Chapter 5 - The Guardian's Duty

"Cecilia…"

Recently I've been feeling kinda useless.

I kept passing out like Jason Grace. I woke up to see a wooden ceiling, the last I remember was Stella panicking like an idiot and Captain calling out to me in worry.

Getting up from the bed, my legs felt wobbly, my hands and feet felt like lead, regardless I managed to stand up.

The purple marks on my hands were still visible, I guess the serum just stabilized me and kept me alive but it still doesn't reduce the symptoms of Houkai Infection.

How long have I been asleep anyway? I feel really sluggish.

Seems like we're back at the village, downstairs was a bit rowdy for some reason.

Captain, Stella and the others and a couple of other townspeople were sitting on the table with grim expressions, they hadn't even noticed that I was here.

"What should we do, Captain?"

"We can't fight that many at once, yes, but if we rush to the base to ask for reinforcements; we don't have the means of contacting the other squads"

"more than 40, 000," Akaashi grimaced "we should send a message for Atsushi and the others, there's no way we can handle that much monsters"

What are they talking about? Fighting monsters? That's impossible, they're barely out of their diapers, how can they hoped to fight off monsters.

"Guren!" Sonohara noticed me and called out.

"Dark One! You're well!"

"Ash, sorry, you just wake up, but we got a problem" Captain said.

"What?"

According to them, a large army of monsters is headed this way, and by Stella and Captain's estimate, it was more than 40,000. Even for us three, I'd say it was too much, we can't take on that much monsters with the gear we have.

We could call for back up, but it will take days, we still haven't established the satellite uplink on our coms.

In the tense atmosphere, one person stepped in front of me. Ri-chan stared at me and asked.

"Guren-kun. Isn't… is there something you can do about that monster army? I know you just got back up, but… you're the only one I know who can help us by now"

Conviction crept into her voice by the end. How certain is she that I'd be able to save this town? I just recovered from Houkai Infection, now she's asking me a ridiculous request as fighting an army?

"Don't be ridiculous, I just got back up, I'm not that powerful. A dozen of monsters sure. An army? You're asking for a suicide"

"Don't lie Guren!" Sonohara yelled as she stood from her chair "You just annihilated a whole mountain the other day, so don't give me excuses such as impossible."

She walked towards me and grabbed my collar; it was pretty ballsy. As I remembered, this one was berating me about righteousness and stuff, wasn't she scared of what I'm capable of. Wait… did she say I annihilated a mountain?

I looked over Stella, she understood my gaze and shown me a footage of a scorched valley in between the mountains.

"I… I did that…?"

They all nodded, am I the only one surprised by now? Still, Sumerbrandr was able to annihilate a mountain at 300% capacity. What would Vulcan do at that power output. Just thinking about it, sent shivers up my spine, I've been using such a dangerous weapon in my hands most of the time.

At any rate, I won't be able to fend off that size of an army, at least not alone.

"How long was I asleep?"

"5 days since." Stella answered.

Meaning that, if the intel was five days ago, by now, the messenger should've arrived at the capital few days ago, and the army would be on its way by the day after tomorrow. Problem is, the day after tomorrow was also the anticipated arrival of the monster army.

Ah!!! This such a pain in the ass!!

But… yeah, Cecilia would see to her duty, if I don't do it, she'd end up hating me.

Besides, if it's five days by now, meant that the first satellite communications array is already up. We should be able to contact the HQ by now.

But I need to ask a question to Ri-chan.

"...How unexpected. I always thought you prioritized your students before everyone else. Aren't you even only helping this country with its war because you're hoping it'll let them get home faster? And yet now you want one of your students to fight and possibly die for the sake of some strangers? Even when they don't want to? Isn't that exactly the same thing those war-hungry priests were trying to get us to do?" My rebuttal silenced Ri-chan. She bit her lip and furrowed her brows, conflicted over what she should do.

Still, she kept her gaze on me the entire time, as if trying to read something in my expression. After a while shook her head, as if to clear the hesitation, and stared resolutely at me. She had her teacher face on. Back in Japan, any time someone had come to her with a problem, this was always the expression she'd had.

The nearby priests narrowed their eyes when I insulted the Holy Church, but Ri-chan ignored them, her attention focused solely on Asher.

"...If there was some way back home, I'd take you all with me in a heartbeat. That hasn't changed even now. But right now, there isn't one... and if there isn't, I'd at least like to do what I can for the people I've met, talked to, laughed with in this world. Isn't it only natural to want to help other people? Of course, I'm still your teacher, so if I have to make a choice, then I'll always pick you guys over everyone else, but..." Ri-chan paused for a moment, then continued more slowly, as if she was deliberately choosing each word.

"I'm sure that what happened to you was really terrible for a gentle boy like you to become like this, Guren-kun. Where you were, you surely didn't have the option of worrying about others. Maybe what I have to say will just seem shallow... After all, I wasn't able to help you when you were suffering the most. Still, I'd like you to listen all the same." I silently indicated for Ri-chan to continue.

"Guren-kun, I can understand your strong desire to return home. You probably want to go back more than any of us. But you know, do you plan to live like this when you return too? Ignoring everyone except those close to you? Eliminating anything that gets in your way? Can you really live like that in Japan? And if not, do you really think you can change your mindset the moment you get back?"

"..."

