Gateways Beyond Logic [Job : Imai & Mashyuu]

A brushing sound could be heard erupting from his throat as the tense and tasteful soda flushed right down his spine. The bottle was emptied in less than seconds by the red-haired Sabertooth mage who was simply dashing around the Ace of Spades, the large area/city of his guild. Honestly, he barely had much familiarity with the overall city yet, except from the night strives that he had back then; the times where he leaped from roof to roof before spotting the destined comet that lead him to where he stood now. You could say that destiny lead him many places; for example, his encounter that turned out into a life-long friendship between him and the alien Sei, specifically the one cute being that held tightly to his back while he walked around. It could fly and all, but it found peace on Imai’s back; the reason was unknown. However, he never questioned that, and neither did it bother him; he was quite okay with Sei’s behavior. Now, where did he end up as well until now… oh yeah, also his encounter with probably the cutest person that he’d ever met before. While thinking about her, his mind suddenly sparked as it changed atmosphere completely and without warning; didn’t he make a promise back then when he met Kirara? A certain promise saying that he was to never forget to take her along all his adventures, so to say this one for instance? Sweat trickled down his cheek as he was reminded, causing Sei’s curiosity to turn on as it stuck its head out to him. “… Damn,” he let out silently, “Heh, sorry about that Kirara… He looked up in the air as he could clearly see her face above him. A calm smile appeared on his face afterwards…

"!" What was that? His ears caught words of rumors, something that he rarely took part of. However, if he heard right, then a few miles from the city had appeared a ‘crystal’. Bang, his curiosity took over; was it from space? Perhaps something caused by magic? Was it threatening? Valuable? Did it make any kinds of contact with humans? Was it a special type of crystal? Did it light up in darkness? Was anything inside that crystal? What else appeared over there? He could’ve kept on questioning as his feet charged across the streets, towards the said location of the phenomenon. His eyes sparkled with excitement to see what was going on, and to find out what this crystal was all about…

Apologies:

Fogs of air could be seen coming out of Imai’s mouth as he sprinted. He hoped for everything that he would be the first wizard to check it out; imagine if another one had already went into some amazing investigation with the crystal before Imai even got there. Such a reality would hurt him a lot, so he kept advancing faster and faster. Sei was having trouble holding onto his back due to the speed. “Hold tight, Sei! We’re almost there..!” he warned his alien company, while charging across any obstacle; jumping over small food stands, dodging upcoming civilians, racing across the walls and lots of other things could describe his way of travelling across this town. He even went as far as to leap from one building to another, having help from his telescope as he used it to glide on ropes in order to reach several new floors. He was surely skilled in parkour for a guy who never trained such thing, but his recklessness was his pilot. That could always turn out badly, but thankfully, he didn’t get hurt or anything.

Finally, he arrived to what appeared to be the outskirts of the town, seemingly nearby the strange crystal. He’d slowed down by the sight of mere civilians, no other wizards to have a race in investigating the crystal and all. Well, that was until he spotted a familiar wave over to him; the same guy who proctored, or rather, pushed him into his C-rank exam, Mashyuu. Imai waved back as he came running, arriving right beside the Dragon Slayer. “Oh, how’s it going Senpai..!” he cockily greeted. He managed to get a close look at the source of all the rumors that’d went across town; it was a large, glowing gem… with… was that a person?! A literal person was inside the crystal; Imai’s eyes widened by the view, and so did Sei show its curiosity of the stone. “What the… you know this person?” he asked the Sabertooth Ace. Apparently, this crystal was some kind of gate to her inner mind; seemingly some kind of magic that this person possessed. When Mash laid out the million dollar question, Imai let out a huge: “OBVIOUSLY!” After that outroar, he saw Mash and Hoseki disappear by a touch on the crystal. It was quite surprising to see them leave like that, but Imai wasn’t going back on his words, so he touched the same crystal with his own hand…

Darkness followed after light. Imai could feel something wet beneath his hands as he laid on the ground. A very disturbing atmosphere was surrounding them, while the smell was disgusting. “Oi… it smells rotten in here. No offense to your friend, but…” he complained, while moving up of the surface. He took a quick look around, noticing that nothing appeared alive; trees were rotten down, congealed blood was everywhere and the corpses of deers could be seen in every corner. This place roared out disgust and sinister, causing Imai’s spine to bristle. “Where the hell are we… is this her inner mind?” he anxiously asked out. Sei was getting scared too as the little alien hugged tightly onto Imai’s back, trying to hide itself…

