There is something wrong...

That was the first thought on Duncan's head as he woke up in the morning.

He knew that there was something wrong in there, as he was feeling different from when he woke up every morning.

He was not on his bed. And he was... holding something?

Was it a pillow?

No, it was not. Pillows were not that warm, and they didn't... breathe.

Duncan cracked an eye open and found out that he was not on his bedroom. This was not his house.

For a moment, he was confused. Then, he looked down, and he saw the person who he had been embracing on his sleep.

That was when he remembered that he was at Yuki's house.

Oh, crap... Was all that Duncan could think as he realized that he was really close to Yuki, the two of them still wearing their school uniforms from the previous day as they were both so close to each other on bed that Yuki's back was literally pressed on Duncan's chest.

And other parts of her were having contact with him as well.

Oh, holy-molly crap...

"Okay, you two!" A voice said, as the door suddenly swung open, causing Duncan to flinch and nearly let out a cuss out loud. "Time to rise and shine!" It was Yuki's grandmother, and she was walking into the room without any reservation, just as Yuki started to stir awake.

The Japanese girl blinked, and then she realized that there was a pair of strong arms around her body. She looked back, to see the wide eye of Duncan looked back at her, as the other one was still hidden beneath that same eyepatch.

"GYAAAA!"

She nearly pushed him out of the bed as she tried to get away from him, blushing madly. Duncan was blushing too, and he was sitting there as he looked at her, before looking down and apologizing.

Yuki, on her end, seemed to remember that her grandmother was there, and she then started to say something in Japanese to her frantically. Duncan had the feeling she was apologizing, and so he started to apologize as well. However, the lively elder said to the two of them, with a smile:

"Why are you two dummies apologizing? You have done nothing wrong. That is, I hope you have done nothing."

They both were quick to say, both in Japanese and English, that they did nothing. She chuckled, it soon became clear she was just pulling their legs.

"You two are good kids. Not the type who would act with malice on your hearts." She said to the two of them. "That certainly makes this old woman proud of you two. It is good to say that some kids nowadays can still be innocent when interacting. Nowadays it seems that everything is an excuse to take off their underwear because it suddenly got too wet or too tight."

"Obaachan!" Yuki cried out, mortified, and Duncan was in a state of equal mortification that a commentary like that could come from the mouth of a woman that age. To that, the old lady only chuckled as she told them that it was Tuesday, in case they forgot, and that they both needed to get ready for school now if they wanted to leave in time to arrive before first period.

Yuki and Duncan both realized that she was right. That today was a school day, and that they needed to get ready for school.

However, that was when Duncan made another, much more terrifying realization:

He had spent the night on someone else's house without telling his parents.

Immediately, the young man reached for his phone, which had been on silent, and saw that he had two dozen missed calls from both his mother and father, and a ton of messages and voicemails.

"Oh man..." Duncan said as he looked at all those notifications from his parents, most likely wanting to know where he was and what he had been doing the whole night. "I'm gonna be grounded for the whole summer..."

Duncan thought about calling someone. Not his parents, they would certainly be mad at him right now. That was when he decided to call someone else from his contact list.

"What...?" Mike's voice came groggily from the other end. He certainly just woke up, and Mike was never exactly a morning person.

"Mike! Mike, it's me, Duncan!"

"Wha...? Duncan?" Mike sounded like he was waking up, and soon he was talking to his childhood friend through the phone sounding much more alert.

"Dude, where did you went after school? Your parents blew up my phone all night because you weren't picking up yours."

Duncan sighed, and then he apologized to Mike for this.

"I walked Yuki back to her house because I was worried that Stephanie and he cronies would try anything." The man explained. "She and her grandmother invited for dinner, so I spent the night."

"Oh, that makes sense. Wait..." Mike made a pause. "You... spent the night on Yuki's house?"

"Yeah, I slept with her on her bed." Duncan said before he could realize that this phrase could be wildly misinterpreted. Mike's voice had lost all drowsiness and now the other man was practically going ballistic while Duncan tried to explain.

"I was only comforting her!"

"Oh, I am sure you were." Mike said in a suggestive way that allowed Duncan to imagine perfectly the smile on his face. "Did she enjoy your comfort?"

