Fanfic Post 2 - Hikaru’s POV, Training Arc with Cheat ON

Chapter 16 SS2 – Hikaru’s POV, Training Arc with Cheat ON

“It’s so tiring meeting Sete and PM-san. Sharlick-kun sure has reliable children, but they should be able to handle most of country matter. Now that the security around this world has been threatened by the many cases of appearance of Demon Lord, my task has increased many fold” complained Hikaru.

While on the way to go to the portal connected to Solitary Island portal, a handsome incubus with the appearance of a young handsome man with tuxedo coat appeared from a light portal from the ceiling.

“Greetings, Ms Mito. I’m not a suspicious person. I am here to provide a small advise” said the incubus.

“My, what do you want to advise me about?” said Hikaru, trying not to be rude since she used appraisal and realized the person has a high level of 75 with race of High Human(?).

“Your friends have committed a taboo. Allow me to present my evidence” (incubus) while taking out something from his chest pocket.

Hikaru prepares a dragon tooth dagger inside her Dimensional pouch while appearing to be calm in front of the stranger.

The stranger smiles calmly and tosses a crystal that looks like a camera to her.

“What is this?” asked the perplexed Hikaru.

“This is a video taken from Dejima Island labyrinth. It appears that they do this behind your back. How selfish can those girls be, taking everything and leaving just you out of the circle”. (Incubus)

Hikaru felt a surge of anger all of a sudden. Jealousy and animosity also rose exponentially and she has nowhere to direct it except at the matter at hand.

“Why should I trust you?” asked Hikaru, deciding to bury the thought he had earlier back and look at the stranger again to figure out his motive.

“Please I mean no harm. Take your time and view that video when you have time. Sorry for taking your time. I wish your well being and have a great day.” Said the incubus as he went around a corner, open a portal, and enter it without revealing it to Hikaru.

Hikaru can only feel the thoughts before taking stronger hold of her consciousness that it almost reveal itself on her face if not for her strong mettle to appear calm and composed in front of the gentleman.

Skill <Anger Resistance> obtained

The anger is somewhat more manageable but still roaring strong in Hikaru’s mind.

However, another skill was not resisted.

“Oh well, thank you for the delicious meal” said the incubus as he tossed a naked man with his vitality almost sucked dry from him out of the portal near the Shiga palace entrance.

Hikaru arrived at Solitary Island while keeping her thought in check. Her urge to attack was so strong, she can barely hold back from attacking the brownies pacing around the Solitary Island. She went to her room, change her official dress and don her casual wear which is made from superior materials and enchanted with Castle defence which have 40% of her Nanashi’s battle gear’s Castle defence power. She then open crystal top and a faint light shines to the ceiling, then filled the whole room with holographic image of what the girls that went to Dejima Labyrinth are doing, coupled with audio synchronization. The point-of-view seem to come from a small mound with a hole in the centre. The video revealed almost similar re-enactment of what actually happened, but some part has been tampered with to accentuate the negative parts more vividly. The video has the audio edited to show that the girls wanted to be better than Satou, to collect more power for themselves and display of vile greed, while undermining and ignore Satou’s decision of not using Core-chan to create powerful equipment or gift orbs from the new power source. Their image in Hikaru’s mind got muddier and dirtier by the minute and after completely watching the video, she decide to go to the kitchen to refresh herself before asking the girls regarding what they did at Dejima labyrinth.

Hikaru happen to come across Lulu in the kitchen, appearing to do some finishing touches on a cake. Hikaru’s mind got prejudiced into thinking that Lulu is trying to win away Satou’s heart through his stomach. Then Hikaru’s mind seem to suggest that Lulu is whittling away Satou’s life by putting specific love potion and other dangerous substance inside the food she cooks.

“Let me check that cake” demanded Hikaru while holding a knife made of mithril and silver to check for poison and other dangerous substance.

“Oh no Mito-sama. This cake is for dinner. Please don’t damage it before that” said Lulu.

“Hmm, suspicious. What are you hiding? Tell me quickly” demanded Hikaru in a haste.

“No, I did not hide anything from Mito-sama” (Lulu)

“You said that, but what did you do earlier? Didn’t you heard Ichirou-nii said to not to ask Core-chan for items or gift orbs from the dungeon?” slightly yelled Hikaru.

“Ichirou-nii? Ah, Satou-san’s name in his homeworld. W-what are you talking about Mito-sama? We n-never d-disobeyed Satou-san” (Lulu)

“Oh, being defensive now? What did you do in the afternoon? Do you think I was unaware since I’m at the capital palace? Also, what kind of poison did you put into the food you feed Satou? That powder there smells like some kind of stuff from his homeworld. Is it spice? What a cunning way to mask the smell of your poison” berated Hikaru.

“You can’t accuse me like this Mito-sama. I respected you as a compatriot of Satou-san, but you can’t just abuse that and slander me” replied a panicked Lulu. Hikaru was agitated and combined both her query. Lulu was panicked and infuriated at the same time as she is partially guilty stricken for one issue but was wrongly accused in another.

“Still denying? This recording shows all that you guys talked about at Dejima Island during the afternoon” Hikaru pointed out, quick to jump to conclusion and combined both issues.

