To become a king and a magician

I'm back here again.

Natsukawa Tora looked at the endless corpses around him, and at Sajou Aika sitting on the mountain of corpses.

"Is there something you need? Why did you bring me here?"

"What good are you, you wretched vixen?"

With a cold expression, Sajou Aika stared at Natsukawa Torata, her pretty face as cold as ice, her eyes revealing dissatisfaction.

"You couldn't kill a Dead Apostle of that caliber cleanly. Although his abilities are somewhat troublesome, and you could say he's similar to me, you still couldn't kill him. What exactly have you been doing these past few years?"

Sajo Aika's tone was like that of a disappointed old mother scolding her good-for-nothing son.

Xia Chuanhu glanced at her and couldn't help but glare back at her: "And then what? If you're so capable, why don't you do it yourself? Or is it that besides using magic tricks and rhetoric to amplify my anger, all you can do is talk? You ignorant little girl."

"You—if it weren't for you sealing me here!"

"And I know what you're trying to say."

Natsukawa Tora touched the non-existent Demon Eye Killer.

"All you want is for me to remove the Mystic Eyes so that you have a chance to break free from the seal. Although he is said to be an existence that is almost impossible to kill, Nero Chaos is still a life with a soul. As long as his soul is eroded to the limit, he will eventually destroy himself."

"And what you're aiming for is probably to use the countless magic spells in your mind to break the seal when I focus my energy on eroding your soul, right?"

Sajō Aika's soul is connected to the Root. In short, she possesses all the knowledge in the world. Although she is sealed by the Mystic Eyes and can hardly use magic, even so, Natsukawa Torato would not be surprised if she were to break free one day.

She has the potential to do this.

Therefore, Xia Chuanhu did not intend to give her any openings, and he would never remove the Demon Eye Killer unless absolutely necessary.

"..."

Seeing the deep fear in Xia Chuanhu's eyes and on his face, even though he knew the person in front of him was just a fox spirit, being looked at like that by someone with a face almost identical to his prince...

"Tch...it's really unpleasant." Sajō Aika turned her head away. "Don't show that face to me, and don't look at me with that face!"

"Wasn't it you who pulled me here?"

How could this person be the one to falsely accuse others?

Xia Chuanhu rolled his eyes, then sat down on the ground: "Speaking of which, why did you speak up this time? Could it be that you've actually found a way to escape from here?"

Why don't you guess?

“Then there isn’t any.” Natsukawa Tora breathed a sigh of relief. “If there were, you wouldn’t be wasting your breath talking to me here.”

"Who knows? What will you do if I actually find it someday?"

"If I can kill you, I will kill you; if I can't, I will seal you. If you escape, I will chase you to the ends of the earth. Even if you escape to a parallel world, to the past, or to the future, I will spare no expense to borrow the Gem Sword from the Gem Elder and find you."

Since the task of sealing the beast has been assigned, we must complete it no matter what and see it through to the end.

A genuine, straightforward gaze was reflected in Ayaka Sajou's eyes. Since they had met, Ayaka Sajou had never seen any other emotion in Natsukawa Torato's eyes—at least not in front of her.

Unlike Arthur, who was cleaning up his past mistakes and making amends, Natsukawa Torato took on Arthur's mission voluntarily and carried it out as if it were his own innate duty.

(So, that's why you summoned the prince?)

Sajō Aika narrowed her eyes slightly, then sighed: "It's just unpleasant. That Dead Apostle named Nero Chaos is simply a clumsy imitation and theft of me. If I weren't sealed here, I would have killed him with my own hands."

"I was trying to influence your mind so that you would quickly eliminate him from my perception. Unfortunately, you are too incompetent. You couldn't even handle someone of that caliber. Even in a state of extreme anger, you hesitated and hesitated. If you didn't restrain yourself, there would be few people in this world who could stand up to you."

"Perhaps. But if Arthur sees that later, he'll probably be extremely disappointed."

Xia Chuanhu smiled.

“He gave me my life, and I don’t want to do anything to betray his kindness. If you received a gift from Arthur, even just a small bracelet, you would cherish it as a priceless treasure, wouldn’t you? In this respect, my thoughts are similar to yours.”

"It's rare that we agree."

As soon as she finished speaking, Ayaka Sajou looked up: "It seems your sister is calling for you. I'll let it go this time, but I hope that next time you see Nero Chaos, you can completely take care of him. You vixen."

"Of course."

——————————————————————————————

The moment Natsukawa Tora opened his eyes again, he saw Gray staring at him.

Good morning, brother. Did you sleep well?

Grey asked with a smile.

Sitting up in bed, Natsukawa Tora gave a wry smile: "Let's just call it a nightmare. Gray, what about you? After what happened last night... did you sleep?"

Natsukawa Torato wasn't sure if Grey had seen the hellish scene from last night. If she had, it would have been an extremely cruel nightmare for a child.

Fortunately, Grey gently shook her head: "I slept very well, nothing's wrong. By the way, brother, here's your change of clothes. Come to the dining room for breakfast after you're dressed. I'll go over there and help you prepare."

"Okay, thank you for your help."

Watching Grey jog away, Natsukawa Tora rubbed his face: "It's really fortunate to have a sister like Grey, otherwise I wouldn't be in such a good mood right now."

The tragedy caused by Nero Chaos is still vividly etched in Natsukawa Torato's mind, and he will likely never forget it for a long time to come. If he were alone, he would probably still be consumed by rage.

But he wasn't alone. He couldn't take his anger out on Grey, whom he spent every day with. He had to calm down and return to his usual self in front of Grey.

The older brother can't let his younger sister suffer.

"You really do have a good younger sister, junior."

Aozaki Aoko's voice came through.

