Chapter 52.

Adrian barely seemed to react beyond his expression growing cold but his floating swords pointed at the pages and then started to glow. An instant later a huge beam of yellow light, a light that tore through the pages and the forest behind them emerged, when the beam faded less than a second later a huge section of the forest they had been in no longer existed.

Naofumi felt a chill run down his spine as Adrian turned to look at them. Any thoughts of accusing him of setting them up vanished.

"This is the man who captured Itsuki. Start running. I'll hold him off." he said, before his expression softened as he turned to his daughter, "be careful Isis and remember that your life comes first." Then he vanished.

Isis looked forlorn but she turned to glare at them all, it was quite adorable...or it would have been had her aura not been flaring, "Please," she said, her words polite but her tone cold, as she jumped onto the disc "get on the carrier. We need to leave now."

Any argument was quickly silenced after that display of power and they moved onto the disc which quickly took to the air, above the treetops and then started to move away from the fight. Naofumi could see the occasional blast of fire or lightning and a retaliatory beam being fired but he couldn't see much else. The sounds and sights of battle faded and Naofumi relaxed a little.

Until a man with silver hair appeared in front of them, the disc immediately started to move backwards but Naofumi still had enough time to observe their attacker. Three massive crystals as tall as Naofumi himself was floating at his side along with a huge swarm of pages. His appearance was slightly dishevelled but what drew Naofumi's attention was the Book in his arms that had a large gemstone embedded on the cover.

"Two Legendary Heroes for the price of one," said the man before breaking into maniacal laughter, "this is my lucky-"

His words were interrupted as a massive blast of Lightning from Isis struck him head-on. It looked terrifying and Naofumi didn't want to imagine getting hit by an attack with that much power behind it.

Unfortunately, their attacker survived it quite casually, a small series of barriers manifested in front of him which blocked the attack, some of the barriers had shattered but most survived.

"How rude," mocked the man, "didn't even let me fini-"

The second interruption was far more impressive as a massive beam of light consumed him completely. His barriers shattering like glass and sending him and his crystals flying away while annihilating the pages. The attack had come from their disc which started moving soon after.

Naofumi felt his fear rise as he realized just how dangerous an opponent they were facing. That man had teleported, blocked their portal, created barriers strong enough to withstand an attack that Naofumi and his party could not outmatch and had somehow tracked them down. He wasn't sure if this was some sort of betrayal from Adrian or not but the worry and fear on Isis' face after her attack failed suggested that it wasn't...and if it wasn't then this man was probably from the Church.

No, what the hell was he thinking? Adrian had said that this man had taken Itsuki...though he could still be from the church. Naofumi tried to get his head in the game, tried to focus but he couldn't help but feel helpless. That first attack alone would have been enough to take them out if Adrian hadn't annihilated it.

He transformed his shield into the form with the highest magic defence rating and then held onto the platform he was floating in as it headed away from the battle. Feeling quite unprepared for another surprise appearance.

"Get ready," he told his party, "that guy might appear at any time."

They nodded, all of them except for Isis, who said, "Father is fighting him right now he won't escape,"

Her confidence wasn't particularly reassuring. Not when that man had escaped once already. Still, he nodded and took a deep breath, trying to stay aware of his environment and trying not to think of what would happen if Adrian lost and ended up dead.

Naofumi focused his attention on the signs of battle that he could see. The continuous explosions and beams of light that lit up the night weren't very inspiring. Not when it indicated that the battle was still going on.

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Adrian

Adrian wanted to curse his past self who had been arrogant enough to assume that his current strength was sufficient. Weeks of killing literally everything he decided was his target in a single strike had conditioned him into feeling like every battle would end quickly and he had developed a number of poor habits.

Habits that this bastard with his Book and the Heroes he had contained within the crystals was exploiting. Adrian was starting to feel incredibly irritated to realize that most of his abilities were basically about finding and hitting an opponent as hard as possible.

Adrian's enemy was standing on top of a barrier that he had generated and there were three crystals with Heroes trapped inside them. One of them was Itsuki, whose face was twisting in agony much like the other two boys inside their respective prisons. Their weapons made it clear that they were Heroes but what unnerved Adrian was that there was a constant flow of mana from them towards his enemy.

The Sword Hero summoned a couple of blades and sent them towards his target, who laughed as they splashed against the massive series of barriers he had put up, the fool had learned his lesson after they shattered during his attempted attack on Isis and had decided to set up dozens of barriers in a complex multilayered pattern.

Unfortunately for his enemy the physical collision of the blades was not the most important part of the assault. It was the elemental explosions that they generated.

