Frenzy

"You have way too much hair..."

Though he was pretty used to helping girls like Ei brush their hair, Paul struggled with Kishirika's. Her violet-purple hair extended past her butt and flared outward wider than her shoulders, even in her loli form. Now that she had matured, her wild yet silky locks had grown to the backs of her ankles, almost like she was walking around in a violet-purple mantle.

"You're the one who offered to lend a hand. Stop complaining about every little thing."

As it had been quite some time since someone helped to brush her hair, literally hundreds of years, Kishirika was enjoying Paul's care more than she would ever admit. She half-expected him to be inexperienced or give up halfway through, but, despite his words, he remained calm and patient as he focused on brushing individual clumps of her hair.

Suppressing a sigh, Paul consoled himself with the reminder that Kishirika wasn't simply a beautiful and alluring demoness; she was also his fiancee. The circumstances that led to their engagement were beyond bizarre, but he still wanted to try and make her happy. After all, no one deserved to be 'alone' for thousands of years...

Sensing the subtle changes in Paul's aura, Kishirika tilted her head back and stared up at him with an inquisitive look on her face. She didn't know what he was thinking, but his expression and eyes gave her a reasonable idea of what it might be.

Squinting her eyes in amusement, Kishirika playfully inquired, "What, did you finally fall in love with me~?"

Catching the mischievous Demoness off guard, Paul maintained a calm and casual demeanor as he replied, "Something like that..." in a soft yet resonating tone.

"..."

Though she was unaccustomed to sincerity, Kishirika only blanked for a moment before adopting an alluring smile and stating, "Once you defeat Badi, I'm going to rock your world..."

Without waiting for Paul's response, Kishirika abruptly bounced to her feet and exclaimed, "You, the deep-throated woman with the tremendous tits! Shouldn't your friend have returned by now? My throne room isn't that far from here."

Finding Kishirika's descriptive form of address fairly novel, Zhongli issued a deep, throaty chuckle before adopting a marginally more serious expression and replying, "Lady Kishirika is correct. Though I'm reasonably confident in Sayu's ability to escape unharmed, she should have returned by now. We can either wait until nightfall or proceed under the assumption something has transpired."

Exhibiting a greater sense of urgency than his Chief Maid and Advisor, Paul jumped to his feet and shouted, "We're moving!" in a commanding tone. He also believed in Sayu's abilities to avoid detection and escape from harm, but there was no way in hell he was going to sit around and wait to confirm her fate. If she were still alive and merely captured, that would be condemning her to hours of suffering just to be 'safe.'

Since everyone was waiting for Paul to give the order to deploy, it didn't even take a full minute before the group had vacated the bath. The only delays were Kishirika getting into her armor and Paul reequipping his belt and breastplate, aided by Ganyu.

Stepping into the adjoining corridor, the pupils of Paul's eyes contracted as the hairs on his arms and the back of his neck stood on end. The bath had privacy and anti-magic barriers to prevent people from spying on the occupants, but it also hampered the senses of whoever was inside. Thus, the moment everyone stepped out into the corridor, the ambiance of the castle changed to that of a battlefield.

Increasing Paul's tensions even further, what appeared to be an ancient suit of armor came charging at them with the intensity of a bullet train. It was around 2.5m tall and comprised of a strange, bluish-black metal that expelled ghostly flames from the slats in its visor and joints. If that wasn't intimidating enough, it wielded a spiked tower shield in its left hand and a massive, 1.8m long broadsword in its right.

Though he had read the ecological reports on free-roaming Magic Armor, Paul was still taken aback by the tremendous bloodlust emanating from the mindless sentry. It was like an enemy straight out of Dark Souls, only several tens of times faster.

Fortunately for Paul, his years of training didn't fail him. The moment he sensed the Magic Armor's bloodlust, his expression became as calm and serene as the surface of a lake on a windless night. The Magic Armor was a fearsome foe for Intermediate and Advanced-Ranked swordsmen, but it was no threat to a prepared Saint.

Demonstrating that his training wasn't for naught, Paul spun around the Magic Armor's thrust, avoiding the side with the tower shield. In the same motion, the edge of his blade gleamed white under the influence of Touki as he cut through the automaton's waist. Its armor was a lot tougher than he expected, but it wasn't beyond his capabilities to cut through.

Since it took a lot more than physical attacks to take down a Magic Armor for good, Paul followed his disabling strike by shouting, "Ganyu...!"

Well aware of her responsibility, Ganyu performed a series of hand seals that caused a trigram-like Magic Circle to manifest beneath the downed automaton. Magic Armors, despite possessing physical forms, fell into the classification of Ghosts and Apparitions. Their true form was the ghostly blue flames that filled the interior of the armor, so unless you completely obliterated them with Magic, the only way to take them out permanently was to exorcise them.

As it took a few seconds for them to pull themselves together, the Magic Armor felled by Paul was defenseless as Ganyu's self-created Purification Magic took effect. All it could do was expel an ear-piercing shriek as the flames filling its insides transitioned from blue to a luminous shade of gold that ultimately dissolved away into nothingness.

