In the sky, the fight between Borbonsi and Etaceh had reached its next stage. Etaceh was atop the massive building — the Magic Tower HQ. The gleaming spire of blue brick and crystal was the connector attaching Etaceh to the Mana generators, overcharging her with so much extra reserve she could substitute for an actual bombing run.

Red Magic Rank 3: Flare x 16

Sixteen orbs of fire appeared in the sky, and burst into a miniature sun the size of a house.

With his four golden wings flapping furiously, Borbonsi barely avoided those attacks. Those firebombs weren’t a joke. The output was equivalent to at least twenty mages joining forces to cast Flare. Before he could counter, a light shone from above.

White Magic Rank 6: Sanction

Pressed beneath the Sanction, Borbonsi felt his power being weakened, but he wasn’t afraid. He got the perfect answer against Etaceh’s tricks in his treasury. The Lord of Commerce produced mirrors which could reflect White Magic. Within a breath, he formed a dome which redirected the light of Sanction back at Etaceh.

Blue Magic Rank 5: Null

The force of Blue Magic quickly snuffed the light with a wave of Etaceh’s hand. Then the Lord of Mechanical Magic commanded another color to leverage her superiority.

Red Magic Rank 5: Mana Burst

Power around the Empress of Intelligentsia ignited like an inferno.

Green Magic Rank 3: Beast Contract

The burning power of Mana Burst transitioned into the wave of Green Mana. From the Green, three humongous creatures the size of a building emerged. They were dragons cyborgs — three magical beasts perverted with implants and doped on drugs to multiply their savagery.

Borbonsi summoned a golden sword — specially made to slay dragons.

In flashes of light, Borbonsi closed the distance. He sliced through the fiery breath and slashed forth. His sword cut through the metal plated neck of the dragon, beheading it. Despite his success, Borbonsi could feel the jarring impact of the cut on his arms. The metal components and the modification Etaceh had made to the beastly cyborg were frightening. To make the matter worse, the headless dragon exploded, catching Borbonsi solidly inside the damage radius.

The steaming body of Borbonsi fell out of the sky. Heat scorched his armor and the burning scent kicked up his nose. He was still alive. The armor he wore shielded him from the worst of the dragon’s self-destruction. But before the Lord of Commerce could reorient his position, cables flew at him.

The second cyborg dragon fired the thick wires from its chest compartment, entangling Borbonsi. The attachment on its back opened and unleashed a homing-missile charged with mystical energy.

Not to be forgotten, the third dragons swooped below Borbonsi. Its jaw opened wide showing rows of gleaming metallic teeth.

Borbonsi handled the dragon coming to bite his face by stabbing his sword through the roof of its mouth, ignoring the razor-sharp teeth breaking against his armor. However, this victory was cut short by the automatic self-destruction routine activating when the dragon hit its demise.

The explosion sent Borbonsi toward the coming missiles.

The rapid explosions rocked the Lord like a rag-doll, but his trusty armor prevented him from the worst of the punishment. Sadly, his survival didn’t help him from getting reeled by the wire and into the jaw of the last flying cyborg. The beast snapped its mouth around Borbonsi’s waist and began shaking him like a Chihuahua trying to tear apart its owner's underpants.

Atop the highest point of Hecate, Etaceh cast her magic.

Black Magic Rank: 5: Damnation 

Borbonsi didn’t even get out of his predicament when the ball of darkness expanded from the region nearby the dragon and swallowed him and the last beast. The crushing darkness of damnation hit him like a bench-press, ripping apart his tattered armor and tearing his skin apart. He tanked the direct hit and refused to surrender, summoning his an anti-magic bomb. With the bomb in hand, he dispersed the Damnation about to swallow him in an explosion.

He summoned a majestic bow with several golden arrows, firing them in rapid succession at Etaceh.

Inside her flying city, Etaceh watched with delight at the sophisticated barrier of Hecate flashing several times as it absorbed the brunt of the attack.

Below the city, Borbonsi’s tattered and bleeding body healed from the abundant faith he stocked in during his reign of Eleanor. Even his broken armor regrow itself, as if time was in reverse.

The brief exchange confirmed Etaceh had an advantage of both defense and offense. However, Borbonsi won’t go down easily with abundant faith supporting him. His arsenal was as versatile as his opponent, and this would likely boil down to a battle of attrition.

