An hour earlier, Grenlan Luxeux, Stralit's twin brother, responded to the alarm that the enemy Abtors had staged a large-scale attack. Along with a fellow Etoulde, they gathered their forces and activated the barrier to slow down the enemy's advance.
Before they left, Grenlan turned to his 'comrade' and asked, "Alicia Crowfeather, are you really sure that Stralit went on a secret mission?"
The pretty woman with black, long, flowing hair answered, "That's indeed the directive I've received and you've also seen the documents. I came here to temporarily hold the reins. Are you still doubting me?"
Grenlan stared at her smiling face for a few seconds before turning around again, "No. I just find the situation weird, especially with the timing of this attack."
Alicia touched her rosy lips and replied, "That's true. It was very convenient timing. Too bad for them, the doting big brother ignored his orders and came to this place."
Grenlan ignored her and continued walking. Of course, he doubts her. However, he couldn't do anything because she had all the official documents required. He could check where her orders came from but that would take too much time and his priority is finding his little twin sister because of the bad feeling he has with the situation and her last message to him implying that there may be a traitor near her.
After gathering their forces, they met the enemy forces that were composed of Abtors with parts of their body mechanically converted just beyond the barrier's border and being led by an Evie in the form of a beast that looked like a winged lion.
The mechanical winged lion stopped its advance and commanded its army to move forward.
Alicia left Grenlan and the Evies to command the army they had to counter the enemy.
"I didn't know the one who replaced the Shadow Paladin was the Invisible Sword." The winged lion initiated a conversation.
Grenlan was not in the mood to play around and with a sway of his white hair, six thin shadow blades extended from him, "Didn't you see that the Holy Witch is with me? You really do have bad eyes, Navot."
"I'm not interested in the so-called Witch that couldn't fight." Navot bared his fangs and instantly became a beam of light as he charged toward the Etoulde.
Grenlan narrowed his eyes and prepared to receive the attack. He could dodge, but considering his opponent's ability, he decided to meet him head-on.
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Almost an hour later, Grenlan and Navot are still in a deadlock and that's the same situation for the ongoing clash between armies.
'This is weird...' Grenlan thought to himself and sent his blades to Navot but the latter just repelled it with his scale-like skin, 'Why does it feel like he's just buying time? What is he hoping to achieve?'
However, despite thinking about it, he couldn't guess what he wanted, 'I don't have enough understanding of the situation to draw any conclusion. Just what's going on? And where are you, Stralit?'
But just as these questions were plaguing him and about to affect his concentration, he suddenly felt a small ripple in the planet's Magic Circuit.
Grenlan was sure that it wasn't just him because Navot and Alicia also stopped momentarily because the ripple felt weirdly familiar.
Nevertheless, they didn't have any time to examine what was happening because after that small ripple, an enormous eruption of Spiritual Power pierced through the barrier protecting the circuit and it wasn't just some generic Spiritual Power but the one used by the famous Luxeux Clan.
Gobsmacked, Grenlan stared at this oppressive fountain and thought, '...That's not Stralit... Or any other member of the Luxeux Clan. I've never seen such a [malicious and destructive] shadow.'
Grenlan took a peek at Alicia, but similar to him, she too was sporting an unbelieving expression. Finally, he looked at Navot who had already retreated far. He didn't like the distance he was taking so he sent three of his swords to chase after him.
The eruption of shadow soon abated and the hole in the barrier began repairing itself. Regardless of that, everyone's attention was on the two people who'd suddenly appeared. One of them was someone familiar to them and the other one was a man with long black hair and a blank mask covering his face.
Grenlan was about to call out and approach them when Alicia suddenly sent him a message, [Don't approach them!]
He was about to ignore her warning when the strange man suddenly stabbed his sword in the air and its tip disappeared. In the next instant, the missing tip abruptly appeared within multiple instances on top of their enemies, stabbing the majority of them to death.
"...What in the world?" Grenlan loudly muttered while watching these blades retreat. If he were to push himself, he could probably control 20 'swords' at the same time and all of them could emerge from anywhere with a shadow. It was only he who could use 'swords' that could understand the sheer scale of what he just did to manifest at least a thousand blades.
Unexpectedly, Grenlan received a voice transmission from the weird man, [Luxeux-san, allow me to access your 'shadow'. I'll transfer Stralit-san to your side.]
He immediately turned his attention to his incredibly weakened sister of his on the man's shoulders and locked eyes with her. At that moment, Grenlan knew that he could trust the strange man, [Go ahead.]
The black-haired man in a white suit didn't wait and in an instant, 'shadow' extended from his feet and he let go of Stralit, letting her sink into it. Immediately after, Stralit reappeared from one of Grenlan's swords beside him and the latter hurriedly caught her, "Are you alright!?"
"...I'm fine, brother. Just a bit tired and injured." Stralit answered while heaving a sigh of relief. She finally felt truly safe when her brother caught her in his arms.
He's about to ask her more about the situation but he suddenly felt another thing going through his 'shadow'. When he turned his head, the strange man already disappeared and came out of one of the swords that was bothering Navot in the distance.
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After using Grenlan's shadow as a portal, Kisuke instantly arrived at the side of the mechanical winged lion and swung Tiamat at it without waiting for it to react.
But even if it couldn't react in time, Kisuke's attack just bounced off from its scale-like structured 'fur'. Kisuke already expected this after witnessing how it dealt with the 'shadow' swords so he was able to dodge the incoming claw aimed at him with relative ease while creating a distance between them, 'Instead of blocking my attack using its durability, there seems to be some feedback force. A barrier? No... It's something else.'
[You don't really have to help them to this degree, do you?] asked Tiamat.
But instead of Kisuke, Benihime was the one who answered her, [This is already beyond his responsibility so there's no way he's helping them. He probably just wants to secure this hunk of metal to disassemble.]
'As expected of my Benihime~! You know me so well~.'
Benihime snorted at him but didn't say anything else.