each piece. She always holds them in reverse grip.
A lime-green aura surrounds her, she almost moves like she is drunk, then instantly, she moves to me and shouts, "Peerless Wild Blade!"
I block a double uppercut she does as she jumps above me with a backflip.

I use Light Step to move away, avoiding her double strike as she goes back down. Her strength is enough to create a gust of wind that I can feel smack me.
"Absolute Wind!", she says as her blades get infused with wind magic whilst she swipes them at me at great speed. Seriously, I have to move my arms with full strength of parry all of them. Sometimes she lands a scratch on me.

She tries to hit me with a swing of her leg, I duck under it, giving me the chance to thrust my sword into her. To my surprise, she actually blocks it with her right dagger and manages to push my sword below her legs as I slide forward, leading me into the range of her other dagger. I think she realizes that it would give me the opportunity to cut her right leg, even if she can stab me in the throat, I might be quicker. So she jumps, however, her slight moment of air-time gives me the opportunity to use the speed of Light Step with one leg to kick her with the my other.

I kicked her back, but she just lands on all fours and quickly jumps back at me. I leap forward too, predicting she is going to do more rapid swipes at me, I go on the offensive as well. With lack of defense on both sides, we get covered in cuts. However, she then shouts, "Shining Bones", in a flash she swings one of her blades with enough strength to easily cut bone, it catches me off-guard and disarms me.

Little does she know, I have learned martial arts. Even if her knives have more range, with the use of two arms, I can hit her wrists to parry her swipes. Probably thinking swings are no use, she tries to stab me with her right arm, I elegantly move around the knife with me left forearm raised ready to knock her arm away as I move in.
As it looks like I am about to punch her with the same arm, she pulls back a bit to do a kick, I duck under it, clenching my right fist to punch her before she can recover.

She tries to intercept my punch with the blade in her left arm. My fist is close to her face, but then I open my hand, turn my wrist and let her blade pass by slightly lowering my arm. I successfully grab her wrist, she tries to wring her arm to her left to escape from my grip, but I am clearly stronger than her. To stop me, she thrusts her other dagger right at me, but I grab that arm as well. I counter a knee with my own, and right after, I jump thrusting my other knee up to perform a headbutt.

I miss my headbutt, because she slides her feet off the ground to try to get her back on the ground, perhaps she can entangle me and stab me in the back as my grip will weaken, however, I have left this move for this moment. Explosion, I cast it from my legs, pulling her over the air before doing a flip to slam her into the ground hard enough to make her bounce.
She wore a face of pure bafflement.

I might be able to pummel her, but I decide to move back and get my sword instead. "CombinationStar Light Slash!", I shoot a white blade of light at her, but on all four, she dodges and jumps on a nearby tree, from there, she rushes at me again. She clearly has better tactics than this, so I don't get why she is doing a bunch of rush attacks at me. They barely do any real damage. The tiny cuts don't even make me feel pain.

I leap back and see her dash at me with a curve, I thrust my sword to my left to knock her over with a shockwave to her arm. She rolls over and quickly jumps from her position to me.
She pushes my blade with a clash of her right dagger, after, she keeps pushing me with that blade while closing in on me with her left dagger. I kick her arm away with my leg, and she uses that as an opportunity to kick me in the side.

That kick is strong, but with the lack of pain I am feeling, she needed more force to stop me from moving in with a left to right slash. She evades my sword as I pass her by, she did it by doing a sidewards flip. Then she quickly does a spin slash from her left. I duck under her dagger, but it is a set up to strike me whilst crouched. Forcing me to block her second blade in this position leaves me open to get hit by her left hand or a kick,

She may think so, but I cast explosion by letting go of my sword with one hand and aiming the palm of said hand at her stomach. This knocks her back just a bit. Now I move in with a strike, which she blocks, receiving the attack with her daggers crossed. I press firmly down on her, and she decides to play limbo with me. She might try to sweep my legs, but I jump over her, my sword grinding off her daggers. I do a flip as we pass each other.

I place my hand on the ground, making it look like I lost my balance. I am actually placing a Mine spell down. I know she will move in on me like a hound, I jump back and let the magical Mine go off to force her to flinch.
"CombinationStar Light Slash,", she guards herself, but she definitally took a good hit. Her back nearly hitting a tree. She tips over and drops to her left hand. In that position however, she could still get away from any following attacks.

"I won't despair…", she mutters something and suddenly, I see some light restoring her wounds.
Low level healing magic?
It didn't restore a lot, but I also didn't hurt her that much.
She looks at me, her eyes almost look animal like.
"EXE Drive Skill!", and with those words, the air becomes dense enough to make it hard to move in.
She was rushing at me to fill the EXE Drive, this was her endgame from the beginning!

She dashes in, with the little movement I have, I could block her first spin slash, but immediately got hit with a spin kick in the gut.
Following from that, she does a low sweep on my legs leading me into a uppercut with her blade, though it is more her fist hitting me into the sky. After being flung up high, she leaps over to me at high speed.

After a few slashes and spin kicks, she starts spinning around a bit, I was only able to block the spinning swings, but then she knocks my sword up with an upwards swing from her blade, and she jumped at the same time with that swing so she can stab both daggers into me simultaneously, she then further knocks me down with a kick after doing two mid-air rolls. I look above me after roughly landing on the ground.

I see her inside a see-through blue sphere that is gathering blue rays of light. Then it suddenly explodes into a shining blue sun that shoots blue and green rays. Before I knew it, I am cut by what looks like dozens of green blades. I manage to block half of them, but they almost completely tear through my shoulders. I don't know where she is… Ouch
I got hit on my left arm by some green thing that passes me by. I guess that was Cyberconnect2, because I see her in front of me now, appearing out of nowhere.

I was able to block half of her attacks, but she has done a number on me now.
This isn't much trouble for me, however. This is clearly her best move and I have a plan.
"Twin Void Strike!", she shouts at me as she tries to hit me with fast swings of her right blade. I parried those, then she does a double thrust from a spin jump, which I avoid by hopping back slightly.

She finishes her attack with a tricky movement that almost made her look like she is about to fall, instead, she swings her right dagger slightly from below with a spin to the right. I counter her by holding my own sword in reverse grip with my own right arm, receiving her blade. I use Light Step to get to her back, but also to slide off her sword, almost making her trip. I place my free left hand on her back and shoot her a small distance away at the speed of light using Reflection.

I can't knock her out quickly. This is better…
While she is dizzy and nauseous from her first light-speed trip, I rush at her from multiple direction, punching her and passing her by using Light Step. With each passing fist, I speed up. After hitting her many times, I appear before her. A massive spiking white energy comes from under my feet. Now I shoot myself at her at max turbo, I punch her in the gut shouting, "Reflection Punch!", blowing her far away, out of my sight.

I'm sorry. We must have our fight another day. I understand wanting to avenge a friend. So I really don't mind giving you the honor. But someone has been waiting WAY longer for his closure.
With that thought, I book it. I must get out of here before she has the chance to catch up. The moment I am alone, I will transform and fly off to find the Samurai or Gilgasoft.
"Snowstorm Processor Unit, set! Transform!", I call out the processors I'm using for my transformation. Now I take to the skies.

In the sky, there is a pretty large gap of deserted land, not a single living thing is between the war zone to the north and the battlefield to the south. Not even any animals or monsters. They either had run away, or are fighting north. I must thank my friends for holding the line up north, now I must do my job.
I spot the Samurai down one of the many snow pits I came across when shuffling to the north. I see many others, but I want to make an entrance.

I fly at him and shout, "SAMURAI!", he looks up at me. I let my sword burst with light as I strike him, he blocks me, and pushes me to the ground as he places his left leg behind his right with a turn of his body. The light from my blade kind of burns the snow in front of me away. Our swords meet for a few seconds after I turn around, then we jump away from each other.
We stare at each other. I break out the words, "I came…To fulfil the promise!"
He raises his head, he has no mouth, but I'd guess it would be wide open by now.
"Thank you…My goddess…", with him saying that, I can see us smiling at each other in understanding.

Slightly repositioning our feet, we must exude an air of hostility. Seconds pass…Now we run at each other. Our swords are swung, but we did not hit each other. Instead, we jump past each other and eliminate two ninjas that were hidden by some invisibility tool.
My Wind Sense can detect them easily, there are many ninjas here hiding. The Samurai uses an air-cut to defeat a ninja above my head, he was coming down from a kite.
"GatheringStar Light Slash!", I shout as I knock some ninjas on the edge of this battle field over with a shot of light slash.

We make another pass around each other and each cut a ninja down before having our backs against each other.
All of the ninjas come out of hiding. I would say their number is around four-hundred, but there were a bit more further south heading this way.
So the army faces the monsters with a limited amount of Ninja while the rest eliminate the Samurai. Is that the plan?
"My Goddess. Let's fulfil the promise, but let's not give these men the honor to ruin it.", he tells me.
"Absolutely.", I reply to him.

It seems our little fight has attracted the attention of one more major player. Gilgasoft was already walking to the drop off of the snow-pit. Now he jumps to the southern end of this pit.
"Focus on taking out as many ninjas as possible before attacking him. He will most likely target them first. Disperse any attack that comes from him.", I tell him.
"Roger.", with that reply, the table has been set. We will fight together and beat everyone!

The first thing they do is barrage us with Shuriken, Kunai, and bombs.
Ï materialize a lance in my right hand and spin it around above me to create some type of shield. I dash forwards, deflecting the projectiles whilst moving into one of the red ninjas. "Katon! Fire breathing Jutsu!", he shouts whilst together with other Ninjas's shouting "Futon! Air extender Jutsu!", spits out a flame which has its girth expanded to a giant degree thanks to their air technique.

I get above them with Light Step, from there, I quickly shouted, "Falldown Slash!", shooting a blade of white energy onto the ground that will burst like a beam shooting out a rift.
The red Ninja jumped away from it in time, but I got the wind users. I quickly dive into the red ninja with my spear, continuing, I jump off my lance stabbed into the ground and did a spinning swing forward.

I only hit a few of them, the move is more so meant to make them back off so I can go forward with a thrust. I hit another red ninja directly, and the shockwave of my thrust blows a few weaker ninjas away, I immediately turn with a swing to hit some ninjas coming from behind. I see the Samurai about to be hit by one of them in the distance, so I will stop that ninja by shooting my lance at him at light speed.
"Duck", I can hear from the Samurai. Upon following his instructions, most ninjas got halved by a horizontal air-cut.

I see them jumping in the air about to cast some spells.
"Katon! Fire Breathing Jutsu!" "Suiton! Saucer throwing Jutsu!"
Flames from mouths and big shuriken made of water are thrown at us. On top of that, the remaining kite ninjas are dropping down onto the Samurai.
I fly over to him, we make eye-contact, I think we have the same idea.
Landing on his knee, the Samurai kicks me up.

"UnionStar Helios Slash!", with the combination of snow and light magic I blast the ninjas in the sky with light as I pass them by. Once in the sky, I materialize my bow and arrow.
In the past minute, the Samurai had only dodged the saucers, although one did scratch him, but he had no choice but to tank fire. Luckily, the Samurai's armor is pretty resistant to flames.

