Returning Triumphant

As soon as the girls of the Astraea Familia disappeared, Ryuu also woke up. However, she doesn't have any more energy to even lift a finger and her vision was red and blurry. So much so that she could hardly recognize Kisuke who was looking down on her.

Despite that, she still did her best to talk, "...I did... it."

Kisuke let out a small smile and nodded, "Yes. You did it. How does it feel to finally defeat the monster that you detested so much?"

Ryuu's unfocused vision looked at the ceiling of the Dungeon. A few seconds later, she answered, "...Nothing." For a moment, the glint in Ryuu's eyes returned as she looked back at Kisuke, "But I'm relieved that we'll be able to escape from here."

Kisuke's smile then disappeared.

Seeing that, a small smile instead on Ryuu's face, "...Well, maybe just you... But you'll be fine on your own. I'm sorry if I can't come up with you."

Kisuke continued his silence.

But Ryuu didn't mind this and used the remaining energy she had to say everything she wanted, "...You told me that I'm naive and arrogant when I thought that my ideals were the correct ones and didn't care about the others... But after thinking about it, I'm fine with that."

She then started coughing blood but she still did her best to continue, "After all, how can I fight for my justice if I thought my ideals weren't the correct ones? So I disagree with you."

Kisuke finally reacted with a small smile, "I see. It's good to see that you didn't just blindly believe what I told you. But I can also see that you're dissatisfied and unsure of something."

Ryuu thought that Kisuke talking to her on the verge of death was just a form of comfort and consultation, so she entertained him the best she could. And maybe, she'll come into a great understanding of something before she leaves this world with her last words before she closes her eyes for good, "...I just thought that maybe my revenge was meaningless."

"It is what you desired and it is what you believed in. No matter how others think of it as something wrong or something worthless, for you, your act of revenge was meaningful. Don't let others take that away from you." Kisuke replied before Ryuu fully lost her consciousness to the abyss, but not before leaving a satisfied smile.

Kisuke then stretched his arms and muttered, "Now that's interesting. It's actually rare for people to admit their ideals are the correct ones after realizing the bigger picture. After all, no matter how selfish and arrogant it may seem, one can only achieve something big with their desires unsuppressed. And that includes one's justice."

Using his Magic, Kisuke gathered every bit of Ryuu's blood, flesh, and bones scattered along the battlefield and started the Elf's treatment, 'I guess she's trustworthy enough.'

.

.

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Reaching the 18th floor with Ryuu soundly sleeping on his back with an extra haori covering her, Kisuke looked up to the closed door that led to Knossos. Even if he didn't use his extra senses, he could feel the vibrations from where he's standing, 'Looks like the party has just reached the climax. Just in time~'

Placing his hand on the door, Kisuke manipulated the Magic Power in the air to unlock it, which he only did for a few seconds before the hall covered in flesh-like roots revealed itself to him.

As soon as he stepped into the hallway, the green flesh around him was woken up and started growing tentacles to attack him. But by amplifying the vibration of each of his steps to truly ridiculous levels, before the tentacles could even approach, they would be crushed and crumble from the sheer force exerted through the air.

Next were Magic attacks from all directions, but Kisuke countered those incredibly simple spells by sending a packet of Magic Power to the Magic Circle's weak points and it would just explode from the uncontrolled Magic Power it gathered.

While all sorts of noises were happening around him, Kisuke carefully sensed the overall situation within Knossos, 'Hmmm, six large scale and two small scale battlefields and those small scale are both happening on the 12th floor while the rest are happening on the 10th floor. On the other hand, there are two Deities in the corner of the 11th floor which I would guess are Loki and Enyo.'

At that moment, Kisuke felt Aika's presence move away from one of the six battles, 'That direction... She's going to deal with that Creature that can split herself? Well, I guess I'll go to that troublesome girl's side. She's going to go out of control at this rate.'

With a destination in mind, Kisuke sent a telepathic message to Aika to just destroy the Creature's Magic Stone, to which he got a response containing a lot of complaints and questions. After calming Aika down from her barrage, Kisuke started running towards Ais and Revis' side, who were duking it out without a care for anything.

As soon as he reached the 13th floor, the green flesh and Magic attacks stopped bothering him and it didn't take too long for him to reach his destination. But instead of revealing his presence, he first watched what was happening, because the moment he saw them, Kisuke immediately felt the remnants of Serafall's Magic Power from Ais, 'What happened?'

As the fight went on, it was very clear that Ais was pushing back and even overwhelming Revis with her use of black-tinted winds that were making the former lose her reason. The latter, meanwhile, just kept tanking the damage as she can regenerate any damages she has and repair her bioweapon and armor through the green flesh that supplies her with an almost limitless amount of Magic Power.

The only way Ais could actually defeat Revis was by landing a decisive blow on the latter's Magic Crystal, deep within her chest. But it was Revis' most protected part and Ais was slowly losing control of herself.

'Really, how troublesome,' thought Kisuke and used Flash Step, reappearing beside Ais who was about to dash forward and tripping her with his foot.

As Ais tumbled forward, instead of using that chance to finish her off, Revis jumped back in panic at the sight of Kisuke, completely ignoring the Elf resting on his back.

Ignoring the frightened Creature, Kisuke watched Ais get up and look at him with a rageful expression before it changed into shock, then into confusion, "What are you doing?" Ais asked.

But Kisuke didn't answer because the black wind around Ais was still revolving fast. So instead, he used his Flash Step again and reappeared in front of Ais in an instant. Before she could react, she saw Kisuke's hand making its way to her forehead, and the next instant, she felt an incredible and uncontrollable force hit her, making her flip back a few times before she hit the wall.

As the pain shook her consciousness, she yelled, "What are you doing, Kisuke!?"

But only a cold voice replied to her, "That's Urahara-san for you, Wallenstein-san."

More than the flick, Kisuke's voice woke Ais up more with most of her sanity immediately coming back to her.