D(EATH)-DAY (7)

"What.. the fuck is wrong with you guys?" Nine growled.

His black coat fluttered, the azure sword in his hands shimmered in a gold-mint coloured light, as if it had been enchanted by a power a level above the typical gold radiance of a holy sword..

"You.." Sasaki Ishida who held the holy sword that he had just bestowed in both arms. "I knew something was off the moment I met them."

"Shut it. The fuck do you know what happened. If you want to blame someone, go blame that shit ass Regressor. We did nothing wrong, you just had to kill one of us."

"How dare you! Everyone stand back, we'll deal with this!"

"Exclasis!"

"Hellflame!"

"Barrier of containment!"

"I'll hold the front!"

Nine called upon a dozen shields from the system.

The moment the smog caused by the impact cleared up, a dozen or so vanguard-based heroes charged into the front lines

"Heh.. you guys really have it easy."

Nine intercepted one guy holding a spear, sliding his sword on the shaft and gave him a roundhouse kick to the abdomen– sending him towards the wall.

Carrying the momentum, he dodge the sword swiping at him diagonally and sliced the female hero's black katana in half.

The next one tried to do a shield bash but Nine punched the shield, cracks, ran through it and it sent the shield bearer staggering backwards a few steps.

"Heat Stroke!"

"Hundred Parallel Strike."

Nine fended the combined attacks from both heroes with the Azure swords and destroyed both their weapons in retaliation.

"Take this!" Ishida snuck up from behind.

Nine shifted his body and intercepted the attack with a backhand sword position. Sparks flew and–

"Now!"

The mages hurled a volley of spells. And the heroes that were still able, tried to attack at the opening.

Nine tipped his sword, sending Ishida off balance. He gave him a back-kick to the groin– fortunately it was protected by the gold armor he wore just for today's ceremony.

The magic spells were intercepted by mysterious small shields.

And those who tried to attack Nine after Ishida's attempt were all rendered impotent.

"Damn it– Aoki.. huh?"

"What the hell. Are you guys sane?" Aoki shouted. He defended the other side where Nine couldn't reach.

"What did they ever do?!" Takata casted a hundred small barriers to surround Noel and Liliath.. Prune was also within the barrier.

"You.. are advocating with the demons?"

"I-I don't know but it's obvious who is in the wrong here!"

"Right. You don't know what happened, of course you'd think we're the bad guys. Typical isekai plot development." Nine sneered.

"Isekai developmen.. Who are you?!"

"Just give up attacking will you? We'll leave. We'll leave. What the fuck ever.." Nine realized that he was being dragged into this mid-combat speech nonsense.. who the hell talks when they're fighting a battle?

Nine clicked his tongue. This was definitely the effect of [Reincarnated Otherworlder]. Nine had prepared a status set just for an occasion if an all out brawl was to show up. It contained roughly 100 plus passive skills, 20-ish active skills which were left unused, and 5-digits stats that helped Nine cheat his way to victory.

A green light spread through the surroundings. Wounds from the fight were healed up in an instant. And the source of the light was from– Liliath.

===

"Look here. We can think about this once we get out of this place. We need to leave." Prune said, having spent 100 points just to teleport past the encirclement.

"Right.." I looked around to see Nine and the two heroes fighting.. and quite flashily at that.

"Where should we go? Like teleport. I don't think I can put my horns back for the rest of the evening," I smiled weakly.

I wonder what kind of face I'm making.. hey watch out, don't step on..

Is there any sort of prerequisite?

What if the revival widget requires some catalyst to work..

"What if.."

I got down and dipped my hands into the blood. I felt for.. yeah.

Still dripping in red, it was a fragment of the Philosopher's Stone. Rin's Philosopher's stone.

"Where's the other half..

"It's here," Liliath too got down on her knees to find the other fragment.

I can't do anything about the rest.. maybe we can store an organ.. now that's just weird but.. just in case. I took an arm. Ugh..

"Are you two.. nevermind. Come on, we need to decide on some place to go."

"Yeah.."

We stored the Philosopher's Stone fragment into the inventory.

"Then.. why don't we just return to the florist.. actually, bad idea."

Now that I think about it, we've been risking her safety. I honestly don't know what we should do. What's going to happen to Miss Margrett if people find out she took care of us?

We need somewhere else..

"I've got another idea. We'll use the apartment to rest first."

"Then why not right here?" Prune pulled up the door.

Ah.. whatever. I don't know anymore, I can't think properly. We'll deal with the aftermath after cooling off first. Damn it.

"Liliath?"

"My apologies.."

From underneath her rippled out a blossoming green light. A soft gentle breeze blew outwards, the entire hall glowed in a regenerative light.

"Just go," Prune pushed me.

"Right, right."

"Huh? What kind of door?!"

"Aoki-san, Takata-san, you two too," I heard Liliath say.

"Nine, fall back!" Prune shouted.

Was this it?

We decide to retreat just like that?

What can we do?

What's our next plan?

I had an idea. But the situation needs to come to a simmer first. Things are still too volatile.

===

"Where did that door go?!"

"W-Why was there a door to begin with?"

"Search the castle!"

"Why.." Sid clenched his fist.

He recognized them. Noel, Liliath, Prune and Nine.. and that pool of blood was.. Rin?

What happened?

They were demons?

How?

"Sid-dono, what's wrong?" A friend of his tapped on his shoulders.

"I need to go back to check on my family, I'm sorry."

Going against order, he left the castle.