I shoot down the ninjas that try to sneak up on him, then I rapid fire a huge number of arrows down onto the ninjas. I specifically aimed for the ones with guns, rockets, and missiles, they would not do that much damage to the Samurai, but I think he might have a hard time dodging them, meaning they will do enough over time. Of course, those with magic fire back at me with everything except for lightning and earth ninjitsu.

There are a few who shoot themselves my way using "Doton", but they get clipped by balls of green energy the Samurai ejected. Some of the same balls stopped some magic spells shot my way. In return, I use explosive arrows to stop the assassination attempts the ninjas made on him. Suddenly, I sense Gilgasoft coming at me. I redirect his spear by hitting my bow against the staff, then I placed the spearhead between the steel of my bow and its string, I let the strength of his thrust blow me back, the string being pulled.

I bounce back and hit him with a light infused punch, however, he blocks it with one of his six arms, and he immediately flings a fireball at me with his special axe. With light infused in my sword, I knock the fire ball right back at him, to which he shoos it away with his hammer. At the same time, he shoots a freezing bullet at me. I can slice it, but its freezing magic still hits me. It is then, that he moved in to attempt a slash, but I fly in the air, eluding him.

He curves upwards into to air to meet me from behind. I turn around and guard myself from his great sword, but his other two arms are going to smash me with an axe and hammer.
I enhance my arms with light magic, I only slightly hold my blade upwards whilst blocking the great sword to mitigate damage. I am dropping down, and I see him trying to chase me. But the Samurai temporarily stalls him with a big green beam of energy.

I see ninjas trying to take this opening to cast magic on him, so I go down and swoop in on them with a blade overflowing with Light. A moment after, I can sense Gilgasoft going down on me with his spear. After avoiding him, he thrusts his black sword upwards. I anticipate the use of magma and quickly fly away to avoid an eruption that scorches a few nearby ninjas.
I see him get equipped with two cannon-like objects on his shoulders.

They are charging some energy. I guess they are laser canons, and he fires them at the Samurai, who is surrounded by red ninjas. I use Light Step to get in front of him fast.
"Reflection Blade!", I say as I hold my sword forward, the beams shot from the cannon get split in half as they touch my blade, the two halves surrounding me and the Samurai taking care of most nearby ninjas. The few ones in the back are cut by the Samurai. I quickly back-step past the Samurai and say, "Disable his cannons", before sending him behind Gilgasoft at the speed of light using reflection.

With the ability of his blade, he turned the cannons off, allowing me to easily cut them down with small shooting light blades. In my tunnel vision of doing so, however, I get hit with a few exploding fire balls to my left. While I fight a few ninjas, the Samurai blocks a hit from Gilgasoft when he turned around with his lance. He ducks under a Gilgasoft's hammer and jumps back to slice an incoming fire ball from the axe in half. He gets stunned by a quick electric bullet before stopping the great sword from cleaving him after Gilgasoft jumped at him.

The Samurai tries to slide his blade under the great sword to move forward, but then he is hit by a block of earth shooting from under the ground with the power of Gilgasoft's black sword.
In retaliation, the Samurai tries to hit Gilgasoft with an air-cut, but Gilgasoft must already have plenty of experience, because he fled immediately with his jet boosters. They don't last long, so he got blindsided by a ninja.

It is the special ninja, Wolf. He wrapped the chain of his grappling arm to get close to Gilgasoft without him able to counter. He stabs Gilgasoft in the neck calmly calling his attack, "Shinobi Death Blow." However, he will not escape this unpunished, Wolf gets hit by the Stand released from Gilgasoft's lamp. After a punch in the face, the Stand does a pursuit attack, only to be cut up and forced back into the lamp. Wolf had pulled out his second sword, the one with a creepy red aura. It can kill even me, so I suppose the Stand being hit isn't too crazy.

He uses his grappling hook hand on Gilgasoft again, but instead of attacking him, he uses him as an object to send himself flying to me. I was grabbing a ninja to use him as a shield to block projectiles whilst charging light into my sword, which I then dispensed against a group in the distance. Now Wolf comes in, and I have no choice to block him. His sword is out of this world, it hurts me despite me blocking it. I have to move however, for there are shuriken and kunai flung at me from behind.

I jump up and use explosion to go over Wolf's head. He tries to his me with his creepy sword while I go down, but I cast explosion again to instantly get below ground. Because of that impact, I had to bend my arms and knees to make a good landing below him. He didn't do anything to stop the kunai and shuriken and gets hurt in the process. I thrust forward, but he stops my blade with his foot, het restricts my arm with his grappling hook hand, and with his other hand, he stabs me through the back saying, "Shinobi Death Blow."

It feels painful and actually does damage, fortunately, it is the other blade and not the creepy one. I am uncertain why he didn't use the other one, but I guess that sword has a limit, otherwise he would use it constantly. I grunt and my body mostly freezes. It is a struggle, but I place my hand on his arm behind my back. In the next second, he is blasted off me with a laser beam from the Samurai.

The Samurai moves forward to fight Wolf. His following energy attacks get parried and so does his first sword swing. By the second sword swing, I call out, "Explosion!" I casted it into his arm a few seconds ago, now he will be unable to parry the next move. With a beautiful clean cut from Wolf's left side to his right shoulder, he got diced as the Samurai passes him with a leap.
Wolf died….But we both know that is only temporary for him. In the meantime, I see Gilgasoft was dealing with Ninjas on his end. He has blown some away spinning his lance above his head creating a small tornado.

I see his eyes glimpse at the Samurai. His thrusters activate, I intercept his lance thrust with a strike after Light Step, the air coming from the thrust killed a ninja a distance away.
The Samurai swiftly shuffles his feet over to my back like he was on air and parried a quick slash of the smaller black sword before stopping a strike from the great sword.
I put pressure on the lance with my foot to get my sword back in its sheath, I quickly summon my exploding axe and hammer to deflect the double swing of his own fire axe and thro hammer.

He does shoot something at me with his rifle, but the Samurai uses his ultra-fast electric kick to disturb his arm, but it was an explosive round, so even if it is less damaging, the explosion is close enough to whisk me further from the two. I see Wolf on the move, he must've been raised. I cut him off and throw him at the edge of the arena after a spin of my hammer. Some shinobi tries to use Doton to smash a spike into me from the earth, but I stopped it with a great smash of my hammer that even shatters the ground beneath us.

I jump into the fray of ninja standing by to jump into the fight between the Samurai and Gilgasoft. I send them flying as I make a tornado spinning around with my axe and hammer using magical flame thrusters. Dozens are swept up and cut apart by the axe. Then I use the kninetic force of this tornado to dash at Gilgasoft, I slam both axe and hammer simultaneously into him shouting, "Explosive Zerstorung!" With two exploding smacks, he is thrown about a dozen meters away.

The Samurai doesn't waste time and immediately blasts him with a big green beam, before he can even land, in fact. When he does land, the Samurai jumps above him and strikes him with green energy. Gilgasoft does guard himself, but every bit of damage is good damage. While those two are fighting, I see a lot of ninjas have appeared and created big walls of stone from north and south of here.

I look to the east and see in the east a commander class in the distance, he is standing at the dropdown of the snow-pit. I look to the opposite side and see a second commander. I think they are about to use a large scale attack on me.
"Katon! God hand Jutsu!" "Fuuton! Blast Tornado Shuriken!"
One giant wave of flame and a huge swirling sphere of wind are released, with me in between them. The Samurai sped his way behind my back before moving forward towards the wind attack.

I have the option of creating a fire resistant shield, but I see the flames being formed into a giant hand. I like to take bets, so I assume it will explode and not move further once it has grabbed a large enough object. The explosion will still hurt me, but I think I'll be fine as long as I don't take it head on. I throw the axe into it and step back. I watch the hand grab the axe and ignite into a giant ball of fire that reaches the sky. I guard myself at the end of the blast radius. The intense heat giving me minor burns.

At the same time, the Samurai had used his sword infused with energy to do another air-cut to stop the sphere of air by slicing it in two. However, the two halves exploded next to him into tornadoes shaped like shuriken. They moved around and would eventually hit both him and me. He put his sword in his sheath. He looked to be in deep concentration. Then he screeches before unleashing his sword and shouting, "Reikaze!" His sword hit nothing, but the strong swing off the sheath unleashed an air infused with energy that completely removed all air around him, even oxygen.

As soon as the flames wane, I will shoot the hammer at the commander at light speed using reflection. At the same time, the Samurai shoots an air-cut at the other Commander, but he uses substitution jutsu to escape it.
"Deal with the Eastern commander. I'll get rid of these walls.", The Samurai says before using and Air-cut to top off the walls north. In the meantime, I stop the eastern commander, who has jumped up into the sky after recovering from a hammer to the face.

He threw a bunch of bombs down on us. I thought the tactic was too simple, but I was too hot-headed from the constant fighting to think of what trick he could be using. I hit the bombs with shockwave through snow, but upon exploding, they expel a bunch of tiny blades at me at the speed of bullets. I stop to hold my arms and knees in front of me to take the hit. It isn't major damage, but it certainly adds up to my exhaustion. I also feel slightly more pain when transformed. Like some of my senses return.

He chases after me, his hand charged with electricity as he descends, I try to stop him by shooting a blade of light towards him, but he pulls on some string and uses some kind of hand-glider to get to the ground. Once on the ground, he made it move with the palm of his hand saying, "Doton! Root Network Jutsu!"

Similarly to Gaiden, he pulls out a bunch of rope from under the ground. It was like an enormous net. Is he trying to catch me like some fish?
I fly straight at him before he could trap me, but he pulls a net of rope in front of me, suddenly, from a puff of smoke, bombs appeared. I stop myself and fly backwards into the air before the explosions can go off.

What is happening? Is it summoning jutsu? Something like that?
He waves more rope ate me, I fly over it, but then it suddenly spawns a bunch of kunai and shuriken that are flung by way after the rope bounces it off like it is made of elastic.
This rope isn't normal either. Is it magical like Sili-san's string?
No matter how high I go, he weaves his ropes in ways to have them chase after me. I fly around a bunch of projectiles, then I avoid another net of rope that then bounces bombs towards the projectiles and have them ricochet back to me with explosions.

The commander himself uses "Doton" and rope to shoot himself my way, he almost caught me from multiple sides with ropes that contain bombs. After I fly further up to elude them, he wraps rope around my left arm. I cut it, he still is coming my way because he already pulled on it, but now I can shoot a sword of light at him.
"GatheringStar Light Slash!", I thought I had him after shouting that. But then he pulls out ropes and bombs from under his clothes. Even though it is clearly hurting himself, he uses the explosions combined with his hand glider to get to me.

He gets close to me, so I cut him, but he willingly takes the hit in order to touch me with his hand, then he throws out a bunch of bombs. He pulls on one rope attached to the ground and glides down with the glider. I go down myself after taking the explosion, I also don't want Gilgasoft flying into me…Although now that I am looking, Wolf stabs him once again. Wolf parries a ball of flame shot at him from the axe, then he even parries the heavy hammer and great sword. What is he?

