Chapter 64: 59th Move | The Calm Before the Storm
Despite the lateness, I was still able to have what the Chinese would call a 'yexiao', or a midnight snack with Arcueid in the nightlife district of Metropolis.
That is, plenty of fried foods like fried squid tentacle, crystal shrimp dumplings, and curry fish balls on a stick as well as some of this world's cuisines, things like keen sticks (dried stocks of leafy greens slathered with different sauces and fried), spicy mini-dragon shrimp (this world's version of crayfish), and Slimo (a traditional dish in the Great Jura Forest that calls for vegetable and meat to be encased in dead slimes). The Slimo reminds me of those food encased in gelatine often associated with 50s America.
(Funnily enough, Arcueid absolutely will not eat anything involving curry with an almost religious zeal)
In my old life, I was introduced to the concept of this midnight snack during this one business trip to China. Due to the jet lag, I was not able to sleep and instead wandered the streets at night. It was then I stumbled across this one stall owner who could speak heavily accented English that I thankfully can understand. I think it's after that trip that I started to enjoy the act of eating beyond mere sustenance, as I started to find any meals that are too mild a waste.
At the insistence of the Orc restaurant owner, this midnight snack was all washed down alongside some Tempest Bear wine; a wine similar to the snake wine in my old world but instead called for placing the severed digit of a rare Tempest Bear into glass jars filled with ethanol and different medicines from all over the Forest. Each family brews their own Tempest Bear wine, with the clan helping the husband in hunting down a Tempest Bear (essentially, think Grizzly Bears but God decided that it's not big enough) and getting at least one digit the size of my hand. The wine is usually brewed on the eve of the firstborn and is not opened until said firstborn has reached maturity.
After they joined the Republic, such practices are still around, but actually hunting the bear is next to non-existent, as there are easier ways in getting the digit of a Tempest Bear.
The drink was unique for sure, with an intense earthly taste.
When I will have finished eating and putting the True Ancestor to bed in about half an hour, I planned to continue work on a teleporter strong enough to transport a True Dragon before I got an alert from the Noosphere.
For the entire night up until this point, I was feeling really chipper after Kathy called me her 'nee-sama'. Despite me not understanding Japanese, [Language] translated to it meaning 'sister', and the latter half was denoting something akin to great respect.
Even if [Psychology] says this is her attempt at manipulating me, I can't help but fall for the familial title.
I am a bit ashamed to say that right after she called me 'nee-sama', I squeed a little and enveloped Kathy in a bear hug.
She really is using her appearance to her advantage... I guess it's also my fault for enabling her.
Ugh, but she's just so cute though!
A holographic panel materialized to the side of me, much to Arcueid's surprise. Part of my mind is impressed at how she can make such an expression when her mouth is stuffed like a hamster.
[Silenced Emotion: 90%]
The light inside my eyes died like a flicker of flame in a thunderstorm, my body slumped forward, the Mathematic— currently in the form of a set of casual clothing— automatically moved to catch my head before I faceplant into the bowl of soup in front of me.
"Tia?"
Looking at the information displayed, it was the System Log about how Shizue's Siberium Chassis went offline.
_____________________________________________
Before, Lura, the Capital of Ingrassia
Alice was depressed.
She looked at her dark, damp, and most importantly 'dirty' cell, the small window near the ceiling of her cell let in bits of moonlight.
How did it come to this? She wondered while bathing in the moon's glow. Laying on the hard wooden bed, Alice is once again reminded of how much she had taken the school for granted.
Soft bed, warm food, clean water, all of it is missing.
And they took her dolls, so she can't even comfort herself in these trying times.
"..Ugh—!" She fumbled around on the bed in frustration, "this is not fair! Ingrassia was supposed to be like Britain! Why are there slaves now?!"
Alice Rondo, was a British Citizen before being summoned. Being of one of the upper class, she had a huge culture shock when she appeared in this world by a summoning. Having no idea of what to do, she mostly stayed in Ingrassia since she saw how happy everyone looked, and being the place that reminded her the most of her home.
