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Chapter 66 ~ Fall of the Man Eating Tiger

A white, inconspicuous, truck marched down the street towards the Yokohama Branch’s Magic Association building. 

Within was a special force, picked from the already thinning numbers of the Great Asian Union’s forces sent to Japan for this mission, Lu Gang Hu, and Chen Xiang Shan, two core members of the special force leading this attack on one of Japan’s Magic Association Branch.

Chen Xiang Shan stood with a worried expression, his gaze directed towards his fellow captain and main fighting force of this little squad set to infiltrate their main objective. 

Lu Gang Hu, a large, muscular, bulk of a man, the S-ranked magician of the Great Asian Union’s special forces, sat there in his white, black, and gold battle outfit with his arms resting on his knees. Bandages peeked out of the seams of his armor, a glimpse of the many bandages that covered most of his still heavily injured body.

The fight within the Detention Center, in which he encountered students of First High School during his mission to eliminate Sekimoto Isao, had given him much more trouble than he ever expected. 

Although they were all incredible mages that managed to corner him, a particular individual rend him into this state with inconceivable magic. 

Most of the bones in his body were still broken, only set together forcefully with magic. It hurt just to sit there with every rock of the truck causing him to wince inwardly from pain. 

But, he still had a duty to fulfill and a mission to accomplish. He was the spearhead of this operation, and the spearhead was not allowed to break under any circumstances, no matter how chipped it was. 

“We will now launch Plan B. Lieutenant Lu… I know that you are heavily injured, but hold on until after this mission. Forget about revenge. From the beginning, it was our mistake to obsess over a relic of unknown value and not collect enough information about the fighting power of those we may encounter. We will not make the same mistake.”

“Understood.”

“Good. Then, let’s go.”

--------------------------------X--------------------------------

Upon their arrival near the entrance to the Magic Associacion Yokohama Branch, chaos ensued almost immediately. 

Police forces and security teams of the Magic Association had set up multiple lines of defenses in front of the entrance, barricading it with rows of cars and using it as their cover at the same time. 

And the moment Lu Gang Hu and his army alighted from the truck, a rain of bullets and spells immediately showered them.

However, with his Steel Qi Gong, a magic technique that involves the use of Qi Gong to apply a high density layer of Psion on the skin and reinforcing it, Lu Gang Hu was able to march forward along with his army behind him, tanking the bullets and attacks as his army made their counter attack from behind him. 

Then, once he was in range, Lu Gang Hu dashed into the center of their defense and used everything he had to wreck the multiple rows of cars with a single blow of his fist enhanced by his Coiled Silk Force spell. The ancient magic technique that used the entire nervous system to create a spiraling force at the point of impact created a powerful whirlwind that blew away the heavy barricade along with the defending forces.

A few cars burst into flames. Most, utterly wrecked as if they were hit by a speeding truck. 

And using this opening, his army gained momentum and continued to push their line forward, firing at the enemy flanks, who were caught off guard by their line of defense suddenly being broken that quickly. 

Meanwhile, hidden by the cloud of dust and smoke, Lu Gang Hu breathed heavily. 

With his condition and injuries, this was his only choice to create a distraction big enough to let Chen infiltrate the building while pinning most of the defending force here. He could not fight in a prolonged battle. He needed to strike fast, and strike true. 

However, with that strike alone, he had already used up a majority of his energy. At most, he’d only be able to fight for another ten minutes against these grunts before the pain in his body robbed him of his consciousness. 

Unfortunately, just as the cloud of dust began to settle, a familiar feminine figure appeared before him. 

This time, clad in a lean suit of armor and headgear that still showed her familiar countenance, he saw the swordswoman she encountered in the detention center standing there with her unique sword drawn. 

And behind her, dressed in First High’s school uniform, was the other woman who wielded ice magic during his fight against them. 

A look of recognition widened his eyes, before a feral grin of fierce excitement replaced his shock. 

He was told not to think of revenge. But, it seemed that the opportunity had come to him on a silver platter instead. 

A rush of adrenaline and excitement numbed the excruciating pain from his barely healed bones scratching and piercing his muscles, and the man-eating tiger leaped towards the swordswoman. 

Mari immediately brandished her swords, extending them into a whip, and strike before he reached too close into her space. 

But, his lightning fast reaction time and the combat experience he had accumulated over the years made up for his slowing speed caused by his injuries. 

He dodged by bending backwards, did a backflip, and launched forward once again with the momentum he had gained.

Lu Gang Hu readied his weapon, covering his entire arm with his Steel Qi Gong spell and preparing to use his Coiled Silk Force at the moment of impact against the swords woman's body. But before he could reach her, a loud war cry from his right stole his attention. 

“Haaaaaah!!! Panzer!!!”