“Wha-“ (Lulu)

Before Lulu can reply, Hikaru has already charged Lulu guilty for both accounts and smashed the cake with the knife in hand. At level 92, her strength is strong enough that the cream cake burst into a puddle. Lulu was too shocked and reacted by quickly gripping the knife on Hikaru’s hand.

“Deeryaah” (Hikaru)

With monstrous strength, Hikaru sweep her knife-equipped hand at Lulu and grazed her clothes. The strong material protected Lulu from serious injury and just ended with light scratch. Lulu was knocked back several metres away from her station and landed on her bum.

Lulu performed an ukemi when her body rolled backward to avoid hitting the kitchen stuff.

Lulu felt that she had a sudden realization that she somehow knows how to roll her body to avoid critical damage to her body.

Bad timing to learn a new skill, but she welcomed it.

Lulu picked an orichalcum chopping board (to match the strength of her cutting ability) from the table and use it as a guard while she asked Hikaru.

“Calm down please Mito-sama, I swear on my life I meant you, Satou-sama, and all the others here no harm. Please put away that knife.” (Lulu)

“Lies. All lies. You just lied earlier. Now you just want to save your miserable life so you put a brave front and try to stall time. What tricks you going to play next huh? I won’t let you harm Ichirou-nii ever again.” yelled Hikaru.

Hikaru sprang forward with speed rivaling a cheetah and stab towards Lulu by shifting the knife to Lulu’s unguarded position to the left eye. Thanks to Lulu’s sharp perception and some skills such as <Shield> level 1, Speed Up (small), Strength Up (small), and other miscellaneous skill, Lulu avoid certain critical hit and repelled the knife attack.

However, Lulu failed to disarm the knife from Hikaru’s firm grip and Hikaru continued to attack with pinpoint accuracy and superior strength that won’t let Lulu catch her breath. Lulu was forced to take defensive stance and retreat back with each strike. Lulu carefully retreat closer and closer to the teleport point to Desert subspace while telling the brownies to escape to safety. One daring brownie ran to the teleport point to contact the girls currently practicing there but got hit with a serious injury to the back by a magic blade conjured by Hikaru in the shape of the knife she held at hand.

Lulu was surprised by the drastic action taken by Hikaru, so she retreat very carefully while she chanted a minor healing spell for the brave fallen brownie. Three attacks manage to slip past Lulu’s guard when her concentration slipped while chanting. Her injuries were light compared to the brownies, but she bleed from her fingers and shoulder notheless.

“Ho, now you are showing your true nature by utilizing your ill-gotten spells. What a bunch of show-off. Don’t think Ichirou-nii will fall for you as I will expose all your secret plans and maneuver” (Hikaru)

“Please wake-up from your sleep-talking Mito-sama. Nothing good will come out from this confrontation. Please Mito-sama, I beg you” (Lulu)

“Still play-acting huh. I will get serious and make you spill your bean in front of Ichirou-nii” (Hikaru)

Hikaru reached for Claiomh Solais in her Dimensional pouch and performed a horizontal slash with an active skill <Heaven and Earth divide> that cleanly slice the already worn-out cutting board. The Castle defence and terminal defence inside Lulu’s casual wear both activated at the same time and disintegrated under the fierce attack from Hikaru.

Satou detected a faint emergency signal of Lulu from the device he fixed onto each dress that reports whenever a terminal defence is broken.

However, the location is at Solitary Island, which is the safe haven with all the scanners at the portal to catch anybody with bad intention except his girls, hence the weak spot exploited this time. Other safety measures like <Return> warp failed to operate properly because of Yuika’s barrier and warp destination is too close to the original location.

Satou immediately called Lulu with <Tactical Talk>

“Are there any problem over there? I haven’t install a video transmitter in the hall of Solitary Island that can bypass Yuika’s barrier (need encryption to avoid God’s hacking)”. (Satou)

“No, it’s nothing to worry about. I just fell and hurt myself” (Lulu)

“You sure? Should I return to the Solitary Island now?” Satou

“It’s really nothing. I’m alright now. Just focus on your training. I will be alright” (Lulu)

“It sounds like you are hiding something from me” (Satou)

“No way. Please don’t think too much” (Lulu)

“Ok, I trust you. Please be safe ok?” (Satou)

“Yes, take care and be safe. Have a good training” (Lulu)

“Yes, you too. Call and tell me if anything is wrong ok?” (Satou)

There were some background noise that Satou can pick up with <Clairhearing>, but decide to let the girls settle their differences, sending a drone scout to access the Solidarity Palace to get visual of the condition while training.

Meanwhile, inside the Desert Subspace.

Lulu was flung backward into the portal of Desert Subspace. The other girls are training over in the Desert, utilizing their orb skills when they noticed a body flew into the portal forcefully. There was a short pause after that happened and everyone stays still for that moment. After the view has set into their eyes, in less than a second, Arisa and the group of girls except Pochi and Tama rushed to the scene with short-range teleport and quickly administer Lulu with Elixir and healing magic. Sera have quickly use <Quick Heal> and <Recovery> spell to heal the wound so as not to leave any scars and Elixir was used to replenish blood loss.