‘So the Wizard world treating you good?’ That question had its challenges in being answered for Imai. Firstly, choosing to be a mage was quite a tough decision, especially with his overprotective parents. When Mashyuu asked his that question, it made him remember how much it took for him to convince those old guys to let him follow his dream. It was truly his greatest desire to become a mage, and he hadn’t regretted it one, single second. That basically meant that the world, the world of magic that he’d experienced for a while now had been blessing him with manifold adventures to be remembered eternally. Therefore, his response was a clear and quick nod to Mash’-senpai’. “You have no idea…” he cockily replied.

And suddenly, there they were; inside the rather ghastly forest with every corner engulfed in horror. Somewhy, Sei began shaking. “Huh…” He could feel Sei’s vibrations on his back. He couldn’t blame the alien; it was a very creepy place to be. Mashyuu asked out about a count of nine… Imai didn’t understand his reason for questioning, until he too counted the dead corpses of deers. “Yeah, you’re right…” he mumbled in the middle of counting up to nine corpses and… surprisingly, a lady appeared from behind a tree, at first shocking Imai. However, as she spoke to them with a calm and quite pleasuring tone, his heart began pounding again. She said that she wasn’t here to harm them, but rather help them through wherever they were.

Mashyuu appeared to fathom the situation and accepted her help, while Imai still wondered about what she meant by ‘if you will help me’. She didn’t tell what exactly that she needed help with; perhaps she was trapped in here too. Not wanting to get too far behind them, he leaped onto his feet and spectated as the lady engulfed them with a large circle of light, apparently sending them to another location. Question marks appeared on top of his head as it was basically the first time that he’d been teleported; he hoped that it wouldn’t leave any side-effects on him for later. At the new spot, there were more space, but when he took a look around, he noticed the extremely strange phenomenon of a dark sun above them. “What in the heavenly douche is that about..?” he let out at once, while lowering his gaze to spot yet another stranger; this time, it wasn’t human. THEY weren’t human. “!!!” Immediately, he grabbed onto his telescope and prepared himself to face the strange beasts that were appearing before them, one giant and two smaller ones that raced around the group with intimidating howls. “Watch out!!!” he tried to warn the lady as the smaller monsters reached for her, but she was quick enough to teleport the group of wizards to another spot. It happened a little too quick as Imai had to shake his head in order to follow up. Last thing that was heard was Mashyuu who asked him to keep the strange lady safe. “Count on me!” he replied with a grin. And so, the smaller ones began charging at Imai and the lady again, but he was set to bring them down as they would try to rip them to sheds.

As Mashyuu made an entire scene at the other side, Imai engulfed his fist in a bluish nebula as one of the smaller beasts came too close. “Begone!!!” Sending it a knee to the face, he staggered it long enough to manifest the nebula into a blue light ball right in front of its face. The beam was launched, and so did it push away the monster with strong force. The other tried to jump on him as he was distracted, but he sent his telescope right into its stomach, following up with another light ball that would sent it flying. Those monsters had taken some damage from those attacks, only to get knocked back by Hoseki’s contribution; a roar of light from above that crushed down onto every monster in the arena. They were doing quite the destruction to the opening in the forest, which could easily be seen from even miles away. The woman was safe, so Imai would keep on keeping the smaller monsters, and eventually, the greater monster away from her. She was their only way of transport at the moment…

It appeared that their joined attacks did quite the damage on the Sabertooth mages’ enemies at the moment. The entire forest and its dismal atmosphere was slowly fading away by the background of igniting magic; iron, earth, lightning and mere light itself was taking over the stage of the ecosystem. And while Mashyuu gave the big guy a tough challenge with his three-way Dragon Slayer Magic, Imai was getting just as fired up. Holding his telescope-like staff in a martial stance, which made him resemble an aesthetic fighter, he drilled his eyes right into the two underdogs that were all busy trying to find openings or blind spots to assault them. He wasn’t nearly as destructive in terms of magic power as Mashyuu, but these puppies showed just the right scales of a good challenge for a mage like him. “Sei. You know what to do,” he spoke to his alien companion, "Time to bring the stars down, 'cause here I go! Prepare yourselves, monsters!" Now, the true meaning of Sei's constant grab on his back became effective; a small light channeled through the alien and Imai as he felt a change in his body and its stats. One of the gross beings saw an opening and charged, only to receive a fierce, metallic thing onto its face. The sound of a broken bone could be heard, before it was launched back by the reaction. Dust erupted from the ground afterwards, indicating that the star mage had already moved; luckily, he made it right up at the other beast’s face within a moment. He shared some of his power to it by a knee to the throat, which left it staggered as he kicked it towards the other monster. Now, not much space was between them, so he felt the ignition of a great idea sparkle in his mind. With an uplifted hand, the sky opened up for itself; you could see the embodiment of a stone descend from the heavens, quickly reaching its destination, which was the couple of defeated minions…

