Chapter 124: Retrieving the Skull Knuckles

Rituals are pretty common things in high school and many girls are into that sort of sorcery for fun and the thrill. There is that Kokkuri-san ritual and the Hanako-san ritual that are fairly common to use as either to use for courage test or some sort of question and answer game. But to think that a real magic ritual that was designed for self-harm and extracting negative energies was immediately becoming one of the popular rituals in high school. What made it more dangerous is that the common folks are able to perform this ritual without any guidance by any magician. If it is causing harm, death, and more injury, then it is needed to be stopped.

Since Yaya specifically mentioned the Fire Magic, that means whatever or whoever caused all of this, has a specific weakness against the element fire. After acquiring the inheritance of Suzaku, I am now able to conjure fire magic without the help of the Burning Gloves and I can release stronger magic than before, therefore, my ability will be really useful if they ever need it.

Yaya also mentioned that the items I left behind at school during the time I was sent with the others to the Phantasmal Reality to train were now sent to my house and currently, it was in the possession of Anya after she received it I was still in a coma. If that was the case, the skull knuckle that I have not used for how many months can be used again.

The tour around the new building is over before I knew it and I have nothing to do except to prepare for the mission with Yaya. Might as well retrieve the items in my bag from Anya and get the Skull Knuckle away from her. After all, it was kind of bizarre and I can't let her get tainted by the Skull Knuckle.

...

When I arrived in my room, I saw Anya currently watching television. Maple is no longer around which means she already went home. And from the looks of Anya right now, she is now able to cope up easily in this world. Maple must have thought her many things while I was still on a coma.

"Hey there Anya, I'm home, how are you doing in this world? Are you getting the hang of it compared to the Phantasmal Reality?"

Anya looked at me and she stood up from sitting on the floor.

"Welcome back, Stepfather, I am good and I am so grateful that I was allowed to live here with you. There are many things that I have not experienced back in the Phantasmal World. I prefer to live here wherethings are peaceful."

"Eh, you can just call me brother instead of Stepfather. Even though I became your new parent after your father died, it's not really that good to be called as stepfather by you since I am not yet a dad. Also, since you are a dragon, you must be much older than- GUH!!" I was just talking when Anya kicked me on the balls and I saw stars swirling around my vision.

"I prefer that you don't call me old. Although I lived for long, I am still a child. So please be mindful of that, BROTHER~"

"...I'm sorry..." I felt so bad in my crotch area. I don't know if it was crushed by sheer force or not...

...

After recovering from the pain, I saw Anya already yawning. Looking at the time, it is almost nighttime which means she needs to rest.

"Go to bed now Anya, its getting late," I pat her head and led her to her bedroom.

"Okay, brother. Good night."

I tucked her into the bed in her room. Before she goes to sleep, I asked her for the whereabouts of my bag.

"Oh, the bag? I put it in your closet. I don't know where to put it so I just shoved it inside."

Anya quickly drifted to sleep after telling me that. As for me, I don't have time to rest. I have been asleep for quite some time so I don't think I will be sleeping for now. What I needed to do right now is to retrieve the Skull Knuckle.

I didn't notice the bag inside the closet when I was choosing what clothes to wear this morning. Maybe Anya put it deep inside where I can't easily find it? After all, the closet I got is quite big that you can sleep inside here if you wanted to. Rummaging around for quite a while, I finally found the bag. It was buried under my clothes which is why I can't see it the first glance.

When I opened the bag, the dark energy accumulating inside. Even my notebooks are starting to rot due to the darkness enveloping them. Thank goodness that the bag itself is still intact or else, it might have decayed already. Still, that only shows how dangerous the Skull Knuckle is.

"Sh*t, Kazuma. That is some dangerous miasma accumulating! Hurry! Burn or reduce it to atoms!" Blue suddenly chimed in after being silent for a while.

"Chill out there, Blue. It's not that severe so don't panic."

"Are you serious Kazuma? That miasma over there is a literal killer one! Just look at your things aside from the Skull Knuckle left behind unscathed. Do you see that there is none? Even the bag's interior is about to fall apart! That means aside from the Skull Knuckle that is the source of the miasma, everything else will start to decay and corrupted!"

"Can a purification spell helps in this one from dispelling this miasma?" I asked.

"Do you have purification magic or anything? From what I can remember, you don't have any kind of spells that correspond with the purification thingie."

"Well, I have a spell named Sin Purifying Flames which was part of the spells I learned after I earned the inheritance from Suzaku on the trials. It might help in dispelling miasma to this degree."

"This spell is unfamiliar to me. Most of the spells that come from the Inheritance of Holy Beasts are not in my database yet. If you use it, maybe I can see the result for myself and record it."

"You don't know it? I thought you are well versed on almost any magic spells."

"Ancient Inheritance spells are a different form of spells. You can't just say that I learned them without earning the favor of the beast. Even you who have the ability to most likely learn it singlehandedly would never be able to learn it unless you were given the inheritance. Outsiders will not be able to obtain the info of learning it without the acknowledgment of the Divine Beast so of course, the data would also be not in my database."

"If that was the case, it might destroy the Skull Knuckle if I try to burn it alongside the bag."

"Most likely impossible Kazuma. That weapon is too tainted that most magic spells would just be rendered ineffective. And from my guess, even though your spell came from a divine beast, a weapon just like the Skull Knuckle would most likely have small purification results. Destruction of that weapon is close to impossible."