Borbonsi was confident that if the fight was dragged for long enough he would find the opening.

Unbeknownst to the Lord of Commerce, Etaceh wasn’t in for a long fight. She already had the plan to end this quickly.

…

While Borbonsi and Etaceh traded blows, the defense of Harriet House continued with gusto. It was Betty who stood alone in the face of the odds, fending off multiple automatons.

Her current opponent was the dogs.

The steel canine with blades for spines shredded the wooden room in an attack toward Elizabeth La Louve. They penetrated her body, but instead of turning into blood, Betty transformed into a wisp of Blue Mana.

Blue Magic Rank 2: Illusion

From the dispelled Illusion, Betty stepped forth, hurling blasts of Red Magic.

Red Magic Rank 2: Bolt x 4

The Bolts impaled the dogs in their head and chest, causing them to fall into the floor in a sparking wreck.

Caislean chose that moment to update the situation.

Caislean: Betty! Amy just finished making some restoration potions. Ciel and Hikari are coming to help you now, so wait a little while longer. Wait a second, Amy said her instinct is ringing with alarm bells.

Right on cue, yells were heard from outside the Harriet House.

“Down with the rich!” A voice echoed. “Take everything!”

“Give them what they deserve!”

Betty sighed, “I have to handle that too, right?”

Caislean: Yes, please do.

…

Ciel and Hikari emerged from the master gate and met the scene of a disaster.

Ruffians armed with swords, spears and torches surrounded the Harriet Houses. Each of them was yelling obscenities and chanting the manifesto of equalization by illegal property seizure.

Ciel thought it ironic. The city, with the law perpetually turning the blind-eyes, was about to be destroyed by the lawless in the middle of its destruction. Fires had risen around them as robbing and looting escalated across the Eleanor. The hooligan had seized the chaos in their hands and the authorities had surely fled. Ciel didn’t need genius level intellect to work out that the Golden Hand under Carolina was dead or fractured.

In the distance, screamed and cried for help reached the sky as the social order had fully broken down.

“I…” Hikari was speechless as the city she spent so long defending lighted aflame. “I know it would burn, but this,” she flinched as the explosion of Red Magic in the distance, “this is too fast.”

“Etaceh probably seeded her agent inside Eleanor to accelerate the carnage,” Ciel said. “As useless as they are, she wouldn’t want to risk giving Borbonsi any back-up.”

It was then the ruffian in various rags, and gears noticed them.

“Look, those two must have valuables on them!” one snaggle-tooth man pointed at the pair and yelled.

Ciel groaned as the attention turned toward them. 

Hikari sighed. She was still blind, but she understood what was happening very well.

“Okay, boy,” a large man said. “Leave the woman behind and…”

White Magic Rank 3: Bind

A spear of light materialized in Ciel's waiting palm and flew toward  the giant of the man, immobilizing him in place.

“Ciel,” Hikari said. “There are over fifty of them surrounding us.”

“We need to secure the Harriet House,” Ciel said. “This means removing them from the property grounds. Are you in the shape to do it?”

“I don’t know,” Hikari said as a small army of ruffians began circling them. “But I don’t think we have a choice.”

What happened next became a blur for both.

Not that the crowd got a chance, both of them were fully armed.

…

Learning from his previous experience, Ciel had upgraded his gear with the addition of the new power gained through his link with Betty—the [Divine Awakening]. This ability gave Ciel’s artifact additional properties, elevating them automatically to the best among their rank.

The current Ciel was equipping the Black Spade set — his all-rounder set. The suit with an additional broadsword was specialized in speed, power and additional offense. Through [Divine Awakening] the equipment gave him the chance to inflict critical damage and three stored spells courtesy of Betty and Xia.