While all that was happening, Lulu was called by Satou through <Tactical Talk> and she managed to convince Satou that everything was alright at her end while the group suddenly face an onslaught of skill and attack from across the portal. Lulu deployed level 1 <Silence> of the Air spell over her body while she complete her conversation to Satou.

Arisa dragged away the group with a long range teleport across the edge of the Desert subspace she marked before, then take out a periscope enchanted with <Far Sight> while casting <Clear View> and <Far Sight> level 1 to give maximum vision.

Lulu managed to catch her breath and just explained in simple words that Hikaru has started go berserk and that she managed to keep Satou away from hearing about the trouble Hikaru caused to Arisa and the group of girls.

Arisa and the group of girls still couldn’t believe that Satou’s best girlfriend and a cheerful friend to the group of girls can suddenly changed to behave so hostile.

Arisa used her Appaisal on Hikaru when a knight in golden armour and a purple cape came flying in with such intense speed that the eye is having difficulty following. Hikaru brandished her Claiomh Solais readily with 13 flexible swords of similar shape to its original came charging at Arisa.

“<Maze>” (Arisa)

Space Magic that blocks out dimension, boxed in Hikaru into a tight space

“Stay calm over there. <Clairvoyance> <Appraisal>” Arisa said and she cast her spell to view Hikaru’s status. Most of her statuses were concealed by the armour but something is obviously wrong with Hikaru’s condition.

Arisa cast <Appraisal> 2 more times before she can unveil some of the true statuses of Hikaru. There were <Charmed> and <Berserker> in Hikaru’s status display.

“This is bad. We need to free Hikaru-san from her <Charmed> and <Berserker> status” (Arisa)

“Let’s use <Dispel> skill to free Mito-sama. Mind Magic is such a terrible existence” (Sera)

Before the girls can chantlessly cast <Dispel> together as ritual magic, Liza and Nana was tossed into the air before taking a heavy blow when in the air.

Pochi and Tama appeared to have their sword and daggers in their hands and they have readied and boosted themselves in battle mode.

“<Maze>, <Maze>” (Arisa)

Arisa cast <Appraisal> again on Tama and Pochi to reveal <Charmed>, <Confused>, and <Delayed Onset> on them, with no misleading status due to they not equipping their golden armour.

“I may be a sword-wielding hero but my forte is in magic” said Hikaru as she broke out of the maze made from space magic.

The girls are unable to continue the ritual magic <Dispel> and instead cast them individually while avoiding magic edge cannon shot from multiple angles from the tip of Hikaru’s Claiomh Solais split magic blades.

Liza recovers herself before she used her Douma Mk2 spear to launch a flurry of attacks with Magic Edge active. These were all parried and Hikaru uses Force Art to topple Liza and prepare to finish her off when Nana who has recovered uses her Force Art to prepare a magic shield and repel Hikaru.

“You, all of you. Are you preparing to rebel against your Ichirou-nii?” lashed Hikaru.

“We never dream of hurting Satou-sama. Please come back to your senses. We will help you. Let us dispel that skill that has been plaguing you” (Arisa)

Hikaru felt the urge to reject the words from the girls, and unable to contain her emotion; launch very fierce attacks towards the girls.

Hikaru just wholly focused on battle rather than the strange feelings at hand due to the adrenaline rush. She knew she was outnumbered, so she creates 4 clones with a boost up from her golden armour. The clones are to distract the others while Hikaru deal with the girls one by one, as each clone is slightly inferior in battle power compare to any one of the girls.

Hikaru’s clones and 65 flying swords shooting Magic Edge cannon met with fierce battle with the girls. Hikaru’s main body slipped in and attacked Arisa first.

Arisa was panic-stricken, as she has forgotten to invite Hikaru to Dejima Island.

Both Tama and Pochi actually went out of their way to call Hikaru in the palace, but they turned back to Solitary Island without managing to invite her.

Behind the scene, the incubus (succubus form) has met and charmed both Tama and Pochi with <Delayed Onset> spell so that they would react when Hikaru was nearby them to deal maximum carnage.

“You are all ungrateful and intend to harm Ichirou-nii. I will destroy every one of you” shouted Hikaru. The girls shouted in anger in unison.

The girls fought with everything they had. Arisa use her <Space Cutter> spell to carefully chip away Hikaru’s shield and armour. Hikaru weave herself among the girls to make Arisa have a hard time to aim her big moves. Sera heals the wounded girls and use a new spell with flashbang under Light element spells to blind the attackers. Many of the girls got their eyes hurt due to large AOE of the spell.

Mia summoned all sorts of new summons with the elements like <Water Elemental>, <Fire Elemental>,  <Earth Elemental>, <Wind Elemental>, <Shadow Elemental>, <Light Elemental>, and many more with the new spells to hurl attacks at Hikaru to slow her down.

Liza used her Spear skills properly to destroy Hikaru’s clones and defences one by one. The fewer clones of Hikaru are meant to concentrate the power of the clone’s attacks, so Liza is having a tough time to take down even one of them, as Liza cannot use her Dragon Spear or any of her more lethal moves.

Karina is having a field day, as her active skill <Karina Kick> has become overwhelmingly powerful spell. Her kicks have destroyed several of Hikaru’s clones when they connected.