A young man, dressed in First high’s male uniform, holding a sword with an extremely thin, almost transparent, black blade rushed towards him. 

He swung, forcing Lu Gang Hu to halt in his charge and duck downward. Then, using the attack he had readied for the swordswoman, he unleashed a powerful punch towards the man. 

“Shi-! Kuuhh!!!”

Leo, who was just about to swing once again, was forced to defend against the unexpected speed of the hulk of a man in heavy armor. He crossed his arms, used whatever amount of fortification he could muster in this split second, and braced himself. And in the next moment, a force equivalent, or even more powerful, than the amount of force he received when he was hit by a speeding motorbike struck him, blowing him away into a car a few meters away. 

Lu Gang Hu breathed heavily once again. Both of his arms, normally bursting with power and strength, were now trembling from the sheer impact of hitting the barely reinforced arms of the highschool boy. His legs, normally stout and sturdy, were similarly shaking at the weight of his own body and the battle.

The appearance of these talented young mages, who had proven to be more of a thorn in his side than the regular police and soldiers, was beyond his expectations… Now, he might not even last five minutes.

Suddenly, his instincts flared and he immediately jumped and dodged to his left. And in the next moment, a flurry of icicles struck the ground he was standing on previously. 

He looked up towards the woman who had just cast the spell with clenched teeth. But once again, before he could charge towards her, his instincts flared once again, telling him to dodge sideways. 

This time, however, he failed to do so in time as a massive, long katana blade swung down, forcing him to raise both of his arms in defense. 

The impact shattered the ground into a spider-web pattern from one of his knees as the blade hit his steel, Qi Gong reinforced gauntlets.

His teeth clenched as he tried to withstand the heavy blow that came from a petite orange-red head girl. He mustered his strength, concentrating his last bit of power into his crossed arms. But just as he was about to blow her and her sword away with a powerful push, the girl flickered away in orange-red light, suddenly appearing a little bit over two meters away from him. 

His arms, now spread apart after his desperate attempt to push back and counter attack the girl’s assault, failed to muster power to protect his defenseless torso. 

And in a blink of an eye, the girl flickered back towards him with her massive, long katana raised high into the sky. 

She swung down, her blade immediately cracking and shattering his armor that had been solely reinforced by his quickly depleting magic thus far, and slashed across his chest and torso. 

Blood splattered into the air before falling onto the ground. And at that moment, the man-eating tiger had finally fallen as Lu Gang Hu fell unconscious. 

--------------------------------X--------------------------------

As expected… The defenses are well concentrated here as well. Are they simply more prepared than us? Are we just unlucky…? Or do they somehow read our plans…?

Questions filled the mind of Chen Xiang Shan as he silently walked in the empty corridors of the Magic Association building. 

With the distraction caused by Lu Gang Hu and his army at the entrance, most of the defenses within had been relocated to the front. Thus, Chen could easily evade and hide his presence from the remaining sentries using his Ghost Walker ability. 

The ancient magic spell allows the user to manipulate vectors, including redirecting other people’s attention to a desired location at will. People with their vectors scrambled would never be able to locate and target the user, much like if they were to chase after someone without ever being able to catch up, or walking in circles while believing they’re walking straight. 

With this ability, he was able to walk casually into the magic association building without any one ever finding him or even looking at him. 

Chen finally arrived before a mahogany double door with the words “Magic Association Main Office” carved into a polished wooden sign above it. 

He took out a device from his pocket and pressed it against the authentication device on the side of the door. 

The alarm and security system were triggered and red lights began to fill the corridor he was in. But the door opened, allowing him to reach the main goal of his mission. 

A sense of relief and fulfillment filled his heart. He was now here. Everything he had done. Everything he had sacrificed. They were worth it now that he was here. 

He took a step forward and entered casually. His lips curled into a smirk that belied the calm and composed nature he wanted to show. But then, he froze in mid step upon seeing what was before him. 

The office was empty… Utterly empty. Not even a single piece of paper, document, computer, or soul was there. 

Just then, cold mist began to envelop him. And a beautiful, bell-like voice of a young girl resounded from his side.

“So this is the Ghost Walker?”

His eyes widened for an instant before he forced a calm look on his face as he looked towards the voice.

“Shiba Miyuki…”

“It seems like you really know who I am… They were right, after all. You are the one who’s been following me and my brother around lately, Chen Xiang Shan.”

“How did you- No… Why are you here…? How is my spell not working on you?”

“I have already been warned about it. That I should be careful not to lose my bearing. In all honesty, that alone meant nothing to me. But I thought, if I was wary of all four directions, 360 degrees, I would manage somehow.”

“What…?”

“Fortunately, my best friend had predicted your every single movement and actions. And with a magician who can see the invisible on my side, she could still spot you even if your spell made you slightly invisible.”