Barriers shattered and Adrian saw the arrogance get wiped out, fury and then pain replacing it, before space warped and the silver-haired man was teleported from his previous location. Most of the explosion missing him entirely with all traces of damage removed within a few moments of his reappearance.

Adrian didn't miss how the faces of the three Heroes imprisoned within the crystal contorted in pain as the man healed. Nor did he miss the fact that the man's barrier's weren't back up yet.

A series of small diameter Sword Beams struck two of the crystals, which started to break down before the barriers were recreated around them...but only around them. Adrian focused on the Sword in his hand, a weapon with an attack boosting Status Enchantment combined with an Anti-human attack bonus.

The Beam that lanced out annihilated the barriers around the two poor souls contained within the Crystals...and then killed the two Heroes within. His enemy was wise enough to place the barriers around himself and just barely survive the attack long enough for the cooldown for his little teleportation trick to end.

"You bastard-" the Book wielder snarled, but Adrian had no reason to let the man continue. Dozens of Swords erupted from his one, filling the air around them and forcing the silver-haired man to set up another series of barriers, occasionally trying to send out a couple of pages from his weapon only for them to be torn to shreds by Adrian's swords.

He dodged the attack as Adrian expected and then drew out two more crystal prisons which Adrian had not foreseen. He quickly used Dash to reposition himself and Illusion to place a false copy in his previous location, firing Sword Beams using the projections he had left behind near the illusionary copy.

Adrian looked at the two new heroes, the gemstones verifying their identity, and realized that this man, whoever he was, had actually managed to capture a full set of Heroes from another world before even starting with Itsuki. He swallowed his nervousness as he realized that he had no idea how many such Heroes this man had set aside.

Adrian needed to end this now. A battle of attrition would not be in his favour. Long term survival be damned if he didn't kill this man right here and now he would not live long enough to worry about Fitoria. He resolved to kill Itsuki if need be and started his assault again.

A massive Sword Beam, large enough to encompass the man and all his floating power sources lanced out, the barriers, powered by all of the victims, held...but only for an instant before they began to shatter. The Book wielder had been wise, using hundreds of small, but powerful barriers.

It wasn't enough and he was forced to teleport out of the way. Blindsight let him see what his eyes failed to register, his opponent had lost his arrogance and his rage, his expression only conveyed one emotion:Fear.

It was an intoxicating thing to witness. Even if it wouldn't last for very long.

Adrian carefully triggered his next tactic, sending out sword after sword after sword, it didn't take long for the skies to end up filled with them. Each and every one of them capable of detonating. Once he had prepared his little 3D minefield he summoned a dozen projected swords, focused on the ones that he had already prepared and fired them.

More than thirty thin sword beams, less than a centimetre across, struck the barriers that his enemy had put up. They attacked from multiple directions, forcing the Book Hero to defend from all sides, the magical constructs didn't last for long and he warped away...right next to a collection of swords which detonated instantly.

Adrian used Dash to position himself a little further away from his target whom had come quite close to his position and made sure to keep moving the disc away from battle. It was out of range of his Blindsight but he kept on pushing it away at maximum speed.

That moment of inattention was one his enemy exploited.

The crystals began to glow. The brightness was blinding, and his enemy warped, and then emerged in his blindspot with hundreds of glowing pages at the ready.

It wasn't enough. Adrian quickly used Dash to move vertically upwards. The beams of light that the pages launched were dodged. And less than an instant later dozens of Adrian's Sword Beams eradicated both the pages...and a crystal prison.

Panic set into his enemy's face and Adrian pounced on it, he could tell, from the now-familiar twist of mana and space, that his enemy was about to teleport. Adrian quickly changed some of his floating projections into Seal Removal Swords and sent them towards Itsuki.

With the barriers down due to his enemies own attack and due to Adrian's counter, they pierced through the crystal prison and Itsuki without any resistance.

Adrian winced at the clear agony born not from Itsuki's power being drained but from his swords being stabbed into the boy's shoulders but didn't hesitate to activate the blade.

Itsuki, the other Hero and their captor warped away a moment after his blade was activated...but it's effect was still something that managed to work. Itsuki was no longer bound to the Book wielder. The seal allowing for that had been removed.

Adrian changed the Sword even as he pulled it out of Itsuki telekinetically and had it fire on his target from inside the barrier he had created. It was his most powerful Sword Beam yet...but his enemy was wise, he used the remaining Hero, who was trapped in her crystal, and blocked the powerful strike before warping away. Leaving behind Itsuki and the now-annihilated Hero.

The Sword Hero felt a massive surge of relief as he realized that he no longer needed to hold back and moved towards his fellow Hero. The crystal had started to fall without the Book Hero levitating it and Adrian caught him and quickly broke him out of the crystal with a few well-placed slashes, a couple of remnants stayed embedded with the boy.