Now? It's barely recognizable, like living under the rule of an Evil King, awaiting the arrival of the rightful Prince.
Except, this isn't a fairy tale— this is her life now, and the Prince is nowhere to be seen.
And since it's winter, it's so bloody cold!
Getting up, Alice moved to one of the corners of the cell, on the edge between the wall and the iron bars, away from the caged opening to the outside.
"Hey, Chloe." She whispered out to her cellmate.
Upon getting no response, Alice whispered again but louder.
"Hey, Chloe."
No response.
"...don't ignore me! It's rude!" She whispered out aggressively.
"What?" Chloe tiredly said, finally responding.
"Well... How are you holding up?"
"...What do you mean?"
"Kenya was killed, his light spirit is nowhere to be found, and now we are about to be enslaved for the rest of our life..." Alice trailed off as the gravity of the situation finally hit her.
"I... I miss mom and dad." She sat by the wall separating her and Chloe's cell, going into a fetal position in order to comfort herself, "grrr—! Why is the world so unfair?!"
*Bap*
She slammed her fist into the ground in frustration. Only to whimper weakly as her hand became bruised, "oww..."
Gritting her teeth, determination burned in Alice's eyes, "Arrrrrrgh! Why is the world so unfair to Otherworlders like us? Where are the human rights I heard on the TV?"
"Probably because of our power."
"huh?" Alice turned to face the wall, her body turned with her.
Chloe let out an audible sigh, "this world isn't like our old one. In this world, it's strong eat the weak— what use is equal rights if the people aren't equal in the first place?"
"Huh? What do you mean? Isn't that the right thing to do?" Alice was confused by Chloe's words.
Alice heard a slap, like one of those slaps she'd do to her forehead when one of the boys got on her nerves coming from Chloe's cell, "never mind, forget that I said anything."
Silenced fell like the curtain right after a play had ended, Alice wanted to ask more yet her intuition had told her to not continue so as to not tread on territories that may hurt Chloe's feelings.
Quickly thinking of another topic, "Hey, do you think Miss Shizue would come to rescue us?"
"Of course, it's in her nature." Chloe sounded so sure of herself that it made Alice jealous.
"Well... what if her new master didn't let her huh?! You know she works for a Perfect Homunculus right?" Alice felt threatened by Chloe's confidence and tried to reduce it, "and you know the stories of Relentless, I think the rest of its kind is no different, this one is just biding its time."
Chloe let out a mysterious smile unseen by the blond-haired girl.
"The Perfect Homunculus is no Relentless, if she were, the world would've already ended."
Alice was getting really creeped out by the way Chloe is saying these things as if they were real. It sounded like she knows more than she's letting on, Alice noted, her suspicion rising even more.
Chloe has been acting really weird after getting that time spirit, even Miss Noel recognized that.
"—!"
Just as she was about to ask her about how she knows such knowledge, her Extra Skill [Danger Sense] triggered like never before, as if saying anything in the next second would result in instantaneous and absolute death.
Before, the hardest [Danger Sense] has ever triggered was like a light tap on her shoulder, now it feels more like someone taking a jackhammer and slamming it repeatedly into her skull.
It was bad enough that Alice let out a small whimper.
"Alice? Are you okay?"
"—!"
Alice opened her mouth to reply that her [Danger Sense] was triggered, only for the Extra Skill to trigger even harder and cause her mouth to snap shut.
All of her bravado from before evaporated quicker than droplets of water on a hotpan.
"No—nothing. Nothing's wrong, just uh, just saw a poisonous spider!"
Chloe seems to accept that answer, and [Danger Sense] finally stopped, causing Alice to panic about what just happened.
What the hell was that?! She screamed inside her head, her eyes widening to as large as they could be while the girl trembled.