He could feel the ground vibrate from the impact of a falling giant. He almost fell, to be honest. It appeared as if Mashyuu hadn’t finished it out just yet, which prompted him to support the fight. However, just as he was approaching the strange lady to ask her to teleport him to his guild mate, the two other beasts rose on their feet. “?” It was as if their wounds weren’t that big at all, or not that effective; at least compared to a few moments ago. “What the hell… still up for a battle, I guess?” he asked out with a grin. He didn’t mind if they had a little more fuel left, but little did he know about their actual roles. They weren’t that easy to defeat, not to mention that they were only targeting the girl. Even the young Sabertooth mage could notice their continuous attempts to reach out to her… perhaps he could only hope for Mashyuu to end things with the big, bad one. Who knew, there might’ve been a connection between the giant and the two smaller ones…

Slowly, the two minions stood up on their feet. A little shake with their heads, along a few kicks to the ground made them look completely unharmed. It tore Imai’s calm away as he remembered quite clearly how much that he gave in every single hit that those beasts received from him. Comically, steam erupted from his ears as he complained with flailing hands: “Come on! Stay down for once..!” If this would appear to happen more than once, then it would obviously annoy Imai to the point where he would snap out. No, he couldn’t just lose his focus now, could he? He quickly shook his head to reason as they charged at him and the lady. He followed up by swinging his telescope to a readied stance, before spotting that something else took care of the minions; small bolts that came out of nowhere, seemingly from Mashyuu’s effect, hit the backs of them as they staggered by laying down in pain. Now was his chance! Without waiting for them to stand up again, he rushed while engulfed in the same dust-like light as earlier. The two monsters could only lift their views up as Imai finished them off with an elbow to the forehead, followed up with a heavy knee to the other’s chin. A gust of stardust spread around him, while revealing the stance of his and the fall of the two minor monsters.

“Heh…” he let out in relief, noticing that they didn’t try and move up again. He attempted to calm down a little, before the ground reshaped itself again. This time, he fell on his butt with a surprised look on his face, while the other lady didn’t appear to have any issue with standing on her foothold. “… He’s brought out its heart,” she commented out of nowhere for Imai. He responded by looking for Mashyuu, spotting him walking towards them with the crystal in his jacket. Rapidly, Imai leaped onto his feet and smiled. “Alright, that was one. Eleven more to go,” he spoke up, “I guess that we’ll move on. Show us the way, ma’am.” She would share a rather empty look at both Imai and Mashyuu, before replying: “Very well. However, I must tell you that you have to prepare for the other planes. Every crystal is protected differently, so please keep your guards up.” She laid a hand on both Imai and Mashyuu, before the same light as earlier engulfed them…

In the blink of an eye, the disgusting atmosphere was replaced by a new area; empty view, a thick fog that covered everything from a meter in front of you and beyond, along with a chill of confusion. Where were they now? The place wasn’t a forest, but Imai couldn’t really tell whether if it was a desert or just a nude platform. One thing was sure; the fog was annoying as hell. Especially since they had to keep their guards up and all, but how could they scan the area with a range that could describe a blind man’s vision..?

