———Lerim———
“Hmm…” I mumbled to myself while checking myself with the hand mirror. I can’t say I like the current ambience, but I’m focusing on myself here, I don’t need to worry about the surroundings at the mont… Eh, all the ss on my face and clothes aside, nothing got deford or bent in the process. I an, I would’ve fixed them with healing magic anyway, but I’d like to avoid spending mana in the first place. I should at least clean these off. I know so types of people might be into it, but I want to keep my image clean, as they said. Be a bit more approachable to everyone else and not… you know?
“H-Help…” Soone whimpered out. Not among the pile of corpses around … In one of the collapsed buildings? Let’s go see what that’s about it…
…Buried in the pile of rubble? I can get him out easily enough.
“There you go, big guy.” I said that despite him actually being quite scrawny, I got him out of the rubble. The heck is he doing in there while everyone else ran away? I’m pretty sure I gave them plenty of ti to run.
“Thanks, I…” He was about to say sothing before his eyes widened and the expression of fear was made clear. Did he not realize what was happening during that ti? “A-A-Ahhh!?”
He screams in terror at the sight before running away. I get the reaction, but the battle is already over at this point, so there isn’t any reason to panic like that.
The sll of smoke is still strong as fire is still raging in the background. So much nonsense happened during the fight that the amount of collateral damage is way more than what I am comfortable with.
I take a bottle of lemonade from the bag and take a few refreshing sips. I need so sort of palate cleanser after all that. Streets dyed red in blood, many buildings ruined as their futile struggles cause more harm in the long run. Who ever heard of the invaders ruining their own ho instead of their victims? It’s ridiculous, but it’s to be expected from a bunch of barbarians thinking force without finesse is the solution to everything.
This kind of scene that looked like it ca out of one of the darker comic books just doesn't really sit right with , but what can you really do? Not my fault they keep flinging spells around like a bunch of caven instead of surrendering peacefully.
I know I should probably smoke during a scene like this to emphasize my coolness or whatever, but smoking is bad, and I consider myself a beauty instead of a badass. I know there is an allure in the latter, but I don’t plan on making a genre shift.
…I should call him by now, I’ve been pondering to myself for long enough. Maybe soone picked up the story by now, but I want to be certain he gets a status report.
“” First thing he said once he picked up the phone.
“Yeah. All done, not as nicely as I would’ve wanted, they were way more uncompromising than I would’ve liked.” I said before turning around to look at the carnage again. How many humans were cut into small pieces? I don’t know, they keep coming to like ants to a tiny chunk of food I accidentally dropped onto the ground.
As much as I would like to say I keep the damage I’m doing to the minimum, the sheer amount of troops coming right at ans I don’t exactly have the luxury to pull my punches as often as I would’ve liked. Even if I did warn the bystanders who knows how they’re holding up.
“Die!” Soone yelled out from behind .
*Swing* *Shatter*
“…You were saying sothing?” I said as I turned around, seeing soone new coming at with a now broken sword. He tried to swing it down right on my head, but it did nothing but shatter on impact.
*Grab* *Grip*
“Urughk!?” I grab his throat with my left hand and lift him up, making sure to tighten my grip.
“” He asked, sounding sowhat worried.
“Nothing, just tying up loose ends.” I said while staring at the man terrified out of his mind, futilely thrashing around hoping to break free.
*Throw* *Crash*
I threw him right into a pile of corpses that should cushion his fall. I don’t care how traumatizing that sounds, if he’s so willing to kill he should have so guts to endure a few corpses on display.
“Anyway. I’ll fill you in later. Just want to make sure you know I’m chilling at the mont.” I said that before quilting hanging up on him. Speaking of loose ends, there are actually a good deal of people who run away. Wisely so with how badly outmatched they were. Objectively speaking this fight was always going to go one way.
…The fact that they were planning for an invasion and all that prep just to end with being cleared out in less than an hour is certainly embarrassing. I wasn’t even sweating.
It’s really making wonder what people were doing all day? At least for these war mongering folks, you’d think they’d be the type to train so much that they'd all be a bunch of… I don’t know, so human-like aliens in comics. Those flying bricks.
These guys were… really nothing more than street thugs, it feels like. I know those burning buildings were from them actually knowing how to use magic, but not only can they not even aim those spells correctly, they all go down in a single hit each. I thought I was hitting so dummies, not actual humans.
The pile of corpses stacking up like a trash heap is not a sight I was expecting to create. Hundreds of people ready to kill, all ended up killed by a single person.
I know this should make feel invincible, but all I’m feeling is that they were weak. I have seen what a pinnacle of strength looks like, and I know full well I’m not even close to that.
…All I’m getting is a sinking feeling that I should probably pray that those who are stronger than are never near the vicinity of my town, lest everyone living there drop dead in the matter of a second.
It’s weird to feel dread when you so utterly trounce the enemies, but perhaps that’s sothing I should’ve expected in this strange new world we’re forced to live in.