She slowly, methodically, turned to look at the wall separating them in fear, her mind going with all sorts of explanations as to what was responsible for triggering her [Danger Sense] so much. Heck, the hardest her Extra Skill ever triggered up until that point was when Miss Shizue's master fired off that bright light against that time spirit.
What is wrong with you, Chloe?! Alice wanted to scream out as she moved towards a corner, yet her [Danger Sense] never permitted her if she wanted to live.
"Alice, you know you could never hide things from me..." Chloe's voice whispered into her ears as if she was right behind her.
"Eep—!" Alice whipped her head behind her to find Chloe sitting on her bed.
Before Alice could scream, she saw inside Chloe's pupil the frozen image of a bird in flight—
"[Keter - Chokhmah]"
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"Alice? Alice!"
A familiar voice jolted her out of her unconsciousness.
"Miss Shizue?" Alice looked up out of the cages of her cell to see a monochrome woman who looked exactly like Shizu Izawa, only without any clothes, and it looked more like one of those dolls she'd find in the merchant district, wearing beautiful clothing.
"Chloe! Alice!" Shizue used her two hands to grab the bars of the cell, and she squeezed.
The metal groaned as it gave out, before Shizue ripped it off, forming a hatch for Alice to escape from.
The monochrome woman did the same thing with Chloe's cell.
Even though the sound from breaking the enchanted iron bars should've alerted the guards, no one came.
Leaving the cell, Alice hugged Shizue deeply in search of comfort. Contrasting to the blond girl, Chloe merely dusted off her clothes once she got out.
The black-haired girl was so casual about these that it made Shizue do a double-take to fully comprehend what was happening.
Chalking it up to being traumatized, Shizue asked a rhetorical question, "do you guys know where the boys are?"
"I...they separate us when we entered the castle."
"I see," Shizue nodded, her lips thinning as a port on her chest opened up, projecting a hologram of the castle. "Then don't worry, I rescued you guys first since you were the closest to me when I entered."
Shizue's eyes glowed as she scanned her ex-students for any damages, finding nothing out of shape except— "Alice you need to eat less candy."
"Grk—! What?" Alice spluttered with a small blush on her cheeks as she backed away from Shizue.
"Your body has high amounts of sugar in it, enough that in your later years in life, you'll develop diabetes." It was an attempt made by Shizue to divert Alice's attention elsewhere.
Using her internal computer, Shizue started to simulate thousands of possible escape routes she could use.
It took a few seconds until the computer came back with a viable plan...
Before Shizue promptly rejected it. The plan involved [Eidolon].
Shizue hates [Eidolon].
The Ultimate Skill was like the symbol of her failure, of her failing her Lady which resulted in Scientia killing thousands just to get President Rimuru back. Like someone with morals trying to use stolen goods, she just can't, it feels wrong to use an Ultimate Skill she got from her own failure. The only circumstances in which Shizue would use her Ultimate Skill would be if her Lady asks her to.
So the computer recalculated and came up with another plan.
The Doormaker Satellite was destroyed by Velgrynd during the first day of the war. To make up for this, Director Scientia diverted parts of the Citadel's computational power into operating an on-the-ground Doormaker that uses the Citadel itself as an anchor point to base its calculations around.
In the interest of maintaining a supply line to the Eastern Theater of War (at least until proper infrastructure can be constructed), Shizue wasn't authorized to create a Doorway that connects Metropolis to here. So instead, she'll open a Doorway to somewhere near Stalker Carbon's location so that the Deathman can pick the Otherworlders up.
'Open Doorway, 1.8 meters tall by 0.5 meters wide, facing south, 2 meters in front of me. Exit at the middle of the alleyway connecting Barth and Flench street.'
>Request Accepted
A black upstanding rectangle with purple outlines whose size and location mirror Shizue's request had opened up, causing both of her students to tense up until they saw how calm Shizue was taking it.
Just as Shizue opened her mouth to speak, her computer screamed at her to get the kids out of here.
