Inside Tsubaki's smithy.
Click.
Leon snapped his pocket watch shut, stood up for a drink of water, then shoved his hands in his pockets and started pacing back and forth across the workshop yard, muttering to himself.
"What's taking so long? From District 2 to District 7, with her speed, a round trip shouldn't take three hours. What's Tsubaki up to? Don't tell me... she ran into trouble?"
The instant the words left his mouth, Leon froze mid-step, head snapping toward the gate, face blank with disbelief.
BOOM!
A series of explosions rolled in from somewhere far off, faint and intermittent. Leon's mouth twitched, his expression slowly souring.
"So I'm basically... a jinx? Speak of the devil and he actually shows up? Or is this just survivorship bias? Of all the times to pick, it had to be now."
He clicked his tongue and furrowed his brow.
"...What a pain. Should I head out and take a look?"
But before Leon could make up his mind about whether to step out and check...
BANG!
A group dressed just like him, draped in black hooded cloaks with masks covering their faces, kicked the gate in and came pouring straight through into the yard.
The enemies: "..."
Leon: "..."
The two sides stood off across the courtyard, stunned eyes meeting in the air, staring blankly at each other for a beat.
Then the next second, both sides moved at once!
Nothing to talk about. One look at that getup and Leon didn't need to think it through to know who they were. Skip the small talk, get to the fighting.
"Fireball!"
Zero frames before the first move!
Instant Cast!
No chanting!
A scorching fireball the size of a truck tire came off his raised hand!
A crimson magic circle flashed once in Leon's palm and was gone, the fireball already howling toward the enemies!
They'd barely drawn their weapons, barely started their charge.
And ran face-first into that raging inferno!
BOOM!!!
The deafening blast sent flames bursting outward, a shockwave sweeping across the yard, the ground trembling faintly beneath their feet.
Dust rained down from the rafters of the smithy. Thick smoke filled the entire courtyard.
The culprit behind all this, Leon, felt his heart skip. He glanced down at his palm, his eyes flickered twice, and then he decided to just shove the thought aside.
At the same time, his feet moved, a quick sidestep to dodge.
Whsh whsh whsh!
He'd barely cleared the spot when several short blades tore through the flames and planted themselves precisely where he'd been standing!
Thunk thunk thunk...
The sharp blades buried themselves deep in the stone paving of the yard, deep enough that Leon raised an eyebrow despite himself.
Yikes... nasty weapons. These bastards are really out to kill me.
That was what was running through his head. Though from the enemies' perspective, Leon wasn't any better, maybe even crueler and nastier than them, the Evilus.
Who the hell opens a random street brawl by dropping a massive fireball?
No holding back at all, no giving face?
Clearly Leon had zero intention of showing any mercy. It wasn't some personal grudge, no need to exchange trash talk before fighting.
He didn't know these guys from anywhere. No feud, no bad blood. But the moment they showed up in Evilus uniforms, there was no reason to hold back.
Everyone wanted Evilus dead anyway. Even if he killed every last one of them, no one was going to come asking questions afterward.
Worst case, he blows up Tsubaki's workshop. She wouldn't actually come demanding compensation from him, would she?
"Fireball!"
BOOM!
Explosions, shockwaves, and screams tangled in the air, the scene descending into chaos.
"Close the distance! That's rapid-cast magic!"
Through the din Leon didn't catch exactly what the other side shouted, but he could guess with his eyes closed. The usual playbook: close the gap, shut down the caster.
Of course Leon wasn't going to make it easy for them.
Thoughts sparked through his head in a flash, but his hands and feet never hesitated. He kept spamming fireballs to pin them down while shifting position constantly, drawing the fight deeper into the smithy grounds.
"Fireball, Fireball, Fireball!"
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!
"AAAAAHHH!"
A chain of blasts rose up with their shockwaves. Every so often a figure got flung away like a torn sack, slammed into something, coughed up blood, and went silent.
The yard's once-clean flagstones were now pockmarked with blackened craters, the damage spreading fast.
...
...
District 2, the workshop district.
On a street less than ten minutes from Tsubaki's smithy.
Citizens were scattering in every direction, screaming, or else huddled with their heads down in some corner, trembling.
Stalls that had lined both sides of the road were now strewn about, knocked flat or smashed to splinters by some tremendous force.
Clang, clang, clang!
The ringing clash of weapons, battle roars, shrill screams, and manic laughter rose and fell above the street, weaving together a picture of chaos and carnage.
Shhk!
A broad, pitch-black blade cleaved an enemy's chest from top to bottom, blood gushing like a fountain across Tsubaki's face.
She shouldered her blade, wiped the blood off her cheek, licked it once with her tongue, and crooked a finger at the remaining cloaked figures.
"Bunch of small fry. Let me weigh your resolve. You mouth off every day about worshipping death, and now that it's your turn to offer up, you shrink back? Where'd your spine go?"
"Come on, face me head-on!" Tsubaki roared, her expression manic.
The Evilus members: "..."
Wait, who's supposed to be Evilus here again?
Looking at this terrifying woman in front of them, the masked group exchanged glances.
Only the small group leader kept that fanatical gleam in his eye, looking for all the world like a loyal zealot.
"She's just an Adventurer, nothing to fear! Our numbers overwhelm her, and she's alone. We'll wear her down!"
"Charge!"
"Kill her!"
"Tsk..."
Tsubaki spat on the ground, the corners of her mouth curling into a wild grin.