…I think it’s ti to go. Let’s quickly wrap this up. I’m pulling out the gaphone.
“Hey you idiots! Your little invasion force and your leader are done for, don’t try any funny business in the future, you hear !?” I said through the gaphone I have in my bag before taking my leave, leaving them to deal with the ss they created in the first place.
“So… You killed all of them?” He bluntly asked after I gave him a summary of the event.
“A good number of them did surrender or run away in the last stretch, so I wouldn’t say that.” It’d be crazy to kill literally all of them. Gotta be a few that aren’t completely indoctrinated. “…I’m not going to cover the cost for any of that, by the way. Who’s gonna make do that anyway? I already warned them that surrendering was the best option. I locked them in their own town just to make sure they can’t run past and get here, so they can’t attack without putting their own town in jeopardy. Now what did they do? Fling out spells like a maniac that end up bouncing back on their own infrastructures. A bunch of brainless barbarians, all of them.”
“Certainly quite a ruthless thod from you, if efficient.” He comnted. I don’t think my approach was really that ruthless. I didn’t exactly go in with a blade in hand right off the bat.
“I think ruthless thods tend to be efficient, but whatever.” I’m pretty sure both are more often correlated than not. “All I was asking was for them to hand over their weapons and have their leader surrender. I wasn’t even asking for anyone’s death, you know?”
“And in the end the majority of them ended up dead.” He remarked. Yeah, I already said that out loud, right? “I just hope nothing ca out of this. I know most skirmishes haven’t caused any sort of movent from the governnt, but you never know…”
“What can they do against us anyway? They stopped being a threat a long ti ago, especially with most of their superweapons being dismantled a long ti ago.” I scoff at the idea of them causing any trouble. At this point they mainly exist as a figurehead trying to make sure people don’t literally try to abolish the States.
“…Superweapons?” He said while scratching his head. “I don’t think even nukes would do much to you at this point.”
“Maybe not the initial force of impact, but stuff like radiation can be a pain to cleanse through. Curing poison and other ailnts doesn’t have much overlap with healing physical injuries, it’s like learning two different math subjects.” It’s generally harder to learn healing poison and other ailnts, like learning… I don’t rember most math subjects besides the bare basics. Whatever, I think he gets what I an.
“I see…” He muttered to himself.
“Maybe so of the super secret top project stuff would’ve caused trouble, but that’s not sothing I have that much info on outside of stuff we found in the lab.” I off-handedly ntioned.
“Yeah… That thing.” He said, sounding slightly alard at the ntion of it. “Do you think we should keep pursuing the matter further?”
“I an. As it is, it seems like they’re in big enough trouble to not cause any problems. Outside of that, we’re probably close to overreaching at this rate. The more we keep going, my privacy is gonna be in jeopardy, you know? More people are going to spot where I shouldn’t be and all that.” I’m the one going out to do all this dirty work in the first place, give a bit of a break.
“I suppose that’s fair.” He remarked. “...I assu we don’t need to worry about retaliation?”
“Hopefully not, but they need to rember that they’re the one with the idea in mind, even preparing an actual invasion force. It’s just self-defense, really.” An action that could cause a lot of harm like that isn’t worth pulling punches over, they can go complain to their boss in the afterlife. “I don’t want any moral myopia nonsense from them.”
“...Perhaps the fact that you slaughter over a hundred of them is more than enough for them to see reason. Unless they lack a fear of death, they should steer clear of us.” He speculated.
“It’d be an annoyance at worst. I’m more concerned about people publicizing this online, to be honest.” People love taking pictures of the craziest shits. It wouldn't be surprising if soone recorded actually going through that unit like a at grinder. “Do you know how ruined my image is going to be? All my hard work pre-Eclipse going down the drain with the whole world seeing it?”
“...I think enough people already know about-
“Shut!” Not another word from his mouth. I can only tolerate so much nonsense per day. “Anyway… I don’t actually know what I want right now, so put that on the debt list.”
“Alright…” He said before taking a sigh. I don’t think I will have to call for a favor that often anyway, if anything I’m working at a massive loss. I’m the one who should be worried about this more than him. “With how quickly you dealt with it in only two days the debt will be quite big.”
“To be fair, who would’ve thought they were planning to mobilize the attack today of all days. It being quick has nothing to do with .” Maybe there would be a better way of both gathering evidence and catching them in the act and dealing with it yesterday, but I want them to all gather up to get a clearer ssage across, even if I had to paint the streets red. “Can’t believe you got tipped off one day before the attack. Could’ve gotten real ssy on our ends.”
“In hindsight it is a bit too close for comfort, but it’s over now.” He remarked.
“...Is there anything else I need to add? We’ve been talking for a while now.” I asked as it feels like the pace of the conversation has slowed down.
“Nothing. You can leave if you want.” He said as if I couldn’t do so whenever I wanted anyway.
“I’ll take you up on that offer then. I need a shower after all that.” I said before standing back up and getting ready to leave.
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