Moving at hypersonic speeds, Shizue practically blinked across 3 meters of distance in order to shield the two from an attack.
The Siberium nullified any air resistance, ensuring that her students would not be harmed by the sonic boom.
*Wooo—Fzzz!*
The wind blade fizzled out when it touched Shizue's Siberium Chassis. However, due to how wide it was, the blade that didn't touch her chassis instead continued, loudly cutting apart metal bars and stone walls like a knife through a birthday cake, creating large clouds of dust.
Had Shizue not moved, the wind blade would've torn her students in two.
'Carbon! We've been had!' Shizue yelled out internally to the deathman. Using the dust cloud, the Servant then turned around, grabbed Alice and Chloe by the waist, and tossed them into a Doorway, 'I'm sending you Alice and Chloe!'
Once the Doorway closed, Shizue turned around to find a hallway clouded in darkness. Turning on her night-vision, the familiar green-ish view revealed a humanoid wearing jet-black armor standing at the end of the hallway, staring at Shizue, his body is completely motionless.
"—You!" Shizue froze when her memories called up who this person really is.
There was likely not a single person in the West who do not know him. As their guardian for over a thousand years, the current human civilizations would not be possible if not for the stability he managed to bring.
The Insectar—
"Razul." Shizue breathed out in awe, temporarily falling into hero-worship before her logical mind slapped her across the face.
'What?!' Carbon exclaimed through the electronic connection between them.
Realizing that he was the one who sent that wind blade, Shizue felt a pit open up in her stomach.
Razul is a legendary existence who can easily decimate entire hoards of demons from the North.
And now he's here, but for what? To kill her? To kill her students? Why is he here?! Shizue mentally screamed in anguish at the appearance of the Insectar.
'I've made contact with Razul' Shizue's muscles tensed as she waited for Razul's next move, 'more importantly, have you collected my students?'
'I have collected subject Alice and subject Chloe; they're currently outside the city and wrapped in blankets, Ranger Tungsten gave them some chocolate for them to chew on while we wait.' Carbon waited for a few moments as if pondering about what to say next, 'I recommend you to pull out as soon as possible, if Razul is there then this whole operation is a bust.'
Razul finally moved, his magicule flared around him enabling the Insectar to move at an in-atmosphere speed that boggles the mind.
An attack that can pierce a fortress, Razul's fist collided with Shizue's Siberium Chassis. The Insectar moved so fast that he created a vacuum behind him as he moved, raising the originally settled dust created from the wind attack.
*pun*
A quiet sound came from Razul's fist when it connected to the Siberium.
"—!" Even if everything is obscured, Razul's eyes widen as he realized he didn't even make Shizue budge.
The servant wrapped her hand around Razul's wrist and squeezed.
"Arrrgh!" Despite having an exoskeleton that tanked attacks from Guy himself, the Siberium hand crushed his carapace like it wasn't even there.
Using Shizue as a launching platform, Razul jumped away from her grasp to the other side of the room.
Looking at his amputated hand, he saw how sharp the cut was. It was as if Shizue's entire hand is a knife; a volume of space shaped into the form of a hand, where any matter that falls into it is deleted from existence.
'No.' Shizue countered firmly, feeling confident at how easily she managed to harm Razul, 'I've failed once, I'm not leaving until all of my students are out.'
Razul's gaze returned to his opponent. He silently cursed himself for being overconfident, steamrolling through so many demons over the centuries that had dulled his senses.
His severed hand quickly returned, completely healed. Shizue recognize that as [Ultra-speed Regeneration] and furrowed her brow in frustration, uncaring of the potential fallout from killing someone as important as Razul, the Servant decided in her mind she would save her students no matter what.
*VOOOOOOO—BAM*
Casting [Nuclear Cannon], Razul let out a beam of matter undergoing fission. The bright orange lance was akin to a beacon in the night, lighting up the hallway like a second sun as it traveled the distance between him and the intruder.
