The Conference (II)

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The Magicians floating above Takauji all looked to one another, the sweat dripping down their skin causing their full-body robes to stick. They all seemed to be hesitant, constantly chattering amongst themselves as they presumably tried to cook up some sort of plan to deal with the threat beneath them. 

"I don't understand, just why are you all so surprised?" The Mage's voice caught their attention. "You decided to attack an event with some of the strongest people in existence present. Were you honestly expecting this to be anything other than a suicide mission? If so, then I'm appalled." 

Takauji's eyes radiated nothing but unadulterated boredom. His [Mana Sense] told him that each of the hooded Magicians were Middle-Class in strength at most. In other words, they were ants. It didn't make sense to him, there was clearly no point in sending these people to attack those who were at the conference. 

"You captured some half-Vampire who apparently is responsible for the stoppage of time, and there is indeed a clock at play that will determine whether the people who can still move end up being frozen as well. However, in order for that to come to pass you'd have to stall us. Do you really think any of you are capable of stalling anyone here? With your level of strength?" 

The Ultimate-Class Mage's presence started to grow stronger, his aura flaring up as the atmosphere around them experienced a sudden drop in temperature. The hairs on the back of the Magicians necks stood up as they each recoiled. 

"None of you plan on responding do you?" Takauji sighed. Hoping he could at least get some insight into what could cause such blatant foolishness. "Alright, I'll go ahead and give you the benefit of the doubt. You can have a free hit, use your strongest attack. Hopefully you all have something up your sleeve that could at least scratch me." 

There was no need for arrogance from Takauji, the difference in strength between himself and them was crystal clear. 

I might as well use this as an opportunity to test out my new ability, hopefully I've managed to get it working as intended by now. 

["New ability?"] 

You'll see. 

The cloaked terrorists all nodded to each other, starting to chant as Takauji noticed a strange phenomenon starting to occur with their Mana. 

They formed a joint-connection with their Mana, which means they're probably about to use some sort of combination attack. There's about a hundred of them, so it's possible they might actually accomplish something. Oh well, all I can do is wait and see. 

Takauji remained unmoving with the tip of Sayafushi pointed towards the ground, simply awaiting their attack. 

Since Issei, Xenovia, and Kiba were in charge of getting the half-Vampire free, there was no need for him to rush. As long as he kept the Magicians where they were at the moment, everything would proceed smoothly. 

They extended their arms and opened their palms, an enormous Magic Circle forming in front of them pointed towards Takauji. 

"Don't worry about putting any strength into aiming the thing, I won't move an inch, I promise. Just focus on increasing the raw strength of that spell." They probably wouldn't listen since he was their opponent and all, but he thought it was worth a shot. 

The circle started to light up, runic symbols shifting and rearranging themselves within the construct. Mana continued to gather within as the spell's radiance became blinding. 

Takauji on the other hand, just continued to aimlessly look around. Seemingly lost in thought.

Oh, I almost forgot. Wasn't I supposed to pick up groceries today? If I remember correctly we needed tomatoes, lettuce, beef– 

BOOM! 

A behemothic bullet composed entirely of Mana shot forth from their joint circle, crashing directly into Takauji as his surroundings erupted into a cloud of dust. The Magicians all held their breath as they awaited the outcome. They had felt the attack connect, that much was for certain. But whether it was actually effective remained to be seen. 

She also wanted ice-cream didn't she? Shit, I forgot what flavor she asked for though. Was it Belgian chocolate? No, I think it was actually strawberry. Fafnir, can you search my memories real quick and tell me? 

["That's not how it works, I can only read what you actually remember, if a memory is lost to you then it is also lost to me. How am I supposed to access something that doesn't exist?"] 

Damn, Raynare gets cranky when I don't get her grocery list right down to the letter. Last time I messed it up she put hot sauce in my pancakes as revenge. 

Takauji was terrible with spicy food, somehow even in his evolved body. It was basically a middle-finger from the world to him.

["By the way, you're in the middle of a fight at the moment."] 

Oh, right. My bad. 

"Sorry about the silence, I have a lot of things on my mind at the moment." The invading Magicians were left horrified, not knowing what to think as Takauji stepped out the smoke unscathed. The only difference between the presence of slightly luminescent black vein-shaped lines crawling all over his skin. 

This was [Null Vene], his own version of [Licht Vene] he developed with Azazel's help during the week of training before the conference. As a human he was unable to replicate the ability, but with his new body the impossible had become possible. 

"As you can see, your attack wasn't really all that effective. However, you did help me test out whether my technique works or not, so thank you for that." Put into perspective, the joint attack they had just used was at about the peak of High-Class in terms of power. And since he decided to take it head on it would've actually scratched him, however with [Null Vene] added to the equation. His defense had simply become too overwhelming for that to happen. 

"I don't really like flexing my ego that much, since I prefer to end fights rather quickly. So I'll go ahead and wrap this up now." He snapped his finger, a dark pool of Darkness Mana appearing in front of him. A hundred tendrils shooting out from the mass each coiling around the necks of the Magician's above him. 

This technique was none other than [Umbral Rope], which he had given up much of the quality of in exchange for quantity since his opponents were both too magically incompetent and physically weak to resist. 