Nana draws aggro of Hikaru by stating that Hikaru is almost a millennium old. Her Force Art - Large shield on a sturdy shield she picked inside her Dimensional pouch was badly dented by the strong pierce of Claiomh Solais with a strong skill active.

Lulu sniped at Hikaru’s sword hand with her miniature Smoothbore rifle, but Hikaru twist her blade to reflect it back at Lulu and damage her gun to block the attack. Lulu then stores her Smoothbore rifle and retrieves her miniature acceleration rifle, then employed basic spell of <Mirage> at level 1 to hide her location.

Pochi and Tama broke out from the almost expired <Maze> spell of Arisa space magic and started to run rampage. Tama hides in the shadow and struck at the girls at their blind spot, injuring and incapacitating them. Pochi with her new spell <Nanodesu> and multiple cloning techniques made a huge wave that slashed away all the defensive <Flexible Shield> combined with <Lightning> spells placed by Arisa and Mia. The shields managed to damage Pochi’s clones sufficiently to disperse 56 out of the 64.

Arisa thought of turning this event into a serious training for their skills, but Hikaru’s Berserker state is getting worse the longer they duke it out. Her body is forcefully drawing mana to compensate for her overusing of mana.

Tama and Pochi have no sense of control over their destruction and may endanger the girls. As long as the head stays intact with the body, Sera can heal them again and Desert subspace can take quite a huge amount of damage.

Ending the battle quickly would be preferable, but the <Dispel> ritual magic can’t be performed when they are scattered, and individual <Dispel> are not sufficient to break the spell on Hikaru and the girls.

Arisa informed through <Tactic Talk> to all the girls not affected that they would have to whittle down or disarm and disable those affected with <Charmed> state in order to dispel from their affliction.

All the girls battle it out with <Flickering Movement> and <Ground Shrink>, every movement is happening in a blink of an eye.

Meanwhile, Sistina cast boost to all her summoned armed Orichalcum golem and the unaffected girls. The golems are equipped with spells that specialize in certain work. There are medic team that does <Healing>, <Antidote>, and <Regeneration>, a tanking team consist of shield-bearers, and a strike team consist of gun and cannon assortment made of mithril and orichalcum equipment, sword, spear, and dagger for close combat, and a team of long-range magic casters. With repair golems, the automatons can deal with a war of attrition and fight almost continuously, only the need to recharge their power source near a Philosopher stone furnace.

The girls utilize their new gift orb skills well, but wasn’t able to optimize them well for this current battle and it starts to affect their performance when compared to their usual skills.

Hikaru’s berserker state progressed further and she started emitting blue light over her body, similar to most Parion heroes when they damaged their soul vessel. Her slashes grew sharper and several times she almost slash off the heads of some of the girls. Several of the girls got their limbs severed, but Sera managed to mend them back.

Arisa raised her mind magic level 1 (from gift orb) to level 8 by allocating skill points and use <Sleeping Field> and <Ennui Field> to calm down Hikaru. This doesn’t work somehow and Arisa was in a bind of how to find a way to remove the negative status from Hikaru.

Seeing the state of things, the girls not in charmed state begin to move in unison and adopted a different strategy. Arisa utilize her level 1 healing magic and floating shield magic to support her allies, while utilizing Space, Fire, Mind, and Light magic to bombard from a distance while using <Meditation> to recover mana. Arisa occasionally cast fully-charged <Dispel>, <Sleeping Field>, and <Ennui Field> but to no avail as their armour absorb some of its effect and on top of dealing no damage. The <Charmed> effect is still going strong. Arisa then proceed to use space magic to absorb as many incoming attack on her allies inside her <Maze> as her mana can support

Zena utilizes her Air magic in tandem with level 1 sword skills to parry the attacks and to return attacks with her ordinary orichalcum sword. She cast elemental summons to defend herself and her allies while preparing huge <Tempest> attack to shave off her opponent’s defence while meditating to recover her mana. She combined Wind and Water spell to produce large freezing mist field and Ice spears to inhibit and strike. Large Water and Light spells were prepared to heal herself and her allies that suffered grave injuries, and she managed to recover herself when she lost an arm and have part of her stomach gouged out.

Liza handles Pochi and Tama from the front while using magic edge cannon for long-range attack at a distance. The sudden change in those two caught Liza by surprise and she failed to rush to Zena’s aid. The two little girls have grown so strong that Liza alone is tied down handling just one of them. One of the girls will parry away Liza’s magic edge cannon’s beam while the other will perform their own magic edge cannon or strike at Liza. Liza operates her magic spell to provide personal flexible shield protection and also heal her injury. She equips her weak elemental attacks on her spear to provide extra boost of elemental attack. Lightning spear provide speed and cutting edge, fire provide heat and AOE attack, wind provide speed and weightlessness, and ice provide freezing moves. Swinging her spear left and right, she bought a lot of time for others to cast their spells.