Leaning against the doorframe and looking at Natsukawa Tora, the Magician Girl chuckled, "I was a little worried about your mental state, but it seems I was worrying unnecessarily."

"Miss Aoko... I'm so sorry, I was a bit impulsive last night and caused you trouble."

"It's alright. If you hadn't knocked him away, I would have gone up and beaten him up too." Aozaki Aoko laughed. "Young people should be more passionate, of course. Alright, get up quickly. I have something I want to talk to you about after breakfast."

"It concerns Nero Chaos and Arcueid."

26. Avalon: Scumbag!

Natsukawa and the others are currently in an apartment building in Misaki City—the very place where Natsukawa previously discovered Arcueid, which can be considered Arcueid's base of operations in Misaki City.

Of course, not everyone is here. Only Natsukawa Torato, Grey, Arcueid, and Aozaki Aoko are here. Aozaki Touko and Ryougi Shiki are in another place, not far away, just a two-minute walk away.

After leaving the hotel last night, the group moved here to stay temporarily.

While Gray was washing the dishes, Aozaki Aoko looked at Natsukawa Torato and Arcueid sitting opposite her: "Then let's begin the operational meeting against Nero Chaos. Although it's unclear whether he's the one responsible for the frequent appearances of vampires in Misaki City, given his actions last night that resulted in the massacre of the hotel, as the veil manager of Misaki City, I have a duty to eliminate him."

This morning's news already reported what happened last night. It is said that everyone on the three lower floors of the hotel was killed, and only those on the fourth floor and above survived. The confirmed death toll is over one hundred.

A veritable massacre.

"It's said the police have launched an investigation, but that will only increase the casualties," Aozaki Aoko said. "Arquette, putting aside your special case, can Nero even move around in the sun?"

"If we don't consider the loss of power, it should be fine. The reason why vampires don't operate during the day is that being exposed to direct sunlight makes us feel quite uncomfortable, and our power is also weakened, and our proud regenerative ability is also suppressed."

Arcueid explained, "Nero probably won't be active during the day. Instead, he'll release the beasts from the Beastmaster's Lair to roam the city and gather information. You've all seen them, haven't you?"

The beasts in the Beast King's Lair—no, more than that.

(Nero can even unleash magical beasts, combining multiple beast factors to create even more powerful magical beasts... It's just unknown whether he can create something of a higher rank than a magical beast.)

Of course, no matter how high-level the beasts were, it didn't really matter to the people present. The most important thing was the sheer number of them and Nero's immortality, especially the latter, which was the most difficult part to overcome.

Arcueid, how are you recovering?

"It's almost fully recovered; it should be completely healed by noon tomorrow. What's wrong?"

"Could you please return Avalon to me first? I want to give it to Shiki so she can recover," Natsukawa Tora explained. "Nero's immortality is quite troublesome. I tore his body apart and burned it several times last night, but he was still perfectly fine. The best way to kill him is to let Shiki—let the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception do it."

The Mystic Eyes of Death Perception are the greatest nemesis of immortality; even a True Ancestor like Arcueid could not avoid being killed by them.

"Sure, you should have said so earlier. Here, take it back."

Without a second thought, Arcueid patted his chest, and a gleaming golden scabbard immediately floated out.

Xia Chuanhu caught the sword sheath: "Thanks."

"No need to thank me, it was originally yours anyway, and I've actually recovered almost completely. The rest I can manage with my own healing abilities!"

"So that means we have a trump card to deal with Nero. The only thing left to consider is how to lure Nero out and cover Ryougi Shiki to kill him, right?" Aozaki Aoko looked at Natsukawa Torato, "Junior, how did you feel about his strength when you fought him last night?"

Nero's combat strength?

"In a one-on-one situation, I can dominate him."

"how long?"

"A few hours is no problem. If Avalon is around, I can fight him until the end of time."

That means there are at least two people here who can directly suppress Nero.

Aozaki Aoko nodded: "So, when we fight Nero later, my junior and I will suppress Nero and create an opportunity for Ryougi Shiki to kill him, is that alright?"

"No problem. But where is Nero right now? Are we just going to sit here and wait for him to come to us?"

“I’ll lure him out,” Arcueid suggested. “Nero is here to kill me on the orders of the Whitewing Lord. He will only appear where I am, so I can go to an open area to lure him out. The park is a good place nearby. If we set up a barrier, we won’t have to worry about affecting ordinary people.”

"That solves the problem. As for the timing of the operation... let's make it quick and decisive, and set it for tonight."

Aozaki Aoko summarized: "First, my junior and I went to the park to make all the necessary preparations. After nightfall, Arcueid lured Nero to come, suppressed him, and then covered Ryougi Shiki's kill—that's basically it, right?"

"Understood. Then I'll hand the scabbard over to Shiki first. With the scabbard's abilities, Shiki will definitely be fine by tonight."

As he said this, Xia Chuanhu felt somewhat sorry for Avalon. It had only been in his hands for a few days and had already been used by several people. He himself had hardly used it and it had been treated like a mobile fountain.

I used an EX-rank Noble Phantasm like that... I wonder what Artoria would think if she knew.

--------------------------

Meanwhile, in London, England, on the other side of the world.

"General."

As she placed a white queen on the board, Meryl smiled and looked at Morgan opposite her: "This time I win. Thirty-two wins and twenty-nine losses, I'm three wins ahead now. I won't be polite about taking the last piece of the pie."

"Hmph, so what if I give it to you?"

Morgan picked up his teacup and took a sip: "Speaking of which, that child went to Japan, didn't he?"

"Hmm, you've been gone for a few days now. What, are you missing him?" Meryl laughed. "If you are, just go see him. Although I think he probably still doesn't really want to see you."

"I remember you returned Avalon to him before he left, right?"