…

Black Spade Jacket

Rank:****

Option [1]: Power +3

Option [2]: Aura +2

Option [3]: Defense +3

Awakening: Critical Luck

 

Black Spade Shirt

Rank:****

Option [1]: Power + 3

Option [2]: Speed +1

Option [3]: Defense +3

Awakening: Spell Charge

 

Black Spade Trouser

Rank:***

Option [1]: Speed +4

Option [2]: Aura +1

Awakening: Spell Charge

 

Black Spade Shoes

Rank:****

Option [1]: Speed +3

Option [2]: Aura +2

Option [3]: Power +1

Awakening: Spell Charge

 

Black Spade Belt

Rank:***

Option [1]: Power +2

Option [2]: Aura +2

Awakening: Critical Magnification

 

Black Jack

Rank:****

Option [1]: Speed +2

Option [2]: Power +3

Option [3]: Defense +3

Awakening: Critical Over

…

Meanwhile, Hikari’s artifact set, matching with Ciel’s suit, was far less defensive.

…

Spider Lily Outer

Rank: ****

Option [1]: Power +3

Option [2]: Aura +3

Option [3]: Speed +2

Awakening: Attack Nullification

 

Webbing Inner-wear

Rank:****

Option [1]: Power +3

Option [2]: Aura +2

Option [3]: Speed +2

Awakening: Attack Nullification

 

Webbing leg-wear

Rank:****

Option [1]: Power +3

Option [2]: Aura +3

Option  [3]: Speed +4

Awakening: Stealth

 

Greaves of Predator

Rank: ****

Option [1]: Power +1

Option [2]: Aura +2

Option [3]: Speed +4

Awakening: Flash

 

Ring of Darkness

Rank: ***

Option [1]: Power +2

Option [2]: Speed +2

Awakening: Dark-field

 

Belt of Blade

Option [1]: Power +3

Option [2]: Speed +2

Awakening: Initiating Strike

…

The two ‘Attack Nullification’ allowed her to negate up to two critical damages. Meanwhile, the belt’s ‘Initiating Strike’ maximized the damage from the first strike. On her feet, the greaves’ ‘Flash’ increased her burst speed. Unable to use her sight, and lacking the ability to tank damage, Hikari’s gears leaned on her speed, [Radar Sense] and assassination skill to compensate.

…

After the first man went down, Ciel drew his sword — Black Jack — and went to town. The skill he gained from the contract with Hikari — [Blade Mastery] — displayed its power in full.

The first three men in front of him fell in simple movement. An Aura enhanced cut took a man down. Ciel transitioned into a chop. Upon meeting a club coming to block it, ‘Critical Over’ activated. With additional power, furthered amped by ‘Critical Magnification’, Ciel’s sword carved his opponent's weapon in half and brought down his enemy. A quick thrust later impaled the third man.

Realizing they were about to be surrounded, Ciel activated the Magic stored inside his artifact.

Red Magic Rank 6: Thunderstorm

Crimson lightning peppered their locations, taking out over half the enemies surrounding the Harriett House.

The ruffians began flinging magic. Flashes of Bolts, Freezes, and Slaughters flew with uncoordinated randomness, but not for long. Exploiting Ciel’s magical strike, Hikari went on the move.

Her leg-wear’s ‘Stealth’ went into effect, turning her invisible. Unseen and unheard, she began taking the most powerful source of Aura fluctuation through her radar sense. The powerful hulk-like fighter went down with his throat crushed. An experienced swordsman who was about to leap at Ciel found himself being put under a chokehold. A woman attempting to aim a high-ranking spell in the fray found her neck snapped. One-by-one, the worst threat was taken out instantly with no one noticing.

Finally, a wave of water came out of the house as Betty arrived to clean up the remaining straggler.

“Hikari,” Ciel said, bashing the last man standing with his sword. “Now!”

Hikari reappeared from her stealth with a spiderweb-pattern card in hand. The card disappeared into the Harriet House. Soon the eastern-style manner disappeared in a twinkling light.

Caislean let them know the good news.

Caislean: Harriett House is now part of the Residence of Lord. We succeeded!

“The hard part is finally over,” Betty puffed out.

Clink!

Ciel froze at the noise of an object landing on the pavement. He turned toward it, expecting the worst.

The worst, it was.

On the ground was a coin.

Clink! Clink! Clink! Clink! Clink!

Like a hailstorm, coins — Accel — began raining across Eleanor like the entire place hit the world’s largest jackpot. From the flying city of Hecate, coins flowed like a smartass god had opened the floodgate.

Ciel groaned. Here it was. The biggest weakness of the Lord of Commerce was now out for the world to see.