"Guren-kun, I understand that you have your own principles, and that you've already decided your path for the future. I won't try to change that, but I also think that no matter which future you choose, it's... too lonely to only live by ignoring everyone aside from those you care about. If you keep going like this, neither you nor the people you cherish will find happiness. If you want to find happiness... you can't lose sight of your kindness or empathy. You have to think of other people, even if it's only a little. Those are valuable qualities you possessed from the start... Please don't throw them away." Each and every one of Ri-chan's words pierced me to the core. Everyone else also listened quietly.

The students especially felt the weight behind Ri-chan's words. They hung their heads, ashamed at how selfishly they'd wielded their powers until now. At the same time, they seemed both happy and somewhat surprised that Ri-chan had given so much thought to their lives after they finally returned home.

I smiled, even if we got dumped into another world, no matter the situation, Ri-chan always put being a teacher before anything else.

It would've been easy for me to just say "You don't know what I've been through!" or "How could you possible understand!" like she said in the beginning, I had every right to call everything she said shallow words from someone who'd never suffered.

And yet I couldn't. she said those words from the heart, and to take them lightly would make me the shallow one. Worse, it would have been an insult to her dedication. Even if everything she said was full of contradictions.

Because she never pushed me to do the "right" thing. Her words had more weight. Well, like I said, if I abandon everyone here and come back to Cecilia knowing that I've abandon people to their own fate, she'll hate for it.

"...Sensei, do you promise you'll always be my teacher?" My implied question was whether she'd always be my ally. My question was half-teasing, half-hopeful.

"Of course," without hesitation, huh.

"...No matter what happens? Even if I decide on something you don't approve of?"

"Yes. A teacher's job isn't to decide their students' future. It's to help them choose the future they want for themselves. If you choose not to help even after listening to what I have to say, I won't hold it against you, Guren-kun."

I stared at Ri-chan for a while, I guess she really meant it.

I didn't reply and walked for the chair.

"G-Guren-kun?"

"Evacuate the City!" I announced.

"This is a town"

"Why is he using a weird accent?

"Engage all defenses!"

"The town had no walls!"

"And get me a drink! I'm thirsty!"

I sat down on the chair and grabbed the juice Stella was drinking

"Hey!"

"Guren-kun!" Ri-chan's eyes lit up, to which I smiled awkwardly.

"Well, the sat coms should be up by now, we'll contact HQ for the reinforcements later,"

I looked at Captain and Stella who were smiling proudly "besides, it's us, Guardians, who had a duty to protect this world"

As I settled on my seat, sipping the juice, Sonohara and the others stood in front of me and bowed.

"We're sorry…" Sonohara spoke up, "We were wrong to judge you immediately without looking at the facts"

"Guren… I… I'm sorry for saying too much, but now, I think you really didn't do it, so I hope you forgive me for being a jerk." Nobuaki, the bastard actually apologized for being a jerk, he's more aware than I gave him credit for, huh.

I stood up from my seat and head out. "Do what you want…"

So, fight an army of monsters, that's pretty outrageous, since when did I have my pay grade into that?

We've already contacted HQ, Will had already dispatched two other squads into our location. That was great, at least our forces won't be so little after all.

The next morning, the citizens had all been made aware of the impending monster army invasion. Naturally, the town broke into a state of panic. There were those that blamed the mayor and the other town leaders for letting this happen, those that broke down crying, those that clung to their family in desperation, those that tried to run, and those that started fights amidst the chaos. Most people couldn't remain calm knowing tomorrow their home would be destroyed and that if they stayed, they'd die. Panic was the normal reaction to that.

However, someone managed to calm them down before the town devolved into full-scale rioting. That someone was Ri-chan. Taking the advice of the knights that had returned a short while ago, she stood up on a platform in the town square and spoken to the citizens. Her composed demeanor and overwhelming popularity helped her calm the citizens down to a reasonable level. In a way, Rika Akiyama was more powerful than any hero.

Once the people had been pacified, they naturally divided into two groups. Those that couldn't abandon their homes, and were willing to share this town's fate, and those that were ready to flee and call for aid.

A lot of people in the group that chose to remain insisted the women and children escape at least. They believed Ri-chan's words that the monsters would be repelled, and the men went around the town looking to see if there was any way they could help, while the women and children prepared to run. The town remained brightly lit deep into the night, illuminating groups of people crying as they parted with their loved ones.

Those that were fleeing packed their things and left before the sun rose. It was high noon now, and those that remained were swapping between sleeping and working in groups. Most of those that remained did so because they believed their goddess and her friends would deliver them salvation somehow. That being said, they weren't just blindly praying. They too were doing everything they could to defend their home.

Despite the fact that the town only had a fraction of its population left within it, it was livelier than ever. I sat down on a roof of the building observing the town, one of the squads should be here by now… they're taking too long, all of the squads were given a Quinjet for their own transportation so they shouldn't even take that long in getting here.

"Ash…" Captain called out from the ground, naturally I attached a web on the roof and rappelled down to her "We'll split the Third Squad with the Ri-chan Protection Squad"

Eh!? Why? What the fuck!

My face was written all over, I don't like it, seriously.

"Don't be so glum, this is work, okay, work"

"Yes…"

"You'll pair up with Ranko-chan and Rin-chan, okay…"

I looked over Shibuya, she noticed my gaze and waved. Stella was paired up with Akaashi and Sakura. Then Captain was in charge of the two boys, Nobuaki and Nimura.

"Little Brother!!!"

An excited voice came from behind my back, then the next thing I knew was my face planted into the ground I felt soft mounds pressing against my back.

I struggled to sat up despite the weight that was pressing against me, the sweet smell of roses wafted into my nose.

