Chapter – 52 The Bloodman & the Orleus Gaule

Just as the old man was starting to have doubts, suddenly, a voice came from behind him, "How about you look behind, old man!?"

Hearing the sudden voice from behind him, the old man with the monocle frowned, "Huh?" He turned around as he noticed a green-haired teenager standing in front of him while carrying the ashen-grey-haired beauty in a Princess carry, and couldn't help but question, "How? Just a few moments ago… the two of you…"

Just a few moments ago, the two of them were in the arcade before they disappeared suddenly. The old man had doubts about whether they left the Mall using some kind of magic circle, but now the two of them have appeared in the Announcement Room without him even realizing. The fact is, he did not even notice them in the cameras, so the old man had to wonder, "Just how?"

Nova shrugged, "Don't sweat the small details…" and he was about to speak more, but was interrupted by Iris, who spoke in embarrassment, "Ano… Nova, can you… umm… put me down?" Indeed, it's embarrassing to be princess-carried.

"Very well…" nodded Nova, and put her down, "Here you go…" Although Nova wanted to tease the girl a bit more, however, he decided to put her down at her request since they might need to confront the old man in a battle, and carrying a beautiful girl during battle might prove to be a little distracting.

"Thank you!" Back on her feet, Iris stood up while holding her Halberd in her hands, then she looked at the old man with a frown, and spoke, "You are not him… who are you?"

The old man chuckled, "Were you so eager to meet him?"

Iris pursed her lips as she responded, "There is only one thing I desire when I encounter him, and that is to end his life in order to avenge the people of my village!"

"Well, good luck with that…" shrugged the old man, and added, "But I doubt you would be able to do anything to him…"

"I will be the one to decide on that, now tell me… where is Orleus?!" asked Iris in a gloomy voice, with every word she was speaking, the suppressed anger within her was starting to come out.

The old man simply chuckled, "Hahahaha…"

Feeling mocked, Iris's frustration boiled over into action, she summoned a deceptive smile, luring the old man into a false sense of security. Then, in a swift and unexpected move, she seized her Halberd from the ground and delivered a powerful blow with the back end of the pole into the old man's gut, Bang!

The force of the attack sent the old man hurtling backward, crashing through the glass screens behind him. The cacophony of shattering glass echoed through the Announcement room as Iris swung the Halberd again, this time aiming the razor-sharp axe blade dangerously close to the old man's neck, and with raw anger reverberating through the room, she demanded to know, "Answer me… Where is my brother?!"

Even when faced with death, the smirk on the face of the old man did not disappear, "Hahahaha… it's useless…"

"Fine, in that case, DIE!!!!" screamed Iris and without any hesitation, she brought down the Halberd.

At the last minute, Nova–who had been watching the entire thing silently from the side–spoke, "Iris wait, don't kill him!"

Smash!

As the axe blade of the Halberd made contact with the ground, an immense shockwave rippled through the Shinjuku Mall, causing the entire structure to tremble and groan under the force. It felt as though the very foundations of the building were being torn asunder, threatening to collapse in on itself. The Building had certainly suffered immense damage, almost all the Glass in the building was shattered as it was cleaved in half because of Iris' attack.

Boom!

Despite this, the smile on the old man's muck hadn't disappeared. Yes, he is still alive. Because of Nova's instruction at the last second, Iris made a split-second movement to alter the trajectory of her Halberd, diverting it enough just to spare the old man's life, though the same cannot be said for his arm that had been cleaved off by the Axe Blade.

Taking deep breaths to calm down her anger, Iris turned to Nova, "Why stop me from killing him? You saw the things he did to those innocent people… he doesn't deserve anything but death!"

"While you are right on your part, and certainly your anger is justified; let's not hasten his death… we can still extract some information from him… for instance, why did he do what he did?" answered Nova while trying to calm down Iris.

Iris relented, "Very well… but please be quick about it…" and stepped back.

"Sure thing…" said Nova with a smile, then he looked at the destruction around, and mumbled, "But before that, let's make sure that the Mall doesn't collapse on us, shall we?"