"Look, it is not like that, okay?" Duncan said in exasperation. "I just hugged her and let her cry on my shoulder. Then I laid with her in bed and let her sleep in my arms. And we were both fully clothed."

"Oh... that's a bummer." Mike said, sounding disappointed.

"Look, can you call my parents?" Duncan said to his friend. "Call them and tell them that I spent a night on another student's house, and that I went to school from her house? Tell them I will be back home today and, if they plan to yell at me, they can do that once I'm back home."

"Okay, buddy. See you at school." Mike said. Luckily, he did no innuendos of any kind. That was something Duncan was thankful for.

He was about to go to get his bag, when suddenly his phone rang.

"Hello?... Oh, Uncle Lars, hi!" Duncan answered to the phone. He talked to his uncle, and soon it was clear that there was something bothering the older man.

"It went wrong, buddy." Lars said from the other side of the line. "It went so wrong..."

Duncan heard what his uncle had to say. Apparently, the test they were going to do on the previous night went wrong.

People had died.

People who his uncle knew.

"Man... I'm so sorry, Uncle Lars." Duncan said to his uncle, wishing that he knew something better to say in a moment like that. However, he truly didn't know what to say in such a situation. To Lars, however, the simple "I'm sorry" seemed to be enough.

"I just wanted someone to talk... thanks, buddy. Tell your mom that I will have to rethink going to dinner this week. Not on the mood for it now..."

And, with that, the call ended.

Lars looked at his phone as he finished talking to his nephew. He sighed, as he still felt terrible. The memories of last night kept repeating on his head like a horror movie that has been in an endless loop.

The screams, the blood, the sounds of gunshots.

He was starting to understand a little bit how the guys who saw horrible things in war felt after seeing things that made them come back messed up. He certainly could, after what he witnessed last night.

Those guys were his friends...

Sighing, he placed his phone back on his pocket, and walked through the door. Just as he walked, the man on the desk had just put his landline phone back in place, ending whatever call he was making.

"General Turner..." Lars said to the man on the chair, and the general, who had also been there witnessing it all last night, turned to look at the younger soldier. Normally, the expression of that man was stoic and unmoving. However, as Lars looked back at him, he could see that the old General Turner was disturbed.

He was disturbed by what happened last night.

By the deaths of many good men who served under him in what was supposed to be an exercise. In what was supposed to see a rundown on what the new weapon that they had just acquired could do.

However, now they understood they had not been the ones to be running a test.

But the man whom they acquired that thing from.

The mage who they tried to make a deal with.

Ever since the revelation of the moonlit world, there had been a race from military forces around the world to try and garner mages to their side. However, most mages refused to submit to any government that would limit their freedom. This meant that they were not willing to put themselves at the disposal of the armies of any country, not even their own.

And, after the little show that mages did three decades ago to show just how easily they could bring the world's governments down if they so desired, that was a source of worry for all of them.

So, all governments, either they publicly admitted or not, where trying to gather mages under their command. Either were they pariahs of their own people due to having lost their places and prestige, or if they were a failed clan that fell into disgrace and needed to lower themselves to accept government funding in return for their help when requested or, as it was actually the more common to happen, they were simply freelancers hired by the government.

Some of them were sought out by the government, others came before them to offer their services.

Like the man who was in there, grinning as he watched his creation maul down those poor men.

Vaux was his name, and he presented himself to the base a few weeks ago, bringing about an offer with him to the government. He presented it as a weapon. A weapon, according to him, superior to anything that modern technology could come up with, and who could be a certain victory in nearly any war.

The thing was unstoppable, as he said, and all he needed was the resources for him to be able to perform the final touches on the thing that he was trying to make.

The government, interested into seeing what this man who claimed to be from a powerful mage family could do, decided to humor him by giving him the resources he asked for, with the general himself signing the documents.

Just a few days later, he came back with that thing.

A magical robot of some kind that moved nearly as if it was alive.

It was quite the sight.

And sometimes it nearly seemed as if it could understand them, as it moved its head from side to side while looking at them as they spoke and walked around it. Some even reported a feeling of uneasy as they could swear that the could feel its eyes peering into their souls.