"I've missed you!!" she said, then rushed in front of me, with a barrage of questions "Were you hurt? Are you scared? Is your stomach okay? You used to have stomach aches whenever your nervous, after all. Should I take you to the bathroom, can you take your pants off on your own?"

As beautiful as she is, she's scary when she becomes like this. She had a long purple hair held by a hairband, light purple irises and an attractive face, her bountiful breast jiggled at the slightest movement. It was the First Squad's leader, Shizuru Granger

"Ah…! I forgot, you had an amnesia" she back off and cupped her hand over my cheeks. "Don't worry, Onee-chan will be here for you"

As her face got dangerously close, I put my hand covering her face "No, I'm good, Shizu-nee, I've remembered everything, you don't need to worry anymore"

She backed off dejectedly "Tch! It's because Hime-senpai kept taking away Little Bro on missions when she knows I'm coming back! I missed my chance to dote on my brother!!"

"You were saying, Shizuru-chan?" Captain stood behind Shizuru arms folded with a quiet and dangerous smile.

"Eh!? Hime-senpai!!"

As Captain tore Shizuru a new one, another one of her members came walking brazenly.

"Yo! Ash, looks like your back in action, huh?"

"Oh, L'arc, long time no see"

He is a chad, yeah, he's couple years older than me, and was much more handsome than I could ever hope for, after all he's a prince of a country, after all. L'arc Laxus Romanus, the third prince of the Romanus Empire. He had a long brown hair tied in a small pony tail, in his hip rested the super scythe that I designed.

"That white hair looks good on you."

"Yeah… did you swing by the HQ?"

"We did, I checked on Cecilia, no improvements"

"…I see."

It's because I was weak that I failed to protect her, Cecilia ended up in a coma after the battle against the 2nd Angel.

"As Mr. Will and Dr. Kayla hypothesized…"

"Defeating the 2nd angel is the only way to wake her up"

I introduced the First squad to the others and then head out for lunch, the monster army was just a day away by now.

The town was now evacuated, with no walls, our only hope now was to reduce the damages of the town while fighting the monster army.

Standing over the roof of the house at the western edge of the town, I had a great view over the western plains, that was where we anticipated the arrival of the monster army.

Sonohara and Shibuya sat on the roof, they're clearly afraid they might fall from the roof. They don't have to look so worried, they're stats were insane, even if they fall from the second floor, they wouldn't even experience a sprain.

As I observed the western plains, I kept playing over a magic crystal, tossing and catching it, this bad boy will be my ace in the hole in this fight after all.

The teams were scattered around town, the First Squad was in the plaza center, Captain and her team would be running around town drawing the monster's attention into the them leading them to the plaza, which would be the bottleneck. Stella and I were in charged with the big guns, blasting out the monsters on the field. If there were stragglers that survive our barrage, Sonohara and Shibuya would take care of it with long range spells. And the Second Squad who came earlier this morning would go around the enemy and try to pin down the Mage that was using the monsters, if it's an Angel, they'd need to pull back.

Ri-chan pleaded that if it was a mage that was controlling the monster army, bring him in alive, honestly, that was a pain to do, but regardless, the Second Squad agreed to do it if it happens to be a person.

It was around noon by the time, if my estimation is correct, the knights from the capital should arrive by sunset. But now…

I pressed over the communicator on my ear "Cap, they're here"

Over the horizon, some distance away, I could already make out dozens of shadows. The horde of monsters, massive black wolves three to four meters large, six-legged lizards, phytons with needles growing from their backs, praying mantis-like wings with scythes for arms, spiders with tentacles growing out of their engorge torsos, now that's gross, white serpents with horns.

Just looking at them from the binoculars I have, I could tell. The army was massive. They kicked up a tornado of dust as they passed, and swallowed up the ground before them like a wriggling black tidal wave. Their murderous red-black eyes glinted in the black mass, a sea of corrupted rubies. There were even more than he'd initially seen at the mountain. At a guess, there seemed to be around fifty to sixty thousand in total.

Worse, the sky was filled with flying monsters as well. They looked like a flock of Pteranodons.

[Alright, Ash, Stella, prepare for the pre-emptive strike]

"Understood"

[Roger~!]

I grabbed Sumerbrandr from my back, I can't use Houkai Energy at this point, because I haven't recovered from the infection the other day, also because it will take forever to get that much Houkai energy in a place with barely any of said energy.

I flicked up the magic crystal and loaded it inside the cartridge of Sumerbrandr with style. I switched up Sumerbrandr to power up in magic for now, thankfully the modification only took a night for this. The mechanism whirred to life, charging up, the sharp edge started turning red hot.

"Guren…"

"Dark One…"

Sonohara and Shibuya tensed up, their legs were shaking. Haaah… if your trying to be a hero, at least don't show them you're scared. Then again, I heard that they almost died exploring the Scarlet Labyrinth, so, I guess they haven't overcome the trauma of death.

"A'ight, Stella, aim for the ground units! I'll take care of the flies"

[What?! I want to take down the flying one!] there she is again, asking for the impossible.

"HEY! We're not playing here! Your black hole can wipe out that army in an instant! My Prometheus slash can only take down those dinosaurs!"

[Bullshit! Go 300% and annihilate the army]

"Don't ask for the impossible!!! I'm gonna die if I do that!!!"

[You two! Stop fighting! The enemy is here!!]

[Hey, hey, we're about to fight an army here, and you two are arguing about who to take down the dragons? Kids] L'arc joined in on the conversation.