When I go down, I hear the Commander shout, "Raiton! Magnet Death Jutsu!"
Suddenly, weapons from the battlefield that are lying from defeated ninjas spring into the air. They fly my way. I go up into the sky, knowing Gilgasoft will not follow me there. I try to outfly the weapons, but there are some bombs affected by this magnetization and when they explode, they send some weapons flying into me at high speed. I go in many directions, but every time I think I can shake them off, a bomb goes off or some other magical tool causes problems.

Back on the ground, the Samurai is trying to cut the West Commander, but his substitution Jutsu just makes him untouchable, although the Samurai also leaves no opening for him.
Time passes, and eventually, a bunch of energy balls fly into the weapons to blow them up. This is a temporary solution, but I have an idea. I fly down and call out to the Samurai, "Lend me your sword!"

I go straight down close to the samurai. I catch the sword he throws up. With the power of the energy sword, I turn off the magnetic energy cast upon me. This actually weakens my own movement. But I had prepared a Light Slash for that. I shoot a "CombinationStar Light Slash!", at the Western Commander, forcing him to leave the Samurai alone. I land on my feet, but I drop on one knee. I do however use Reflection to instantly return the sword of the samurai, just before an enemy had the chance to catch him unarmed.

He grabs the sword and quickly parries a blade before kicking the ninja way with electricity. He sees the West Commander in the distance and leaps towards him, of course, he uses Substitution Jutsu to avoid getting hit. However, his mistake was using snow. I grab him, and before he can use "Katon", the Samurai beats him with an air-cut.

However, immediately after, rope jumps at me surrounding rifts trapping me to the ground. The Eastern Commander has snuck his way over to me.
the Samurai cuts the rope with Air-cut, but I still have my energy drained, I cannot dodge the touch of the Eastern Ninja. I headbutt his gut and let him touch my back, for I can lay my hand on him to. I use reflection to send him towards the Samurai. The Samurai must be used to my speed, because he reacted perfectly and cut through the commander as he flies by him.

In the exact next second, I sense Gilgasoft flying my way. I stop his spear and dodge his other weapons while deflecting the bullets he shoots at me. I can see from his charred armor and oily smell that Wolf has thrown some kind of oil on him and used the flame exhaust from his fake arm to set him ablaze, and even that doesn't seem to weaken him, although, I doubt Gilgasoft has that much more health left.

In the meantime, Wolf assaulted the Samurai right after he cut down the commander. Wolf threw fire crackers at him as a distraction, followed by a bunch of shuriken with one of them spinning with some kind of spring. The Samurai can deflect them all, but Wolf is getting too close, the Samurai's reflexes are good enough to instantly slash Wolf the moment he got into his face, but then he disappears in feathers. I prepare a knife.

Within an instant, he is above the Samurai and grapples his neck as he goes down.
"Shinobi. Death. Blo-", before he could finish his sentence, I shoot a knife through his throat at the speed of light with Reflection. And right after, the Samurai blasts him with green energy. Wolf disappears into Sakura leaves. What a mysterious individual.
I however, was holding off a great sword with one hand, and that alone took some effort, I got a lance thrust into me, sending me to the north. Gilgasoft comes after me, thrusting all six weapons at me, my savior comes in, the Samurai stops his movement with a green beam and, arrives right after, kicking the arm holding the gun away before cutting the weapon apart. The Samurai jumps to my side soon after.

"Most ninjas are done for, they are uncoordinated now, we must work together to beat this foe.", The Samurai told me.
I stand up and say, "You're right. Use Gilgasoft's attacks to our advantage to take out any ninja coming near us."
Now we are at the final phase. Gilgasoft holds six weapons up, he grabbed a big ice mace to replace the gun he lost.

I see him about to blast us with lava, so I grab the Samurai and use Light Step to move to the East. Gilgasoft follows us with jet thrusters, he keeps moving forward whilst trying to overwhelm us with his many weapons. We have to constantly go backwards simultaneously deflecting and stopping attacks. On top of that, the remaining ninjas try to jump between us thinking we are distracted.

We both get close to step into opposite directions, the lance that was aimed at us hits a ninja instead. He shoots fire balls at us with his axe, sometimes we dodge it in perfect time so it hits a ninja. Sometimes we just grab one of them out of the air and throw that ninja at him. At some point, his thrusters overheat and he is forced to fight slower. After every so often of deflecting weapons aimed at the other, we hit him with a Light Slash or Energy attack.

I mostly use Light Slashes against the weapons to knock them out of reach so the Samurai could hit him with energy.
I can sense the air expanding. I use reflection to get the Samurai away, I try to fly off myself, but lava already bursts out, killing some of the ninja but some splashes of lava touch me. The eruption doesn't end there, he creates some kind of mini volcano and all of that magma reaches the sky. What happens next, is a shower of meteorites.

Despite this crazy situations, Ninjas still try to assassinate us. I get close to the Samurai as we help defending each other against the ninjas while cutting down the balls of molten rock raining down upon us. I use reflection to shoot a ninja into an incoming meteor, The Samurai receives one sword stroke, pulls the sword down, and he kicks the ninja into a meteor in the distance.

Of course, Gilgasoft himself launches a bunch of ranged attacks at us on top of that. To make matters worse, a whole unit of two-hundred ninja, including a commander, has arrived. Though they seem to be rather weak.
I got an idea. I fly through the storm of magma while evading more bursts of lava from the ground, and I materialize my electricity absorbing sword.
I bait Gilgasoft into using his hammer and block it with my sword.

Now, the hammer itself does electric damage. I think it is safe to say the Samurai uses some kind of technique to charge his energy with electricity like when he was hit by Theresa. But getting hit by direct lightning like this won't give him that insane power boost. But my sword absorbs electricity and amplifies it, I could shoot it back out.
After gaining enough energy, I let Gilgasoft knock me into the air like a tennis ball.

I sacrifice a bit of health, but in return, I am close enough to the Samurai. With a swing of the electric sword, I discharged lightning. He notices it and jumps up to receive it. It damages him slightly, but in return, after doing a sword swing whilst landing on the ground, he transfers that into energy throughout his body. Before he moves, I shoot the electric sword to him at light speed so he can use it. His speed is increased to crazy levels, easily mincing through meteorites and Ninjas. The commander tries many tricks with different elemental attacks and blockades, but he can only save a half his unit.

I am trying to hold off Gilgasoft in the meantime. After a minute or so, he just conjures two heating up cannons of earth. I know this move and I try to gather light and snow into my sword.
"UnionStar, Helios Slash!", despite my strong Light Slash, the only thing it did was weaken the lava shooting out of the cannons like beams, thought it didn't hurt much, it blows me further into the air.

He uses his jetpack to follow me and smack me down towards the ground. He attempts to land on top of me, but the Samurai intervenes. Altering the course of Gilgasoft's landing ever so slightly by knocking into him. Once they are both on the ground, the Samurai gave him no second to think and quickly cut his weapons apart, with exception of the black blade, for it is indestructible.

I fly back to Gilgasoft and do an overhead swing of my sword into a flip as it bursts with light, then I strike him to preemptively stop him from retaliating against the Samurai, the Samurai on the other hand circles around me to stop a ranged attack from the ninjas who are steadily approaching us.
Gilgasoft tries to punch me, but the Samurai throws my electric sword back at me to I can knock the arm away.

"It's time.", I say.
"Roger.", he replies.
"EXE DRIVE SKILL!", we both shout at the same time.
I aim my barrage of ravaging Light Sword swings at Gilgasoft, each attack pushing him further back, whilst the Samurai closes his sword to do infinite drawing techniques against the incoming ninja, increasing his speed so much to the point that I looks like tons of clones moved in on them.

"ShootingStar…Helios Slash!", I shout as light up Gilgamash with a blast of light coming from my swords fuses together, the energy of the attack strong enough to dig out the cliffside of the south far behind him. Simultaneously, the Samurai puts his sword back in his sheath and shouts, "Gyōketsu Jisoku…Hyakku Iai-Giri!", a bunch of green energy slices left in space suddenly widens the rifts in space, cutting up the hundred ninjas and commander.

This still isn't the end of the fight, Gilgasoft manifests so much earth out of the ground. It wraps around me and gets me stuck. The Samurai saves me by cutting through it with air-cut. We work together, weaving and cutting earth as Gilgasoft is constantly changing the land-scape.
"Goddess! We need one opening! One to finish this foe!", He tells me.
"Yeah! This is our best chance!", I shout back.
Gilgasoft must be desperate, his best weapons gone, his HP dwindling, and these attacks are all reasons to believe he is close to the end.

Thanks to the Samurai's air-cut, we manage to reach Gilgasoft. In order to better swing the sword, he retracts his extra arms and swings his blade with the left-over two. No matter what, we can't get an attack in, he still has his legs and can jump away from any devastating attack.
"Cut his legs!", I shout as I knock his sword wielding arms away casting explosion from my own slash against his arm. The Samurai ducks and hits the legs with an air-cut.

Gilgasoft's defense is good enough so it won't be lopped off, but he may not move for a while. That is all we need. My feet burst with light and the Samurai gathers energy into his legs using his sword, we kick him a few meters away. Now we hurdle together and charge up for a combined attack. I materialize a second sword and combine them together whilst changing the snow around us into light and absorbing that, too, into my sword.

Unable to move for a while, Gilgasoft summons two cannon of earth. He wants to melt us with two huge beams of lava.
"ShootingStar…Helios Beam!", I scream together with the Samurai shouting, "Kikenhou!", we fire a giant light beam and green energy beam respectively. They intertwine and combine together into spiraling white and green beam that overtakes the lava.
But we have to keep pushing and put more magic and energy into our beams.

They alone are not enough to disintegrate Gilgamesh upon touch, they have to explode into him. We keep pushing until the beams take him to the edge of the arena. Once they hit the slope, they should explode. Now we see them make this spectacular explosion, and we see Gilgasoft is no more, his soul reaching the sky. Putting share energy into my attack should prevent him from returning, but who knows.

The two of us are having a hard time inhaling air. I am just too curious
I ask the Samurai, "I wasn't sure…But…Do you need…Oxygen?"
His voice isn't any more hoarse without calm breath, but he does take pauses to breath whilst answering, "Positive. I am mostly mechanical but inside I have organs and bio-organic tissue that require oxygen to function. Not as much is needed as a living being, however."

"Well…This rest has been nice…We can't stop now.", I say.
"Yeah.", the Samurai responds, looking at the large number of ninja encircling above us up the slope. There are two commanders amongst two-hundred red ninja, and the rest are all chunin. None were low level in any capacity.
we face the opposite direction holding up our blade. This fight already took two hours…The Samurai has been fighting throughout the course of three to four days with little rest, and now has taken more damage. I myself am running on half of my SP. And my exhaustion is getting to me.

The commanders use hand-signs to communicate, I think. Not much after the commanders signaled an attack, the ninjas prepare hand signs. All of them shout, "Katon!", at once.
They are going to burn us inside here!
The Samurai is bracing himself, for him there must be no way to dodge this.
They are shouting different techniques, but with a number as large as this, it barely matters. Flames taking many forms are coming our way. The only way for us to dodge this, is to get in the air.