Nana provides powerful defensive and offensive cover for herself and her allies. She coated her floating scale shields with multiple elemental properties to provide better protection and to instantly repel and damage attackers. Lightning was used to electrocute attacks with conducting materials. It can even be used to magnetize her shield and render weapons immobile, though it cannot distinguish friends or foe. Using force art magic with elemental properties, Nana can make powerful magic attack equal to powerful mage such as Zena. Nana refuse to use summons in battle in fear that ‘young organism’ will be destroyed. Nana’s shields are especially effective to deal with <Confused> Tama that strike from the shadow using her clones equip with explosive spells or other destructive elements. Her shield can take the heavy beatings from <Confused> Pochi. Her <Shield Bash> skill was unable to make Pochi and Tama faint from concussion due to the powerful enchantment of the <Confused> spell cast on them. She uses some swords skills with her great sword to attack and repel attacks with great effect, slashing through tough defence with ease and provide some close-combat cover. <Vibrating Blade> skill allowed Nana to cut though armours precisely, but she would need to combine it with Force Art – Magic Hand to avoid passing the vibrating movement to her entire body.

Lulu’s accuracy was improved greatly by passive common skill <Accuracy> and rare skill <Marksmanship>. Able to perform better magic control and projectile control skills, Lulu can now shoot at any angle and perform last minute change of trajectory. As long as the angle is not too severe, the projectile momentum can still be maintained. Lulu is running and jumping while shooting accelerated rifles on both hands. The projectile used is orichalcum alloy designed for toughness with holy charge. Lulu always shifts her projectiles to hit spots that can incapacitate, but her opponents avoided them with <Flickering Movement> and <Ground Shrink>. The projectile also occasionally reflected to Lulu or her allies, so Lulu has to be cautious. Lulu was especially good at spotting Tama hiding in the shadow.

Mia summons Garuda and Behemoth. All level 1 elementals were also summoned (they are buffed due to Mia’s magic stat and Mia summon skills level). Mia proceeds to cast all the level 1 buff she had onto her summons. Summon skeletons reacted badly when Mia buffed Light-based magic and summon wisps become weaken when getting Shadow-based magic. Mia cast flexible shields on all her summons and have them distract the <confused> opponent or attack them. Both Garuda’s Air magic and Behemoth’s Earth magic were so powerful but Hikaru was able to drive them back with her powerful nature-enhanced magic arrows. Mia then decides to add Tiamat and Leviathan to her fighting force and also create a large pool of water for the Tiamat and Leviathan to swim in. Mia then equipped her sun orb wand with magic edge and uses it like a short sword and cast sword skills with it, while also playing her leaf flute with a soothing melody to calm its listener.

Sera utilize her Holy and Light magic to confuse and dispel the <confused> state imposed onto Hikaru, Tama, and Pochi. Sera’s <Dispel> was extremely potent by herself, but it wasn’t able to dispel the strange condition imposed onto her friends. Sera urgently communicate through <Tactical Talk> and instructed the unaffected girls to synchronize with her and cast ritual <Dispel> focused on single target for maximum effect. The girls bought enough time, with Liza, Nana, Karina, and Lulu that has lower talent in Light magic performing their best to defend the girls while they prepare the ritual magic chantlessly.

The finished ritual <Dispel> was casted when Sera utilize one of her <Flasbang> light magic and it created a huge shockwave around a large area. The affected area even turn into a null magic area and spells can’t be casted or easily fail. However, Hikaru, Tama, and Pochi still remained in their <Charmed> state. Unknown to the girls, the action actually prevented the afflicted girls from turning into <Possessed> state, which binds the afflicted user at their soul level and will be hard pressed for a cure. Sera was very upset by the supposed spell failure as they don’t have any other means to stop the affliction except to fight till exhaustion or death. The girls tried to use as little force as possible to avoid killing or injuring too badly the afflicted girls, as they are innocent. Sera then created a Sanctuary zone in Desert subspace. This however, wasn’t able to alleviate the symptom.

Sistina’s automaton golem has systematically <Heal> the girls, <Repair> their damaged kin, defend the injured and move them to safety, and also attacked with automated gun and three Damnation cannons. They were equipped with short-range teleport for extra protection. Sistina reconfigure her defence automaton to launch nets made of orichalcum and mithril alloy and weight bolas enchanted with minor <Gravity>. While holding the affected girls down with the nets, the space was enclosed with octagonal energy field enforced by space magic, while Sera then cast her <Erase Evil Effect> spell onto Hikaru. However, these were broken by Hikaru’s holy sword and the spell was not effective.

Hikaru’s perspective.

“What is currently happening?” muttered Hikaru in her mind. Everything is hazy after she began attacking Lulu. Lulu is acting suspicious and the girls in Desert subspace are acting beyond bounds and start utilizing Core-chan for their greed. But her mind keep hearing lofty whispers and she felt that following it is the most natural thing to do. Evidence proved the girls are wrong, so she felt what she did was right. Lulu cleverly used the chopping board to guard what would be a fatal move and propel her body inside Desert subspace prove her point that she is guilty of her crime and is a crafty coward who now run to get reinforcement. Hikaru prepares herself with her best equipment, Nanashi’s armour and cape, wands, and sword equipped. She invokes Claimh Solais’ holy verse and equip herself with flexible shield and magic swords for maximum effectiveness before entering the Desert subspace. In the subspace, Hikaru sensed that Lulu must have gathered the girls and are now hiding to ambush her, as there is nobody at the entrance. “No mercy for those who oppose Ichirou-nii”, “All the girls is now our enemies since they want to backstab Ichirou-nii”, “Ah, but two of them are now at our side”, Hikaru heard these soft mumbles.