It is an open channel after all, so basically, everyone can hear us

"I don't want to hear that from a runaway prince"

[Wha! Hey! I have a reason to do tha-]

I switched off the open channel and turn a direct coms to Stella

"Black hole, on the army"

[I get it already]

I just hope, she doesn't rain on my parade though.

"U-umm! Guren!" She yelled as loud as she could. I turned around, raising a brow, I was a bit surprise, Sonohara had been quiet since yesterday, so hearing her this time was shocking. Well, she seemed like she wants to tell me something.

"Th-Thank you! Thank you for saving me back then!"

After a few seconds of silence, she finally put up her words. Her expression, her tone, and even the loudness of her voice made it sound like she was trying to pick a fight, but I could see it clearly from her gaze that her gratitude was sincere.

Saving her, when? Maybe it was from the Houkai Blast?

"Umm, thanks for saving me the other day too, but... I was talking about that time in the forest, when you save me from the Rihorn Bull."

"…Oh. You mean that time when you're about to be road killed… I forgot that was you, Sonohara"

"Umm, could you please not... describe it so graphically? It's a kind of traumatic experience for me." She covered her head, memories of that day coming back to her.

"I was trying to keep myself alive at that time, no need for gratitude"

"Ah Umm... well... you see..." Sonohara started stammering again, but then she took a deep breath to compose herself.

"I won't waste this life you saved! Maybe you don't really think anything of it, Guren, but I'll still treasure this life you gave me!"

"I see"

[Ambient Charge Complete… Energy Reserves at 100%... Sumerbrandr Ready!]

Well, if that how she feels having her life saved by the weak me, it's not my position to mock her resolve, being in the face of death isn't easy, I've faced it countless of times, but it was only thanks to Cecilia that I was able to push forward.

If Sonohara's reason to fight was her gratitude to me for saving her life, then I'll just have to give her a better reason to do so.

"Hey, Sonohara"

"Y-Yes?" She wasn't probably expecting me to say more and was surprised.

"You've got guts. I could tell back then." I said "If Atsushi's flimsy reason for fighting the war was to save the people, then find yours, something that would help you find a way when you get lost"

"U-umm…" Sonohara stammered, unsure how to respond. Maybe I'm not making sense to her.

"Anyway, point is… a girl like you won't die that easy."

"…" She just stared at me silently. Does she not get it?

"L-Like I said… you find your reason to fight for, something like 'to find a way home' or 'because I want to marry him' wait, the last one was a jinx."

I just noticed, Sonohara and Shibuya were giggling, I was already making a fool of myself here.

[Stella, Ash, begin the pre-emptive strike!]

[Roger]

"Understood"

I stepped back a little and face the plains. "You guys might want to step back, this is gonna get hot"

I raised my sword as I wind up, over the center of the massive monster army, a black hole appeared of was several times larger than what Stella usually use.

"Prometheus Burn!" I released a powerful horizontal slash, tracing the line was burning flames that split the sky.

All of the dinosaurs were shot down and roasted for the barbeque.

"Next shot!"

I grabbed another magic crystal and loaded it in, pressed the trigger once more and wind up.

"Prometheus Burn Encore!"

This time I aimed for the land units and annihilated a dozen of them, next load, but then an unexpected problem happened

"Captain… we have a problem"

[What? Right now?]

"Ah… yeah"

[What happened?]

"MY SWORD BROKE!!!"

[What?!]

Sumerbrandr shattered before my hand as the mechanism exploded on my face.

"I can't blast anymore large attacks!!!"

[A-All right, let Stella handle the outside and help protect the town]

"Understood!!" I turned to the two others. "W-Well, there you have it… we'll be fighting from the ground from now on"

"E-Eh!?"

"why did your sword have to break at a time like this?!"

It probably couldn't take the load of blasting at full power. I may have neglected maintaining it yesterday…

I pulled out Vulcan from my holster and jumped down from the roof.

This is gonna be a long day…

Around three hours passed since the fighting started.

I'm already getting tired of the monsters, even with Stella crushing them in gravity outside town, a lot are slipping in, Sonohara and I were having trouble fighting off a large horde of monsters, even with Vulcan's one shot kills there's just too many for me to shoot down.

Shibuya on the other hand was disoriented, she was shooting off basic magic which was helpful for distracting the enemy, but it's like she's not seeing anything. I know she's scared, all of them are. Sonohara was using her daggers throwing them and keeping her distance at the monsters, good strategy, but still, she couldn't deal a killing blow at anything.

In short, I'm babysitting the two Overpowered girls here.

A Minotaur was charging, tearing its way behind Shibuya, but she was preoccupied with the others, Sonohara was far away.

I ran for her and grabbed her while jumping in a window from a shop.

Looking over the window, the minotaur passed, I shot another Black Wolf, then a Mantis.

Shibuya crawled on a corner mumbling.

"I can't do this… I'm scared, I don't want to die!"

"Hey, Hey! You okay?" I kneeled over and take a look at her, fear was written all over her face, this is too much for her, and her empress talk was gone, meaning that she's really scared to even care for appearances.

"Hey! Look at me!" I yelled, she was yanked back from shock and looked at my eyes.

"You're scared, I'm scared, who cares! Everyone's afraid of death" I said "Are you up for this?"

She was breathing hard and didn't answer my question

"Are you? Look, I just need to know, cause, the town i-i-is under attack" I stammered "okay, the town's under attack, we're fighting an army of monsters… and I have a gun. None of this makes sense"

A needle pierced the wall and barely missed my nose, I returned a shot from the hole and went back to talking. Talking really wasn't my strong suit, but I need this girl to calm down.