I think the Samurai doesn't see this coming, but I slide under his feet, almost making him trip, then I send him to the skies using Reflection.
Now I must reach the clouds for myself. Unfortunately, I am not getting out of here unscathed. The giant inferno spawned from the collision of a literal thousand fire attacks of diverse power, I get scorched by its peak. No matter how much I guard myself, it still hurts me much. On the other hand, it doesn't take long for me to get out of the flame's reach.

I finally get close to the Samurai, not that being together makes us any safer. A few dozen Ninjas have already used "Doton" to reach their way over here. It is actually crazy, from this height, if they don't use any tools, they will definitely die. There aren't actually any clouds in this area, but we would be right below them.

The Samurai has taken a few down by summoning a bunch of energy orbs, but many made it through and spread out bombs to hurt us. Some try to surround me whilst a good number of them try to plunge into the Samurai with their daggers. I use Light Step to move between him and the other ninjas, I shout, "CombinationStar Light Slash!", to knock them away. Below us, the ninjas are taking different formations. Some are firing off rockets and sniper rifles, although the firing squads seem lower in total numbers compared to the ones I've fought alone a few days ago.

I use reflection one more time to move the Samurai to them so he can deal with them. Unfortunately, some ninjas sacrificed themselves to get their hands to my wings, plastering it with paper. These are special papers designed by ninjas to explode once released with magical energy. They heavily damage my wings, which normally aren't needed to fly, but I would lose speed, on top of that, with my back in so much pain, flying is next to impossible.

Knowing this, I drop down instead. The ninjas will undoubtedly follow me. They don't know my next move. I grab a bow and arrow and face them with my string already drawn out. I fire a barrage of arrows, an impossible feet this way as the arrows should just go down, but these are infused with wind magic to move through any wind condition. With diverse arrows, I take out the ninjas in the sky. A few missiles hit me, and they knock the bow off my hands.

I bear with it and look down to land close enough to the Samurai. I let my sword burst in light. We won't have enough SP to conserve throughout this fight, if I can take out a big chunk of them, I should.
"UnionStar…Light Slash!", I come down with a big explosion of light, sending dozens into the sky.
I materialized a red axe with flaming metal and swing it in a one handed spin shouting, "Tanzarin Trobme!", I grinded through the ninjas, but I won't have enough strength or energy to keep that going. I keep hopping around deflecting projectiles and daggers to then counter with a wide swing of the axe to get more ninjas.

At some point, chains get wrapped around the hammer. The intentions are clearly to take it off of me. Since many ninjas jump at me at once, I let go of the axe after casting explosion on it. I fling myself away as the few ninjas get knocked over by an explosion. I then strike a ninja that was about to his the Samurai. Another ninja tries to take revenge by taking my head with a spear, but I duck and let the Samurai finish him off. Together, we work to defeat every incoming ninja. A blizzard is coming, so thick to cover even the sky. The two commanders and few others have released a "Hyuton" ninjutsu to manipulate the snow into a storm.

One hour has passed, plenty of bodies are on the ground, but we are nowhere near done.
The incapacitated or dead ninjas apparently have paper bombs plastered under their clothes, the commanders came in and made a figure with their fingers before shouting, "Release!"
I could just dodge the explosions, but the exhaustion is getting to me. I did not do anything for the next second, and that costs me. For throughout the entire time, some ninjas have hidden under the ground.

My feet are grabbed, and some immediately put me in many different holds, ceasing every movement in amazing coordination. They have big bombs attached to them. They explode and hurt me almost into a daze. But it doesn't end there. This strategy must've been pre-planned, because the next instant, from every angle, from the air or ground, ninjas come in with their hands or weapons glowing with different lights.

"Katon!" "Raiton!" "Doton!" "Futon!" "Suiton!" "Hyuton!" Every magic jutsu is used to singe me in a storm of elements. I did use Light Step to launch myself elsewhere, but that is still through all of these attacks. I am not the only one in trouble, I see the Samurai facing two commanders.
"Suiton!" "Hyuton!" They shout that as they combined their jutsus to freeze the Samurai solid.

That alone will damage him, but he also can't move anymore. I create the flaming axe again, and I when the commanders move away from him, I will pierce the ice so that the axe can slowly melt it.
In the meantime, I have to deal with more ninjas. I create two morning stars. With wind magic, I can easily control them, the chains might as well be snakes, and the spiked balls might as well be flying by themselves, that is what it looks like.

With one slight yank from the left chain, I have a bunch of ninjas trying to sneak to me grappled by the chain. Five of them, their necks stuck, I swing them into other ninjas. Any coming from my back will have a nice surprise as I barely have to pull on the chain to send these balls flying into their faces. Of course, with two of them, I heave both the right and left side covered, as I have the front and back. All projectiles can be blocked by the chains and if they dodge the ball, the chain can still capture them, never mind the ball curving backwards.

"Suiton! Infection Jutsu!", I hear that from behind. One of the two commanders shout as they jump over me, trying to hit me with water. Are they even aiming at me?
They aren't. I see they hit the chains. But water is traveling over it. I suppose the name is implying that the water will infect the chain? I see the water multiplying and covering the chains in each entirety. I don't have a handle, so even that is wet. The second commander comes out of a fog shouting, "Raiton!", casting electricity onto the chains.

I let go of them, I know their plan is to disarm me, but I can't take much more damage.
"Hyuton!", with that spell, they freeze the chains to the ground, but it matters not.
"Doton!", they both use this in intervals. With the first spell, one commander summons earth pillars to hit me, making me dodge. The second once uses it to launch himself at me in the hopes that I can't dodge him. But then, he gets blasted into the western slope by an energy beam. The Samurai has recovered. He grinds his sword off the flaming axe to ignite his it. He runs over to me, skillfully slithering past the ninjas disabling them with flaming slices.

In the meantime, the other commander suddenly created a bunch of clones, but even more unbelievable, is the hundreds of ninja surrounding him with no warning. I close my eyes, Wind Sense only picks him up. He uses illusions like Gaiden. I speed ninety degrees around him first making it look like I am avoiding the illusions, but then I use Light Step in the middle of my pretend, catching him off guard, I beat him up with my fists engulfed with light before kicking him away, or I would've, but my kick doesn't connect. They both know substitution jutsu, I assume every commander level ninja is an expert in it.

I draw my sword and stop a ninja who tries to stab me from behind. I let him push me, now I can release the pressure I put in my sword to throw him off. I use light step so his blade misses me, then I use Reflection to send him flying into another ninja that was about to hit the Samurai. We continue fighting, for a bit longer.

It's been another hour. While evading some of the Commanders' range attacks and traps, we've taken almost half of the ninjas down.
But by surprise, multiple "Doton" spells are used to create a wall between me and the Samurai.
"Doton! Earth projectile Jutsu!", with the shout of that, the wall produced spikes that are barraging us. I mostly just move away, for it would endanger the ninjas I'm running to. Commonly, the ninjas would just keep their assault going, disregarding their lives, but with dwindling numbers, they have to be more careful So after a few got killed, the assault stopped.

Instead, they catch me between earth pillars they summoned off of the ground. I can't move out of it. In the next second, a bunch of Ninjas are landing near my whilst zapping me with, "Raiton" I can feel myself getting cooked, it isn't enough to kill me, but I am feeling weak. Luckily, the Samurai cut the wall in time and is able to destroy the earth that captured me. After landing meekly on the ground, I can see him heading here, despite himself being surrounded.

My joints hurt and my body feels heavy, I almost fall over with my strike as I shout, "CombinationStar Light Slash!", and blast a blade of light into some of the ninjas close to the Samurai. In return, he uses an air-cut for my safety. There so many of them surrounding me. I can't neutralize them, I can only delay them. I use my blade's snow control to knock weapons out of their hands, to knock them over, or to give them shallow cuts to scare them.

Finally, the Samurai gets close enough to force the ninjas to stay further back. Although, it actually shouldn't be the reason they would back off. The Commanders have jumped in front of us. They must be making way for them. The commander in front avoids my ranged attack with substitution, however, he doesn't know of my technique yet, I stop him in the middle of the snowstorm. But I can't take advantage of this, two shadow clones are running up to me.

These are actual shadow clones. I create two knives. In the process of that, I have to dodge two exploding fire balls from the clones jumping me. I back off with them hopping my way until I make them disappear by throwing my knives into them. I shoot another knife at the Commander's main body, but he already had a substitution jutsu prepared, this time using the body of the deceased to cover him.

In the next second, he summons a few hundred Shadow Clones.
I jump high in the air and blast him with a light that was spiking with energy and exploded near him. He goes out of his way to dodge it, making me think that unlike Gaiden, he doesn't know how to switch places with his clones. Must be an advanced technique.
In the meantime, the Samurai is fighting the other Commander. He has to deal with illusions. Unlike me, he can't differentiate them. he gets stabbed after hitting and dodging fake people and attacks.

I bet his instincts are quick to help him realize he is being tricked. He starts using more energy attacks to expand his range. I guess he isn't worried about hitting me, because I can take care of myself. I can tell when his beams are coming my way and will use it to take out more clones. In return, I can use the snow to disturb the illusion Commander with a shockwave or shallow cut, that too should help the Samurai target him.

In the third hour, we have run out of SP. Of course, hitting people normally kind of gives us some back, but the regeneration doesn't mean much when we have a tendency to immediately use a special attack whenever we have enough. About three-hundred ninjas are left. The Commanders themselves aren't any better off, they are mostly standing back, for their SP probably ran dry too.

We limit our movement and mostly use counter-attacks at this point. Most left-over ninjas only use physical attacks. I move into a row of them, the one in front of me gets his first dagger knocked out of his hand by my sword, I let him hurt my hand with the dagger in his other hand, so I can push it to my right and shoot into a few other ninjas using Reflection. Then I grab that ninja to shield myself from the ninja to my left, once this ninja gets stabbed by his friends I send him flying into them.

I jump on the face of an incoming ninja, I am outnumbered and will get hit here, on top of that, my forward movement has left a gap between me and the Samurai, the ninjas fill it quickly and are trying to stab him from behind. I jump off the ninja's face and shout, "GatheringStar Light Slash!", as I swipe three ninjas off the ground before landing. The Samurai probably felt that, he moves to his left after cutting an opponent in front of him so he can slice two ninjas with a wide swing, but his right side has ninjas trying to stab him.

I use Light Step combined with a two-handed strike to hit one ninja with enough power to knock out the other one. I pull my sword back above my head, holding it a bit to my right to receive a sword attack from my right, forcing my sword to be tilted left, I use that force to my advantage to do a left to right diagonal cut into an enemy, and from there, I jump to the left to hit another ninja with a right-to-left upwards slash. Before I land, I thrust my sword to the right above my head to hit the ninja that clashed with my blade in the face.

After that, I hop back a little to get right behind the Samurai, who had circled around me. While I defend myself, he hold his sword out, parrying one blade with a quick tap letting the ninja run into the tip with his neck. He goes in and kicks the blade of the ninja in front of him into the face of the ninja to his right before cutting through the neck and hitting the ninja to his left. He parries an attack to his far left, then he grabs that ninja to use as a shield against the two ninja coming in from his right, which he then kicked with extra energy to knock them all down.

