Chapter 186: Happy Wife, Happy Life

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"We came for the Yokai princess. Give her to us and I promise to make your deaths as painless as possible."

The young man declared while taking the golden spear from his back and brandishing it into a 'ready to attack' position.

Just the act of the dark-purple-haired young man taking a 'ready to attack' position and pointing the golden spear at them had put the Devils teenagers on the edge and they didn't know why. The young man saw their reaction and smiled widely.

"Ah yes. All Devils have the same reaction in the presence of The Longinus."

He said with the smile still present on his face. Now that has got the attention of the Devils. The ones with more time as Devils quickly put the other on par with what the young man had meant with his remark.

"Oh damn… That is the Longinus. The original Sacred Gear that was made from the spear that killed Christ."

Yuuto Kiba said while using his Sacred Gear to summon one of his demonic-holy swords. The interesting thing about his Sacred Gear, Sword Birth, is that after reaching the balance breaker any sword created by it while at that state would remain at his disposal and come at him when asked for. That was a good thing because the creation/birthing of a sword with the use of the balance breaker consumed a lot of his energy and he had a hunch that he would need to be at full power for this battle.

"So that's why we had such a bad feeling about the spear?"

Aika Kiryuu said while getting some spells ready to release. The blonde knight only nodded his head in answer to that question while making a humming sound.

"Ok. Got it. Golden spear is bad. Don't be touched by it."

Issei Hyoudou said while summoning his Sacred Gear, the Boosted Gear, and taking a ready-to-fight position while the mechanical voice was heard saying 'BOOST'. No way in the Underworld would he or any of his friends give up without a fight or deliver such a cute little girl to them. It was then that Issei Hyoudou, who was on the edge until this moment, relaxed a bit. He had just remembered who exactly was with them too and gave a quick look at Erik.

"Go on, have fun fighting them. And don't worry about Kunou's safety or The Longinus. It will not enter the battlefield."

Erik said to Issei Hyoudou and the other Devils. He had, at the moment that the dark-purple-haired young man appeared, and the teenagers got distracted, snatched Kunou to the safety of his arms. The dark-purple-haired young man seemed to have heard Erik's line to Issei Hyoudou and his eyebrow raised at that.

"Oh? You seem to be sure that I will not enter the battlefield. And why would that be?"

The young man said in a mocking tone. His senses could get nothing from the man who was now holding their target in his arms, so he took the man for someone with little to no magic inside his body that somehow had resisted their magic that sent normal people away.

"Because the moment that The Longinus enters the battlefield, I will enter the battlefield too. And that would mean game over for you and your merry band of heroes wannabees."

Erik replied to the young man with his usual smile. The young man chuckled at that, not noticing one of his 'people' running to where he was standing now.

"Really? And what could you do about it? You are just a normal human that somehow resisted the magic that sent the others away."

The young man said with a condescending smile on his face and a look of mockery in his eyes. Erik didn't answer the young man and just continued to smile. For him, the situation was somewhat funny. It had been a long time since someone that was 'in power' of a faction or group in the supernatural world didn't recognize him. At that moment a dark-brown-haired young man reached the side of his 'leader' while panting.

"Cao Cao, stop. We must retreat."

The dark-brown-haired young man said to the dark-purple-haired young man, now identified as Cao Cao, with some fear and urgentness present in his voice. The leader frowned at his ally.

"And why would we do that George? You know very well that for our plan to come into fruition we need to get our hand in the fox's spawn."

Cao Cao asked the dark-brown-haired young man, now identified as George while pointing out the importance of this mission to their plans.

"That apparently normal man is Erik Ravenclaw."

George said with the urgentness and fear still present in his voice.

"So you know his name, but why would I care if he is Erik Ra-."

Cao Cao started to say, rebuking George's warning while scowling. That is until he, Cao Cao, realized the weight behind the name that he was going to say and stopped in his tracks. Cao Cao then looked from George to Erik and saw the still smiling figure of the man that now had some amusement mixed to it and ran the description of him through his mind. And it checked out with his memories of the description of the man and the rough picture that they had of him. Cao Cao then turned back to look at George.

"We are retreating. Pass down the order."

Cao Cao said seriously. The carefree and mocking attitude had disappeared from his face and was nowhere to be seen. Meeting Erik Ravenclaw, the strongest human to have ever lived, was not in his plan. It was not in any of his possible-to-happen plans to say the truth. George nodded his head in a show of understanding of the order and was ready to call it when they heard Erik's voice booming through the area.

"Oh? Why are you going so soon?"

Erik said in a 'happy' tone and followed suit by raising his free hand and snapping his fingers.