"But I'm going back out there, cause it's my job, okay. And I can't do my job and baby sit. Doesn't matter if you're scared, if you go out there, you fight, and you fight to kill. stay in here, you're good, I'll send someone to come and find you. but if you step out that door… you are a Guardian"

"….." She didn't answer, but she already calmed down, which is good. I never intended her to fight either way, but if did try and fight against that army, that's her taking her first step forward.

"Alright, good chat." I tapped her shoulder, stood up and walked towards the door.

I guess, I'll use it anyway, we're in a dire situation after all.

"Yeah, the town's under attack"

Holding both guns in my hands and joined them together, the Core of Ruin inside the guns fused together, both guns transformed and became a handle and hilt, then super-heated plasma erupted from the hilt and formed the claymore blade. I held the Vulcan blade with both hands.

"god, I need a raise after this"

I took a deep breath, then kicked down the door and headed out to burn down some monsters.

Killing the monsters were easy, I mean really, just one slash from Vulcan was enough to kill them. I mean would you live if your body was split in half? Probably not.

I kept going, hacking, stabbing monsters, but there was no end to it. What the hell!!!

Before I could even notice, a giant hit me with its club and sent me flying to a wall.

"Guren!!" Sonohara yelled, but she was in no position to help me at this point as a Lizard-Man charged at her.

I struggled to get back up but the giant's weapon was already on its way to crush my head, my only option now was to grit my teeth and hope to survive it.

But the anticipated attack never came, opening my eyes, I saw an ice sculpture of a giant in front and inches above my face, its club. That was close, I looked over the opened door and saw Shibuya's hand extending at my position.

She must've used ice prison to save me in time. So, she finally gained the courage to take her first step. I smashed the statue with bare hands and charged towards the horde of monsters, Shibuya rained down high level spells as Sonohara guarded her.

The teamwork of the two was impeccable, their friendship had probably led them to that coordination.

[Hey, guys, we're clear here] Leo reported.

"We are not clear!" I yelled and stabbed a Lizard-Man, then threw my sword at a giant. "We are very not clear!!"

Stretching out my hand, Vulcan flew towards me like Mjolnir, then swung it in a wide arc decapitating a dozen of monsters coming at me.

"Alright, now, we're clear"

Sonohara and Shibuya came to my position as I deactivated Vulcan's sword mode. Both of them were panting, but they seem okay for now.

"What are we going to do?"

"the Enemy comes unending Dark One, do you have a plan?"

Shibuya was right, this was endless, even with six overpowered people, a squad of knights, some townspeople, and the five of the Guardian Force, this was too much to handle.

But then I remembered the Divine Key we got; I've been holding it since then.

I took out a Dagger, it was single edged with an intricate design, on the hilt was a black crystal, the Core of Conquest. Before using it, and after we acquired it, I searched through the Void Archives, this Divine Key was the 3rd Key. Key of Domination.

"You guy get ready," I told them "This bit is gonna get a bit creepy"

Both of them tilted in confusion, but seriously, the next bit is gonna get creepy. I held over the Key of Domination near my face and focused, the Divine Key activated and responded to my call.

"Rise."

When I muttered the words, Thick, heavy moans resounded out from somewhere and at the same time, the shadows of the fallen monsters began wiggling as if they were still alive.

Shibuya and Sonohara freaked out from what happened and clung to me in fear.

All of the shadows that was near us began to move.

"H-hey! These things are still alive!!" Sonohara yelled.

Shibuya didn't even say anything, she's shivering and burying her face on my arm. Soon enough, a black hand rose up from one of the shadows. It pressed down on the ground hard, and slowly, the arm attached to it rose up.

"Holy Shit! I didn't think it was this kind of power!!"

This was the power of the Key of Domination, the ability to control shadows, the monsters were definitely dead, what rose up from their bodies were pure mana extracted from a recently deceased lifeform, in a way, it's actually necromancy minus the gory part.

The thing about this, once a shadow was extracted, it will remain part of the army that will rest inside the Key of Domination, and the more powerful the stats of the lifeform was the harder it is to extract, the bright side, the higher stats will remain with the shadow.

It was difficult to swallow at this point but all of them were technically undead, and as much as I want to freak out and scream at this power, the monsters are my soldiers now, my will is the only thing that they will obey, thinking about it, they're more useful than people.

The shadows knelt before me.

"…Cool!"

"What do you mean cool?! These monsters are still alive!!" Sonohara complained

"Ahaha…" I laughed awkwardly; she still hasn't noticed that she's clinging on me. "Don't worry, these guys are friendlies"

"J-j-j-just what ritual have you done, Dark One?"

"Well, these guys are definitely dead, but it's like necromancy, this Key can control the Shadows, so they are part of the power meaning that I can control them"

Anyway, this isn't the time to be standing around, I ordered the monsters and split off in different directions.

"Wh-What did you do?"

"Huh? well, I ordered them to attack other monsters, I mean, if we're fighting an army, shouldn't we raise our numbers?"

"Don't you have respect for life?!"

"Ask that to the one controlling them when they were alive, I'm simply using the mana of the dead to control my own army"

I went around raising shadows and sending them around town.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Supreme lord Asher"

"Since when did you become supreme lord?!" Sonohara yelled

"Just a few seconds ago" I pushed on the communicator "Don't attack the shadow monster, repeat, do not attack the shadow monsters, those are friendlies"

By the time the battle was over, the tide was already turned, at every fallen monster rise an undead of my commanding.