The beam slammed into Shizue's Siberium Chassis like a stream of water from a garden hose hitting a slab of concrete, the nuclear plasma went the path of least resistance and spewed sideways, creating bright petals of nuclear fire as though it were a flower blooming in spring.
Those 'petals' of nuclear fire vaporized walls near Shizue's position, melting those that aren't vaporized.
The dust quickly settled, and Razul found himself looking at an untouched monochrome body reflecting a bright yellow glow from the lava around the destroyed section of the Royal Castle.
Shizue still didn't move a bit, even her posture was still the same. The contrast between the wall in front of Shizue and behind were like night and day, as those behind her were untouched as though Razul just hadn't unleashed one of the most powerful offensive nuclear magic.
'Carbon, I'll need you to get my other students, I'll cause a distraction.'
'...Roger.'
Hearing his affirmation, Shizue blasted forward with a single step, moving at Hypersonic speeds while not causing a single sonic boom nor causing any disturbance in the flow of the melted walls.
Razul's long life experience gave him almost precognitive intuition. The insectar's body instinctually flowed with the grace of water as he moved to the side to avoid the outstretched hands of Shizue that were acting more like a spear in flight than a grab.
And like any spear in the middle of flying, Razul attempted to divert Shizue with a punch to her stomach, only for his fist to stop as if he had merely tapped her.
Part of his hand got ripped off as Shizue continued her travel, the Siberium Chassis completely ignored any of resistance as if it were a quiet suggestion made by the world.
Unaffected by inertial, Shizue turned around and started rapidly punching Razul in a type of lethal mixed martial arts. The Insectar's experience allowed him to dodge all of her attacks even when it would've given Hinata pause.
Getting annoyed at the lack of an ability to beat the threat in front of him, Razul teleported back a few meters to quickly gathered up huge amounts of magicule within his other undamaged palm. Bright flames consumed his hand. Razul then did a swiping gesture like the motion of a farmer spreading his seeds in spring, casting [Nuclear Fire] as he does.
*BWOOOOOOOOOSSHHHH*
A wave of plasma hotter than the surface of the sun crashed into Shizue. The fiery wave was like a guillotine as it traveled through the Royal Castle, cutting the dungeon in two with recklessly abandon and felling three castle towers like trees that have been cut for logs.
*CRASH*
The sound of the falling tower unleashed a shockwave that woke up Lura.
Finally alerted to the fact that there is now a large linear hole in a supposedly impregnable fortress, bells and screams of castle guards can be heard by Shizue even from dozens of meters in the air.
'I've got the students!' Hearing Carbon's voice caused Shizue to let out a comforting sigh.
"Time to End this," Shizue made a beeline towards Razul with her hands stretched out as if to hug something.
Razul jumped out of the massive hole in the castle down to the courtyard to dodge Shizue's dive, however, in exchange for his life, the Insectar lost his right arm in the process.
"Argh!" The ground caved in as Razul fell, indicating just how heavy the Insectar really is. Razul kneeled there in the small crater, clenching the socket as it bled, he notes how it'll take a while for [Ultra-Speed Regeneration] to heal it.
Shizue jumped down from the cooling opening of the castle. Hitting the ground without a single sound, she looked at the battered form of Razul as he got up using only his legs.
Seeing how his effort resulted in nothing, Razul felt rage. He felt more rage than he ever had in his memory, the closest he's ever felt this much rage was when he fought against Guy Crimson, the oldest of the Demon Lords. Razul could excuse that defeat away since Guy is much older than he is, but this? He's struggling against some no-name servant of another nation! Even if he was warned by Granbell, him being unable to even scratch her skin is absolutely humiliating! What's worse is that she has no issue destroying his infamous near-impenetrable exoskeleton like it was nothing— his carapace was his pride and joy!
"Tell me, do you bleed?" Razul finally asked, his voice raspy, as if he hadn't used it for a long time.
Shizue was momentarily stunned by the silent insectar speaking to her, just as she was about to answer, Razul continued, "you will."