The fog kept growing a little bigger, or so it appeared in his eyes. At moments, he couldn’t even see his own hand when stretched out. Even Sei’s sudden switches between absence and presence worried him. “… This place,” he let out. Again, it was just second floor of the entire building that was supposedly a lady’s inner mind; he couldn’t get all annoyed already. He could save all that for the sixth floor or around there. However, as he could hear Mashyuu’s voice nearby, he concluded that they weren’t about to lose track of each other… or just yet. Not wanting to pull down any confidence that was present within everyone, he commented after a quick cough: “Well, let’s see how this next crystal is saved. I still got tons of fuel to burn, heh…”

He was suddenly warned by a strange voice, before getting kicked away with the view of three figures passing him. They would’ve hit him quite harshly if not for the safe. “What the..!” he spoke up in surprise as he quickly found his foothold, “What was that?!” His eyes travelled around the fog to scan for any shadows, but to his lack of luck, the fog prevented much scanning. Afterwards, Mashyuu spoke about lending something to the star mage, in which a ring was tossed over to him. He was a little clumsy at catching it, but got a good hold of it soon enough. While Sei and Imai looked at it, Mashyuu explained about it and its magic; apparently, it was a Dragon within a ring or an embodiment of a dragon. It was going to help him dodge the shadows that quickly appeared before his limited sight right after the Earth Dragon Slayer was done speaking. Instinctively, Imai obeyed and leaped to the side, being quite rapid enough to dodge the shadows that kept flying around like black ghosts behind a curtain.

Another thing was thrown to him, this time a hammer which appearance caused a hilarious reaction on the red-haired guy’s face. Having his eyes closed, he grabbed it and felt its exact weight for a brief moment, before swinging it around a few times to adapt. “That’s… one giant hammer,” he commented with a grin, before setting himself in a fighting stance. The dragon began to speak to him, although through his mentality. He looked around in curiosity, before it revealed its identity as the ring itself, in which he looked on his finger. After it was done speaking, question marks popped on top of his head; Magma-what? And how was he going to activate it? “Ehm, wait, how do I..?” he was trying to ask, but unluckily, the shadows reappeared for another attempt to strike him. In shock, he slammed the hammer into one of the shadows’ figure as the fog was separated by an ignited light of lava. The impact was immensely high as Imai barely felt any reaction from the shadow during the slam. “… Woah,” he quickly mumbled a little, “You aren’t so gloomy now, are you..?” Another shadow came up from behind, while the third one charged at him from the front. He rapidly stepped on the ground to move his body, while swinging the large warhammer at both figures. A bluish fog was beginning to cover the hammer meanwhile, but not that he noticed it the least…

While Mashyuu had smacked one of the monsters away from existence, Imai noticed how his magic power connected to the hammer that he was holding. With a smooth grin, he lifted it up to his shoulder and balanced it, so that he was ready to strike whatever should charge his way. Another light began surrounding him as Sei supported with one of its abilities, tightly holding onto his back and sending mana through his body. “Huh…” he replied to Mashyuu’s explanation about the hammer and how he just had to think about something, in which it would obey the wish. It was fairly efficient for him, but what if he began thinking too much? He hoped that there weren’t such a side-effect in this hammer and its abilities…

Another call from Mashyuu was about his plan of letting them attack from above; recently, they just darted around the fog and attempted to either separate Imai from his guildmate or drive them into one target that could easily be handled with a single attack. He told the star mage not to attack unless if it was straight upwards, in which Imai questioned himself: Ehm, what does he mean by that? However, his thoughts were blown away by another spell from the Earth Dragon Slayer; dirt, sand and ground bursted up from their feet and circulated around the area like a freaking sandstorm. “Hey, is this a good idea..?!” he worryingly asked Mashyuu. It wasn’t that they didn’t have enough problems with sight, now that the sandstorm increased that lack of vision. What was he planning, now?

Something dark began approaching him, but it was slower than before. Apparently, the beasts from earlier were having a tough struggle to move around the sandstorm, which left Imai and Mashyuu with good openings to strike. Not waiting for a single second, the boy lashed the hammer into the ground behind him, using the impact to launch himself up. One of the shadows descended against him, only to feel the powerful slam from the Warhammer. One of its abilities was electricity, or so he remembered Mashyuu telling him earlier. Because of that thought, bolts erupted from the very tip of the hammer, travelling through the shadow’s body and ending in a shockwave that stretched its arms of lightning out to touch the other shadow, leaving them both heavily damaged. The first one was turned into a crisping, fading shadow that left one’s vision in a matter of seconds. However, no crystal appeared before him, which revealed the last one to be the true boss of this plane. “… Hey, Mashyuu!” he called out to the stone mage, “Let me handle this one. Won’t take me more than a minute...” With that said, he launched himself into the sandstorm, trying to track down the moving object that hid itself in the already existing fog. The sounds of slamming rocks could be heard from inside the fog, combined with a wind that travelled across the area.