Voicing the thought that had just entered everyone's minds, Kishirika said, "I suggest you ready yourselves. That shriek it released at the end wasn't just a death wail."

As they could already feel the vibrations through their feet and hear the distant sound of metal scraping against stone, Paul and Party didn't need Kishirika to inform them that reinforcements were on the way. It didn't even take a full ten seconds before another shield-wielding Magic Armor slid around the corner at the end of the corridor, followed closely by a pair wielding a halberd and a flail.

Though a trio of Magic Armos were dangerous in and of themselves, it was the four-armed feminine automaton following behind them that drew Paul's vigilance. Unlike the Magic Armors, which were comprised of the same bluish-black metal, the feminine automaton appeared to be formed almost entirely of Adamantine-treated steel. The only exception was the glowing blue stones forming its eyes and ornamenting various parts of its body, including its artificial nipples...

"You've got to be fucking kidding me..."

As ridiculous as the automaton's design was, it was the fact it could use Magic that left Paul feeling irritated. The glowing blue stones ornamenting its body were High-Quality Magic Stones. He initially assumed they were just a power source, but the reality was made clear when the automaton turned its body to the side, raised its right hand, and began to condense spears of ice around itself.

Determining that Paul wouldn't be able to take on the trio of Magic Armors while simultaneously evading the attacks of an Anti-Magic Golem capable of casting Chantless Magic, Zhongli promptly flung her spear like a bolt of geo-infused lighting, impaling the feminine automaton in the chest.

Though it would ordinarily take more than a single piercing blow to take out a sufficiently advanced golem, Zhongli doubled down by allowing the Geo Energy in her spear to erupt outward. The feminine automaton might be immune to Spells below the Advanced Rank, but it had absolutely no resistance to pillars of Geo Energy erupting from its insides.

Deciding to save his questions for later, Paul charged toward the trio of Magic Armors with a look of intense focus. It was known that groups of Magic Armors shared senses, so they were exponentially harder to deal with the more there were. The moment Paul side-stepped the tank-like Magic Armor at the front, the javelin-wielding one behind it attempted to skewer him. He managed to slip under the lethal thrust and slice through its weapon, but he was forced to jump and twist his body as the previous Magic Armor turned to try and cut him from behind.

As his heart beat rapidly, adrenaline coursing through his veins, Paul had the distinct impression the world around him was beginning to slow. The moment he landed back on the ground, his sword became a blur as three distinct trails of light cut through the bodies of the closest Magic Armors. The third attempted to strike him with its flail, but he precisely stabbed at the center of the spiked steel ball, shattering it into fragments that failed to pierce the layer of Touki covering his body.

Carried forward by the momentum of his thrust, Paul appeared to glide for a brief moment before twisting mid-motion to perform a sweeping strike through the body of the final Magic Armor. When he eventually came to a stop, he was breathing heavily, not because he was fatigued, but because of the sudden and intense rush of adrenaline.

Remembering his training, Paul took a series of deep breaths in an effort to calm himself. Unfortunately, his enemies weren't going to wait for him to collect himself. Before Ganyu could finish exercising the group on the ground, another Magic Armor showed up, this one standing more than 3m tall and wielding a massive battleax.

Unbeknownst to Paul, the center of his pupils briefly flashed purple as he charged toward the hulking automaton with a smile on his face. He didn't consider himself a battle junkie, but he had been craving a chance to test his skills in active combat. Now that he had one, he felt like he could take on an entire army.

Instead of attempting to evade the massive ax trying to bisect him from head to crotch, the corners of Paul's smile curled upward as he swept his sword in an arcing motion over his head, altering the trajectory of the ax to slip past him and get stuck in the ground. At the same time, he thrust forward with his empty left hand, manifesting his Black Blade just in time to stab through the Magic Armor's visor, exploding it to piece with a well-timed Critical.

With his breathing even more labored than before, Paul made the wise decision to retreat before any additional enemies showed up. As he did, an Electro-purple fox flew over his head, its speed nearly impossible to follow with the naked eye as it pierced through the body of yet another Magic Armor.

Seeing Yae standing with a Catalyst that resembled a ring surrounding an ornate golden gong with lavender tassels dangling from the sides, the smile on Paul's face became even more prominent. He knew Yae had to be fairly powerful as Ei's former companion and ally, but this was his first time seeing her in action. Being able to materialize familiars that moved at lightning speeds was just broken.

Deciding to save his praise until after they captured the castle, Paul came to a stop next to Kishirika and said, "I believe you have some explaining to do."

As Paul still had an excited smile on his face, Kishirika wasn't too nervous as she replied, "What do you want me to say? Laplace clearly made some modifications to the castle's automated defenses. It doesn't change what we came here to do."

Rolling his eyes, Paul decided to momentarily drop the matter as he took a knee and focused on controlling his breathing. Ganyu helped by placing her palm and his back and channeling Healing Magic into his body, but no matter how much time passed, he still felt as though pure adrenaline was coursing through his veins...almost like he was using an Electro Vision...

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