Before Shizue could do anything, the Voice of the World spoke.
<<by sacrificing the souls of 1835 Archdemons, the Insectar known as 'Razul' has acquired the Ultimate Skill [Accelerator, Lord of Vectors]>>
Born from the desire of Razul's wish to see his enemy bleed, he sacrificed all the souls of the Archdemons he's slain over the millennia to acquire the mythical Ultimate Skill, the pinnacle of all Skills.
"You should not have done that you know, old friend." A voice that sounded like it belonged to a grandpa said.
Shizue whipped her head to look at the voice, finding it belonged to none other than Granbell Rosso.
Granbell Rosso was wearing an enchanted suit, nothing fancy really, Shizue has seen much better quality of fabric made by Lady Scientia, but what drew her eyes was the sword on his hip.
A large claymore with a golden crossguard.
The Longsword of Truth, a blade that engraved itself into the annuals of history together with Granbell's feat of single-handly slaying an entire army of Archdemons hundreds of years ago before even Relentless' Rampage, it's also what caused him to evolve into a True Hero actually, as the World recognized his courage.
The blade was of a grade comparable only to something like Milim's Rhongomynaid or President Rimuru's Kusanagi: it looked like something crafted by her Lady.
Shizue tensed up as she realize she's been sandwiched between two of the strongest people in the West.
"It was bound to happen anyways," Razul dismissed Granbell, "besides, ever since you got your own Ultimate Skill [Sariel, Lord of Hope], I've been dying to get one of my own as well..."
Razul shifted and cracked his neck like someone who just got up in the morning. Granbell let out a small, friendly chuckle, "indeed old friend, it seems jealousy has gotten the better of you."
The aura of the two combined was enough to make even Shizue doubt her own durability, it was like being in the middle of two 30-foot tall crashing waves while you're inside a wooden house.
Just as the Servant was about to leap out of there, her topological sensors went haywire.
There's this barrier around the city— no, not just any barrier.
She's inside... something. It felt like a massive knot of space-time itself, the entire city locked inside a sphere of folded space-time isolated from the World, a cavity of sorts.
At least that's the closest analogy her computer can come up with.
"..." Shizue was speechless in awe at what's been done.
This has to be an Ultimate Skill, as only through careful manipulation of a singularity or her Lady's [Inspired Inventor] can even come close to what's been done right here and her Chassis isn't detecting any gravitational anomalies nor any Tinkertech through the Noosphere.
So who?!
As if recognizing what she just attempted to do, Granbell let out another cruel chuckle, "do not even attempt to escape; there is nowhere to run, as it was foretold by Her."
The Banter subsystem within her consciousness that she downloaded automatically start to run. A program Shizue specifically downloaded for situations like this; namely, when facing down overconfident foes, the goal of this program was to glean as much information out of them.
The subsystem ran and created 39 potential triggers each with a varying degree of success rate.
"You boys aren't hoping to keep her all to yourself, are you?" A haughty voice declared before Shizue could pull any information out of the other two.
Turning to face this new variable, the servant found a young vampire with pale skin, silver hair, and heterochromatic eyes that seemingly glow in the dark, standing on the rooftop of one of the remaining shorter towers of the castle, with the full moon right behind her, Shizue can't help but be...
...somewhat disappointed.
Make no mistake, her power is no joke, the vampire's aura easily surpasses Granbell and even Razul's. Shizue would've been very intimidated... but she's seen stronger vampires than her.
Arcueid Brunestud, someone from another world outside of the System, the Princess of the True Ancestor, a Higher Existence akin to a Perfect Homunculus.
The Artificial Lich only fought that True Ancestor once in a spar and it was enough to put the fear of otherworldly existences inside her.
And this vampire? She's no match. She'll get obliterated, it'll be a one-sided slaughter-fest.
Looking at her closes, Shizue noted how if this had been any other situation, the vampire would've looked almost cute.