It took a little more than a minute, but by time, the figure would land on the ground with an injured expression on its sinister face, while Imai landed behind it. Once again, he launched the hammer into the ground behind him, so that it would fiercely travel through the air above him as he swung it downwards, completely destroying the shadow in the progress. A light could be seen coming out of its dissolving body, revealing itself as the crystal. With a quick movement, it appeared on the hand of Imai as he approached Mashyuu and the lady. His clothes were ripped apart, but he looked quite unharmed. “That was the second one,” he spoke up with an optimistic tone, “Now to the third one…”

As Mashyuu was handed back his ring and hammer, Imai smiled widely. He could see how impressed that the upperclassman was by the star mage’s actions earlier, in which filled his body with a feeling of pride. Although, this was just the second floor; as he stated earlier, they had a few more levels to visit, before they would’ve gathered all crystals. “That hammer would be a privilege to wield someday, senpai,” he replied to Mashyuu with a playful voice, before the helpful lady brought them to the next plane…

This place had more characteristic than the previous one; rain poured down on their heads as they stood in front of a tall… tall… tall set of stairs. “Huh, don’t say that we have to…-” he was about to complain, thinking that he was supposed to walk up the stairway. However, his sentence was interrupted by the sudden launch of bullets, seemingly from their next boss; a white-haired woman with a gun attached to her right hand, aiming at the Sabertooth mages with a cold expression. He was lucky that Hoseki reacted quicker than him, thus saving the group from having bullets going through their flesh. “Crap, where did she come from?!” he spoke up in shock, before settling his surprised expression in a hurry. Come on, Imai, don’t freak out every time. Meanwhile, Mashyuu asked him to sneak around the enemy as he would try to get her foothold to their own level. He was seemingly going to distract her somehow, in which Imai quickly nodded. “Count on me,” he quickly replied, before the white-haired opponent aimed her rifle at the two mages once more. She was a little pissed, especially after receiving a large boulder right on her head by Mashyuu.

As Mashyuu gave green light, Imai suddenly vanished in a cloud of bluish ray, advancing forward towards the lady. She began firing off her rounds, while Imai tried his best to dodge each of them; Mashyuu had mentioned that he could eat her gun, so he wouldn’t worry about that longer than necessary. Sei was also doing its best to hold its grab tightly as it was still on Imai’s back, supporting with its own magic power that boosted the star mage’s speed to even further heights. He looked like… no, he didn’t look like anything as it was troublesome to even catch sight of his position; he darted around the stairway like a fly with superpowers. He could still feel an intense concentration of magic energy from Mashyuu during the run, seemingly a part of his plan. All of a sudden, the lady had her gun towards Imai from close distance, in which the star mage pulled out his telescope within the blink of an eye. Resembling an athletic, he used the staff to leap himself over the gunner, landing behind the lady as her eyes would suddenly aim at Mashyuu and his future attempt. Quickly, the radiant light could be seen, revealing Imai’s position as he’d successfully done his task. On top of that, the white-haired lady seemed a little more worried, judging by her face. Perhaps this was a good time to strike; she could’ve been running out of ammunition…

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Imai’s face was frozen by the moment that Mashyuu began his move; from his perspective, it seemed like that the Dragon Slayer was chewing on more than just the gun… her arm. Her freaking arm was by the mercy of Mashyuu’s appetite at that moment, in which Imai let out: “WHAT THE HELL!?” At first, it appeared unnecessary for Imai that Mashyuu ate anything at all, but when he remembered the traits of a Dragon Slayer, then he could understand why he hungrily longed for the gun… just not everything else. Perhaps it was just to immobilize the enemy, thus making victory clear? It was definitely not a move that Imai planned to use in the future, in the end…

The Earth-Iron-Lightning Dragon Slayer suddenly made clear about Imai’s turn to act, in which the star mage began charging magic power, making the blue aura leak out of his skin and rampage all over his contour. It had a beautiful look on him, mainly due to the light dots that resembled stars in a nebula. The woman turned towards him and attempted to aim another attack at him, despite her arm being bitten off. And just as he thought about that event, the lady endured more damage from Mashyuu’s other spell as the Slayer would give Imai more time to prepare for a finishing attack. “Alright, milady; your time is up!” he proclaimed, while clapping his hands together. His eyes would still be fixed at the young opponent, who would slowly aim her sight upwards as she began to notice something odd in the sky… something was falling down. A light, not bluish as usual, but with a more classic color. If you focused your eyes on it a little more, then you would spot the dark dot in the middle of the descending flame. Although, as time passed quickly, the falling object collided with the opponent, leaving her on the crashed ground.