However, they wanted to see if this thing was really all Vaux promised to be. So, they arranged for the exercise to be made, and they even accepted the mage's request for them to use actual ammunition during it, as well as the heaviest duty weapons they had on the base.

"It was all so he could see how strong that thing was." General Turner said with bitterness. "He just wanted to see how powerful his new weapon was against an armed battalion, and we gave him the experiment he needed. He played us all along!"

Turner slammed the arm of his chair with his fist. That was not enough to sheet his anger, but he did it anyway. Lars wanted to do something similar.

"This is what we get for trusting a mage. I should have been suspicious with how willing he seemed to help..." The general said to himself. "I will be getting him for this."

"How, sir?" Lars asked to the older man. "That thing mauled the last three men who tried to shoot him. It was on the middle of the training field in a moment, on the other it was right by his side swing that big ass sword. Cleaved Walters, Kyle and Moore clear in half."

The general flinched at the memory. He remembered clearly how the thing moved with an impossible speed towards them and killed the three young men who pointed their guns at Vaux after demanding him to take responsibility for the death of their friends. They only added to the number of casualties of that night.

Whatever that thing was, it seemed that Vaux had programmed it to defend him with lethal force.

This certainly made it dangerous to even try to threaten the mage.

It limited the course of actions they could take against him.

However, they both knew one thing: they could not allow for Vaux to walk out of their base with such a powerful weapon under his command. Especially after he mentioned how he planned to use it to win some war...

As the two of them reflected about it, the same mage they were talking about was on another part of the base, and he was smirking to himself as he tapped the metallic chest of his new toy. Big and strong, as well as what was beneath it.

"You will do perfectly, my Berserker." Vaux said to the big metallic thing, which looked at him through the lenses of its visor, while the man ran his hand over the complex symbol carved on the chest of the that metallic being. His golden teeth flashed in the light as he smiled as wide as a shark at his Berserker.

"I will win this war for sure. That fool Ulanov thinks I will just allow him to have what he wants? Fat chance. I will siege the Grail for myself with your help, and then I will finally get what I want! I will become a god on Earth!" And he laughed, a deep, throaty laugh that would resound through the chest of anyone who was on the same room as him.

However, the only one in there with him was Berserker.

That is, Berserker, and several entities that had come to the base hidden inside of cargo boxes. And, as they felt the presence of that armored being, they all moved as their gears started spinning.

"Man..." Duncan said as he ended the call. "Uncle Lars sounded really upset..."

"Problems, young man?" Yuki's grandmother asked, and this startled Duncan. He had forgotten she was there.

"Oh, it's my uncle. He is military, stationed in a base in the city." Duncan explained. "There was something last night. An accident. They were testing some weapon, and a couple people died."

"Oh, I am sorry about it." She sounded truthful as she spoke those words. "But what were they expecting? I mean, testing a weapon? Haven't people learned from the past two wars that this only ends poorly? Since when looking for conflict brings anyone any benefit?"

Duncan looked at her in surprised after those last incisive phrases. She seemed to have strong feelings regarding war. She noticed his eyes on her, and she spoke:

"My mother's family was native to Nagasaki. She was not there when they dropped the bombs, but her family was. I was only born after, and I always had to see my mother become melancholic during the summer, as she remembered that one summer when she lost all of her relatives."

The old woman sighed.

"In all seriousness, I cannot understand why so many people still insist in going to war when all it brings is suffering."

Duncan looked at her, and he decided to remain respectfully silent, until she looked back at him and apologizing for babbling and complaining like an old woman. She then asked if he'd like to wait her daughter to be done with her bath to take one as well, and then join them for breakfast.

"You better hurry up if you two want to make it to school on time." She was smiling as she said that to the young man, and Duncan nodded at her.

One short bath after (and Duncan wore the very same clothes he did yesterday, underwear included), and they all sat on the table to eat.

Duncan was used for breakfast to be sugary cereals, toast with butter and a cup of coffee. However, on that house, apparently, breakfast was a bowl of cooked rice with an egg yolk on top and some strips of smoked salmon on the side, and green tea on a cup to drink.