The army of monsters annihilated by sunset, but of course, it's not as if the Power of the Key of Domination was that powerful, the numbers of undead was only limited to a thousand, or at least of what I can control as of now, the rest would just disappear.

After the battle, the Shadow Army kneeled before me and disappeared into my shadow, as far as I know, they'll remain dormant in my shadow until I call them with the Key of Domination.

I'm starting to like the Key, I'll name it Iskandar, then put it back in it sheathe.

Soon after a mile out in the plains, two silhouettes walked towards town, they were dragging an unconscious corpse of someone. Looks like the enemy wasn't an Angel.

Me, Captain, Stella, the First squad, L'arc and Shizuru, as well as Sonohara and the others came to meet them. Ri-chan also came back after the fight.

I told her to remain with the villagers but she insisted on staying in town to help, then again, the knights ended up protecting her anyway.

The two people threw the unconscious corpse at our feet, yeah, that's a rough as she was, having a long dark hair and blue eyes, and a sadistic smile, in her hips rested a bolt action rifle.

"Fufufu… that was a bit fun, it's been a long time since I've gone wild"

The Leader of the 2nd squad, Éclair Furieux.

The other one was a bit more tamed despite her appearance, a girl with the same height as Éclair, she had a short silver hair with a couple of strands of red color, she also had blue eyes and an expressionless face. Her arms were covered with mechanical gauntlets with claws that was fresh with monster blood.

The twin of Éclair, Luna Furieux.

"Onee-chan, it's because you had to slowly knock him out that we took long"

Ah, I see, that's why it took too long, Éclair was sadistic after all, she was probably sniping from a distance teasing the caster into freaking out.

She was sadistic after all, good thing, I didn't design a whip as a weapon for her.

We should've asked the first squad for the kidnapping mission instead, that would've been faster.

I walked over the unconscious corpse and removed the hood, boy, am I surprised.

Short dark hair, a face full of freckles and was clearly slapped to death, his cheeks were swelling, the dark mage, was Riku Yukitoshi.

"Fuck…" I muttered

Ri-chan hesitantly walked up to Yukitoshi, who was still unconscious. Ri-chan looked down sadly at the brat and shook him to wake him up.

"Rika, he could be dangerous" the Knight Captain tried to stop her, but Ri-chan simply shook her head. She asked us to untie him too, even for me that's asking too much, that bastard just tried to kill all of us.

Then again, Ri-chan said she wanted to have a proper conversation with him. Ri-chan still intended to have a teacher to student talk with him.

"Yukitoshi-kun, Yukitoshi-kun! Please wake up, Yukitoshi-kun!"

"Ngh…" Finally, the idiot regained consciousness. He gazed around with unfocused eyes. A second later, he finally realized where he was, and came to himself with a start.

He tried to stand up, but concussion shook him, and he fell back to the ground. Terrified, he tried to crawl backward. His eyes darted from one person to another, his expression was a mixture of wariness and fear.

"Please calm down, Yukitoshi-kun. No one's going to hurt you. I just want to talk to you. Why did you do something like this...? That's all I want to know. I just want to understand your feelings." Ri-chan kneeled down until she was at eye level, then gazed patiently at Yukitoshi. His eyes stopped darting about. He guiltily averted his gaze and that started explaining... or rather insulting everyone.

"Why? You can't even tell why? That's why you're all a bunch of incompetent losers. You all always look down on me... and go on about hero this, hero that. Even though I'm way better than that prick Hayato... none of you ever noticed. You always just pretended like I wasn't even there... You're all a bunch of retards! That's why I wanted to prove my worth to all of you..."

"You little... Do you realize what you did!? You nearly killed everyone in the town!"

"And you called us losers!?"

"Do you even know how worried Ri-chan-sensei was about you?"

Yukitoshi didn't show the least bit of remorse. Akaashi, Sakura, and Nobuaki couldn't take it anymore and started yelling at him. Intimidated, Yukitoshi hung his head and went silent. Ri-cha couldn't bear to see Yukitoshi like that, so she stopped Akaashi and the others from going any further. Then, in as gentle a voice as she could muster, she responded to his words.

"I see. So that's what you were dissatisfied about, then... But you know, Yukitoshi-kun. I don't understand, why would you try and get back at your classmates because of that? Why'd you try and attack the city? If you'd succeeded... and killed all the people of this town... even if you had an army of monsters at your command, that wouldn't have proven your worth." He looked up at Ri-chan, dark eyes peering through dirty bangs. He smiled thinly and gave a most shocking answer.

"It would have... to the devils."

"Wha—!?" everyone except us the Guardian Force, let out a gasp of surprise. Like it wasn't obvious. His smile turned into a triumphant grin, which only made his voice grow stronger.

"I went alone to the northern mountain range to brainwash monsters. But while I was over there, I met a devil. I was wary at first, but... the devil just wanted to talk to me. And they were the first one who understood. Who understood my true worth. That was why... I made a contract with them."

"A contract... you say? What kind of contract?" Ri-chan was shaken at the fact that one of her own students had made a deal with the enemy. But more than that, she was furious. She was convinced it was the devil that had led her student astray.

However, Yukitoshi simply grinned maniacally and gave the most disheartening answer she could've possible heard.

"A contract... to kill you, Akiyama-sensei."

"...Eh?" For a second, Ri-chan couldn't even comprehend what Yukitoshi had just said. The others were the same, but they recovered from their shock faster than Ri-chan. They glared at Yukitoshi with eyes full of rage. He shrunk back in the face of their unbridled hate, then desperately continued talking in an attempt to shake off their glares.