"I'll make it painless." 

The sound of bones popping echoed through the atmosphere, each of the hooded figures having their necks snapped 180°, a sea of corpses dropping onto the floor like flies as Takauji's face scrunched up a little. 

["That was brutal."] 

No kidding, I think I'll stick to the sword from now on. The whole Demon King gag might actually become a thing if I keep doing stuff like that. 

Upon looking at the bodies, something Azazel had told him before the conference had begun replayed in his mind. 

Wait a minute, Azazel mentioned some sort of organization his Vice-Governor had been keeping an eye on didn't he? Khaos Brigade was it? Why didn't I think of that earlier? So much for supposedly being intelligent. 

["Aw, you paid more attention to your girlfriend's grocery list than your contractor's words of caution. How cute."] 

Shush.

From what he had been told, the group had been gathering members from all three of the great factions. Namely focusing their recruiting efforts on acquiring criminals and rebels, even having a few Sacred Gear wielders amongst their ranks. Azazel having even confirmed the existence of some Longinus-level gears within their group. 

And the leader was none other than Ophis, the Ouroboros Dragon. An existence feared even by God himself when he was still alive. Someone who stood at the very top of the food chain. 

Oh, it looks like they succeeded. 

All of a sudden Takauji felt the weight pressing down on him vanish completely, signaling that the half-Vampire had indeed been rescued. 

How disappointing, I was expecting some sort of high-level fight but all I was met with was a group of nobodies wearing halloween outfits. Sorry [Null Vene], you'll have to wait a little longer before you get a proper field test. You too, Sayafushi. 

"Well, that was rather anticlimactic wasn't it?" Azazel approached Takauji from behind, with the rest of the faction leaders in tow. 

"Yeah. I was expecting a lot more from people bold enough to attack this event, but it seems I was mistaken." He sighed, handing Fafnir back towards the Governor. 

"Keep it, there's something I want to test out when we move to Kyoto." Azazel already knew that Takauji planned on revealing Raynare to the Gremory's, and doing so would result in him having to leave Kuoh since he would then become an enemy of the town's overseer. 

Also revealing your betrayal, and then proceeding to live just a few minutes away from the person you betrayed was just plain weird. 

Since the incident itself only involved a low-ranking Fallen Angel and a nun whom very few people had on their radar, if anyone at all, it wouldn't warrant any action from the higher-ups. Especially not at a time like this where they had only just managed to secure peace between the three factions. 

"Test?" Takauji tilted his head. 

"Don't worry about it for now–" Both Azazel and Takauji turned around, noticing a Magic Circle belonging to the Leviathan starting to manifest. Which made no sense since the Leviathan was literally a few feet away from them. 

"What a surprise, all three factions not only meeting with one another but acting all buddy-buddy." A tall bespectacled woman appeared from the circle, armed with a voluptuous figure and tan skin accompanied by long brown hair fashioned into a bun. 

She wore an extremely low-cut violet dress with high slits, revealing a large portion of her breasts and legs. 

"Katerea Leviathan is it?" Azazel was the first to speak, appearing to recognise the figure in front of him. "I'm surprised you're still alive and kicking, are you here to throw another tantrum?" However, the Governor didn't seem to take her seriously in the slightest. Despite knowing full well who she had affiliated herself with. 

"Who is she?" Takauji asked. 

"She was a potential Leviathan, until Serafall claimed the role." 

Even Azazel's Magician didn't seem to be all that interested in the woman, sensing a good deal of strength coming from her, but nothing that got him going like when fought Kokabiel. 

"I'd rather an inferior race not put my name in their mouth so casually. Azazel, Governor of the crows." 

"That's no good Katerea, now that our factions are at peace we can't be judging each other by their race." He spoke like a teacher lecturing an unruly preschooler. "Then again, you're working with the Khaos Brigade aren't you? Alongside the rest of those hell-bent dummies." 

"Annoyingly well informed as always," she clicked her tongue. "Indeed, nearly the entire Old Satan faction has allied themselves with Khaos Brigade. And I'm here on behalf of them to take back what is rightfully ours. We will break this world down to its core, and rebuild it into a better one than what you have made it into."

"Uh-huh, I mean I'm all for pursuing your dreams and whatnot, but you don't even have the strength to take out one of us faction leaders, let alone all of us together." He started to scratch his goatee with an aloof expression, annoying the former Leviathan even further. "Oh well, I can tell by your face alone you're not in any state to listen to reason. Demon-kun." He called his Magician. 

"Yes?" 

"You know what to do," he said in a bored tone while picking his ear with his pinky finger. Earning a stiff nod from Takauji. 

["You can handle this one on your own can't you? I'd rather not use my strength on an ant, it's unbecoming."] 

Yeah, at least I'll have a chance to give Sayafushi a somewhat decent test run. 

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Boss-Level fight No.2! Honestly, I like Kokabiel way more than Katerea since he actually felt like an antagonist, whereas Katera was just kind of bratty. 

10+ Advance Chapters: patreon.com/Accel14

Discord Link: KQAtTw9u7x

Word Count: 2079