The Book Hero looked furious and was glaring at him.

"I'll kill you," he said, his voice furious beyond belief, "I was planning to reward you by letting to become a part of something more than just a pillar of a doomed world-"

Adrian let him talk, taking his potions for SP, Stamina and MP. He needed them and if this fool was willing to let Isis and the others escape while giving Adrian a chance to recharge then there was no reason to interrupt.

The man was still ranting ten seconds later. Adrian was ready to fight again. He held onto Itsuki with one hand, not having the time to place him elsewhere as the Book Hero drew out another five crystals. A series of sword beams were fired and blocked with some sort of barrier.

It didn't shatter.

Adrian felt an incredible unease as he saw the man laugh maniacally from inside his barrier, the five people, the five heroes, inside their prisons began to wither and die as massive amount of mana surged.

There was a manic grin on the Book Heroes face and he opened his mouth to say or chant something but Adrian had already triggered Dash to move up. Adrian didn't stop after that until he was nearly three kilometres in the sky.

It saved his life.

From his altitude he saw a wave of force push from the madman's position outwards, getting faster and faster until it had expanded into a shockwave that had simply ruined everything for more than ten kilometres. He noted that the damage was reduced as the distance from the epicentre increased. The trees near the centre were completely turned to dust while those further away were simply torn out of the ground.

It took him a second to realize that Isis must have been in range and another to realize that the wave was reversing. Returning to the caster. He used his Dash to get a little closer and Blindsight revealed the truth.

That hadn't been a shockwave. It had been an expanding wave of space. A disruption in the space-time continuum that was meant to push, pulverize and then drag everything back to the caster. His fears abated slightly as he realized that he could still see Isis and Naofumi. They were in that odd-looking...bubble, for lack of a better term, injured but alive.

The same could not be said for Naofumi's other party members. Their defences had been nothing compared to Isis or Naofumi and they had been reduced to little more than bloodstains. Only their equipment let him identify their remnants.

The bubble was odd, opaque and quite...strange looking but his Blindsight could pierce the veil around it with ease. He smiled as he saw the utterly broken form of his enemy who looked like he had aged up, his bones easily visible, pressing against his skin, and his muscles having degraded badly. The Book Hero was shaking, a furious look on his face as he realized that Adrian had not been caught up in the attack.

Adrian didn't enjoy his fury for long. He focused on some of the blades that had survived the attack and were trapped in the odd spatial bubble with the man and simply used them to tear the man apart. Isis witnessing the display added to it with a massive firestorm of her own.

She truly made him proud in moments like this.

Then the bubble began to shrink and Adrian realized that killing the caster while his daughter was trapped within a magical field of said Casters creation was insanely stupid.

He quickly changed into his MP draining Sword and launched a Sword Beam at the bubble...only for the attack to simply appear outside another point. Hundreds of MP consuming blades did the same as he launched a Hundred Sword attack. Attacks from inside the barrier did nothing either.

Isis, who probably couldn't see anything outside the opaque bubble that he was using Blindsight to see, tried her best as well from the inside, realizing that she was in trouble.

Adrian launched attack after attack, reducing the already damaged area into an even more thoroughly destroyed ruin but nothing worked. He grit his teeth, changed to his most powerful magic negating sword, and then charged at the barrier.

To his surprise, he didn't end up on the other side of the bubble. Instead, a message popped up.

Legendary Heroes may not invade other worlds. Please step away from the rift leading to 'Dimension A'

He barely even had time to react to the message before the bubble vanished. Taking away his daughter.

For a moment Adrian just stood there in the destroyed region that once held a forest, his hands shaking and his mind numb as he tried to think about what the hell was happening.

He looked at Itsuki, whom he must have dropped sometime during his reckless charge, the boy was bleeding out on the ground, the only living thing in the area. The Bow Hero whom he was meant to protect.

Adrian moved robotically, poured potions over his wounds and force-fed the boy some stamina and nutrition potions. He was done in less than a minute and then he just stared at the area where the bubble had been. Where his daughter had been less than a minute ago.

"Isis…" he muttered, unsure if she was really gone. He used every single one of his sensory skills trying to see something that would lead him to his child...he found nothing. Then he tried again. And again. Until he was forced to admit that she was not there anymore.

He started to laugh even as tears ran down his face.

He had 'won' that fight. That bastard with the Book had used his last-ditch attack, fueled by the power of five Heroes, and Adrian was still here completely unharmed. His preparations had been successful, he had defeated a very powerful opponent. He had even managed to rescue Itsuki.

It had only cost him his daughter.

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