Is she...?
"Ah, Demon Lord Valentine," to the complete shock of the Servant of Scientia, Granbell kneeled in front of the now exposed Demon Lord.
Why is a True Hero bowing down to a Demon Lord?
The sight was very jarring to see.
Shizue knew from what her Lady had said that the male Valentine was a stand-in, a puppet controlled by the real power that stays inside the shadow. However, what really mattered to her at the moment was whether or not she was responsible for the knot of space-time.
Razul nodded in respect to Valentine, the stump of his right arm had completely grown back by now.
The young-looking vampire flipped her hair and had a look of superiority on her face. Jumping down from the rooftop, the ground cracked when she hits it.
It was only then that Shizue noticed Valentine wielded a sword, walking slowly, she practically radiated nobility and superiority like a uranium fuel cell emitting radiation.
Taking a glance around her, the Servant noticed how she was trapped between 3 powerhouses, each of them at least Disaster rank
Granbell, the Hero of the West and likely the strongest human, far surpassing the likes of God's Right Hand, Hinata.
Razul, the Guardian of the West, a being who has guarded this side of the world against demonic intrusions, someone that the old Guild Master Yuuki Kagurazaka was tempted to place in Catastrophe rank.
And finally, Demon Lord Valentine, the most Elusive of the Demon Lords short of Guy Crimson himself, before now, almost everyone thought that Valentine was a he.
She's trapped, between two— most likely three— Ultimate Skill users, comprising of one True Hero, one Awakened Demon Lord, and one Continent Guardian, if her Lady was here Shizue would be tempted to crack a joke about them all going into a bar.
[Accelerator] is very self-explanatory, whether or not it could overpower her Siberium's canceling is another matter entirely, very unpredictable since the System is breaking down.
[Sariel] is less so, but [Lord of Hope] as a title? Is that supposed to be a leadership skill? Like where inspiring other people is easier and removes despair?
And now Valentine, a potential wielder of an Ultimate Skill specialized in space-time manipulation, which Scientia would say is complete bullshit.
Fuck, they baited her into a trap, one she likely can't even escape from even with [Eidolon] active—
An even more frightening suggestion popped into her mind.
Three of the strongest people on this side of the continent and her... are they using Shizue as bait for her Lady? The Servant then recalled how Valentine is one of the Demon Lords that is hostile to Scientia... and Hinata...
Is 'He' Granbell? Or maybe someone related to Granbell?
Shizue felt a pit open inside her stomach as the thoughts of her being used as bait for her Lady seem more and more likely.
All that's missing from the roster is that bastard Leon, Dagruel, and Dino and you got yourself the whole shebang, all the powerhouses in the West situated here in Lura.
But there's another thing that's chewing away at her, and it's the steadily growing screams of people in the distance—
"May I ask, where are the castle guards? Their priority should've been the protection of the King." Shizue gestured around at the partially destroyed castle.
Granbell let out a smirk of superiority, like one who believes victory is absolute. "We had negotiated with King Aegir into letting us set up this trap for you, Shizue," His face then turned into one of seriousness, "you know, Hinata was a protege of mine once, before she was turned into an abomination that had to be put down. Your precious master will pay for that, but first—"
Granbell raised his sword and prepared to strike, Valentine merely had a satisfied expression on her face, like someone reading about another person getting their karmic justice while Razul got into a fighting stance.
"—you will be a step on our path to killing the Perfect Homunculus and fixing the System."
The human part of her became appalled at the callousness of their actions, "I know I sensed plenty of people inside their homes, are you all Defenders of Humanity really willing to sacrifice one of the largest and most beautiful cities in the entire world?"
If all four of them went all out, the collateral damage would be insane! Despite how well-protected Lura is, Shizue doubts the people could survive 2 Disaster Rank and another S-rank True Hero. After all, one S-rank already is enough to make any Nation a Great Power on the World Stage, just imagine the damage four of such beings could cause.