It was an interesting change in routine for the young man, and he ate it gladly, as they once more gave him some flatware he was used to eat with while they both used chopsticks.

Once more, Duncan could not help but notice how homey everything was on that place, and how Yuki and her mother seemed to get along.

Suddenly, Duncan became aware that her grandmother was the only family Yuki had...

"Okay, we are still here..." Said a girl with short blonde hair. She was wearing the same clothes she used for school last night, as she had stayed there literally all night, and even improvised a blanked and pillow for herself with the things she had on her backpack and had some snacks for her breakfast.

She could not afford to leave after what she had witnessed on the previous night. She had to stay there, and she even went as far as to lie to her parents that she would spend a night on a friend's house just so she could stay right there.

On the place she found out to be Yuki Hayashi's house.

Even thought she could no longer see said house ever since she put back whatever protection made it invisible.

"I've stayed here the whole night." The young woman said to the camera of her cellphone, as she recorded herself and uploaded it in real time for her YouTube channel. "As you can see behind me, there is no sign of the house even being there, as whatever spell the Hayashi family has around their house makes it impossible to see, but I assure you all it is in there, I saw Hayashi and that boy who came with her going inside of the house yesterday, and none of them has come out."

"Now, I cannot say what exactly is happening in there. I can't tell if she actually hypnotized the guy like the people in school said, and if she taken him there to be a sacrifice for a ritual, her slave, or just to use him as a toy..." She spoke, "But, one thing is for sure, I will not be moving from here until I see her coming out again. This is Jessica James here, speaking to all of you on my JJ's Joy Journal, and I will be keeping you guys updated on..."

Her speech to the followers on her livestream stopped as something happened behind her, and she could see because it showed on the screen of her phone as she recorded herself.

A kaleidoscopic, prims-like effect happened behind her, and the house, as if materializing out of nowhere, came into view.

This prompted Jessica to quickly hide behind a rock and peek at them by using her phone's camera to capture the images, all the while still transmitting to her channel live. She could see no other than Yuki Hayashi and the boy who came there with her last night.

"There they are!" She whispered so only her phone's mic could hear it and, consequently, her viewers.

She watched as the two of them started walking, taking the path that would, most likely, take them all the way to school.

Jessica wasted no time, as she got up and, keeping what she considered to be a safe distance, started to follow the two of them, still narrating what was happening to her followers, who reacted in real time to her posts. She was not super popular, but her popularity had been growing lately, and maybe covering a newly-discovered mage on her school could bring her even more viewers.

So, she would not be losing them from sight.

Meanwhile, Yuki and Duncan continued forward without even noticing the blonde girl following them. They were distracted with their own things.

Duncan was distracted looking at Yuki and noticing how she was distracted by looking down and looking sad.

"Something wrong?" Duncan asked. It seemed only right to ask her. That was when Yuki told him that, after what happened, she was thinking about just stopping going to school.

"Wait, now?" Duncan asked her. "Last terms are just around the corner, and it's your last year."

"I just don't feel like I belong there anymore." Yuki said sadly. "I hardly got along with people and had only one or two friends but, since last week, they stopped talking to me. My friends told me to stay away from them from now on."

"Well, in that case, they were not real friends." Duncan said to her.

"I really should just leave the school..." Yuki said, "It is not as if anyone in there would miss me..."

"I would." Duncan said out of the blue with all honesty of the world. This caused Yuki to look at him with surprise. They locked eyes for a moment, before both looked away, blushing.

"W-we should probably hurry... we need to arrive on school before the first signal." Yuki said with a sudden awkwardness, and Duncan caught himself nodding like an idiot and going along with her.

"So, I noticed that there was something on your room that was glowing." Duncan said. "It was like, a dragon statue with an orb on its mouth, and the orb kept blinking red. It was hard to sleep with that thing. What was that?"

It was an attempt at breaking the awkward silence that had established itself after Duncan's last commentary. It worked... kinda.

"That's one of the mystic codes my mother left for me." Yuki said to Duncan, and the man with the eye-patch nodded. He knew what mystic codes were, like most people nowadays. That was basically how mages called the magic objects they crafted with their skills.

