Chapter 181: Taunting ; Battle ; Isabella

"Now then, Joseph," I say while examining our surroundings, "I'm almost certain that you have a present for me. How about you reveal it already?"

Better have him use it early rather than a trump card.

Anyway, I'm fighting against a Code, so I can't let my guard down.

"Present?" Joseph says in a neutral tone, "There is no such thing."

"And you actually expect me to believe that?" I say mockingly.

"Attack him," he says while squinting his eyes, indicating that he no longer wishes to speak with me.

The moment the words leave his mouth, every single one of the six knights begins to dash toward me at an incredible pace.

"Binary Factors?" I subconsciously mutter as I change my stance to a defensive one.

Soon, one of them gets close enough to launch an attack.

I remain motionless as I watch his arms get covered in a familiar energy.

As I expected, whatever it was that affecting those elves is directly caused by Joseph.

The next moment, the guy has already thrown a punch at my face, but unfortunately for him, this punch will never be able to reach me.

Due to the reflective barrier around me, every force contained within the punch gets redirected back at him, which ultimately results in his arm to explode into bits of flesh as his body gets hurled backward.

This battle is going to be a walk in the park if these guys are what Joseph counts on for his protection.

Nevertheless, why would he need protection? Is he trying to delay me for something? That's most likely the case. There is also the chance that he is trying to figure my powers and abilities out.

If it's the latter, then all I have to do is fight using abilities that he is already aware of.

With this notion in mind, I begin to make use of Gandalfr and Organic Constructs.

Seeing my right arm begin to morph into a dark blade, the knights are alarmed and unsure of what to do.

They're all quite close to me, so I take advantage of that to swiftly charge toward the closest one.

Before she can physically react, I use the organic blade to vertically cleave the girl in half.

Ignoring the blood flowing down the tip of my blade onto my body, I charge toward my next target.

"Ignis!" my target exclaims as a wall of flame appears right in front of me.

Unfazed, I use Pyrokinesis to clear it up and continue to breezily cut his head off.

Their numbers halved, the knights back off to Joseph's side with troubled looks on their faces.

"Your Majesty, we won't be able to hold him back any longer," one of them says in a hurried tone.

I use Pyrokinesis to combust my organic blade to clear the blood off, before shifting my attention back to the amusing bunch.

Naturally, I won't be approaching Joseph's throne just like that. That would be simply asking for death from any traps that may be set near it.

"What's wrong, Joseph?" I mock, "This is turning out to be much more of a joke than I expected it to be."

Without any change in his expression whatsoever, Joseph says,

"You're as arrogant as you appear in my memories, Origo."

"Oh? What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing," he responds while finally getting up from his throne, "It just means that I know how to defeat you now."

Is he bluffing or is it something else? Due to his face and voice being less expressive than I prefer, I can't make a proper judgment.

AI, what is Joseph's threat level?

{Unidentifiable.}

Great. I expected no less from this annoying creep.

Now then, I should focus on figuring out what his power and abilities revolve around, or else I'm going to be at a disadvantage…

---3rd POV---

"Come on, move it!" a man dressed in a uniform that has the Kingdom of Gallia's crest on it exclaims while waving his hand.

All of a sudden, a flash of light shines in the sky before the man's arm gets cut off.

This man, which happens to be one of the generals assigned for duty in this war, gets on his knees while pressing his hand on where his arm was cut off and groaning.

Seeing this, the men that are supposed to follow his orders look at the direction where the attack presumably came from, only to be met with the sight of two angelic girls diving toward them from the sky.

Some soldiers immediately begin to panic as they attempt to run away, but before they can do so, the voice of a girl that seems to be no older than 15 resounds within their ears,

"Barricade!"

The next moment, a great amount of energy is released into the ground before it proceeds to move in waves and form giant walls in numerous locations.

One of the soldiers refuses to believe what's happening as he sprints toward one of the walls, intending to break it.

However, the moment the soldier's hand contacts the wall of energy, some force seems to launch his body backward with enough force to smash him into the wall of a nearby building.

The already panic-stricken soldiers begin to get even more distressed as they begin to search for a way to escape from this hell-hole.

"Running away is impossible," a clear and youthful voice rings within their ears, somehow further perturbing them. Followed by the voice, a pink-haired girl dressed in full black seemingly walks down on invisible stairs from the top of a nearby house.

Despite their numbers being no less than four hundred, none of the soldiers feel confident in their chances of winning against this girl.

"Let's make this quick," a much more pleasant voice suddenly reaches the men's ears, causing them to shift their attention to the source, only to find a beautiful blonde woman standing on top of a building alongside a little girl.

"You're right," the pink-haired girl, Yuno, says with a smile on her lips as she raises her right arm.

Realizing what's going on, the soldiers' expressions change to one of absolute shock and horror as they begin to move away as far as they can from her.

Alas, that turns out to be not enough as Yuno exclaims,

"Explosion!"

The next moment, a red beam of energy escapes from her palm and moves directly toward the ground near where most of the soldiers are.

Seeing the beam of energy sink into the ground without anything happening, the soldiers' expression turns to that of relief.

Unfortunately for them, their relief doesn't last long as the ground suddenly begins to contract before exploding with enough force to destroy anything within its vicinity with no exceptions.

Satisfied by the explosion that wiped more than a third of the soldiers out, Yuno beams a smile and says,

"Aren't you two going to be fighting?"

As a response to her words, Gabriel simply nods her head before jumping off the building as Aruru follows suit.

"Stop panicking!" a loud voice suddenly resounds in the area.

The soldiers, as well as the girls, look toward the source of the voice, only to find the injured general standing on his feet with a fierce look on his face.

"They are just three brats with some cursed powers! Show them the true might of Gallia!"

As if they were just rejuvenated by a mysterious force, the men regain their clarity of mind as they begin to charge forward while some of them pull out wands and begin chanting.

--

"Mom, why are we here?!" a girl that seems to be in her late teens says in an anguished tone, "I want to go to the city!"

As a response to her outburst, a beautiful woman says in a soothing voice,

"Calm down, Isabella. We can't leave right now, as the city is a dangerous place to be in these days."

"Why? Is it because of those other kingdoms? Father is the one conquering them not the other way around, so what's there to worry about?!"

Sighing, the woman closes her eyes for a few seconds before opening them and saying,

"The enemy might send assassins."

"But, my father is stronger than any assassin!"

Just as the woman is about to say something, the walls shake as the loud sound of an explosion reaches the ears of everyone in the room.

After a few seconds, the woman recollects herself and says to one of the two maids in the room,

"Go and check what's going on."

The maid bows politely before leaving the room.

"Mom?" Isabella voices in a slightly anxious tone.

"Don't worry," the woman says while hugging her, "Everything is going to be fine."

The next moment, the three left in the room sense multiple reverberations as cries of agony resound within the castle.

"Dad…" Isabella mutters as her anxiety grows.

Before the woman can react in time, Isabella rushes toward, opens it, and runs outside.

"Isabella!" the woman yells as she gets up from the ground and runs after her.

As for the maid left in the room, she takes a few seconds to think before running after her mistress and her daughter.

Ignoring everything else, Isabella directly makes her way to the throne room, while her mother continues to run after her.

Soon, Isabella reaches the throne room, her eyes widening as she spots bits of wood left from the now-missing doors.

"Dad!" she subconsciously shouts before entering the throne room.