Hikaru operates her magic control to detect their location, when suddenly she was encased in a white space and lost vision of the desert. Inside this white space, Hikaru can be subjected to multiple types of attacks, especially space magic. Hikaru quickly operate her mana and magic to prepare her sword to intercept and counter space magic with < Break Magic>. She broke out from the <Maze> and dash towards the girls with <Flickering Movement> and <Ground Shrink> since the girls are at a location far away from the portal.

Hikaru thought of distracting the girls while her two allies that just awoken attack the girls from behind, so she split herself into 5 clones to maximize combat power while provide distraction. She and her clones recited Claiomh Solais holy verse and the sword split into 13 floating blades. In the midst of the girls’ battle preparation, Tama and Pochi ‘awakened’ attacked the strongest available.

“I will judge them later, but for now, they are on my side” whisper the lofty voice in Hikaru’s mind. Hikaru decide that the time they are distracted is the best time to strike, since she was outnumbered. She will strike at their vital points and at their head, dealing killing blow, but she don’t understand why she had such notion. When Nana (aided by pierce resist and bleeding resist) and Liza (lost her tail and right arm) was attacked ad flung into the air, Hikaru and one of her clone slash at their throat. Nana managed to shield against the attack, and Zena managed to block Hikaru clone’s fatal attack with magic short sword, but got brutally stabbed by the overwhelming number of floating holy sword.

“That’s for defying Ichirou-nii” said the voice in Hikaru’s head. She doesn’t like violence, but the lofty voice convince her that it is necessary, reminding her of the old days when some of her decision to leave traitors alive results in catastrophe later. Arisa with he space magic <Space Cutter> broke several of the Claiomh Solais copies, and Mia strong summons made it in time to deflect the attacks. Arisa’s short-range teleport moved Nana and Liza to safety while Tama and Pochi are attacking Liza to eliminate her first. Sera managed to regroup and healed Liza’s severed arm and tail. Things don’t bode well for Hikaru if the girls managed to regain composure, so she attack any weak spot in the group. Lulu was weak in close combat so Hikaru hid three of the sword copies near Lulu and let it run amok when Lulu activated her magic shield. Hikaru invited heavy fire and ran between the girls so that she can create crossfire situation and attack the girls when they lose their attention. Liza has returned to the battlefield, Nana was employing shields with elements that can backfire the attacker, so our side is at a disadvantage. Liza seems to be in a foul mood and attacks Hikaru when there is an opening. Hikaru assess that she need to eliminate the healers and magicians first, to remove the support that keeps the battle ongoing. She managed to wound Sera and almost cut off Arisa’s wand hand, but other girls pit in and managed to heal their allies, and injure Hikaru in return. Hikaru can perform minor heal on herself but she’s not Satou, she can’t do everything alone. Hikaru felt that the girls are looking down on her even though she used to be a Hero, because they keep using petty low level spells to drag the battle, and are utilizing non-battle spells such as <Sleep>, <Lullaby>, and music or darts and bullets with sleep inducing poison and paralysis. Hikaru activated her Hero abilities to improve her combat stats. Her unique skill,  <Friendship>, was greyed out and flickering.

“No matter, I will finish off the girls before they can harm Ichirou-nii” (Hikaru)

Hikaru remembered her time playing MMORPG. AOE skills can be casted without any care for the surrounding. However, this is now reality, and she tasted this despair in her previous encounter with greater demons and Golden Wild Boar King: AEO spells kills indiscriminately. So this time, she go between the girls with <Ground Shrink>, invoke AOE spell from her repertoire, and use <Flickering Movement> when the girls block or escape to approach and cut them down with Claiomh Solais. The clones and multiple sword clones will cut them further and she will shoot out magic arrows to chase the girls when they managed to teleport or put some distance between them. Hikaru was inwardly surprised she has was able to use Fire Magic (level 7), but it fells so natural to her. By using knowledge in programming, Hikaru opened the source code and combined a portion of Fire Magic with a part of <Detection> spell, and created a <Personnel Mines> spell. Hikaru raise its mastery to level 6 by allocating points and lay out the new spell en masse wherever she goes. The resulting AOE damage from triggered mines made teleporting dangerous and break many magic shields, exposing the girls to attack from the flying blades and clones attack. Hikaru was satisfied with the result and proceed to bring down Arisa and Sera, but Liza and Nana keep getting in the way. Pochi and Tama are not properly distracting them, thought Hikaru. This unbearable feeling caused Hikaru to feel angrier with the girls, and something seems to take over her body. The girls started to group together, so Hikaru decides to damage them all together with AOE skills. The girls persist, and somehow the angry possession feeling reduced when the girls cast ritual magic <Dispel> on her.  Hikaru begin to struggle in her mind to shrug off the strange feeling that still controlling her, but it soon return, and Hikaru felt compelled to attack the girls again. She operated her magic to spread her <Personnel Mines> around and use her floating magic swords and clones to attack the girls, hitting their magic shields and summons left and right, while avoiding Lulu’s bullet and magic attacks from the girls, or blocking them with her flexible shields. Her mana is getting lesser and lesser as the war of attrition goes by, as she can’t always get sufficient mana with <Mana Drain>. Hikaru felt the scene in front of her surreal and she view it like a third person perspective, as if she is just a spectator. The girls are now working in coordinated manner and their skills seem to have improved. Sera’s continuous <Flashbang> blinding attack made Hikaru obtain <Light Resistance> (minor)(level 1), and obtained minor resistance against the blindness. Sistina’s golem managed to pin Hikaru down for a moment, but she managed to break free with the blue light emitted from her body. Holy Light coated Hikaru and Sera’s spell <Erase Evil Effect> was not effective in expelling what was controlling Hikaru. Knowing that the girls are wearing down on Hikaru, she started to unleash more dire spells and her life force begins to shave away.