"Any reason why it was blinking like that?"

"It serves to detect great concentrations of magic energy." Yuki said to him. "It was supposed to be used to detect nodes on ley lines. It never glowed since we moved here, but a couple days ago it started doing that, and it has only gotten stronger ever since."

"Oh?" Duncan looked at her. "Shouldn't you investigate the reason?"

"No need to." Yuki said, "There is a reason why my parents left instructions for me and grandma to move here in case anything happened to them. This is a peaceful place. There are ley lines, of course, like any other city, but they are not strong enough to cause a mage to want to come here. It is not a sacred land or anything. There is basically no reason why a mage would want to come here. That thing is probably just malfunctioning. It is older than my grandma..."

Duncan nodded. However, he could not help but to think that, if a magic thing that never did anything before suddenly started to blink like crazy, he would want to know why it was doing that.

"Yoh, Dun-Dun!"

That voice caused Duncan to look to the side. And he was surprised for seeing Mike coming his way, and he in pretty much a rush.

"Mike!?"

"Hey, dude!" Mike came to him and put an arm around his shoulder. "Fancy meeting you here! What a coincidence!"

"What are you doing here!?" Duncan asked, genuinely surprised. He then looked at Yuki.

"I have no idea how he found us, I swear!"

He spoke that as if he was defending himself from an unspoken accusation. Perhaps because his mind instantly thought, on a subconsciously level, that Yuki could assume that he started spreading to people where her house was, and he didn't want her to have any reason to be mad at him.

"I was taking this road from my uncle's farm. You know it is over there, right?" Mike said as he pointed at the distance. He had forgotten that Mike lived with his uncle in a farm that, now that he stopped to think about it, was not that far from where Yuki's house was located.

"Oh. So, you are the one who lives on that small farm a few miles away?" Yuki asked.

"Sure am!" The black-haired guy said. "And you are the girl who fulfilled the dream of all the girls in our school by punching Stephanie Carlson on the face. Seriously, all of them hate her because she is always acting like she is the school's princess."

Yuki said nothing in return to this, and soon, Mike was pulling Duncan close and whispering on his ear.

"Dun, my dude, you are totally getting into it! I mean, you spent the night on her house and now you are walking her to and from school! She is totally into you, dude! Don't screw up now!"

Duncan blushed as Mike said that, and then he announced, aloud, that the three of them should all walk to school together, since they are all in there. Yuki seemed okay with that, and Duncan himself had no choice but to sigh and go along with it.

However, that is when Yuki said:

"What is that smoke?"

They followed her gaze, and they realized that there was a big column of black smoke rising from somewhere in the distance.

"Is it a fire?"

"Is that your uncle's farm?"

"No, that's definitely not, his farm is on the other direction." Mike said, looking at where the smoke was rising from. "That's from the military base near the city..."

Wait, the military base? Duncan thought, and then he realized:

"That's the base my uncle is staying!" Duncan sounded in panic, and he was rushing in direction to the flames before either Yuki or Mike could stop him. Soon, the two of them are running after him.

And someone else followed the three of them, her phone in hand and recording all that was happening.

"They are advancing!"

"Keep shooting!"

"It is not working! The bullets just ricochet off them!"

"It is like that big black thing!"

The soldiers of the base were all rushing out of there as they fired against the things that were invading their base. Golden things shaped like both people and animals, with lustrous golden plating, with small openings on their bodies that allowed to see glimpses of the spinning, ticking gears inside of them, looking like the inner mechanisms of clocks.

They continued to advance against the soldiers as they fired guns at them, which proved to be little effective. However, they were clearly less resilient than the thing that killed their friends last night, as the higher-caliber weapons could do some damage to them, and the grenades and bazookas could blast them to pieces.

But still, the robots mostly continued to advance with mechanical steps, clicking as the machinery inside of them continued to spin, like wind-up dolls that moved despite having no torsion springs in them to fuel their mechanical movements.

All the while, a pair of figures were watching from a distance.

"Well, that's... messier than expected." Said one of the figures. "Don't you agree, master?"

"Indeed." Said the second of them, as he looked down with the same indifference as the one standing by his side.