The next ninja in front of him gets passed by the Samurai, then the Samurai knocks him close to me with an elbow against the ninja's back, making him almost fall on top of me. I stab through him with a back thrust and guide his body in front of me to send him flying into his friends at light speed. Then some guy with a spear comes forward with the attempt to impale me, but I side step his lance, hold it between my arm and side whilst grabbing it, then I swing him off his lance next to the Samurai to knock him into one of his enemies who he can now cut simultaneously.

Afterwards, I shoot the spear into a row of ninjas with Reflection. This is how our fight is going for now. Occasionally, I throw off a ninja with a sudden speed movement and send him to the Samurai at light speed so the Samurai can cut him. Sometimes the Samurai kicks an enemy against one of my attackers and I can attack them both. Occasionally, they jump over us, but I constantly prepare three knives, I stab them through my coat, using it as a pseudo knife holder. I then use reflection to shoot these knives at them at the speed of light.

It has been four hours against this group of ninja, after a two hour battle royale against ninjas and Gilgasoft. We are reaching our limits. No, we may have already. Our bodies move sloppily. We can't dodge every hit anymore. On the other hand, only a few ninjas are left, with only two Red ones who are out of SP. The blizzard has faded, the sunlight beaming on us as it is descending slowly.
I can barely block an attack from a ninja, he makes me budge and then stabs me with a knife as he is holding me in his arms. I manage to stab my sword into his neck and use his body as a projectile into another ninja. Then I hunch forward to do another strike.
At the same time, the Samurai gets stabbed from behind, he escapes by rotating his torso a full 360 degrees doing a spin slash.

We shout as the red ninjas come, mustering all the strength we have left. They may scrape us, but with one desperate attack, the only two left are the commanders. We inch closer to each other as they are running our way. I notice the one heading to the me is the Shadow Clone jutsu user, he has the hammer I had previously thrown into one of them. I cast explosion on it back then, if I snap my fingers it will detonate.

I can sense the Samurai trembling, he is switching the direction of the tip of his sword a few times. He must be under illusion. I poke him with the hilt of my sword. I can sense him steadying his aim. The two come in with a final risky attack. The two of us instantly switch positions. I snap my fingers to have the hammer explode as the Commander tries to swing it into the Samurai.

I duck as the Illusion Commander was expecting to haul out on the Samurai. With their attack missing, We slash through them, the sun being close to us, its light shining off of the metal on our blades. Right after, with a slight rush of adrenaline, we do a spin until our swords have reached each other's necks. I stare at him, panting. I can barely see him with the amount of hyperventilating I am doing. In the end, I revert back to normal, not able to hold onto my transformed state any longer. I drop to one knee, still with my sword pointing at his throat.

I stare at him intensely, whilst he gives me a pitiful gaze. He takes his right foot back and lowers his sword. Once returning it to its sheath, he says, "We are too wounded to fight. Goddess. We shall have our duel at the promised place, at evening."
I begin relaxing my body.
I drop my sword, looking at his back. I speak loudly, "Let's have our duel soon! I will wait no longer! I promised the final battle today! We'll recover! Even without enough SP!"

He stops and says, "Yes. That is the most fair fight. A fight between skill."
"Yes. Let's leave super powers to the minimum…Hehe…", I respond with a little laugh.
He seems pleased, before leaving again. I can hear my name being screamed. I sense three people coming. This battlefield has been stretched, the slopes repeatedly blown up.
They are running at me, Sili-san, Acclaim, Theresa.

They stand on guard, their weapons aimed forward, tensely observing the Samurai.
"Do you need any help with him?", Sili-san asked.
"No…Let him go. I will fight him later.", I reply.
"Is he not dangerous?", Acclaim's question comes with three doubtful looks.
"There is something I need to clear up. For now, that Samurai and I have an appointment, after we've healed our wounds.", I say.

With us together now, we tell each other the current status and what has transpired. The three of them fought both Lowee forces and monsters and absolutely cut off the southern route for them. Brocoli has been fighting the monsters, and every Lowee soldier that is wounded would be taken by her and healed enough to ensure their lives. On top of that, for some reason, a girl came in to help kill monsters. Their description of her makes her out to be Cyberconnect2.

While I think deeply about this, they tell me it took them long, but they have eliminated all monsters, captured the ninjas, and Brocoli and Cyberconnect2 are handling the soldiers' recovery and will help them return back to Lowee bases after.
"Cyberconnect2 and Brocoli are friends?", I ask them.
"You know her name? Apparently, they have both joined the Goddesses in their quest against the Deity of Sin and the Ultradimension.", Acclaim tells me.

"But get this! Marvelous was there, too! She was also a friend that helped out during their travels with them!", Sili-san says excitingly.
Marvelous and Cyberconnect2 both were with big sis?
They tell me that there was a conversation between Brocoli and Cyberconnect2 on how to handle the army situation. Unlike the ninjas who are more independent in their decision to assassinate targets, the soldiers have less freedom and really don't have the same training to make it fair to leave them to their own fate.

But Brocoli is just a girl who happens to be friends with Big Sis, and Cyberconnect2 is someone who only happens to help out her friends. Marvelous would maybe have a little more say and more knowledge about this operation. Cybberconnect2 stated that she is unfit for battle at the moment, but helping transport the soldiers out of here is something she may be able to do. She should be able to get here late at night.

Now I explain what the promise with the Samurai is about, and about his past. The promise, is to free him of his service that ties him to his body to fight for Lowee after an honorable duel against the Goddess. The location isn't most important, but ideally, it was meant to be held where Arfoire's first big stronghold used to be. It was actually where the Golden Tower used to sit at. Beyond the mist.
Before we left, I picked up the black sword Gilgasoft used. I put it in my inventory, I will think about what to do with is later.

I am supposed to get there in a few hours. With drinking a few Nepbulls along the way, I should be at full health when I arrive. But my SP won't be back anytime soon. I should only have enough left for one Light Slash when I am there, or less. But, the Samurai is in the same boat. He also has little SP, and while his full HP is higher, that also means it takes longer to be at full health. He will have about the same amount as me when I arrive. This would be the fairest fight, for I won't have enough share energy to transform either.

On the way over there, I practice a few sword swings on whatever tree comes out way.
"Bios? What are you trying to do?", Theresa asks. She sounds super tired, I can only assume her SP being drained multiple days must take a mental toll on her.
I swing my sword through the snow, I let each snowflake split in chains to create a slash that travels over to a tree. After a bit of practice, the attack makes it through halve the trunk.
"I feel like there is more to my sword. I want to see if I can increase my range and sharpness in general.", I explain, looking intensely at my sword.

The black swords are mythical blades with special powers. At first, I didn't think much of it, but after learning what I can do with snow and seeing the Samurai and Gilgasoft's abilities, I believe there should be more to this sword. My power seems the weakest, but maybe it is because I didn't think what more I can do with it.

The sun' aurora is ready to leave our sights, partially under. We stand in front of the mist.
"So, what are you going to do about this, leader?", Sili-san asks me.
"The illusion is actually similar to the mountain that blocks the way to the ancient Lowee field.", I say out loud.
"The what now?", together with Sili-san's response came with everyone staring at me.
Right, I never told them about it.

"Lowee's capital was in a different spot ages ago, it is blocked by a mountain, but that mountain is constructed with a magic spell. This mist isn't technically real either, it is magic that is designed to keep the unworthy out.", I say to them.
"I understand. Basically, you have encountered this when you were searching for information. I assume you have an answer?", Acclaim asks me.
"Well, the Samurai is definitely past here. So either a creation of a Goddess can pass, or it is the fact that he has a black sword.", I speak out loud.

Eitherway, it is magical. If Theresa wasn't so tired, she might be able to create a spell that can get us past. Oh well. I just have to hope this works. I don't have the share energy to scatter this.
I raise my black sword, snow gathers and spins around me. With a clean vertical swing, the mist is split open. Now it slowly dissipates.
"For us, there is no mist. But for others who haven't seen the illusion fade, it will stay. That is how this spell works.", I tell them. They all look amazed, especially Theresa, who is complimenting me.
We walk through it. What we find behind is out of this world. Stars are beginning to show.

In our walk, we see a modern city in ruins. Or parts of it. Particularly, the apartment complexes and sky-scrapers are either in pieces or fallen over. All around us are buildings and giant golden crystals contaminating the lands. Now with Aurora's filling the skies, lightning up the place, it does indeed look magical.
Further ahead, I can see the Samurai in the middle of a big snow plain between the buildings. Most crystal doesn't come near this spot. I thought the area where the golden tower dropped would have the most bizarre effects, but it is the opposite. It is a wasteland.

"Are you…Really fighting him alone?", Theresa asks me.
I respond, smiling, I need to show I am doing this with confidence, "Yes. This is our duel."
They give me inquisitorial looks. I answer to that, "I know. It isn't that I am tackling an issue alone again. And sure, even without rituals and promises, you guys know as much as me that you three have a major disadvantage fighting him."

I walk forward and say, "This really is something only I can do. It is a promise that was forgotten by the Goddesses. Only I can relieve him. This is MY fight. Stand here, I don't want you hurt by stray slashes.
"Do you, really need to fight?", Theresa's questions stops me for a moment.
"I don't understand. If you aren't enemies then…Why do you have to?", she asks.
"Theresa…I understand your feelings. Me and that Samurai, we are fighters. We don't fight for our lives. We live for our fights. Him more so than me. And. Some fights aren't done for survival. But for respect…I think even as a non-fighter, you will understand when you're older.", is my explanation before moving.

I say all of that, but I have only existed one and half a year. Hehe…Well. My life has come with many experiences, even within that short time. Even death.
I confront the Samurai. He gets up from a kneeling position. I guess that is how he rests.
Looking at him, his armor, somehow, looks clean. But I can tell, he only recovered to a quarter of his full health. I take my mask off, revealing my true self.
"You have come, Goddess.", The Samurai says.

I nod to him. We have our hands on our sheaths and hilts.
"The promise is to be fulfilled. May our duel be honorable…". I state.
The two of us look at each other…I genuinely crack a smile.
Then the corners of my lips get lowered, as we take our stances. With our right legs forward, we draw our swords before pointing them at each other's eyes.
In the blink of an eye, we close the distance. Our blades next to each other, we don't move our arms, attempting to stab each other, of course, we don't want to get stabbed. Our swords are stopped when they cross, we raise our arms to make sure we can't get stabbed by stepping forward.

I duck and raise my sword above my head to make his slide over my blade to my right, then I swiftly counter by positioning the tip of my blade to my left and cutting down with one step forward out of a squatting position. He jumps back a bit, barely avoiding the tip of my sword, he also wacked my sword away with a swipe of his own sword to the left. I hold the edge of the blade west and try to stab his throat, to which he is able to push my blade to my right, but because the edge is to the west, I can slide over his blade and scrape off a part of his neck by jumping forward.

If this were a fight to the death against a normal human, it would be over. But because this is a bio-machine life form, not only does he not really feel pain from this, but I can't cut him from here, he quickly rotates his hands as me moves his sword under my arm.
His attempt to delimb me gets him nowhere, for I step back and pull by sword to me, the only thing he did is make our swords clang. Now he steps forward and strikes at my sword from my left.

