Joining the Frontline

"Gyeeeheh! I'll wait for the repayment."

"Also, your name!" My spear was pointing at him in the air. "Give me your name first, asshole."

One of the Cleaning Mist's Revenant appeared beside the railing near him, gazing with its giant yellow eye. It then closed its eyelid before morphing into a giant jaw of fangs and sticking-out tongue.

He took a long sword out from his sleeve before hurling a single slash at the bothering Revenant.

After the sword was completely swung, nothing happened for a half second, until screeches of wind were heard, as if he did more than ten slashes with a single motion.

That alone was enough to incapacitate the Revenant.

A small vortex was covering his sword, it was slowly swirling the nearby smoke.

"Liyer." Just like he could tell that I was smiling, I could see that he plastered a huge grin under that scarf. "We shall meet again soon, the Man who dealt with the Devil."

His body got warped into a single point of space, completely disappearing into thin air.

Appearing uninvited, and leaving without a trace.

I could only sigh within this predicament.

Distance manipulation?

No, must be something more than that.

"... Such a feat was only possible through the use of a 'Tesseract'. Who in the actual hell has granted this person such a technology?"

Although, what he used could also be an advanced form of a M.I.N.D, a Miniaturized Implant of Non-metaphysical Derealization.

Those science-bending weapons and objects could literally grant a terrifying power to its user akin to its original.

That kind of object could only be created by a truly capable Workshop, using the material and the very essence from the conquered 'Nihil'. Obviously, the cost of its creation wouldn't be any cheaper.

Needless to say, both possibilities still meant that this unknown ninja was someone of a high importance or the possessor of high wealth.

Whatever.

For me to directly witness it in action was more than enough fatigue for me for days on end.

"... This is bad for my mood."

I couldn't care less of the stinging pain on my left eye, acknowledging that wound was enough to make my blood boil.

Likewise, I don't really want to care about going to District 44. There would be no way of me fighting that guy again without a trump card or two, anyway.

Yeah, now I felt dumb for not bringing the handgun. Then again, a person like that could likely easily deflect the bullet or even send the floor far faster and stronger than any projectile could travel.

Tch, what a pain in the ass.

As I approached the destructive battlefield within the alley, my thoughts were mostly occupied by the possibility of Liyer's goal. Disgruntled, one of the Cleaning Mist's Revenants appeared before me, licking its lips in hunger.

I quickly dealt with it. The details didn't matter. I have no desire to retrieve it later, either. After all, it was too distorted beyond recognition, probably dropping its value by a lot.

"For a person with the name of Liyer, he is a terrible liar."

With the churning of smokes and explosions becoming more visible, I ventured deeper into the alley that had been turned into a full brunt battlefield.

While my vision was still mostly obscured by the Cleaning Mist, the amount of active crowd made it more clearer.

"Everyone! The second wave of attack is coming! Make sure that you're twenty meters away from the beast!"

"Keep an eye on the sky! Focus on the pair of floating orbs!"

From the first explosion that blew the front wall of my apartment, the Nihil have fled quite far.

The battlefield had been dragged to the northwest of the District where its part of the Lowstreet was wider because of the free space resulting from infrastructure of Hive's great highway on top of the area.

I'm still quite far away from the frontline. Within my hazy sight, I saw a lot of people going in and out of the reddish smoke where the main fight was happening.

"Tornada Office has arrived!" A group of Patchers brought a large turbine device on his back, the smoke from the Cleaning Mist within the area was slowly consumed by it. "Anybody with defensive capabilities should hold this checkpoint as we pursue the Nihil within the depth of the mist!"

"The Mist Eaters are here!" One of the Streetlight Talons shouted as he pointed his longsword to the sky. "Half an hour left before the Cleaning Mist is no more! Clear all Revenants that appear! Don't let any of their main body get revived!"

"To every Combat Patcher of Grade 8 and above, immediately join the main force! The rest can support us with provision and spell if you're capable of one!"

"Anyone with Healing Vial or Healing Scroll!? Our Office suffered great casualties from the nearby explosion!"

"Shit! Shit! Shit! This is not the deal that I was signing for!"

"Fall back! Fall back! Facing that 'thing' ain't worth a single Solus!"

Just like some of the Patchers were filled with fortitude and bravery, there was a huge amount of disloyalty and cowardice within this red-choking heat and smoke.

Before I lunged forward into the catastrophic area, I kidnapped one of the fleeting Patchers and dragged him to the nearest huge rubble. Before he could access anything or retaliate, I lightly pressed the edge of my current dagger to the turtleneck of his combat uniform.

"T-the hell is your business!?"

"Answer my consecutive questions quickly and smoothly. What's your name?"

"T'-teal Misck!"

"What Office?"

"Parasoles Office!"

"What is happening on the frontline?"

"T-the Nihil have been rampaging and creating a lot of supernatural combustion! The Streetlight Talon and all of the Offices are being intercepted by Yugen Extras! Together with the Cleaning Mist and the N-Nihil! Going there—just to get sandwiched by all of those, is a suicide!"

Huh, so the Yugen Extra was taking this chance by going all the way from the east to the northwest of the District. I wonder who told them about the sudden suppression of Nihil. Some of their scouts must've slipped into the Streetlight Talon's territory without a single soul knowing.