"Should I give the automatons orders to not harm the soldiers?"

"Don't bother, Caster." The man said to him. "It is their own fault for trying to attack them. They are only there for Berserker of Black and his master, but if those soldiers will get in the way, then they should suffer the consequences."

"You are a cold man, master." Caster said as he looked at him, and the man said back:

"It's a war, Caster. We have to be cold if we want to emerge victorious."

"Yes, you are probably right..."

And they continued to watch from where they were standing. Meanwhile, down there, the soldiers were doing their best to fight back, but those things proved to be too resilient, as well as surprisingly fast, as they moved out of the way from the bullets with ease, before rushing at the soldiers. Some of them revealed blades on their arms, which they used to attack, while others fired bullets of energy from their eyes and mouths.

"General Turner, they are still advancing!" Lars said to the General, who was standing with a few other soldiers, barking orders. "They have taken the base!"

"Hold them back as much as you can!" The general said, "I just talked to the nearest outpost, and they are sending reinforcements! We will have aerial support in fifteen minutes! For now, we will hold those things and evacuate!"

"Yes, sir!" Lars said, and he went back to his group, transmitting the general's orders and having the men all organize themselves to be able to form an escape route for the wounded soldiers while they held the things inside of the base, as not to allow them to escape.

It soon was, however, obvious to whom the battle was pending towards.

As this happened, a group of kids made their way into the entrance of the base, and they were shocked by what they were seeing.

"What's going on!?" Duncan asked as he saw the burning buildings on the military base, and then he saw the men running away from the golden things.

"It's the machine uprising!" Mike said as he saw those robot-like things. He sounded panicked. Duncan, on his end, was in enough control to ask what those things were, what Yuki answered:

"Those are automatons! They are a type of familiar!"

Among the soldiers, there was a man who was helping the others evacuate, and he had a gun himself, but the bullets had little effect on the attackers. Duncan caught sight of him, and he recognized him instantly:

"Uncle Lars!" He said, looking at the man, who looked back at him and had wide eyes.

"Duncan!?"

During this moment of distraction, one of the automata dashed forward, tackling Lars and pinning him to the ground. The gun flew off his hand, and now he was pinned under the thing, which was like a mix of a man and a spider made of clockwork, and it was lifting one of its bladed legs and getting ready to bring it down on the man.

"No!" Duncan cried out as he rushed forward. He would, however, never arrive there on time, as the creature swung its leg down on direction to the man's chest, aiming for his heart.

"Roar, Raijin!"

A lightning moved past Duncan, in direction to the automaton, hitting it square on the side and throwing it off Lars before the attack count connect. The mechanical being was left on the ground, twitching as the machinery powering it stopped, while Lars slowly got up, confused and shaken, but unharmed.

"Uncle Lars! Uncle!" Duncan said, arriving on the older man, and Lars looked at him, and he was soon asking his nephew what he was doing there. However, he was soon distracted from it by the coming of the other automata, who were advancing despite the best efforts of the soldiers to hold them back.

"We have to get out of here!" Lars said, but it was too late. The automata had already surrounded the base, and they were not blocking the exit as they were all around them. There should be around thirty of them, maybe more, and the soldiers were running out of ammo.

"Dammit!" Lars said, as he got up, and the group started to gather as the automatons were closing in on them.

That was when someone decided to step forward.

"Everyone, stay behind me!" Yuki said as she stepped forward, opening her bag and pulling things from inside there.

Namely: a lot of paper strips with Japanese writing on them.

The automatons were soon charging on her, prompting Duncan to cry out her name, but Yuki was ready.

"Strike them all, Kajin!" She tossed several papers on the air, and they all immediately burst into flames, and then turned into multiple fireballs that flew right into the automatons that were coming at her. They were hit by those fireballs which had the strength of cannonballs and propelled them back as they burned and melted through their metallic bodies, causing some of them to fall to the ground, while others continued to move, as they got ready to attack again.

They were all coming at her at once, and there was just too many. However, the young mage was not deterred.

With another piece of paper, she summoned another spell.