Pochi and Tama perspective

Pochi’s mind suddenly went blank. Pochi just can remember that she is hearing voices telling her to hit her enemies. Pochi was confused. I can’t find anyone familiar. All around her is dangerous-looking monsters. An ugly looking corpse with a large shield in front. Pochi swing her <Vorpal Strike> attack and perform a <Piercing Strike> desu. Pochi saw Tama. This must means we have been teleported to another strange place again. The corpse person still doesn’t die. Pochi wants to try out her new skill, and activated <Nanodesu>. Great power coursing through Pochi’s body, and Pochi attack the corpse person together with Tama. Pochi also saw a small undead dragon-person holding a white pole coming here, so Pochi uses Magic Edge Cannon on the dragon-person desu, but dragon person also fire back using Magic Edge Cannon twice and cancel out the attack. Impossible, only Liza-san can can do such powerful Magic Edge Cannon, but the person is not Liza-san. Pochi can hear a fluffy sounding voice telling Pochi to help Tama and Hikaru defeat enemies that appear in Desert subspace. This time, Pochi will show her peerless fearless and get Master to pet me a lot desuyo.

Tama can smell delicious food and her vision clouded. Tama was stopped by a lizard-looking monster, so she just felt like attacking it with her twin dragontooth dagger. Tama successfully cut off lizard monster’s tail and arm, good. Tama saw Pochi. Tama the big sister will protect her little sister Pochi. Tama is a good big sister. Demon-san carrying big shield is aiming big sword at Pochi. Tama can sense danger in that sword, must not touch it. Tama uses the shadow to carry Pochi away before their blades touch. Tama warned Pochi of the danger in Demon-san’s blade, which Pochi couldn’t understand. Tama sneak into the shadows and continuously attack the monsters from blind spots, but each time a bipedal cow wearing maid uniform is able to detect and snipe at her. She detects a bag that emits nice smell and decides to go after it with shadow. From Lulu’s perspective, Tama is sneaking out dried octopus pickled with salt from Lulu’s food bag. Lulu keeps spotting Tama popping out from her shadow and direct some shots made of orichalcum cartridges filled with sleep-inducing powder. Pochi noticed that Tama is in trouble, so she returns fire with Magic Edge Cannon at Lulu that now looks like a bipedal monster. Lulu used <Flash Step> to avoid the attacks and recast <Mirage> and <Hide Presence>.

Lulu noticed that Hikaru could stop even space magic and inquire Arisa about it. Arisa said that Satou and Hikaru used a magic that can break spell skill of another system, <Break Magic>. Lulu suggests that they use <Dispel> ritual magic and <Break Magic> together.

Sera and other girls agreed to the plan, with Sera deciding to cast <Erase Evil Effect> after aiding the ritual <Dispel>. Sera cast her <Flashbang> towards Hikaru in quick succession and ran away from the AOE attacks. Sistina sacrificed her defence golem to cast a wall of shield around the girls that are preparing for ritual magic <Dispel>. The need for concentration is high because each girls need to tune their power accordingly due to each girls have different magic power and talent. Arisa and Mia coordinated the magic this time to obtain better result for the dispel magic.

Zena with her all-rounded ability really shines here after obtaining many new skills and passive skills. She launched her favourite skill <Air Hammer> to knockback Hikaru and Pochi. Tama then coordinated with Hikaru and Pochi to launch attack from the shadows, which Sera has been trying to negate with her <Flashbang> skill. Zena’s <Wind Stilettos> and <Heavy Air Wall> attack and defend at the same time, provide the girls with much needed time, leaving only Liza to frontal assault and Nana can concentrate her Nature Magic <Break Magic>, with Liza supplying her magic support too with newly acquired skills. Zena and Arisa summons all type of dragon elements and golems, to be used as makeshift physical defence, on top of Mia’s summon specialist. They were buffed with magical reinforcements and defence. Hikaru, Tama, and Pochi concentrated their attack and tried to siege through the makeshift barricade of summons, and when they made it through, they were caught by surprise.

Arisa, Mia (nature magic level 1) and Nana activated <Mana Drain> onto the confused girls to drain away the little mana left on them after the attack, then cast <Neutral Magic> (level 1) on them to disable teleport. Sera’s <Flashbang> and <Light Elemental> summon was properly angled to minimize shadow formation, thus disabling Tama’s Shadow portal ninjutsu. The <Neutral Magic> zone has spread near Arisa and girls so they launch the ritual magic <Dispel>, and Arisa, Mia, and Nana launched <Break Magic> on the confused girls, with Sera and Zena launching <Erase Evil Effect> right after. Mia’s four large summons then proceeds to pin them down. Hikaru, Tama, and Pochi manage to regain themselves for a short moment and shouted due to the rough treatment, before succumbing again to confused state.