Shizue tried to contact Carbon, only for her to receive static noises.
Ah, it seems it's an even stronger version of the Information Blackout spell from before.
The servant now sees how similar this is to before, and wanted to punch herself for going headfirst into another trap.
This time, Valentine replied in a matter-of-a-fact tone, "they should be honored, to kill a servant of that Monster? Anyone should be honored. Enough taunting, let's end this." The vampire raised her black sword.
Shizue looked at Valentine with her eyes as wide as the Chassis allowed it. Despair bloomed inside her heart as she realized they used her nature as a teacher once again.
This really is a repeat of last time, huh? Shizue thought with a small bit of morbid amusement, after all, it was her protective nature as a teacher that caused her to rush in and rescue as many as possible, all the while she unknowingly walked into a cage in the form of Lura, a city of over 2,000,000 souls.
Her fist tightened, her perception of time sped up by hundreds of thousands of times when Shizue finally ignored her prejudice toward the Ultimate Skill and selected Unique Skill [Time Acceleration] 'Computer, record one last message for Lady Scientia'
>Close Quarter Combat Program activated.
The world slowed to a snail's pace, allowing her the precious few microseconds she can use to record one final message.
>recording started.
'lady Scientia, if you are receiving this message then it means that I am dead. Please don't be sad, it is not your fault, I was too stupid to realize it, and such a stupid person does not deserve to be your servant. I have lived a long life, and I do not have any regrets about becoming your bodyguard/servant. In fact, I could say that being your servant has arguably been the best time of my life, despite it sounding contradictory, the time I've been your servant is for sure the freest I've ever been.
So I thank you for getting rid of Ifrit and allowing me to die a freer soul.
Your loyal servant forevermore,
Shizue Izawa.'
Just as Shizue was about to send the message, the three beings flashed towards her like marlins hunting schools of fish, fast enough that even in such a sped-up perception belonging to [Time Acceleration], she can still see them moving.
Four tornados spinning at supersonic speeds rushed out of Razul's back as the ground cracked when he moved. Granbell aimed the tip of his sword that is shining like a second sun towards her, brimming with a frankly titanic amount of magicule. And the Demon Lord...
Despite how bright of a light the castle courtyard was bathed in by Granbell's sword, the area around Valentine was still cloaked in darkness, the only thing visible is the vampire and her sword...
Shizue felt a sense of primal fear upon sensing the aura of her black curved sword adorned with a jewel in the middle of a rose-like crossguard. The blade radiated an aura that spoke of death, of finality, like the despair an old person would feel when the reaper knocks upon their door.
They stabbed into her body, overpowering the Siberium and destroying her soul orb.
Or at least... that's what's supposed to happen.
Just before they could touch her, a thick red-ish black beam as wide as a castle gate long swiped itself across the castle courtyard, passing through Shizue's Siberium Chassis harmlessly before moving to the rest of Lura like the blade of a swinging sword.
All of this was happening in Shizue's sped-up perception, so while the beam may look slow, in reality, it's much faster.
Like a hot knife through butter, the thick beam destroyed parts of the light emitted from Granbell's blade while also pushing back Valentine's darkness.
As sudden as the beam itself, Shizue's world erupted in pure brightness the next nanosecond over, blinding every sensor within her body, turning her all but blind to the outside world.
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AN: now I got to thinking about a potential side-story involving Genshin where Demon Lord Scientia takes over the role of the Traveler. This one will be more humor and light-hearted with things like Scientia giving Lisa a tinkertech book sorting system, introducing Klee to the explosive magic that is Antimatter, introducing Childe to the concept of a Boomstick, messing around with the Raiden puppet for shits and giggles, and causing much stress to Yae Miko, maybe having Arcueid be the Princess of the Abyss???
Honestly, though, I think Scientia would best get along with Albedo, Zhongli, and maybe Keqing since for the former they are both scholars, the middle is due to having some interesting conversations, while the latter is due to their work ethics.
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