"Blow them away, Fujin!" With those words, the paper glowed, and liberated a gust of wind in all directions. This was no mere breeze, but a wind akin to that of a hurricane, which forced the automatons back, opening a distance between them and Yuki, so the lady would have more time to think and use her next move.

And this next move was yet another paper, as a couple of the automatons, big and heavy ones, managed to advance on her direction despite the strong winds.

"Burst forth, Suijin!" She said as she held the paper into her hand. This paper, like the others, glowed and disintegrated, turning into a ball on her palm, which them burst forward as a great amount of water was released.

This water hit the automatons with the strength of a geyser, causing them to be blow back as Yuki aimed the water stream on each one of them, as well as on the other automatons. Then, as she did, she pulled yet another paper.

"Raijin!"

Another bolt of lightning came, and this one, using the water that was just generated from the previous spell as conduit, managed to hit the automatons with a lot more strength, and this time nearly all of them fell, with only a few left standing.

"Wow..." Duncan said, while, by his side, Mike and Lars had similar expressions.

"Who... who is she?" The older man said, to what Mike said without thinking:

"Duncan's girlfriend."

And they were not the only ones who were watching it from a distance and being baffled by what they were seeing. Jessica was in there too, and she had been approaching as she recorded all of that with her phone. She was transmitting it live to her channel and, as she did, people were reacting, and they were sharing and inviting friends to watch it as well. On those few minutes as she livestreaming Yuki fighting the mechanical familiars, her channel was getting more views and visits than it did on the past two years since she started it, and the reactions were quite something.

Meanwhile, on the hill, the two figures responsible for that attack where also looking surprised due to this sudden development.

"Who the heck is that girl?" The man asked while, by his side, Caster adjusted the sight on his right eye to be able to catch a sight of her with his telescopic vision.

"I don't know, master. But the lady is quite something."

He had a smile on his face as he was saying those words, as if he was amused by what was happening.

Down there, the remaining automata continued to charge at Yuki, with one of them rushing past the others and arriving at her before she could summon another spell. Yuki had to move out of the way as she was attacked by the blade of the humanoid automaton. In the process, she lost her papers, and now the robot was attacking her again.

"YUKI!" Duncan cried in horror as he saw that blade being thrust in direction to Yuki's chest.

And the girl parred it by grasping the blade between her open palms.

Yuki glared at the automaton, before twisting the blade hard enough to break it from the familiar's arm, and then she swung it and pierced the creature's chest with it. Then, as another one was coming to her, she tossed the bladed into the air and, with a kick, sent it flying and hit the other creature into the head with it, causing it to stumble back.

Then others came, and those ones also tried to attack the woman with blades, but Yuki fought back. Sending magic energy to her limbs and reinforcing them, she made her arms and legs strong and fast to deal with those things. She was able to block the attacks of their swings with her limbs, and the fight back with powerful blows, combining her own martial arts training with her magecraft for devastating effects.

Three punches in quick succession from Yuki completely crushed the chest of one. Meanwhile, a kick to the leg, a karate chop to the shoulder and an axe kick right to the head brought the other one down.

Meanwhile, one with a dog-like form and a single eye, started firing bullets of magic energy at her.

Once more, her magecraft combined with her martial arts allowed Yuki to keep up. By charging her hands with magical energy, she created a coating of energy around them that allowed her to parry those magical shots with her bare hands, and even to deflect and redirection them by swiping her hands hard and fast.

She was even able to take down two other automatons who were charging at her by redirecting the bullets to them.

"Quite admirable..." Caster said, still smiling, as he watched it all from where he was standing. Meanwhile, his master was not happy with it.

"Enough of this! Do something, Caster!"

Under such an angry order from his master, Caster could do nothing more than to comply. So, he put his hands together, and sent a signal to his automatons.

At that same moment, something happened to all the reaming ones. They all stood still for a few seconds, before they all rushed together, and then they started to engage.

Their bodies opened and unfurled, the complex clockwork machinery on them rearranging itself so they could, quite literally, hook and fit into each other, as they reshaped themselves into a new, bigger form.

Everyone watched as the rearming eight automatons fused into one, like a mecha from Japanese super sentai movies, and turned into a being that stood nearly fifteen feet tall, towering over Yuki and all of the others.

