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The morning after their meeting to plan their attacks, Arlon and Emera’s group left towards the small town where the control room was hidden.
The white tiger shikigami Gautarou went with that separate platoon. That way they could use one of Kagura’s own skills to communicate between the groups. Gautarou had been working in another group far away until the day before, but since this would be the decisive battle, Kagura called him back and placed him in the separate platoon’s second unit so they could communicate seamlessly during the mission. The first unit already had Nyorozou with them.
「Still, I hadn’t expected the leader of Écarlate Carillon to be a former player, though it’s hardly surprising when I think about it.」
Kagura examined Sero up and down as she muttered in thought. It was pretty much common knowledge that former players were powerful people in that world. There were obvious exceptions to that rule, but usually the stronger and more conspicuous someone was, the more likely they were a former player.
「I was shocked actually. I wasn’t expecting the Fifty Bells, commonly known as an environmentalist organization, to actually be a group formed to fight Chimera Clauzen, and that the founder was the wiseman Kagura.」
He then explained that during the game period, he once joined the wiseman Supernatural Frone’s troops as a mercenary, and had seen Kagura then. He smiled happily seeing that the next former player he met after Mira was a famous person.
Sero had noticed Uzume’s identity the moment he saw her. Kagura was famous, and looked the same as before, so anyone who had seen her before could recognize her. Mira was also the pupil of the wiseman Danbulf, and she seemed to be on very good terms with Uzume, which made it even easier to recognize.
The infiltration platoon, composed of Mira, Kagura, and Sero, talked with each other as they hunted for monsters in the rocky mountains outside the city. They were doing that so that when the time came to fight together, they had a rough idea of the strength of each member.
「You two! Look over here!」
She spurred Pegasus on, summoning multiple Dark and Holy Knights to stand in the vanguard, unable to stand the sight of the other two chattering away.
「I’m looking, I’m looking. I swear!」
Kagura just waved her away. She and Mira were both wisemen, so she knew what to expect from Mira’s skills. They had worked together many times in the past too. Their main goal there was to show Sero what they could do, and measuring his strength.
Sero was paying more attention while talking to Kagura at the same time. Seeing the two types of Knights working together, he greatly praised Mira’s skills. Mira was pleased to hear his praise.
「And this is new!」 she continued, getting carried away. There was a boar-like monster, covered in stone armor, that was charging at them. She used partial summoning to stop it with a Holy Knight’s shield, and then summoned only the black swords of Dark Knights to tear the monster away from all directions.
Sero was deeply impressed seeing those six swords appear and vanish so quickly, having enough strength to launch surprise attacks on anyone.
「Oh yeah, I saw you do that during your mock fight with Sasori. And you can summon so many at the same time too, nice nice.」
Partial summoning was something that only became possible now that the system restraints from the game vanished and everything turned into reality. Kagura liked that new development, but since they were partners that knew each other’s skills so much, she was hardly impressed, knowing Mira would come up with something like that soon enough.
But Mira felt dejected with the dull response. So to end, she said, 「I can also summon an Emperor Dragon, but I won’t now because it’ll stand out too much. But I could just blow the entire mountain away and turn their base to dust if needed,」 with a sulky voice. With that, her show was over.
「Well, I guess it’s my turn next.」
As Mira walked back pouting like a child, Kagura stepped forward instead, pulling out a paper charm from her pocket. Three more monsters were approaching them as she did. They were like lizards, smaller than the rock boar Mira had dismembered, but their skin was similarly stone-like, and twice as fast.
As the monsters rushed towards them, Kagura muttered something onto the charm and let it go. Using Ghost Riding, a spell unique to onmyoji masters, she made the charm fly on its own, heading straight towards the monsters at high speed. When it was in front of them, it tore apart. At the same time, all the terrain around that spot caved in and sank almost instantly, making the monsters fall for tens of meters. It was hard to believe the terrain had changed so drastically in such a short time, but it was a good display of the power of a wiseman.
But a wiseman would not stop just there either. They always had countermeasures piled on top of countermeasures.
A fall from such an altitude was not enough to gravely wound the monsters, who quickly stood back up and began running again. Kagura sent a second charm towards them.
It vanished into the ground inside the large hole, and then yet another unbelievable change happened. The ground that was barren, of only sand and rocks, was overrun with greenery that sprouted and covered the hole in the blink of an eye.
「The Nine Wisemen are truly on a whole different level, huh.」
Witnessing the skills of the onmyoji master who stood a level above all others, he could tell there was a clear difference. Where there was nothing earlier, there was lush greenery now. Sero spoke, impressed and entertained by what he was seeing.
That was part of the skillset of an onmyoji master, Nature Collection – Bush Thicket and Forest. The caster could manipulate almost anything with it, and was considered the main form of Field Control in the world.
Usually it was used as an aid to escape, or to create cover from long range fire. It could also support teammates with high mobility to let them move more easily. All in all, it was a very versatile skill.
But there was one more unique way of using it.
「All that’s left now is to set it all on fire, though a fire of this scale would stand out too much.」
Setting it on fire, in other words, making an artificial wildfire. That skill’s fire affinity. All the greenery and wood formed through onmyoji arts burned better than natural wood when set on fire with other onmyoji skills. It was trivial to imagine what would happen if the wiseman Kagura created a forest a hundred meters wide, and tens of meters tall, and then set it on fire.
「Anyway, I can do things like this with little effort, and that’s all I need to show.」