"What's with that dumb look? Did you really think the devils were just ignoring you guys? There's no way they could have ignored you, you're even more of a threat than the hero. The devil told me that if I killed you... if I killed the fertility goddess along with the rest of the town, that I'd be recognized as a hero. That was the deal." The corner of Yukitoshi's mouth twitched, and he continued in an increasingly louder voice.

"They told me. They told me my power was the strongest. That it was a waste for me to languish beneath the hero. They actually understood. They gave me all these super strong monsters, and the strength to make a huge army... so I thought that... that I'd be able to kill you for sure! So why!? How!? How did you beat my army!? Where did you get those kinds of weapons in a fantasy world!? Just... Just what the hell are you!?" At first, he'd been sneering, looking down on the students and Ri-chan, but as he continued his tirade Yukitoshi's expression grew more and more angry, and by the end of it he was yelling at me and not Ri-chan.

A hint of irritation, hatred, and jealousy slipped into his expression, along with the weariness, the fear, and the odd sense of superiority. However, what eclipsed it all was the insanity in his voice.

So, it would seem that the idiot still hadn't recognized that it's me, his former classmate. Did I really change that much that I became unrecognizable? Well, I haven't said a word, anyway, so I doubt he'd recognize me. He glared at me with hatred so fierce that it wouldn't have surprised me if he leaped at my here and now. Despite his tirade, I didn't react at his words, that was until. He said "You damn Chunni!!"

That's it! I'm pissed!!

I grabbed Iskandar and was about to kill the fucker, but L'arc and Stella held my arms stopping me.

"Let me go! I'll kill that fucker now! You pissed me off! I'll show you who's a motherfucking Chunni! You ugly face whiny brat!!!"

Shocked by my sudden change, Sonohara and the others shivered at the possibility that I'll release the shadow army to kill the fucker, but now, I won't have the satisfaction, I want to feel the ripping flesh as I drive this dagger deep in his throat!!

Ri-chan took a deep breath and grabbed Yukitoshi's hand. Though he talked big, it seemed he lacked the courage to even try and fight me, so he didn't move.

"Yukitoshi-kun. Just calm down."

"Wh-What the fuck!? Get away from me!" He tried to shake Ri-chan off, but she strengthened her grip, making it clear that she wasn't going to let go.

"Yukitoshi-kun... I understand how you feel. You want to be special. There's nothing wrong with that. Everyone wants to feel like they're special. And I'm sure you can even become someone special. Even if your methods were mistaken, you were able to do so much... Still, you mustn't side with the devils. They only wish to use you. As a teacher, I cannot allow you to entrust yourself to such selfish people!" Unable to bear the weight of Ri-chan's serious gaze, Yukitoshi gradually calmed down. He hung his head once more, his bangs hiding his face. Ri-chan continued appealing to his rationality.

"Yukitoshi-kun. It's not too late to start over. If you say you're willing to try again, I promise I'll help you. Someone as strong as you can surely fight together with Atsushi-kun. Don't you want to help everyone find a way home and go back to Japan with us?" Yukitoshi quietly listened to Ri-chan, but his shoulders were trembling. Everyone thought he'd been so moved by Ri-chan's speech that he was crying. In fact, Sonohara, who was the most stoic person among their classmates, was already weeping. That was how heart-wrenching Ri-chan's speech was.

Sadly, reality was cruel to them on that day. Ri-chan moved closer to pat his head, when suddenly Yukitoshi tightened his grip on Ri-chan and pulled her forward. He then wrapped his arm around her neck and started squeezing.

He pinned her arms behind her back, and pulled out a short, ten-centimeter needle from somewhere and pointed it at her neck.

"Nobody moves! Move and I stab her!" He tried to sound threatening, but he came across as hysteric. His mouth was twitching, and he glared at me with eyes full of madness. The reason his shoulders had been trembling before was because he'd been trying to hold in his laughter.

Ri-chan desperately tried to peel Yukitoshi's arm off her neck, but to no avail. Everyone froze, unwilling to risk Ri-chan's life on a rescue attempt. Yukitoshi was crazy enough at this point that they believed he'd do it. Everyone started talking at once, screaming at Yukitoshi, or worriedly calling out Ri-chan's name.

"This is a poisoned needle I took off one of the monsters in the mountains! One prick and she's dead! So, if you don't want your precious teacher writhing on the ground, drop your weapons now! All of you!" everyone's faces went pale. He grinned like an idiot and turned to me.

"Hey, you damn Chunni Bastard! You, Stop dancing! Are you making fun of me, you fucker!? Keep this up and I'll stab her! Hurry up and give me your gun!!"

Anyway, I started dancing to annoy the hell out of the bastard, he doesn't have the guts to do it, otherwise, why do it in a roundabout way, if he wanted to kill Ri-chan, he would've done it while she's sleeping, idiot.

"Yeah, I'm making fun of you, got a problem with that, you whiny brat?"

"Whiny brat!? I'll kill her, hand me your gun!!"

"If you want to kill her, just do it, this isn't a movie, you idiot"

"Shut up! Shut the fuck up! Shut up and give me everything you have! Retards like you should just listen to what I say! O-Oh yeah, hehe, why don't you hand me that blondie while you're at it. Bring her to me!" his screams were nearly incoherent. He's gone mad.

But yeah, I pulled out Vulcan and toss it over to him, then urged Stella to move forward.

"Eh?! Ash, what the hell are you trying to do?! Are you really giving me to him!?"