“Predicted… my every action…?”

Chen stood frozen, not from the freezing mist that pricked his skin, but from her words. 

It was… impossible. If what she said was true, then… Then everything… made sense.

A realization finally came to him. All the answers he had been seeking. They were now answered. 

How prepared the defenses were for their attack. The heavy defenses in every single point they plan to strike. Lu Gang Hu’s encounter with the suspicious individual in pure black, who they assumed was from the military. The powerful mages assigned to protect Sekimoto Isao, the target he assigned Lu Gang Hu to eliminate and prevent information about them being leaked.

It all made sense if someone truly divined his actions somehow… But that’s just-

“Impossible!”

“Impossible or not, it is the truth. At any rate, if you’re truly the mastermind behind this, then we can rest assured for the time being if we make you disappear.”

The cold wind blew stronger towards Chen as frost began to creep up from the floor to his legs, his torso, his arms, and his face, encompassing every single part of his body. 

“Please rest for a while. Thanks to my best friend, I have improved my technique in many ways, so there shouldn’t be any danger of you not waking up.”

--------------------------------X--------------------------------

The fight around Yokohama Bay Hills Tower Area concluded extremely quickly. 

Before the might of the Sahasranama, Mahesvara, and the Divine Light, the difference in power before the defenders and the invaders were too painfully apparent. 

Their tanks and robots were turned into either scrap piles of metals and gore or ash in an instant. While any successful hit and attacks the Great Asian Union soldiers achieved against the flying “demons” were quickly undone by the divine light’s blessings. 

Their retreat quickly turned into a rout and their commanding ship quickly made their escape from the Yokohama pier. 

“Captain Yanagi, should we pursue them?”

“Leave the stragglers to the backup unit. We’re launching a direct assault on the enemy ship-”

[Captain Yanagi, please refrain from any direct attacks on the enemy ship.]

Just then, a beautiful voice of a woman resounded from within their communication unit installed within each soldiers’ helmet.

“Fujibayashi, what’s the deal?”

[The enemy ship is equipped with hydrazine fuel batteries. If we were to damage the vessel in Tokyo Bay, the adverse effects on marine life would be too severe.]

“...Then what do you want me to do?”

[Fall back, Yanagi.]

Another voice came. This time of a man.

“Commander?”

[Don’t get the wrong idea. This doesn’t mean the end of operation. Let Tsurumi and Fujisawa units handle the sweep of the enemy remnants, and return to base for now.]

“Understood.”

With that, the rest of the Yanagi squad returned to base except for the three special officers, who had been called onto the roof of the Yokohama Bay Hills Tower. 

There, Major Kazama, Fujibayashi Kyouko, and Captain Sanada were already there waiting for them. 

“How did the sweeping operations go?”

Major Kazama ask, and Kyouko answered.

“We are more or less done. There are still some sporadic fighting going on, but that should die down some time tonight.”

“Good.”

“About the evacuation shelter that got buried underneath Sakuragicho Station, a temporary tunnel is scheduled to open up by tomorrow.”

Sanada reported.

“What about the enemy vessel?”

“It’s heading south down Sagaminada at 30 knots. It’s approximately halfway between the Boso Peninsula and Oshima. There should be no issues if we sink it there.”

Kazama nodded to Kyouko’s words and turned towards Yuuji.

“Special Officer Akatsuki. Sink the enemy vessel using “Abyss”.”

Yuuji’s eyes widened in shock beneath his helm as he looked at the Major in shock. 

This… This wasn’t what happened in the anime!!! No, many things that didn’t happen in the anime happen now because of his and Aika’s presence. But this…? Why is he the one to sink the fleeing vessel? Wasn’t Tatsuya supposed to be the one to do it? There’s no reason for him to do it instead.

And to go so far as to have him use the “Abyss”...

It was a strategic-class magic equivalent to Tatsuya’s Material Burst. Yuuji himself had never used it, but it seems like he had used it once before according to his memories to erase a fleet of Great Asian Union’s warships during the Okinawa defense battle. 

And from his memories… he knew how terrifying of a spell it was. It… It doesn’t destroy. It simply erases.

Yuuji fell speechless at his superior officer’s order, and just as he was about to ascertain the major’s decision, Sanada spoke up.

“Although they’re already far enough away as to not cause harm to our marine lives upon their destruction, it’s still better to destroy it… in a much less destructive way. That is why your magic is more suitable for this, special officer.”

“I see…”

Yuuji slowly nodded at Sanada’s words. 

That made sense… Although its already far enough to be safely targeted by Tatsuya’s spell, it’s still in Japanese water. With Yuuji and his spell in their disposal instead of only Tatsuya, his spell that could affect only the target he intended would be the better alternative. 

“Understood.”

Yuuji nodded and stepped up towards the edge of the tower’s roof. 