[Chrono Anastasis] As Nova chanted the spell, he challenged his Demonic Energy into a clock-face-like Magic Circle that expanded and covered the entire Shinjuku Mall. With the Magic Circle taking control of the flow of time around the Shopping Complex, Nova spoke, [Reverse], instantly, the flow of time was reversed within the Magic Circle, as a result, the damage to the Mall disappeared and it returned back to the state where it wasn't damaged at all.

Satisfied with his work, Nova turned his attention to the old man who was looking around in awe, "What kind of spell was that?"

"The kind you will never be able to use in your life…" said Nova in an indifferent tone, then he crouched beside the old man, and while holding the old man's chin, he peered into his eyes and questioned, "Now that the Mall has been repaired… let's talk about your purpose behind creating this fiasco… why were you trying to organize that stupid game?"

"..." The old man chose silence.

"Haaah…" Nova sighed, then smiled as a small Violet Magic Circle appeared on his index finger. Nova showed the old man his index finger, and spoke, "Do you really believe that if you chose silence, I do not have other ways?"

"Even if you were to use your methods to extract information out of me, it wouldn't work, regardless of what method you use… I am not the one pulling strings…" the old man answered with a grin as he stared back into Nova's eyes, and spoke, "Whatever I did, I did as I was told to do…"

"Really?" muttered Nova in surprise, then questioned, "And who is pulling all the strings?"

The one to answer Nova's question was Iris, she looked at the old man with pity as she spoke, "It's Orleus, isn't it?"

The old man pointed at Iris with his remaining hand, and nodded, "As the girl said…"

Iris questioned, "Tell me where he is…"

The old man shook his head, "I don't know…"

"Well, he says he doesn't know…" chuckled Nova; he was kind of annoyed at the moment.

Just when he was wondering what to do with the old man, suddenly, the aura around the old man changed, and he started to laugh like a maniac, "Heheheheehe…" However, this time, the laughter wasn't that of an old man, it was that of a kid… it was the cacophony of a child's laughter, and it creeped out even Nova, "What the fuck?"

Iris' heartbeat accelerated as she started to tremble nervously, as she asked, "Orleus?!"

The old man his eyes toward Iris, and spoke in a childish voice, "Sœur (Sister), how have you been?" The 'old man' was speaking in French, and added, "I had actually prepared a grand event that I had planned to put you through before this conversation, but it seems things did not play out the way I had intended… clearly you have gotten very strong, I did not take that into account, and…"

Not giving the other party any chance to complete his words, Iris while trying to control her tears, questioned, "Orleus, where are you? Why are you doing this?"

"Why you ask? I am doing this because it's fun! The adults have always stopped me from having fun, so I have decided to not listen to them… now I can have all the fun I want without having to worry about what others think or say…" the 'old man' responded.

"Orleus… you… you are killing people… you are killing people who have done nothing wrong… and you say that you are doing this for fun?" Iris simply couldn't believe the words she was hearing.

"Well, yes… why else would I bother torturing people? It's because I like watching others suffer…" answered the 'old man' and continued with the most brilliant smile, "I feel happy when others are crying… I like it when others are afraid… even you, dear sister… I feel happy when you are in pain… that's the reason you are alive… it's for my fun, it's for my entertainment!"

"Orleus…!" Iris bit her lip in frustration.

Listening to the conversation between the siblings, Nova couldn't control his laughter anymore, "Pfftt–!"

Both Iris and the old man turned their attention to Nova. Feeling two pairs of eyes on him, Nova shook his head, "I am sorry… I just can't help it…"

"What's so funny?" asked the 'old man.' In fact, this was the first time he had paid attention to the green-haired boy. Orleus was actually quite curious about this person named Nova. He doesn't know who the person is, but he knows that it's this Nova guy responsible for ruining today's grand event he had planned to commemorate his reunion with his sister after such a long time. Orleus had actually planned to his elder sister by performing a repeat of the La Croix Sanglant in order to make her relive those painful memories and break her mentally, but the existence of Nova whom Orleus hadn't taken into account changed everything.