"Yeah, you're pretty annoying, so this is a good chance to get rid of you"

"You bastard!!" Stella assaulted me, Yukitoshi reached out for Vulcans, the moment his hand touched the handle, he backed off as his hand burned from the heat Vulcan was emitting.

"You fell for it you fool!!!" I hurriedly pulled out Iskandar and thrusted it towards him, then twisted it counter-clockwise "Time Lock!"

The Second power of the Key of Dominion, Dominion over time, well, it was only a single target so it wasn't really that powerful.

Yukitoshi stopped moving as he was imprisoned in a time lock.

"Luna!"

Luna launched herself and tackled Yukitoshi off of Ri-chan. The Time Lock worn off and Luna apprehended Yukitoshi.

Just then, a torrent of water erupted from the ground shooting Yukitoshi upward meanwhile Luna evaded just in time.

Someone just casted a Rupture. I looked around quick and saw a dark-skinned man in dark clothing with pointed ears and swept back hair riding atop a giant bird-like monster.

I immediately ran for Vulcan and fired at the assailant, Éclair and I kept firing volleys of shots at the monster and the figure riding it. The man had predicted our attack, so he made his mount do a barrel roll, barely avoiding the volley of shots. However, one had still grazed past its mount's foot, blowing it clean off. Another had hit his arm, doing the same. Still, he didn't falter for even a second, and fled as fast as he could. He was clearly well practiced at making his getaways after assassination attempts.

It was probably a devil that Yukitoshi made a deal with. he fled into the town in low altitude using the buildings as covers. Éclair and I couldn't do a thing at this point.

"Ash!" Stella's voice was tinged in panic. I holstered Vulcan and ran towards Ri-chan. and the area around me turned into a cacophony of screams.

"Rika, Rika!"

"No... Sensei! What do we do? What do we do, Guren? Sensei's going to die!"

Sonohara and Knight Captain were particularly shaken. The person they loved was on the brink of death, so it was only natural. It was even worse for Sonohara since seeing Rika on the verge of death, it probably triggered her trauma.

This is bad, Ri-chan's been stabbed, probably from the time lock, it applied some pressure when Luna tackled the moron. I look over Luna whose face was in horror.

"I-I'm sorry… I… I didn't mean to…"

"Luna!!" I yelled "Don't blame yourself, this is on me!"

I grabbed Iskandar once more and put Ri-chan on a time lock, then used the time that Ri-chan's time stopped to pull out a neutralizing serum, it won't heal her, but it will slow down the poison. It was meant for Houkai Infection, but I guess it would work the same either way.

As I injected the serum, Sensei's ragged breathing was stabilized, and was put to sleep.

"The serum will stabilize her for now…" I looked over my classmates who had horrified looks, our teacher is dying, and yet, they couldn't do a thing…

Well, I guess, I've gotten soft now, huh.

"Give her to us" I said to them "We can save her"

Sonohara and the others looked at each other and nodded.

"Okay"

I grabbed Ri-chan and stood up, the Knight Captain then said.

"Wait, just a minute, we can't let you take her anywhere!" he said "our mission is to protect Rika, we can't hand her to someone suspicious"

"Fine then, you okay with her Dying? I'll leave her here"

My words made him hesitate, however, he doesn't seem like he's willing to let go. Until Sonohara spoke up.

"Davis, do you want to let Ri-chan die! At this point, Guren is the only one who can cure her!"

Without waiting for their reply, I already made a dash for the jet, Captain and Stella also ran. On the far side, I've noticed that the Army from the capital had already arrived, the First and Seconds Squad already made preparations to pull back.

I headed inside the Quinjet and laid Ri-chan to the floor, to the pilot seat, I hastily prepared for take-off procedures.

"Guren! We're coming too!" Sonohara said. All of them were on board the jet already, I have no time to argue, the serum will only last for six hours, and to reach the base, we need five hours of flight.

No time for stops, I vertically took off, closed the ramp and let the engine go at full thrust to Mach three.

"Sit down, you're gonna feel the Gs!"

60 miles of the coasts of the Arisen City of Rocheforte Kingdom.

The Quinjet was flying at a speed of 120 km/per second, I lowered the Jet's altitude near the sea, soon we'll be arriving at the HQ.

Ri-chan was still sleeping, I've been putting her in a time lock on occasion to at least buy us some time before we arrive.

I've already contacted will and said Dr. Kayla already prepped the antidote for the poison.

A mountainous island soon came to view, a we're heading straight for it, that's where our HQ was located.

No matter how many times I've done it, it never gets old. I pushed on the throttle of the jet and head straight on the mountain, soon enough, we disappeared through it, passing a few barriers, then the scenery had changed, the mountain was no more, instead what welcomed us was an prosperous city, with buildings as high as a skyscraper, the streets were bustling with people, a technological marvel that was out of this world, in my case it was just like flying through Tokyo.

I set course for the largest building at the center of the city, the Guardian Force HQ.

Landing down, I opened the ramp, the medical team was on standby, upon turning the engine off, the medics came and picked up Ri-chan.

My classmates were all but slack-jawed, they were probably overwhelmed by the familiar scene. Will welcomed us with Bella.

"Hello heroes, I believe this is rather familiar to you all?" Will said "anyway, welcome to Avalon Island, this place doesn't exist in the world"

Literally, this island is recorded on the map, but it was supposed uninhabited and impossible because of the unfertile soil, no one survives here. Yeah, I got the idea from the Wakanda dome, having cloaked the outside as a mountain, then a prosperous city hides inside of it.

Even if the whole world searched for our base, they'd never find it. Because it virtually doesn't exist.