Hikaru, Tama, and Pochi noticed that they couldn’t use skills anymore due to the lack of mana. Their physical strength was exhausted and they can’t push away the heavy weight bearing down on them. They are prepared to shave away their life and waste it all away to inflict maximum casualties before they expire, which send the unaffected girls to panic. Liza, Sistina, Mia, and Lulu started to clutch their head as they are starting to have their status change to <Confused>. Nana and Karina was faring better because of Nana’s new resistance to all and Karina’s artifact, Raka, was able to regulate mind effect to a certain extend as long as they are equipped.

“You just have to make your entry at this time huh, knight in shining armour” said Arisa frustrated after sensing a disturbance in space.

Satou arrived in the Desert subspace, disable Hikaru, Pochi, and Tama with hundreds of <Remote Stun> (no damage), greeted all the girls, and dropped a succubus on the ground. He points out that the succubus is the cause of the trouble the girls are facing.

“Those affected by the curse might suffer irreversible mental injury if we leave them too long in that state” said Satou

Satou mold some divinity on his right arm, then inserts it slowly into Hikaru’s heart, and pulls out a black carrion with purple ominous aura. He then used <Calm Field>, <Break Magic>, <Erase Evil Effect>, <Greater Heal>, and  <Purification> to heal the affected her. Satou then repeat the same to Pochi and Tama but found no black carrion. Satou then crushed the black carrion’s head and places it into Storage for analysis later. Satou use map and scan the surrounding for those affected by the same curse. Map was unable to detect those afflicted by the curse, so Satou combined his divinity with Holy and <Detection> magic to find the people infected or afflicted with the curse. Satou found that the curse has spread like virus around the vicinity. Satou then cast <Calm Field>, < Break Magic>, <Erase Evil Effect>, <Greater Heal>, <Purification>, and <Purification Virus> while injecting little divinity into his spells to clear the affected and afflicted people in the area around Desert subspace. After making sure that there is no more evil presence with <Evil Perception>, Satou treat Hikaru especially with a large dose of Elixir Rev 2, followed by Tama and Pochi, then all the other girls that got injured in the incident. I gave it mouth-to-mouth to Hikaru, Tama, and Pochi secretly since they fainted, but the girls noticed it and demand they all get a mouth-to-mouth too.  I don’t particularly hate it, but it is troublesome for my heart.

“Sorry for being late. This succubus managed to dig a hole to the volcanic crater and caused lava to spill out from outside the protection of the labyrinth” said Satou.

That night,  Satou have to sleep with Hikaru, Pochi, and Tama. Satou whispered soothingly to their ears. For Hikaru, he said “Hikaru is a good girl. It was my mistake”, to Pochi “Pochi is a good girl”, and to Tama “Tama is a good girl”. Hikaru’s sad face went blush and she curls herself up and hide under the blanket, and Satou continues persuade her with kind words and feed her favourite food on his lap when she refuse to eat.

Pochi’s ears curl down when Satou whisper to her and she cried a lot. She even ignored her favourite meat dish, and Satou fed her on his lap after serving Hikaru.

Tama’s ears flutter uncontrollably when Satou whisper to her. She curls up into a ball and hide under the bed sheets. Satou rubs her chin continuously and she will open her mouth for Satou to feed her.

These continue for 3 days before they managed to overcome their trauma of hurting their friends.

Arisa, Mia, Sera, and even Lulu was extremely peeved and protested that they suffered too.

Arisa and Sera was verbal about it, and Mia sits on Satou’s lap in a cuddle position while repeatedly saying “Satou is unfair. You didn’t treat me kindly. Not good you know, not good”. Lulu used her eyes and expression to look sadly at Satou when he treats the Hikaru, Pochi, and Tama favourably. Satou somehow felt that Lulu is more endearing lately, hope that Lulu can spare him from his heart fluttering.

A long night was spent talking and explaining the entire situation, with Arisa apologizing for failing to include Hikaru in the group activity in Dejima and Tama and Pochi explaining their end of the story. Succubus-san was locked in an enclosed space prison at satellite orbit for questioning. Satou commended the bravery of the girls and how strong they are from the video playback of cameras installed at several places in the Desert subspace. Arisa is not amused. “This is a blunder on the security of my home”, thought Satou as he reconfigures the safety and security of Solitary Island and everything within.

Arisa and Lulu both requested that Satou do what he did to Core 2-chan during Dejima incident and repeat it daily for several minutes. Satou show a slightly red face, but asked why do he need to do so. Arisa explained some of her circumstances earlier, and Satou ruffled Arisa’s stylish grandma hair, then answered “Ok, why not”. Arisa totally misunderstood Satou and fainted from blood rush. Lulu turned her head away and squealed. Satou was confused, but did not inquire further. Since then, the girls wake up every morning to the call of Core 2-chan.

Later, Satou create accessories for all the girls that can protect against mind magic and infection attacks so that they can wear it all the time.