He raised his golden gun forward, closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and expanded his elemental sight further than ever. 

As he concentrated, he felt an arm wrapping around his waist and another holding his extended arm from behind. And then, a familiar warmness enveloped him from behind. 

“I’ll help too~”

Aika said in a cheery voice and activated her “heal” spell and elemental sight. Yuuji was uninjured and it would’ve taken much more than the battles he had gone through today to even make a dent into his stamina reserves. But, the warmth and comfort her spell and her presence brought allowed him to delve even further into his focus and concentration. And her elemental sight lessened the percentage of his own elemental sight he’d have to spend to clearly see the fleeing target tens of kilometers away.

“Mm. Thank you.”

Yuuji took a deep breath once more and opened his eyes. 

Particles of lights and wind began to surround the two as both with the increasing amount of Psions the two were releasing. 

Then, once he locked onto his target, he pulled the trigger of his “Aegis” and activated the strategic-class magic, “Abyss”. 

The spell creates a distortion of spacetime curvature that would affect only its target. 

Every matter that exists in this universe has its own spacetime curvature that is caused by its own mass, no matter how small. Most were small enough to be negligible. However, the larger and more dense the matter was, the greater its spacetime curvature. 

A planet would have a large curvature, allowing it to pull on its moons and various smaller planetary objects around it. A star would have an even larger curvature due to its mass, allowing it to pull on even planets billions of kilometers away from it into its orbit. 

A large enough space time curvature could distort even space and time itself, in a phenomenon called Gravitational Space Time Distortion. One with such powerful space time curvature would be a black hole. 

The spacetime curvature Yuuji created was by no means as powerful as a blackhole. However, although he had never tried his limit, it was possible for him to create a spacetime distortion on par with a massive planet or a small star. 

His spell created a spacetime curvature 1/100th of that several hundred meters above the target. But, that was enough to create a massive gravitational difference between the “top” of the target and its “bottom”, causing the top to be pulled upwards much faster than the bottom, stretching it vertically, and causing the phenomenon called “Spaghettification”. 

Every single atom of his target would be pulled at different rates from each other, ripping them apart utterly and completely in an instant, and torn into its constituent molecules and atoms. 

To onlookers, his target would turn slightly red as the light coming from it loses energy from trying to escape the spell’s vicinity. And then, it would disappear.

It’d all happen in an instant, faster than a blink of an eye and completely silent. The vicinity around the spell would darken slightly in that short period of time, and his target would disappear, as if it had been consumed by the abyss itself.

It was the complete opposite of Tatsuya’s spell, which was akin to a nuclear weapon that destroys everything in its path. He simply erases his targets from existence without a sound.

And just like that, the moment he pulled the trigger, the Great Asian Union’s ship disappeared from existence. 

“Elimination of the enemy ship has been confirmed.”

Kyouko reported after confirming its disappearance from the satellite footage she was receiving in her tablet.

Major Kazama nodded at her and turned towards Yuuji and Aika.

“Good work, special officer. We will now return to base for the final operation.”

““Yes!””

--------------------------------X--------------------------------

Upon returning to base, just like in the anime, Tatsuya was given the order to annihilate the Great Asian Union’s fleet. 

And just like that, the Scorched Halloween, the event that was a turning point not only in military history, but in his history itself, happened. 

A phenomenon that proved that magic, and magic alone, determined the outcome between victory and defeat. 

A true dawn of history for the race known as magicians in all of his high glory and darkest suffering. 

Having just fired the spell equivalent to a nuclear weapon, Tatsuya lowered the “Third Eye” rifle-shaped CAD and looked at the massive screen before him that showed the massive crater that was the Jinhae Naval Port and Geojedo Base offshore. 

He felt no regret from firing the spell that annihilated an entire fleet of ships. There was no sadness for having taken the lives of so many people. Not even relief for having annihilated the enemy that threatened his nation.

There was only emptiness. 

But just then, he felt two hands on both of his shoulders. 

“You did well… Let’s take a rest after this.”

Tatsuya turned to his left and saw Yuuji there with a soft, gentle smile. 

“That’s right~ We’ve had a suuuuuuper long day~ So let’s quickly go home and take a nice long rest~”

He turned to his right and saw Aika with her usual cheerful grin and playful wink directed at him. 

And this time, he felt something rising within his chest. A warmth. A sense of comfort, relief… and gratefulness for having the chance to meet such wonderful friends. 

Becoming a member of the Multiverse Group Chat was truly a blessing.

“Oh! Better yet, let’s all go on a vacation~! We can just call in sick from school for a few days~”

““Eh?””

“Wait, Aika-”

“Hehe~ It’s decided~ I’ll invite Erika, Mayumi, and Miyuki to join too~! Let’s all ditch school and have fun~!!!”