"Good. I'll give you credit for guts. But..."
As she spoke she slammed the ground hard enough to crack the stone, her whole body launching into the enemy formation like an arrow loosed from a bow, laughing madly as she went.
"Quality beats quantity these days! Bunch of morons playing Renaissance!"
Shhk!
The black blade turned into a reaper's scythe, mowing down enemies one after another like cutting grass.
Tsubaki was drenched head to toe in blood by now, as if wearing a crimson cloak of gore. She'd gone completely berserk.
...
"AAAH..."
"No, please no!"
"I... I don't want to die!"
"Damn it!"
"Monster, this woman is a monster!"
"Help... help me...!"
A few minutes passed.
Along the entire street, aside from the small group leader with Lv.3 strength still barely surviving under Tsubaki's blade, every last underling had been brutally hacked down without exception.
Tap tap tap tap tap!
Right then a ragged, rushed patter of footsteps came from a distance.
Tsubaki and the group leader both glanced over at the same time. One broke into a grin, the other went pale with dread.
"A-Astraea... Astraea Familia?!"
His voice cracked into a shriek, shot through with terror.
"Impossible. No way!"
"What the hell is White-Haired Demon doing? She's supposed to intercept those justice bitches! Why are they here?!"
Without pausing her assault, Tsubaki sneered.
"White-Haired Demon? Stop Alise and the others? Keep dreaming. Maybe if you sent Arachnia herself."
"F-Orario-you! Moth!"
The group leader cursed in despair.
?
Tsubaki's eyebrow went up, her lips pulling back to bare white teeth.
The next second the muscles in her right arm bulged violently, the whole limb thickening in an instant!
Power Precise Forge, activate!
"Idiot!"
Shhk!
The black blade tore through the air with a howling wind, slicing cleanly through his neck like cutting tofu!
"Tch. If that cursed weapon of yours weren't such a pain to deal with, had me playing it careful, some Lv.3 like you wouldn't have been worth a word. You'd have been a corpse at my feet by now..."
Tsubaki snatched the weapon from his hand, the one pulsing with crimson magical light, gave it a careful look, and a satisfied smile spread across her face.
At the same moment, the freshly arrived justice envoys and military police caught the tail end of that scene.
A collective sharp breath ran through the group. Clearly Tsubaki's savagery had shaken them.
"Oi, One-Eyed Craftsman, did you really have to make it this bloody? If the citizens see this, someone who didn't know better would think you were the boss of Evilus."
Lyra sighed, tucking her throwing knives back away, glancing around at the carnage along the street as she walked, unable to resist ribbing Tsubaki about the violence.
"Hmph. These trash picked a fight for no reason and held up my actual business. Trade places with me and see if you don't get pissed."
Tsubaki rested the blade on her shoulder, looking thoroughly annoyed.
Lyra shrugged, palms up.
"Angry? Sure, a little. But not too much. Judging them is literally our job. We got used to these lunatics and their incomprehensible behavior a long time ago."
At that Tsubaki gave the lovely girls of Astraea Familia a thoughtful once-over, nodding slowly.
BOOM!!!
The group hadn't even caught their breath. Aside from Lyra, none of the others had managed to greet Tsubaki yet when another chain of explosions reached their ears from the distance.
"Huh? Again? You've gotta be kidding!" Alise, who'd been examining one of the Evilus corpses, yelped in surprise at the sudden blasts.
"..."
"What the hell? Have the Evilus lost it?"
Tsubaki's head snapped toward the direction of the explosions, the grin vanishing, her single eye narrowing dangerously.
"Sorry, Alise, Kaguya, Lyra, Ryuu. I'm in a hurry, going on ahead!"
Before she'd even finished speaking Tsubaki was already a streak of motion, shooting off toward the source of the blasts!
Alise, Kaguya and the others blinked, then looked at each other.
"Uh... if I'm remembering right, isn't that direction where Tsubaki's workshop is?"
Alise, glancing between the Crimson Order in her hand and her companions, raised a hand timidly and muttered.
"Hey hey hey, what wire got crossed in Evilus's heads? Ambushing Tsubaki on the road was already a stretch, but now they're going one step further and hitting her at home?"
Lyra, the brains of the outfit and commander of Astraea Familia, was a little stunned herself, unable to wrap her head around it for a long moment.
"What are we waiting for, chase them!"
Kaguya was the most decisive. Her white-stockinged feet in wooden clogs kicked off the ground hard, and she vanished in a flash.
The remaining justice envoys quickly gave brief instructions to the nearby military police, then took off after her.
The Ganesha Familia's military police stood where they were, looking at each other, their eyes behind their masks full of helpless resignation. For a moment none of them knew what to do.
After all, the scene was a mess and they were the cleanup crew.
Luckily, two more figures arrived from the distance just then.
"You all stay behind and handle the aftermath on this street. Adi, you're in command. I'm going on ahead to see what's happening."
"Got it, sis."
"How many times do I have to say it, use my title while we're working!"
"Yes, Captain Shakti!"
One of the figures left just that behind and vanished from sight, while the girl with short gray hair stayed put.
Once they'd gotten a good look at who'd stayed, the Ganesha Familia's military police finally let out a collective breath of relief.
The arrivals were none other than the famed Varma sisters of the Ganesha Familia.
Lv.3, titled Vyasa, officer candidate, Adi Varma.
And...
Lv.4, titled Ankusha, the captain, Shakti Varma.
...
...
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