*SNAP*

The snapping sound of Erik's finger resounded in the ears of everyone in the area while a feeling of incoming doom appeared in the back of Cao Cao and George's minds. In an instant, faster than anyone there had seen before, a gigantic dark-blue magic circle with a raven in the center of it covered the entire area, swallowing the initial barrier that had been put up whole, disappearing as fast as it came after staying in place for a second. George was gobsmacked with that cast speed and got even more when he felt what the spell had just done. He looked at Cao Cao and fear was evident on his face.

"H-He just hijacked the control of the ward that I put around the place."

George announced to Cao Cao while stuttering. Cao Cao's reaction to that news was only seen by the quick widening of his eyes. The young man then quickly turned to look at Erik again, and what he saw sent a chill up his spine. Erik Ravenclaw was still smiling at them, but the smile was not reaching his eyes now.

"You really thought that you could come to Kyoto, try to kidnap someone very dear to me, threaten my students with death, and then just leave whenever you want?"

Erik said slowly and loudly to them. Almost everyone could feel in the back of their necks the edge that his word contained. Cao Cao even more as he snapped to look at George at a speed that normal people would be sure was enough to break a person's neck.

"Geoge, get us out of here. NOW!"

Cao Cao said to George with a lot of urgency in his tone.

"On it!"

George replied to Cao Cao while raising both arms to his front in a way to concentrate quicker to activate his Sacred Gear. Two seconds later and nothing had happened. While this was happening, Cao Cao put himself in between Erik and George in a way to protect the dark-brown-haired young man while he got them out of there. But ten seconds passed and what Cao Cao expected to happen, didn't.

"George? What is going on? Why are we still here?"

Cao Cao asked George with some concern.

"I… I can't seem to activate my Sacred Gear."

George replied to Cao Cao, who turned to look at him. What he saw was the sweating face of George that was still trying to activate his Sacred Gear. In response to that, Cao Cao turned to look at Erik again while squinting his eyes.

"What have you done to him?"

Cao Cao asked Erik, who continued to smile.

"Do you think that this is the first time that I encountered a host of the Sacred Gear Dimension Lost?"

Erik replied to Cao Cao and George with some amusement showing on his face

"But it is nothing permanent. I assure you of that. You see, the last user of that Sacred Gear, besides your friend there, of course, had been forced once by a group of ill-intentioned people to transport them inside my home, The Nexus. They had this brilliant idea that once there, they would be free to wreak havoc and even loot the place as they desired. Sadly for them, that was not what happened. I am a person that is very fond of my family and no effort is too much for me when it means safeguarding them. The ill-intentioned group didn't count on other safety measures in place and got caught the moment that they stepped inside The Nexus. Since the host of Dimension Lost had no ill intent on my home, he was safe and sound, and, with a little help from me, got his family safely rescued from the ill-intentioned group. At the time, my price for helping him with the addition of putting some safe measures around his home had been his help with my investigation into the properties of his Sacred Gear, the Dimension Lost. It took a while, but I successfully learned what made this specific Sacred Gear work. Based on that knowledge, I upgraded the wards around my home so nothing like that could happen again ever."

Erik said, telling Cao Cao and George why they would have a hard time getting out. George was white as a sheet of paper after hearing that. To him, his Sacred Gear was the ultimate 'get away card', his always-free guarantee. But now it seemed that things were not as he thought and there was one person aside from that 'maniac Devil' that could 'make him stay' when he didn't want to.

"As I see, the only way for you to get out of here is by defeating my students."

Erik announced to Cao Cao and George, making the Devils snap back to look at Erik.

"Teacher, what are you doing?"

Issei Hyoudou asked Erik the question that was in the head of everyone right now. He was not very fond of the idea of having to fight these people. Even more when most of them appeared to be Sacred Gears holders.

"Calm down, Mr. Hyoudou. This is an opportunity for you and the others to fight against people that use different strategies. Fighting always with the same people will end up hampering your development. Take this as an extra lesson in becoming stronger and training for the incoming Rating Games. Use them as your sharpening stones."

Erik said again to Issei Hyoudou, lighting up a fire in the boy's eyes.

"Will you really let us leave here after defeating them?"

Cao Cao asked Erik with suspicions. Erik nodded his head.

"Sure, whoever wins, can leave. My initial idea was to just get rid of you all right here, and right now. But I don't want to be the reason for your patron appearing here, in the middle of Kyoto, after I had separated your head from the rest of your body. A fight between the two of us would not leave the city standing after it. Amaterasu and Yasaka would be sad about it, which means that my wives would be mad at me for being the reason for their friends being that way. And I would prefer to avoid that situation."

Erik said to Cao Cao, shocking him with the revelation that he knew exactly who was his patron. He had long learned that the secret to having a happy life was to keep your wives happy. Happy wife, happy life.

"But my initial saying remains: If The Longinus enters the battlefield, I enter the battlefield too."

Erik added with a new smile on his face. A smile that sent some chills down the spine of Cao Cao and George.

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