‘You can take over if you want, now,’ Arc, who returned to the shop, looked at the old lady.
She gave a playful laugh. ‘What you messed around with a man’s daughter and now you aren’t going to take responsibility.’
Arc groaned as he recalled the reason for Sera investigating the slums.
‘Despite her face, she is quite the romantic...’ The granny was enjoying herself.
‘...’
‘...She thought she was being sly, but it was obvious what she thought… she would ask me this and that.’
The old bat droned on and on and Arc groaned again.
‘On second thought…’ the granny looked away from Arc as if embarrassed. ‘You should take responsibility.’
The sleeves of the man’s black suit dangled behind him. Uncontrolled bloodlust seeped out from his emotionless face. Yet, Arc’s gaze was on the man’s hands. In each of his fists was one of his subordinates. They were the same ones as before.
‘I would have had to rescind my previous statement anyways.’
The old lady set aside the popcorn that she brought out and sighed. ‘I think I would get indigestion if I ate anymore with this atmosphere.’
Arc was about to step forward and reveal himself when Sera rushed towards her old man. The man’s sharp face instantly turned into a smile. He must have thought he was about to get hugged because he let go of Arc’s men and spread out his arms.
However, the truth was much different. If she had kicked her old man between the legs or slapped him, then Arc could have seen this coming, but Sera didn’t do such things.
No, she ran into her old man’s arms, and when he was about to finish wrapping his arms around her, Sera began beating his chest with her hands. There was no force behind the strikes. Her face was completely red, like actually red. It was the most expressive Arc had ever seen it.
“Idiot! Disgusting! Stupid! Awful! Terrible! Y-you… d-disgrace of a father!”
Arc pointed at Sera and then looked at the old granny. ‘Isn’t this like extremely cute?’
‘I’m going to get another kind of indigestion. Maybe I am getting old…’
Arc, still dumbfounded, turned to the rest of his classmates. Elizabeth, Cassius, and the maid just collectively sighed. They didn’t seem surprised at all, and with it Arc’s expectations were completely shattered. Sera was not the cool beauty that he thought she was.
‘Who knew she was secretly cute?’ Arc saved this thought for himself.
Sera sniffled. That was the last blow; the man, who was perhaps the strongest in the kingdom, fainted. Sera just blinked at her old man as he lay unconscious on the ground.
She looked down at her fists. “I killed him.”
Elizabeth's lips wriggled about as a mixture of emotions washed over her face. “No, he just couldn’t take it.”
Sera sniffled one last time, wiped her nose on the sleeve of her uniform, and then looked at Arc’s subordinates. “Layla, heal them.”
The maid rushed over and placed her hands on the two men, causing a white light to envelop them.
Arc closed and opened his eyes and took a deep breath. He had admired Sera’s cuteness, but his expression became serious. This and that were two different things. Arc’s movements were sudden. He grabbed Sera’s waist and pulled her into his arms.
“Eh.” Her confused voice echoed out.
Sera’s father instantly rose as if he had never fainted. The demeanor of a loving father was gone. His contorted expression was dangerous and something that was right out of a nightmare.
This was Bastion, the King of Sialia's Underworld and leader of the Black Swan. While his bloodlust was mistakenly because of his daughter, there was something else. It was the seriousness of a man who held the responsibility over other people’s lives, a true leader.
It only took Bastion a single moment to collect himself and appear before Arc. For the two of them, everything appeared to move in slow motion.
“Go back to sleep.” Arc flicked the man’s face just as his hand was about to reach Arc. It was like an explosion had appeared out of nowhere. A gust of wind blew everything back. Arc’s surrounding classmates covered their faces from the blast.
Meanwhile, Sera’s father continued to ragdoll across the street. He crashed into the ground only to bounce back into the air to crash back into the ground. He rolled about in such a manner for over a hundred meters.
When the dust settled, there was only Arc with Sera in his arms standing in the middle of the street that was completely turned to pieces.
Arc could hear the old granny click her tongue. In the cover of the dust, she protected Arc’s other classmates by bringing them out of the blast radius.
“Thanks for healing my subordinates.” Arc spoke in a neutral tone. His two men, who had awoken, watched the scene from the side without interfering.
In the distance, Bastion had stood up. Despite being launched a hundred meters, not even the man’s suit was damaged. He merely cracked his neck like he had stiff shoulders. He didn’t rush forward or speak. He just walked one step at a time back towards Arc.
“Umm.” Sera didn’t know how to react to the situation.
“Don’t move. I won't harm anyone, but I need to make it clear that one can not just invade my territory as they pleased.”
“...”
“Do you understand where I’m coming from?”
“...”
“Even if you exist in the shadows, there are things you have to protect and stand up for.”
Everyone involved knew there was a misunderstanding, but that didn’t mean actions didn’t have consequences.
“I understand. But I still think you're a pervert.” Sera composed herself. Her emotionless face returned. Arc understood that this was a facade now. Her tears he saw in the past, her hard work to get stronger, the way she was mad at her father. Sera was actually someone that was very emotional. She simply hid it.