"You are asking, what's funny? To answer your question, what I find funny is the very idea of your existence… and how that goes against the very nature of things…" answered Nova.

Iris was visibly confused, and asked, "What do you mean?"

Nova shook his head toward Iris, not answering her question, instead, he looked at the old man, and question, "You understand what I mean, don't you? Orleus Gaule, that's your name correct?!"

After a long silence, Orleus questioned, curiously, "How did you figure that out?"

"I was able to make that deduction based on all the information you have given so far intentionally or unintentionally… and I guess I managed to hit the G-spot, am I right?" asked Nova with a smirk.

"Even if you do know, it changes nothing…" said Orleus, as if not at all affected by the fact that the boy named Nova had figured out his deepest secret.

Nova scratched his cheek awkwardly, "I guess, that's true…"

At this time, Iris interrupted the conversation, "What the hell are you two talking about?"

Nova answered, "I will tell you later…" then he looked at the old man, "For now this old man… and the person behind…"

Orleus shrugged, "It's pointless, you won't be able to track me…"

"In that case, why don't you fuck off!?" said Nova as he got up and signaled Iris to kill the guy she was about to kill earlier.

Iris lifted off her Halberd, and as she was about to bring it down to put an end to the old man's life, she spoke to her younger brother, "Mark my word Orleus, I will get to you one way or another, and kill you with my very own hands in order to avenge the people you have killed and the lives you have ruined!"

Orleus simply laughed in response, "In that case, I look forward to the day I completely break you into insanity, Sœur."

Shing!!!

Thud!

The Axe blade landed, cleaving the old man's head off of his torso that landed beside Nova's feet, flashing the widest toothy grin, and spoke, "It won't be the same next time!"

"We'll see…" said Nova as he stepped on the head with his foot while using Gravity Magic, so the head instantly exploded like a watermelon, sending brain and bones everywhere.

A minute of silence appeared in the announcement room as Iris took deep breaths, now that they had dealt with Orleus, or in this case, the so-called 'Bloodman' it was time for the damage control. While [Chrono Anastasis] can ensure the reversal of time to avoid property damage, it cannot restore the dead. For his game of Death, Bloodman killed dozens of people in the mall, and those lives have to be addressed. Even if Nova doesn't like to deal with such stuff, he has no other choice on the matter…

"A fire in the mall is a good idea, right??" asked Nova while thinking of the damage control method he could use.

"Yes… it seems to be the best option…" Iris agreed, and added after a pause, "But it probably won't be enough…"

"I was thinking the same, let's add in terrorist attack… that should be more than enough." Suggested Nova.

"Yes, Fire and a terrorist attack should be more than enough…" agreed Iris.

Having reached an agreement, Nova spoke, "I will carry out the damage control and alter the memories of all the humans within the mall, meanwhile, you are responsible for purchasing the groceries…"

After all, the two of them had come to the Shinjuku Shopping Mall to purchase the groceries, while it is true that one thing led to another and they got side-tracked, how could they not complete their objective? Groceries must be purchased!!!

Iris seemed to want to say something, but she sighed and accepted the job given to her, though she did appear a little concerned, "Will you be able to handle the other stuff on your own?"

Nova grinned in assurance, "Naturally…"

"Alright then…" nodded Iris as the Halberd in her hand disappeared and she left the announcement room.

Watching her leave the announcement room, Nova opened his right palm on top of which a small Black Bat emerged out of nothingness. Looking at the Black bat made up of darkness, Nova whispered to it in a light voice, "Watch over her…" and released it as it flew after the ashen-haired girl.

Now left alone in the announcement room, Nova cracked his knuckles and got to work, "Now then… A Fire in a mall and a terrorist attack, huh?"

.

.

.

.

.

As always, drop your power stones, comments as well as reviews, and also if you like the story so far, then make sure to add the book to your library for constant updates of new chapters.