"H-hey, Kisuke... Are you sure about this?" Sona asked in concern as she ran towards him.
Kisuke patted her head with a smile and said, "It's fine. This is also for the future."
Sona sighed and knew that the way they do things would change from now on, "I see... Good luck then."
"What about me!? What about me, your precious big sister!?" Serafall dropped down from the sky and started complaining with an aggrieved face.
While fixing her glasses' position, Sona faced her with a blank face and said, "You'll be fine, nee-sama."
"Wh-!?" Shocked, Serafall immediately turned her angry expression towards Kisuke, "Let's take this outside!"
Chuckling, Kisuke readied some teleportation magic, "Sure. I know a good place that is a largely uninhabited jungle where you can let off some steam."
"Great! Take me there!" Serafall stepped on the magic circle and the two of them instantly disappeared.
"H-Huh!? That magic..." Lefiya immediately recognized the familiar teleportation magic and looked towards Riveria. However, Riveria didn't have any particular reaction regarding this as she already guessed he's the one who saved them from the two corrupted spirits.
"We have to thank him later," replied Riveria.
However, Yoruichi interjected into their conversation and said, "You don't have to. He didn't do it for you lot, but for the three who were with you at that time."
Riveria smiled wryly and said, "I know. Regardless, I'd like to thank him because he indirectly saved us."
Yoruichi looked at her while thinking, 'Though Kisuke and I think that those two corrupted spirits only rushed up because they felt either Sona's Demonic Power, Koneko's Ki or Aika's Reiatsu.'
Yoruichi then faced Sona and asked, "Do you have it?"
Sona nodded and replied, "I do, but I still have to ask Nee-sama for the channel connection. Excuse me."
Walking a few meters away, a small magic circle suddenly appeared beside her left ear and started talking, "Nee-sama, please connect your 'eyes' to my video feed so that we can watch you two."
From the small magic circle, Serafall's voice rang out, "Sure~! Done!"
"Thank you."
Since the Loki Familia were still shocked at the previous revelations, they couldn't ask about Sona's Communication Magic. They already had too much to think about.
While Serafall was setting up the video feed, Yoruichi remembered something and addressed everyone from Loki Familia again, "A moment."
"Yes?" asked Tiona.
"Although we're willing to teach you a few things, I'd like to ask everyone here to keep what you're about to see a secret."
Riveria nodded at her and said, "That won't be a problem. If needed, we'll swear on our Falna."
"You don't have to take it that far. Your words are enough and we'll trust you. And one last thing," Yoruichi subsequently panned her head to look at everyone from the Loki Familia with her eyes stopping on Ais for a second, before looking back to Riveria, "From now on, if you have problems, Kisuke, Medusa, Kuroka, Serafall and I won't be directly helping even if you ask for help."
Riveria and the others became confused at her words. Similar to them, Sona and the others also became confused, wondering what she meant by that.
Loki, on the other hand, asked Yoruichi, "In other words, it's fine to ask the rest of Hestia and Artemis Familia?"
With a big smile, Yoruichi confirmed it, "Yep~! Unless it is something extremely important, the five of us won't make any more moves."
Loki looked straight into her eyes and asked again, "Why is that?"
"You'll understand after watching their sparring session," Yoruichi grinned at her and turned towards Sona.
A second later, a large screen suddenly appeared in midair, depicting a sea of trees and two individuals hovering on top of them about 50 meters apart. Although one of them is in a bikini while the other is in swimming trunks, nobody commented about it.
"This is...?" murmured Tione in astonishment.
"It's similar to when the Gods use their powers to watch an ongoing Wargame between Familias," answered Yoruichi.
Understanding that, everyone intently watched the two individuals on the screen and heard them talking, "Even though this is just a sparring, don't hold back!" said Serafall.
"You do know that it'd be pretty bad for you and me if I don't hold back, so I'll go with reasonable force," Kisuke said as he pulled out the blade from his cane with a wry smile.
With a big smile, Serafall replied, "Be careful though. I'll be pouring out all my resentment on you for taking away my precious Sona-chan~!"
"I figured that you would do jus-," but before he could finish his words, a tower of ice covered his spot, freezing the trees below him in an instant.
However, Kisuke was already nowhere to be seen until he suddenly appeared beside Serafall, brandishing his blade.
Serafall already saw through this and she immediately erected a magic barrier between him and her, intercepting the blade with a loud clang, "You didn't even let me finish talking," Kisuke complained.
"Was there a need to?" As Serafall replied with a smile, hundreds of javelins made out of ice manifested in all directions around Kisuke and descended towards him. The javelins pierced through Kisuke, however, it was just an afterimage of him as he suddenly reappeared 50 meters away from Serafall, resetting the battlefield.
Clicking her tongue, Serafall commented, "It's really a very strange movement technique. To accelerate so much without much effort in an instant, it could be considered as a secret technique of a large and powerful clan."
Nevertheless, Kisuke just shrugged his shoulders and said, "As good as it may seem, you already figured out its weakness, so it's only slightly effective for dodging and repositioning."
Ever since Kisuke had used Flash Step in his battle with Ares, he already knew that its weakness of being too linear and predictable would be revealed. Even back in the Seireitei, unless one was extremely proficient in it, using it in the middle of a battle could prove to be disadvantageous most of the time, as a stationary and skilled opponent could instead anticipate your movements and take countermeasures.
In high-level battles, one would mostly just use Flash Step if it's safe to maneuver around and combatants would rather be slow but nimble instead of fast but predictable.
Serafall pouted and said, "Still a very annoying technique since you can easily make space for yourself."
Meanwhile, those who were watching them were having differing expressions, "Hoh~! As expected of someone who went and led a war. Her combat sense must have been developed through many experiences," Yoruichi commented.
"So this is how the leaders fight, huh. The way they move is really different from those of the younger generations. Even the fluctuation of powers are kept to a minimum," Akeno added, swearing to work harder in the future.
"Still can't believe Kisuke-kun can keep up with her, though... Serafall-sama is someone on the same level as Michael-sama, after all," For Irina, even if she watched Kisuke's battle with Ares, she could only truly appreciate his strength when compared directly to someone she knows and looks up to.
Sona, on the other hand, sighed, "This large disparity in Magic mastery... I thought that I already caught up to her even slightly, but as always, she seems so far away... Nee-sama..."
"You don't have to worry about that, nyaa~! I knew for sure that your Magic control has become a lot better these days compared to when we just arrived here. Besides, she's a Satan-Class for a reason," Kuroka comforted Sona.
Meanwhile, everyone from the Loki Familia was speechless. But thanks to her not thinking very deeply, Tiona was the first one to react, "W-what was that? What the hell was that magic? She can freeze an area that large without any prior warnings? If that was me standing there, I would have been caught without even knowing what's happening!"
Gritting her teeth, Tione added, "I don't think anyone in Orario could have dodged that. Who would expect magic faster than chantless to exist? And on such a large scale too?"
"Riveria-sama..." Lefiya looked up to Riveria, asking for her input.
But before she could say anything, from the screen, they suddenly heard words that they couldn't understand yet sounded very familiar, "Celsius Cross Trigger~!"
A few seconds later, the world of green became a world of ice as far as one's eyes could see.
"H-how is that possible!!!?"
It was Riveria's cry of surprise.
Editors:
28th00: Serafall’s signature technique that can reliably “Freeze a small country like Japan” solid. When you think of the underworld as basically earth, but with the oceans and land masses inverted, you get insanely large battlefields during wars. The size of small countries at the least when everyone is above superhuman specs for speed, range and attack sizes. I wonder, is Levia-tan a battle junkie? She’s having a lot of fun fighting...