“Pay attention. This is magic.”
The air crackled like it was filled with lightning. Sera’s father walked unimpeded though. All kinds of spells were sent flying at him but every time he swung his sword the various spells would collapse.
Arc held Sera with his left hand, but with his right hand he began to snap repeatedly. Slivers of his will tried to wrap around Sera’s father; however, the man simply swung his sword and severed them. If this was a weaker foe then such actions would let Arc toss his opponent into the air, cause their bodies to spontaneously implode, or cause some other random phenomena to occur.
Arc didn’t stop snapping though, and the crackling sensation grew even louder as Arc continued to layer his will upon the surrounding air.
“Domain: World of Magus.” Domains came in all sizes and shapes, but ultimately they imposed new laws upon the subjected space. It was one of the strongest forms of power.
As soon as Arc finished speaking, the world flipped upside down. There were only three people in this new world: Arc, Sera, and Bastion. Everyone else had disappeared.
When the world flipped upside down, Arc and Sera reappeared in the sky. They too were upside down, the image of the slums directly below them.
Bastion was still down on the street. He pointed his sword towards the sky. “Domain: Black Sabbath.”
The two figures still didn’t say anything to each other. Bastion didn’t even ask Arc to let his daughter go. Only their gazes and actions were used.
Thousands of black shadows poured out of Bastion’s hand. They were disgusting looking things with tendrils and eyes covering their bodies. Most of them were amalgamated together in one hideous abomination that charged towards Arc.
Arc didn’t even move though. Thousands of magic circles filled the sky and destructive spells rained down ceaselessly upon the monstrosity.
Things were at a stalemate.
“Singularity,” Arc said.
“Shadow,” Bastion replied.
Both activated their trump cards. Arc’s caused the world to blur and spin, while Bastion’s word caused an uncountable number of creatures to begin charging forth out of every shadow that existed in that space. They came from every direction.
The world continued to shrink towards a single point, but Arc coughed up a mouthful of blood. His mind burned and felt numb. Emotionlessly, he scanned the state of his body.
‘I see…’
Arc didn’t even frown or sigh. He made a choice and canceled his domain. The three of them appeared on the street in the slums as if nothing happened.
Sera’s father, after canceling his own move, sheathed his sword. “You were injured.”
“More than I thought, yes.” Arc responded with a dispassionate voice.
“We can end things here for now.” Sera’s father turned around. He had his arm around his daughter and was escorting her away. Cassius, Layla, and Elizabeth hesitantly followed after the two.
Arc sighed. It was a mutual understanding between the two. To understand the situation, Arc canceled his trump card. Bastion followed suit. Arc could have forced it but then he couldn’t protect Sera from the after effect. However, canceling his move also caused his domain to dissipate.
At the same time, Arc had handed Sera over to her father. The man had come to his own conclusions and decided to end things there. Neither had been serious from the very start. Furthermore, both of them were special operatives that could be considered associates that had worked together in the past.
It was just a situation of a bunch of useless gestures, but sometimes that was how the leader of two forces had to act.
Arc looked around. The executives of the Children of Sin were all present. Their auras flared out. There were also dozens of regular members with their black cloaks.
On the opposite side, the executives of the Black Swan matched them. Their armored knights and artificial beasts were ready to spring into action at a moment's notice.
If things went differently a war could spark in the middle of the slums. The temple might be quite happy about the extra service, but the two organizations would lose out for no reason.
Arc had no doubt that Sera’s father had no problem going to such lengths for his daughter, but it was also precisely for that reason that he stopped.
The whole commotion started because Sera and her group came to Arc’s territory. She had supposedly only come to investigate a random womanizer that said wanted to court her.
An innocent and unconnected action almost caused heavy consequences. Sera’s father would of course not want the daughter he cherished to be burdened by such things especially when neither Arc or him were ever serious.
Their demeanor may have been grave, but the feeling behind the actions wasn’t much different than a casual handshake.
Everyone began to disperse, but the old granny, who stayed behind, smacked the back of Arc’s head. “Why can’t you idiots just talk?”
“You old bat… there is no way the Dark Lord of the Shadows would just talk things out after subordinates were knocked unconscious. Misunderstandings be damned!”
“Tsk.”
“You know you're lucky it was me that was here.”
“...”
“I’m much more sensible than Elaine.” Arc smirked shamelessly, “I’m sure you can imagine what would have happened if she was here.”
“You young people really want to give this old lady indigestion…” the granny frowned and asked, “Weren’t you supposed to be enjoying your romantic comedy life at the school?”
“I would love to flirt with pretty women, explore dungeons, train and take classes with my peers… but classes don’t truly begin for a week…”
“Can’t you sit still for a single week.” She sighed.
“I’ll try…”
‘I mean how was I supposed to know that a couple of lines would send a girl rushing off to the slums the next day to investigate a random womanizer.’ Arc complained.
A dark ominous thought then occurred to him. Surely, this type of event wouldn’t repeat itself, right? Sera was just a unique case, right?
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