My arms are pushed back as he steps to my left with his right foot and pushes his sword down onto me, his blade reaching my neck. I place my left foot behind my right, I can stretch my arms and easily push his blade down next to my arm, following my right foot to my right side in front of the Samurai, I slash up at him, only for him to stop me once more, by stepping back with his left foot, he takes enough distance to raise his hands to his upper left side, stopping my sword with his. He slides his blade under mine, and with the flick of his wrists, he pushes it away.

Even so, striking me is impossible, I am in a perfect position to block that. And as what I predicted came, I can sense him about to move his left leg, right after forwarding his right my way. I raise my knee to block his knee thrust, his strength is great enough to knock me about fifteen meters away. He comes after me with no break in between, he tries to stab me, but I knock his sword to my left and quickly try to cut his side as I move forward.

It is a predictable move, and thus, he places his left foot to his right with a hop to avoid my sword, even if the tip did touch him, it does no damage. With his step, he can easily swing his sword with a turn to hit me in the back, this is where I do a quick spin jump, hitting his sword back with mine, once I complete the full rotation, I am in the air, and I have my sword above my right shoulder, I strike at him diagonally, he manages to block even this.

Although his speed is undeniable, his posture isn't strong enough for another surprise.
"Explosion!", I shout that as I cast the spell from my right leg, flying into his face with my right knee. Before he has the chance to counter, I cast explosion from my other leg to whip him in the face with it. Even if he swings his sword at me in recoil, I can easily stop it with my own, I hold my arm against the blunt side to better receive his attack, I get flung back onto the snow.

I quickly move in on him with a thrust, but he deflects my sword with just the movement of his wrist.
Thanks to my short stature, him hitting my sword to the left matters little, from his position he has to lower his blade to stab or strike me, I can easily use my blade as a guard to protect my head. I put my hand on the blunt side of my sword to push his to the right, then he tries to kick me again. This time, I jump and place my left hand onto his knee.

He swiftly swings his arm at me, this time, I am at perfect height for him to do a comfortable stroke, but I am close enough to him to wrap around his arms as he swings his sword. Now I am on top of his arms and ready to stab him. Unfortunately, I fail to hold onto his arms and my thrust only slightly pierces his neck, he stepped back and would have hit my arms if I didn't cast explosion from my legs to push myself away from him. Once on the ground, we move in on each other and cross blades with a mutual strike.

Just like that, we dance through the snow. The aurora's in the sky showering us with pink and green lights. Neither of us can really get a hit in. Knowing our overall skill is the same, I figure it is time to use the abilities of my blade. Once he does a vertical swing, I lower to my left knee, his sword can barely brush my shoulder, I stab him with a shout, I use the snow around me to launch a blunt thrust into his gut. He did quickly react to it, but he it is impossible to move his sword back, he can only guard his gut with a single arm.

After blowing him five meters back, I dash after him. He tries to slash me as I come in, but messes up his stroke. All thanks to a quick tilt to the left of my blade, a shockwave in the snow just strong enough to change the trajectory of his sword, allows me to dodge it without canceling my forward movement. I try to cut his side with a horizontal swing to the left, but he places his left leg behind it, with his body turned, his waist only gets a shallow cut from the tip of my blade.

Again, against a human opponent, this cut would be deep enough. I doubt he has any organs in that area either, but that is irrelevant, I don't mean to kill him in this duel anyway. Now, he can cut my back, so I quickly turn around in an attempt to stop any assault coming my way, but he actually aims for my sword. He knocks it behind my head after I slightly raise it. He may think he has an opening, but as he tries to attack me, I use the force of his impact to do a backwards thrust. A shockwave travels over the snow and his him in the back.

The Samurai forcefully tip toes forward trying not to fall on his face, he overshoots his thrust and misses me, whereas I can easily get a good hit in with my sword. He slides back over the ground. It seems my sword isn't strong enough to break through him, I need to lower his health for that. We run at each other, I try to knock his arm away again with snow, but he now sees that coming and cancels it out by hitting the shockwave itself.

I push forward and clash into him with my sword, I lower my body to try and hit him with another snow shockwave, but he quickly kicks me in the face before I get the chance to do anything. He wastes no time getting to me and putting pressure onto me from above, I block his sword over my head, then he squads down, putting the weight of his upper body onto me. Being made of metal, he feels as heavy as a truck.

I place my elbow near his arms to shift the position of our blades to my right, but this actually helps him push me up before kicking my high into the air. Afterwards, he hops backwards a few time. He even risks using a bit of SP to gain more distance, putting energy into his legs. Now I see him using energy from his sword. The Air-cut technique appears to cost the least amount of SP, for he puts very little energy into them.
"Tenkukan Giri!", and with that, the fight enters a new dimension.

The first air-cut I dodge by side hopping to the right, the second I dodge by ducking. Now he does a lower swing, I assume it would be hard to make a proper air-cut downwards because of the requirement being a perfect clean cut, but he is a professional through and through. I jump over it, and dodge a following cut by casting explosion with my hand under my feet. I do that to avoid wait time in between explosions, now I can use my feet to dive down if necessary.

He actually does a horizontal cut first, which I can dodge by using explosion with my other hand, then I dive down with explosion from my legs to avoid another slash. I jump again to avoid a perfect air-thrust. Any of these hits can end the duel, even my life. There is a lot weighing me down, but I inch forward. There is one counter to this. He can't do perfect cuts when his sword is blocked.

Eventually, I am close enough for him to be in range of my sword, I brute force his swing by hitting my blade against the back of his whilst stepping to the opposite direction of his slash. He tries to thrust the sword into me with an air-thrust, but once again, just by tilting it, I can stop his attack from being lethal. I do a forward swing whilst adding the snow cutting ability from my sword, an air blade created from shockwaves through snow hits him directly, knocking him back. But it is lacking the sharpness I desire. I want to have my own version of his attack.

He jumps back and performs another air-cut whilst coming down, his landing stiff due to having to stiffen his body to use this technique.
I have already moved out of the way, now I run at him. He attempts to stop me, but by creating a shockwave through the snow, I knock his arms away to change the direction of his air-thrust, it ending up right next to me.
He attempts to slash me again from the left, but I can knock his arm back up, even if he can stop the shockwave by hitting it back, he won't be able to do an air-cut.

I thought I had enough time to slash him, but he actually grabs both of my arms with his right hand. I try to push forward, but his physical strength seems slightly better than mine…Or maybe I am just exhausted and since he is made of metal, weariness barely effects his strength. Whichever it is, he puts in great effort in lowering my arms, and he is about to stab me with the other arm. Whatever I try to do with my legs, he will counter with his.

My body is too small to interrupt him. I need some kind of range.
I look at my sword, and with no second to spare, I use reflection from my hands to shoot the hilt into his chin. Forcing him backwards, this loosens his grip, so I break out. As soon as I am free, I jump to grab my sword and strike down at him. He is barely able to stop me, guarding himself with his sword. I can easily push his sword down, but I have to parry his knees with my own, that gives him the opportunity to push me a ways back.

I see him about to do a diagonal air-cut. I use the power of my snow sword to strap his arms into snow. I know this won't last long, so I run at him into a thrust to face. He uses his sword's ability to draw all of his energy into his arms to produce heat the melt the snow, but I am already at his face. To my surprise, he drops his sword to grab my arms. Even if he has me stopped, I can still dodge his kick with a jump, and I know he is watching out for another reflection. I won't try the same thing twice, instead, I cast explosion from my hands to slam my sword into him.

He flinches while I land onto the ground. of course, my sword is now behind him, but his has dropped below me. He tries to kick me with a spin, but with my height, ducking under it is easy. And with my head lowered I prepare an uppercut into his gut. Before he can even lower his hands to counter me, I cast explosion from my fist. The timing has to be extremely precise, the radius needs to be close enough to where when my fist strikes him so the explosion raptures the inside of him, but I need enough distance so my fist also flies with more force into his gut.

I succeed and have him bend over from pain. He may try to hit me with his knee, but I cast explosion from under my right foot to knee him in the face. I motion my left leg to make it look like I would cast explosion from there, instead, I cast explosion from my others hand to fly into his face again. In a great pinch, he jumps on top of me, using his weight to counter my martial arts. From there, he grabs his sword. I use reflection to push him off and roll backwards onto my feet.

I cast Air Blast on my sword behind him to send it flying back to me, just in time, because he would've diced me. We connect with our swords once more, this time, I see it growing green. He blasts green energy into me to send me flying back. He must really seek some distance, because if his SP was at 10%, it must now be at 7%.
I know what he is thinking. One Air-cut, and it is over. So him being at this range is much better. Now, I must really focus on my counter-attack.

I shovel my right foot through the snow, I place my left foot only a little behind it. I align my edge perfectly. I breath in and out. Become one with the snow. Breath the snow. Everything that the snow touches, I can cut. No, even more so. Everything can travels through the snow. Add velocity. Add momentum.
"Yukikan…", I mumble to myself. He is about to horizontally swing his blade. At the same time, I swing mine in a mirrored positions, and I sary, "Giri!"

My swipe creates shockwaves through the snow that create one blade of air. It collides into his air-cut and the two cancel each other out.
He thrusts his sword, and I stop the air-thrust with my own, bursting in a gale of wind upon contact. For a few seconds, we throw air-cuts at each other, but all it does is blow snow over the air, some of it reflecting the lights of the Aurora above us, basically making a light show.
The difference is, I don't need to focus energy into my sword, so I can nimbly move around dodging his air-cut and counter with my own.

After getting hit once, he has the solution to only move his feet to match with my own air-cuts. With each clash of air-blades, we come closer. Until eventually. In a rush of adrenaline, we smash our blades with a twist of our waists into each other. The concentrated air is converging as we push our blades into each other, it is like our swords are reacting to the howling inside our hearts. We push our swords with too much force, they slide off each other, my arm reaches behind my right shoulder, and so does his. Our slashes create air-blades that travel the distance.

He cuts through a piece of elevated ground and into a cloud, mine goes through the top of a building and cuts it off clean. Mine doesn't travel as far, but is just as sharp now.
The only problem is, I need more control over snow. The way it works, is by using more of my muscle whilst using the sword, and then also imagining it to complete the technique. It is exhausting.

Our swords are sped up, we move with more intensity than before. Our parrying becomes more like rough power struggles, each time the edges are pushesd off, a shockwave is made followed by an air-blade traveling elsewhere, cutting the environment in pieces.
Occasionally, such a cut is wide enough to graze us. After one more clash, we back off and aim a thrust, but seeing him do it, I decide to move a little sideways, and I guess his idea is the same. The air-thrust cuts the brunt of our left sides.

I am not going to let that stop me, even if it is the most painful damage he has given me, I step forward to do another thrust, using my legs and the weight of my upper body more. We must be in sync, for he does the same. And just like that, we move our necks away to avoid a secondary air-thrust, we end up having to dash past each other. The second our feet come next to each other, we swing with a turn. With a turn slash to my left, he blocks it, at first seemingly mirroring my move, but he instead turns his wrists to his right to push my sword down.

I step with my left foot closer to his left, and I use my left hand with Reflection to whip my blade up, shoving his arms way over his left shoulder. My edge is perfectly aligned with his body. I past him with my right foot and slice into him. The kinetic force the shockwaves are made up off from the snow launches him about ten meters away from me.

