"Hey, don't forget about me. I hope you don't mind me joining in, Celes. How're the girls?" Cole then came out of Orto's shadow.
"No, you should've done so right from the start, Mr. Cole… Amy is right there, the others are far from here but they're safe. We just have to get out of here." Celes said as she slowly healed her wounds.
(If only I can use Healing Blood on myself, Full Enhancement also costs too much mana so it's currently unusable. I could only count on my body's regenerative capabilities.)
"I see, then I'm glad. I'll go take care of Amy, leave that woman to Orto and let your wounds heal for now." Cole said as he jogged towards Amy and checked her
"Oh right, look out cause she won't be an easy opponent," Celes warned.
"Hm? We got her leg, she won't be able to fight at her best anymore." Orto replied before he got his head sliced open… not.
" Woah there!? You can still fight!? What, your leg! Didn't I just cut it!?" Orto said after leaping backward to dodge Olivia's swords.
"Weren't you watching us fight? Her healing skill is terrifying." Celes explained.
"I see… well the thing is, that in order to conceal ourselves in the shadows we had to use a special technique. While using it, we can't see anything outside the shadows except your silhouettes and we could only feel dense magic, what more is that we can't get out of that easily. Cole's delay was proof of that. Whatever that thing that you used earlier had so much mana so we felt it, and rushed our way out of the shadow." Orto explained.
"Hey, instead of dealing with her, shouldn't we first deal with that? That thing is pumping in so much miasma into itself," Cole stated as he pointed in the stage's direction.
Both Celes and Orto looked at the stage. Celes, of course, kept an eye out for Olivia with her Magic Eye.
"I don't see nor feel anything though?" Celes asked. "Also look out for Olivia," she added right before Olivia's quick assault on Orto started again.
(I was taking advantage of her being inexperienced to buy time, but since these two are here now that's no longer an option, I'll have to do it more direct.) Olivia thought as she widened the distance between the Marquis and Celes and co and backed after.
"This one is quick on her swords. If I wasn't using this armor, I would've been sliced seven times now," Orto said.
"What do you mean you can't see or feel it, Celes? It's so thick y'know? Humph!" Cole said as he threw a thick mana ball towards the stage, creating a small explosion in contact with something seemingly invisible.
As the dust cleared up, except Celes, all people from both sides regretted laying their eyes on such a grotesque scene.
*****
Side: Cro Galroe
You are reading story I, a Schizoid, and my story at novel35.com
This part starts a few hours before Celes' invasion.
"Hmmm, I'm getting bored with all this waiting… I guess I'll head there and help a little with that little experiment…" Galroe stated so before getting off his chair and heading to a corner of his office.
He stretched out his left arm and casted "⁰⁰" in a split second. Right as he did so, a magic circle with symbols lined up next to each other appeared on the wall he was touching and the floor just a few feet next to him.
A few more seconds passed, and the magic circle on the floor disappeared as if it disintegrated along with the floor revealing a staircase into a tunnel.
After a few minutes since Marquis Cro went into the tunnel, an iron door came in sight with a very faint light coming from under of it.
"Is it ready now, Cascade?" Marquis Cro asked as he opened the iron door, revealing a small yet cramped room filled with paper engraved with magical formations, liquid vials, mana crystals, and a lot of books.
There lay down a mysterious old man with a long purple-grey hair and in a long black coat with different magical symbols and circles.
He opened his eyes to Marquis Cro's words, and stated, "It is not, but almost. All we have to do is let it suck an equal amount of both mana and miasma. By doing so, the moment it is used it will not go berserk. I believe that the magic control of the Great former Hero will be able to easily handle it despite having his Skills halved?" Said the old man, Cascade, without stuttering a single word.
He handed over a small cylindrical glass-like container. Inside of it is a small purple ball levitating freely, even bouncing around when shaken.
"Careful now, if the thing inside that special container is to be set free here, we both can do nothing against it. Specially since it's in its astralis form." Cascade warned before stepping back to his desk.
"I know, I am not foolish enough to go ahead and just ruin your 3 years' worth of research. As per request, that elf is all yours to take," Marquis Cro stated so before heading to the only exit of the room, the iron door.
"Her chastity is still pure… right?" Cascade asked as a sly smile formed under his thick black beard.
"… That, I assure you; however, I can not promise you that her body is still in the condition for experiments and sexual intercourse. Well then, after my ongoing plan I'll give her to you." Marquis Cro then exited and shut the room as tightly as it was.
"A-hehe… sly old fox, he didn't have the slightest idea of letting us go even in the end, huh," Cascade said to himself as he leans on his back. As his hair was pulled down by gravity, it revealed his two long and thin ears both having huge holes punched onto them.
"I wonder what kind of faces and screams she'll make the moment I have my fun with her fine body? Oh I know, I'll send an indestructible crystal ball to her beloved husband's residence and have him watch as I torment and cleanse his wife's body with my stuff… I'm so looking forward to it…" Cascade thought out loud before gripping hard on his ears, hard enough to make them bleed.
*****