Augusta was cursing to herself that whoever got in her way would pay for stopping her but each word that came out of her mouth only made her doom more and more sealed than it already was.

Jun descended from the skies, crashing down on top of Augusta before she could even react, cushing flesh and bone.

"That was a wonderful sound, like stepping on crunchy leaves during autumn." Jun carelessly commented.

Walburga who watched from a distance almost became wet with arousal at Jun's cruel arrival, a Sadistic witch to the core.

Augusta teleported a short distance away because she could go no further as a force she did not understand prevented her from doing so.

"Who are you!?" The old Witch questioned.

"The master of the shadow you just killed and also . . . Your executioner." Jun spoke as he collected Nox's remnants from the area with the Akashic converter.

"You!? You were the one that got in my way!" Augusta exclaimed with cold rage, summoning her flaming giant form of the Incinerate Anthem

Jun called upon his Dragon Runes and, with the utmost of his mental processing concocted the most evil, cruel and painful curse he could conceive and charged.

He summoned Eversor in its lance form and tore through the flaming giant like a piece of wet tissue paper before channeling the curse into his arm making it seem transparent as it phased through Augusta's physical body and applied the curse on her very soul.

The witch's soul began to rot and her bodie followed causing her to suffer unimaginable pain as her disciple Walburga, touched herself to the spectacle, far in the distance.

Only the Incinerate Anthem was left of Augusta in the form of a tangible flame, it tried to escape but Jun caught it.

What he didn't expect, was that the witch had put a slight bit of her remaining will into the sacred gear making it inject its holy flames into Jun as soon as he grabbed a hold of it.

Jun immediately placed it in the Akashic Converter and activated Dragon Burst on his arm at maximum power to stop the insidious flame.

He succeeded . . . But his arm crumbled to ash, never to be healed again as his very soul corresponding to that arm had been incinerated, making even his powerful regeneration helpless.

"FUCK!"

It was Jun's second miscalculation today, and while the first was a costly but honest mistake, the second was the result of his willing giving into his rage and act without properly thinking things through.

Thankfully, there were more idiots that didn't know their place around. Walburga had already scurried off, rightly worried that Jun's wrath might turn her way but two roaches from the church that were spying in the battle had yet to leave as Jun used Shukuchi (A) to appear right in front of them.

"The corrupt and hypocritical Church. The fuck you doing here?" Jun asked, clearly picking a fight.

Despite Jun's words enraging him, the older one of the two man team, a middle aged man in his mid-thirties of Italian lineage with dark brown hair which is slicked back, as well as a growing beard and mustache. He is seen to be dressed in the typical clothing of an exorcist and priest, silently took up a stance with his holy sword.

His charge, a younger but still quite recognisable Freed Sellzen, did the same with a lower grade holy sword. It was nameless compared to Galatine, the flaming holy sword carried by his mentor.

"You two seem to like swords . . ." Jun suddenly said, getting a very good idea.

'Let's test this out.

"Null Myriad: Phantasmal Origin!"

Jun deployed his reality marble and drew them both into the Phantasmal Origin layer. Inside, Jun could play Gilgamesh and just toss out countless weapons on his targets. He could even play vlad and make them jut out from the ground.

Now, a truly powerful being could just avoid being pulled in or even overwhel Jun despite being him being on his home ground but the two exorcists were none of these and thus, without even getting a word out, they got turned into porcupines.

'Shit! I wanted to the Nasuverse after this but I better find a way to fix my arm first . . .' Jun thought.

'Fighting heroic spirits which such a handicap does not seem like a good idea they won't be nearly as easy as these fools after all.' He considered.

"At least I got Incinerate Anthem and Galatine . . ." Jun tried to see the silver lining.

"Silver huh?" He said to himself.

'That gives me an idea . . .' Jun pondered.

'Later though.' He put it off and retook his reality marble within him.

Then he took out Lavinia who saw the whole battle through Nyx's eyes and had recovered from her previous state, throwing herself at Nox with abandon, tears running down her face.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! It's all my fault!" She kept repeating.

In the end the other arrived to this and after they discussed the situation, they all went home with both Jun and Lavinia refusing medical care, the later because she wanted to stay by the former's side.

After they returned home, Jun went to his workshop and Lavinia quietly stuck to him, refusing to let go, the empty left sleeve of his clothes, a grim reminder to everyone of the seriousness of the events.

Once the two of them were alone though, Jun tried to talk to her.

"Lavi-chan." He called to no response.

"Lavi-chan!" He called once again, a little louder. He felt Lavinia twitch but she still did not respond.

Jun then turned around and hugged her, whispering in her ear.

"Lavi . . . Don't blame yourself, it was my choice and to me . . . You're worth so much more than a single arm." Jun lovingly said.

Lavinia looked up in tears, no words to say, a blush gracing her cheeks and slightly parted lips. Without another word, the two kissed. A chaste kiss with no lust and only love.

After letting his emotions go fully for the first time in years, Jun finally realized how much everyone around him meant to him and how afraid he was of losing the girl in his arms.

After a little while, they separated and Lavinia hugged Jun's arm with a bright smile and blush, happier than she had been for years.

"Juu . . . I want to find Glenda, confront her . . ." She said.

"I know." Jun replied.

"You can always count on my help." He added, much to her delight.

"I have to work now though Lavi." Jun said, making Lavinia look at him with puppy eyes.

"But you can stay and watch." He added and she got happy again nodding and letting go of his only arm as a flash of pain crossed her face. the trauma would take time to heal.

Jun's first order of business was to fix Nyx. She and Nox were two parts of a whole so she was injured greatly by his destruction, Jun was going to patch that with Nox's remaining traces so that he would live on in her.

Nyxo: The Ever Shifting Immortal Shadow (A++)

'The rank of the Noble Phantasm did not drop so Nyxo was about as powerful as Nox and Nyx together. Maybe Nyx had grown from the encounter and it showed after I patched her up.' Jun deduced.

She was taking the form of a small shadow slime with a shining red spot for an eye, Nyxo looked at Jun with intelligence, sadness, fulfilment and other emotions despite her inability to talk yet.

Nyxo then attached itself to Jun's stump, trying to make an arm but failing. Jun chuckled which caused Nyxo to jump in frustration.

Jun petter her and told her there was something else she could do for him, which in part, would help with his new arm and more.

The world was more unforgiving than Jun had estimated. He had thought he was fine right now since the protagonists always made it out fine despite being weaker than the current him but reality had just slapped him in the face with the truth.

And so, Jun prepared to strike back. With Nyxo far stronger than before, at least as a singular organism, Jun decided that it was enough for another heist to occur even if security had been upped, Nyxo was no longer as fragile after all, and even more stealthy.

And this time, Jun had managed to grasp even more locations filled with loot he was raring to get his hands on or hand on, since he had lost an arm.

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P.a.t.r.e.o.n is officially up!

The link is: https://www.p.a.t.r.e.o.n.com/lusoba  without the extra dots of course.

You'll get to read up to FOUR week ahead, a full month, but I'll still post here.

There's also my other novel Archon of DanMachi, do check it out!

I would greatly appreciate any support since this is going to be my breadwinner.