Before he can land, he actually tries to retaliate with a horizontal air-cut. I myself was already planning to cut him with my own version, only, I swung my sword vertically. It seems they don't completely cancel each other out when not aligned, so I am between two smaller air blades, their edges scratching my sides. He knows he has to dodge mine and makes an effort with his toes to immediately jump to the side.

Everything snow is your domain. Use everything. No one can thrive under the snow.
I focus on the ground he's standing on. I make the snow swirl under him. His instincts prevents me from a surprise attack, with one slash, the snow is scattered into the air, slightly moving left. I would've cut his leg if he didn't jump. Now using the snow on the ground, I keep giving it forms of waves and tornadoes before turning them into tiny blades that will form a big attack.
My arms are getting weary. I can't keep this up.

Unfortunately, the Samurai is quite nimble, chip damage is all I can do. He sacrifices a bit of SP to hit my sword out of my hands, but I could see his energy charging, as for my action, before my sword would be hit, I knocked his blade out of his hand with a shockwave.
He tries to go for his sword, I cast explosion from both feet to propel myself his way. To maintain good speed, I cast explosion after two seconds from my hands. He turns around after hearing me, I headbutt into his face.

Without swords, I have the advantage!
He tries to stop me with a straight kick, but I jump over it, he then tries to punch me with his right fist, but due to my small stature, I can easily weave it in mid-air and grab his arm. I swing around his arm and will kick him in the face with the back of my feet. I come in at the left, he stops my left leg with his arm, but I purposely moved my other leg a bit slower so he wouldn't grapple it.

"Explosion!", with my free leg, I kick him in the head. He recoils in pain. I am more impressed his head hasn't caved in at this point.
He pulled onto my right arm for a second, so I have to use my left arm to block a kick from my right that has me sliding over the snow. I could feel an gust of air from that kick alone. He thrusts his leg towards me, which I easily jump up on it, laying my left hand on top, I then cast explosion from my right foot to knee him in the face.

I try to follow that up with a punch, but he steps to the right whilst wrapping his fingers around my first and pushing my elbow with his left hand. He pulls me forward before kicking me in the back. I land on my hands, he is dashing at me, before he gets the chance at a follow-up, I cast explosion from the hands and double dropkick him in the chest.
Punch. Kick. Punch. Punch. Kick. Punch. Kick. Block. Kick. Block. Punch. Punch. Block. It doesn't take long for the fatigue to degrade our technique. It becomes a battle of perseverance.

Well, I have gathered little SP from this. Now it is time to deal some extra damage.
After wearing him down, I let him kick me on my back, I roll to my shoulders and place my hand on the ground. I use reflection from the ground to torpedo into him with my legs. I follow up with a headbutt, it is then, where I do a rush of fists engulfed with light.
"Light Punch Combination!", over and over again, at rapid speed, my punches brimming with Light Magic has him stumbling with no way to move. I finish it up with a punch to the face that sends him flying to his close to his sword.

I myself can feel the exhaustion getting to me. He is getting up, and I am not even able to spring to action immediately. On the other hand, he also is taking his time to observe me. He then looks back to his sword. He knows he can't win with fists!
I try to get to my sword, but he will reach his first. I cast Air Blast to one tip of the sword to send is flying to me. I turn

I stop his sword as he glides into me. Well, it looks like gliding to me anyway. I see his sword gather energy, and just like that, his energy blasts me back. While I am immobile in the air, I take the force that pushes me back and use it to thrust a sharp blade made of shockwaves that travel through snow into the Samurai. the back of his left leg is hit.
Not enough.

I barely get back on my feet, but he already uses an air-cut that I barely have the physical energy left to dodge. It is aimed in a way that is hard for me to follow, normally he aims for my whole body, but he aims this sword far next to me so only the furthest edge would get to me. I miscalculated the jump and while I avoid both feet getting cut at the same time, my left foot gets sliced disconnecting the nerves around my ankle.

So, here is the situation. He has 4% of his SP left. My left foot is disabled, but my left leg is completely fine, and I can still cast explosion from it. I have to put the pressure into my right foot. All I need to do is disable his legs for my plan. But he will definitely notice me aiming for his legs and protect that…But he also knows I am a trickster.
The only way to stop a logical opponent who recognizes tricks, is to make him believe in the wrong trick…

I aim for his legs with a few air-cut, instantly putting him on the defensive. I use Explosion to get close to him, and still aim for his legs. He might try to slash me, but I can use my other leg to easily get past his sword swings. He also isn't trying to kick my anymore, nor will he leave an opening between his legs, knowing I am trying to cut them. I appear desperate to him, waving my sword towards his legs which he easily parries.

Now, I kick the back of his sword with my right foot. I aim a thrust at his neck, knowing he will find a way to elude my blade. He backs off with a leap, but I follow him with an Explosion spell from my feet, trying to slash at his head again.
All of his defense suddenly goes to his neck, he even says, "You are a warrior indeed, tricking me into thinking my legs are your main target."
Yeah, you must be thinking I have been aiming for your head on purpose, trying to crack your skull over time.
He may stop my attack, but with an explosion from my left hand below me, I flip over his head.

However…
Whilst going head-first towards around ground, I fail a spin slash against his head, he turned around really quickly to block it.
I cast explosion from my right leg to circle around him once more, I drop a bit further away from him before using the same spell from my other leg to pretend to thrust my sword into him. I twirl my sword with my thrust to create a circle of snow around his neck.
You haven't spotted my real trick…

With his quick reaction, he ducks under it and hits me back with his sword. But that is when I reveal my real plan. When I was twirling the sword, I wasn't just moving snow around his neck, but also under his feet. Oh, I'm sure he noticed when he squatted, but it is too late now. Even if he jumps, my air-cut will get him. He tries to dodge it, by my counter-attack coming from my right to left swing cleaves through the armor of his right leg, and even cuts through the surface of his left leg.

The moment I land, I use a Light Step to quickly warp to him. He blocks a strike from me, but that is where I bend my sword over my head to get under his sword, And I cast Explosion from my left hand, flinging his arms back, and with that, I can cast Explosion to move into him and slamming the palm of my hand into his torso, enforcing the power of my "Reflection!" At the speed of light, he is shot a hundred meters away from me.

I don't worry about my sword being shot in the air thanks to my explosion spell. I can easily blast it back into my hands.
This is it. At this distance, with his legs in this condition, I have just the right distance to charge my attacks, and a way to close it. The victory conditions are met!
I materialize a second sword. I make two holes through my coat in the back to hide it in there.

I let light underneath my feet burst into a spiking flowing energy. I put plenty of magic into it to shoot myself a hundred meters ahead within a few seconds. At the same time, I focus on my black sword. He does an air-cut, but I jump over it with a full power Light Step.
He thrusts his blade at me. Now, normally infusing my hands with explosion at a higher power would damage my hand, however, I am dead. The only damaging thing that can destroy my body right now is his air-cut.

Knowing this, I go over my limit and cast a strong enough Explosion from my left hand to dodge to the side, I do a spin to keep my momentum up. He does another air-cut, I use Explosion from my damaged left foot to dodge that one. Now, I gather enough magic to make my sword flare into a brilliant flowing white light. Naturally, he uses another air-cut. This time, I sacrifice my left arm deflecting the air-blade with it. Knowing I am too close and won't let myself get fully hit by these attacks, he sacrifices most of his 4% energy to unleash a big green beam from his sword, which I can't dodge right now.

Or so he thinks. I have learned by now that this energy and magic is like water and oil. Basically, they are incompatible. They cancel each other out. So as long as I don't unleash the magic gathered into my word…
I strike at the beam and push myself up from my sword, my blade is sliding over the beam like feet on ice.

I hold my sword in reverse grip, after I push myself off his beam. Right above him, I go down with an Explosion from my other foot, and strike down at him shouting, "UnionStar…LIGHT SLASH!", He tries to stop me with his sword. It may shield him a little, but I will knock his arm away and do major damage to him.

His armor is definitely falling apart, but he can still move. Besides, that is part of the plan. I only wanted to stop him from blocking the next one.
The snow that gets absorbed into my black sword when doing the next tier of my attack, can actually be absorbed into any sword. All I have to do with the black blade is manipulate snow and turn it into light, at that point, it is my light magic that can gather all the light into a blade…

Yes. I have been hiding the snow I turned into light into the second sword, which is now fully charged up. With my rough landing, I let this second blade slip out of the make-shift sheath I made in my coat. I drop the black sword to grab this one.
"ShootingStar…", the Samurai can't do anything as I do one overhead swing with that discharges a blazing white light that blows up the surrounding, "HELIOS SLASH!", and with that large shout, the battle is over…

Huh? I feel dread looking up. I am on my right knee and I see him still standing, preparing his sword for one final attack.
That didn't kill him?
But this is it. He can't walk. If he has any SP left, he can only use it to generate energy into a body part. It would be the only way to move his damaged legs, but that will overburden them, completely breaking them down.

I see. that is a risk he is willing to take… Well…
I can't move my left arm, so all I can do is get past him with a slash.
He uses his blade's power to move at me quickly, in return, I cast my best Explosion spell from my right foot to propel myself past him. Now, with our backs facing each other… Our swords swiped.
The Samurai has…

He has been defeated. His sword drops on the ground.
"Amazing display. Thank you…Goddess.". and with those words, his legs give out, and he drops into a seiza pose. When I went past him that time, I first cut through under his arms before he could swing his sword, after that, I went through his side. He can't hold his sword anymore.
I wonder what my face looks like right now.
Am I smiling? Excited from the victory? Proud of myself?
Am I frowning? Knowing this will be his end too?
Am I not even reacting? Staying strong in this aftermath to do a duty that should have been Big Sis'?

For now, Theresa has teleported the gang my way. They were talking a lot. But it all is white noise to me at the moment. They only have a Healing Grass for me. That is it.
I struggle to get up. My entire body is shuddering. I can feel myself on the brink of collapse. Be that as it may, I am not done yet.
"Bios…You have to rest…", Theresa shows her concern for me.
The others, too, look worried…They look at me like that often lately. I'm sorry.
"Leader, what are you doing? Aren't you at your limit?", Sili-san asked.
"There is…One more part left. The send-off. Please. Let me lay him to rest.", I ask of them.
They give me some space, they were surrounding me ready to embrace me, but I want to do this alone.

I limp my way over to the Samurai.
"My Goddess. There is one more thing I have to tell you, before you fulfil the promise. One last thing I want to do for you.", the Samurai's words take me by surprise. What could he want?
"There is…A crystal… Far North…Take it. It could be…very important. Those ninja and soldiers…They came here before. That gem was left behind…", is what he tells me.

"Thank you.", I reply.
The Samurai, prepares himself. He calmly sits on his legs.
"I thank you…My Goddess. Finally, I shall know piece…And rest with the stars.", he says.
I stand next to him and raise my black sword. I converge all the little pieces of Share Energy I can muster. My eyes turn into power symbols.
I'm sorry.

I raise my sword, and for a few seconds, an aura radiates from my body.
I am not a goddess. Your faith is misplaced in me…But…
As I swing my sword, my mind says, If I can help you rest…Then…Let me do what you had earned ages ago.
My blade goes through his neck. There is no blood, nor does the head suddenly pop off. His body deteriorates…into stars. I see his body turn into a soul, they fly to the sky, creating a gorgeous light in the heavens.