"You gotta be kidding me!" Lars said as he witnessed this, and the now giant automaton rushed towards Yuki, trying to hit her with one big hand. The girl had to jump out of the way to avoid being crushed.

She knew right away that she could not fight this one with punches alone.

She needed equipment.

She needed her bag!

So, she turned in direction to it and ran for it, managing to grab a hold of it while avoiding the blows of the monster. In part because the soldiers. Snapping out of their bafflement, started firing all they had at the automaton, which flinched as it had its attention turned to them, and started to go on their direction.

This gave Yuki just the time she needed to get all the necessary things out of her bag.

Soon, she was rushing and standing before the monster, cutting its path towards the soldiers, as she held two different types of items in each one of her hands.

"Oh, great guardian Daruma! I call to you!" She said, as she threw the two items that she had on her left hand. They looked like balls, but they were small, round, limbless dolls.

They then started glowing, and then they grew until they were the same size of a human. Limbs sprouted, and soon, those creatures were standing between Yuki and the automaton.

For anyone who looked, they seemed like giant red balls with painted faces and muscular arms and legs on them, making them look quite comic. Especially when they started making kung fu poses.

"What..." Duncan said.

"... the..." Lars said.

"... frick?" Mike said.

The automaton looked at them for a few seconds, before rushing forward. And this caused the two creatures to rush forward as well.

The ones that Yuki was using, despite their appearance, were no laughing matter, as they were strong enough to parry the creature's blows with their arms, and then they could jump and deliver complex kung fu moves on it to force it to move back.

They could not defeat the creature on their own, though. That was why Yuki was only counting on them to hold it back while she prepared her real attack.

With the pieces of paper on her right hand, she focused her magical energy.

"Raijin. Fujin. Suijin. Kami of elements. Be my bridge towards the great power." She chanted in Japanese, tossing the three papers into the air. "Call forth lightning and thunder. Call forth gusts of wind. Call forth torrential rain. Call forth the forces of nature, and the one who controls it all. Lend me your power and strength. Lend me your might. Lend me your domain and allow me to vanquish those who stand in my path. With your combined voices, call forth to the one who rules all of you. Allow me to call the lord of storms!"

As she chanted, the papers glowed and spin at a high speed, producing dark clouds. Clouds that gathered in the air above her, and soon started to look less like smoke, and more like a building storm. Meanwhile, the automaton managed to push the two doll-like familiars back and then charge at the young woman.

However, Yuki was ready now. She opened her yes, and she said:

"Unleash your wrath, Susanoo!"

Then, the storm cloud that formed above her head roared.

Strikes of lightning came in quick succession into the attacking automaton, causing it to stop dead on its tracks. At the same time, a wind with the strength of a hurricane blew and that caused everyone around to have to firm their feet on the ground not to be blow back.

And, as if all of that was not enough, then came hail. Chunks of ice from the size and weight as bowling balls were hurled on the automaton like cannonballs, punishing it just as much as the lightning, all under the baffled eyes of a lot of onlookers.

It lasted for precisely one minute. By the end of it, the storm cloud above dissipated, and the automaton was left so damaged that it was barely even standing.

With a cry, Yuki rushed forward to finish it off, and the Daruma familiars went along with them. Yuki and one of the Darumas jumped, while the other continued running.

One Daruma brought its hands down on the head of the automaton, crushing it. Yuki hit the creature in the chest with both her fists, causing severe internal damage to the mechanisms that were still working. And the last Daruma brought its two fists into one to the legs, completely busting the metal giant's knee.

The machine let a loud metallic sound, like a wail of pain, before it crumbled to the ground, destroyed and ruined.

Yuki stood there, looking at it for a moment, as if to see if it was going to start attacking again. When it didn't, she then turned to the two Daruma doll familiars, who were both looking back at her with their painted eyes.

Then, Yuki placed a fist on her open palm, and bowed to the two of them, and the dolls returned the gesture to her.

And everyone was still looking in baffled amazement.

"Duncan?" Lars said.

"...Huh?" Was all that the man on the eye-patch could say back, and then his uncle said:

"Marry that girl."