"If he was good…Then…Why did you have to end his life?", Theresa asks me.
"That man…He died a long time ago. His spirit trapped here for revenge. But the goddess of that time saw something beyond that, a sense of honor and justice. She gave him a body to fight. Once his soul has finished its business, she was meant to free him. Peace…Does not come for him in this life anymore, I don't think. In that body, fighting was his only existence. Now, he can rest as much as he wants. Don't be sad. This is his greatest wish.", I answer.

"I don't…Really get it.", Theresa kind of whines, but I understand her feelings.
Acclaim pats her on the shoulder, tells her, "It is something you may understand when you are older."
"Hm…It is just…I know how it feels like to not want to live but…Bios taught me to want to live life…And live it good so…", she tries to argue, probably to herself.
Sili-san walks in front of her and crouches down, he says, "Well, look at it like this. Maybe he has friends that mean as much to him as we mean to you. Now he gets to see them again, isn't that better?"

He lightens the mood. When Theresa is starting to look up, he starts speaking joyfully, "Hey, recently you don't mind getting contact from us, huh? You let Acclaim touch your shoulder casually now. You've already become a big girl, huh."
Theresa starts smiling a bit. Then she laughs and says, "Don't patronize me…Silly…", she giggles a bit more in the following moment.

While I like looking at them getting along. I am reaching my limit. I fall on my butt. I take a deep breath. They are quick to run around and run up to me, calling my name.
"We should go look for a safe spot!", Sili-san barks an order, but I deny it.
"No, wait. We must get the gem up north first.", I tell them.
They try to argue with me, but I add, "Listen. We can get it real fast and leave. I am in no mortal danger. All the monsters have already spawned, I doubt any real threat will appear now. This time is the best to nab it."

They look at themselves and then back to me.
"Fine, but you're not fighting. And that is final, okay?!", Sili-san talks to me like a dad.
"I promise.", and with that, I have convinced them to go north.
As promised, we go up north. There really isn't a single monster here. All of them went out for the invasion and got killed. I am being carried by Acclaim.

The closer we get north, the more golden crystals we find. Eventually, we finally reach the seas. Although, the sea is blocked by mist, so it isn't much of a sight. However, in the middle of the cliff above the sea, we see some kind of altar. Alongside not-so-tall golden pillars, we see a statue of a goddess with angel wings. It is holding out something glowing with two hands. A lot of fauna surrounds it, the statue itself has has a lot of vines surrounding it. It almost looks like part of a cave is being generated around this altar, it looks bizarre. Like a level asset that got generated in the wrong spot but only partially.

"Acclaim. Can you get me close to is?", I ask him.
Without any back talking, he holds me close to the statue. I reach out my arm holding my hand up. The gem reacts to me, it floats in the air. I see a pretty small white gem glowing with brilliant light. It is actually astonishing such a small thing is so important.
Is this what the army was after? This is why they wanted to go past the mist? For this?
It gently floats down onto my hand.

I grasp it and hold it to my chest. Its light beams out around me. Closing my eyes, I can feel its tremendous power.
This is?! It takes my breath away. I feel a great shock with how dense this energy is.
This much magic power is close to divine! What is it?! A leftover produced from the Golden Tower? The Golden Towers gave the Gold Third their power. Only a weaker version of their power remains. So what is this? I don't sense share energy, but if it had any more energy it may be turned into it! It isn't so crazy anyone would try and obtain this. But for what end? It scares me to think what would happen if this falls in the wrong hands.

For now, I have to hide it in my inventory.
Once I put it away, Acclaim asks me what it is, with the other two peeking at me curiously.
"I can't say for sure. But its power is one step behind share energy. If you had two or three of these, you could become a Goddess, maybe. That is how it feels like.", I say.
"What?! That sounds crazy! What are we going to do with it.", Sili-san sounds shocked at first, but I can tell he is getting excited with us getting something so great.

"It is dangerous. If this falls in the wrong hands, we might have a greater enemy on our hands.", I tell them how I feel about it.
"You did suddenly shake once you've gotten it.", Acclaim points out.
I nod.
"Is it bad?", Theresa asks.
"The energy itself isn't. But what anyone could do with it is dangerous.", after I say that, I notice something shifting.

The mist before us is dissipating.
"Huh?! I can see the sea! What is going on!", Sili-san says.
"Wow…I love looking at the sea.", Theresa's surprise turns to happiness upon witnessing the ocean.
"I guess this is your second time seeing the sea…But isn't it strange, leader?", Acclaim asks me.
"The magic in this stone is so great. There must be some defensive mechanism to it. Perhaps the mist was one of them. Now that is has an official owner, the mist is unnecessary.", I comment.

"Then we better leave. Enemies can now enter this area easily.", Acclaim says.
We all agree with this sentiment and head to the first abandoned house we can find.
"We also must pick up some of the captured ninjas along the way.", Sili-san says.
"You guys have come captives?", I ask them.
"I thought we could to get some information out of them. Aside being assassins, Ninjas are great spies and information gatherers…Also…We found something… Treacherous.", Acclaim says.

I am being left in the dark for now. The idea is to rest in a house first. Then we slap the ninjas awake and get some information. Actually, they let me rest more and do the info gathering themselves. Once I wake up, they drag one of them before me, though he is unconscious.
"They keep giving us trouble, so I shut him up. We don't need him awake.", Acclaim says.
"So…What did you find out?", I ask them.

"We asked them all kinds of things, mostly who gave them this mission, why so many came here, and information about the army's mission.", Sili-san says.
"They were quicker to give us the details of the army's sortie. Basically, two groups of soldiers were working with the ninjas for multiple goals. One is the extermination of monsters. But others had a secret mission not given by the government. It is to find the source of magic beyond the mist.", Acclaim explains.

"The gem.", I blurt out the answer.
"Most likely.", Acclaim reinforces my thought.
"But get this. We have figured out the ones given the secret mission are working with SCJP.", Sili-san says.
I raise my head. I think they noticed my hostility. Our arch nemesis again

"The ninja aren't sure of which organization specifically asked for it. And most don't even know about SCJP's involvement.", Acclaim tells me. Then he grabs the ninja.
Sili-san hovers his hand over the ninja's clothes and says, "But check this."
He rips his clothes open and reveals an under-shirt with a device. He grabs the device.
An insignia is on it. It looks like a ninja symbol…But…

"This symbol is modified. I have cross examined it. The symbol is that of Computement-Corp. The major PC and mobile Tech company in Lowee.", Acclaim says to me.
"We have checked more of their clothing, including the ones we defeated before here and there. There were more without these devices than others.", Sili-san says.
"Of course, it is not too crazy to think people would use technology from the best tech company. But I can tell you, Computement-Corp definitely is part of SCJP. And the modification of this symbol combined with the fact only a select few of Ninjas have them and not all led us to suspicion.", Acclaim tells me.

"We tried to make them talk. But the only info they would give us no matter the method, is that they had orders to kill the vigilante, 'The Switcher', and her gang. The side mission was to take out the Samurai. I have used many magic spells to hurt them to get this info, but they would only say their leader gave them this mission…", Theresa tells me somberly. It seems she didn't enjoy hurting them to gain info from them.

"Since they didn't talk, what we did is have groups of two or more ninja, and we always include one with the SCJP symbols on them together with those that don't. We would make it look like we are burning the non-SCJP ones alive for not telling. When we see the different facial reactions, the ones that aren't SCJP look terrified and beg for their lives. Others simply accept their fate and close their eyes. But the SCJP ones? They look conflicted. They give me the idea they DO have more info that they refuse to give whilst the non-SCJP ones didn't.", Acclaim explains to me.

"At first we thought only Computement-Corp was behind it. Now we aggressively made the ninjas here talk. We took their devises, maybe lied to them about having hacked it and knowing some things.", Sili-san says.
"What we know now, is that their leader is 100% involved with SCJP. The non-SCJP ninjas tell us he has secret information they aren't allowed to know. The SCJP ninjas have worked directly for the leader, and it is said he has direct contact with both Computement-Corp and Justit Info B.V.", Acclaim explains.

I cross my arms. Working with companies…For Ninja, it wouldn't be too strange…but.
"You may think it is normal for them. Computement-Corp's deals have helped their ninja village gain technology. And their information is given to Justit Info B.V to give to the White Heart, and the other way around. It is a way to remain contact whilst not risking the location of the hidden village.", Acclaim says.
I was thinking there were normal reasons to work with the company

"It turns out, it is way more corrupt than that. Some of the info given to Justit Info B.V is not given to White Heart, and some of the Lowee Government missions are not being given to the ninjas. The village leader knows of his, but chooses not to follow them. He gets secret missions from Computement-Corp that crosses the legal boundary of Lowee Official Ninjas. The two bastards are working together with the village leader against White Heart's consent!", Sili-san says, frustrated.

I get it. The village head is corrupted and makes the ninjas do missions of his own accord for his own needs. And he helps the corporations who also, in turn, help him.
"Whatever the case may be. He is wrong to work with them. And also the best lead to find their HQ.", I tell them.
"Hell yeah! Let's go fight the ninjas!", Sili-san says excitingly.
Theresa looks puzzled. She asks, "But their village is hidden? How do we find them?"

"I know where it is.", I casually answer her.
They all look flabbergasted, some are screeching.
"Listen. I used to be a Goddess. Sometimes, the Goddesses go to the Ninja Village to see their status. It doesn't happen very often. But I know the rough location of the village. We can find it.", I explain.
"So…I guess that settles it then…", Sili-san says, still in disbelief.
I nod before saying, "Yes. We must go to the hidden Ninja Village and get the leader to talk. Depending on whether or not he is fully within SCJP, we might eliminate him."
"Let's take some rest first. And then prepare.", Acclaim says.
And with that, we have a new quest. Next week, we shall visit the Hidden Ninja Village.

To Be Continued…

Afterword

Man this took a long time to finish. For that reason alone, I would like to announce the end of Volume by Volume releases. It just doesn't work for online posting, the wait time is too long and writing a whole volume it too much work. This should've released last month but I got terribly sick during November. I was busy making a video too.

Oh well. This volume was supposed to include the hidden Ninja village chapters as well, but Chapter 7 became three chapters instead. The Samurai arc was supposed to be one chapter and turned into a whole story arc instead. Honestly, I am quite pleased with it, but it really made me rethink chapter and volume structure.

Chapters themselves are already too long, so there is no need to go volume by volume. I might even think of making more chapters that are shorter rather than one long one. I think I can also include short side chapters that focus in the perspectives of other characters when they do stuff in the background. What do you guys think?

Either way, let's hope the hidden village arc will be two chapters like I've planned (It was supposed to be one chapter but after writing this I doubt I can do that), then again, of I go for shorter chapters you may see more frequent uploads, kind of. I always take a month break before proof reading so that it feels like I didn't write it when I read it. Certainly, uploading things chapter by chapter will result in more upload frequency, I hope. Either way, I wish everyone here a great new year. This story is getting closer to its end, only three arcs left I believe? Then we have the final story. Well, anyway, let's hope I can be more consistent.