As Mashyuu moved over to Imai, the star mage noticed that her arm was made of metal, which explained A LOT. Although, Sei was also a little frightened by the phenomenon of eating one's arm and kept hiding its head behind Imai. As the red-haired mage wiped sweat off his forehead, he suddenly spotted the light thing on the ground, approximately where the opponent’s body was supposed to be. He picked it up and smiled; now, they should move on. “Alright, then; third level done, let’s move on!” he optimistically declared with a fist-bump to the air. The allied lady would pick the crystal with a smile, not giving any warnings as they took off…

Rain began pouring down once again; however, the surface was more solid and flat. Imai quickly moved his eyes around the area, scanning through the plains of grass and more grass, until he spotted one, single hut. “… Ehm,” he mumbled out loud, “Alright, where are you, next boss…” He expected it to make its appearance out here, not being very curious of the small house and what it might contain…

Mashyuu believed that whatever threat awaited them would be inside the small house that Imai overlooked until now. In his eyes, the cottage appeared deserted, empty. However, as he spotted a small light blink from the one window that the building had, his curiosity triggered. “Alright, then. Better have my guards up,” he expressed as he pulled out his telescope and held it behind his back with the right hand, slowly moving towards the house with Mashyuu and the assisting lady. Sei was having thrills travel across its body, and even Imai could feel the vibrations on his back. He didn’t know the exact reason for its reactions, however, but it appeared to have a very bad feeling about what resided in the house that they were approaching…

Imai’s heart began skipping beats as the thrilling sound of… mere children laughing lightly could be heard from the other side of the door. Something specific was terrifying about the sound, the innocent kids laughing… it could’ve been a trap! “Ehm, Mashyuu, I think that we shouldn’t just…” he mumbled with a slight voice of fear, but the door was opened before he finished his sentence. Sweat dropped down from his face as he spotted the same nine children running around a table, not really capable of foreseeing the situation’s turn of events. Suddenly, all the nine children stopped and looked up at Mashyuu and Imai, internally frightening the astronomic mage. Why are they looking at me like that…?, he thought in fright. Although, he didn’t get to spot the male among those children, until Mashyuu told him to get back at the moment. Imai was quick on the trigger and leaped back, watching Mashyuu deal with the nine spirits and the male spirit in the blink of an eye. His cooperation with Hoseki was surely effective as they finished the job before Imai even noticed it, suddenly spotting the crystal being tossed towards the teleporting lady. “Huh… that was too fast,” Imai complained, “And I barely did anything… you better give me a chance to do something next time, I tell ya.”

Poof, and suddenly, they were in another place. Imai was getting used to being teleported, but he couldn’t think about that now. The new place resembled the inside of the cottage from earlier, just way more wrecked. There was even a giant hole in the wall that lead to a dark forest, and the furniture looked deserted overall. “Where are we now..?” Imai curiously asked the lady, in which she took a quick look around. With a soft hum, she replied: “I believe that the next crystal is somewhere in this house. We might take a look around, but be careful.” And alongside those words was Imai, who walked towards another room that appeared to be a dirty kitchen. “All this dust… ?!” His eyes shockingly spotted the appearance of blood at the corner of the room, a lot of red liquid beneath a small figure. He was hesitant to approach it at first, but after a few seconds, then he walked towards the figure. His eyes revealed that it was, in fact, a small child; lifeless face, ripped limbs and pale skin. “Crap… Mashyuu, you might want to take a look at this.”

As Mashyuu entered the room, the brightness in the kitchen had turned up, thus making it possible for Imai to take a good look at the wounds and injuries that this victim had suffered. It was as if he was thrown around the room, cut everywhere by a knife and slammed on like a ball. It was a terrifying reality to face, in which Imai felt sad for whoever was ganged on… but he couldn’t waste all his time grieving. His thoughts were already interrupted by a sudden sound, faint but still enough to be heard by a sharp ear. “…” The star mage moved his head upwards, spotting that the source came from a room upstairs. The Dragon Slayer told him to go on and specifically pointed out about his way of using the telescope as a weapon; its length and balance was, so to say, not fit to be used as a staff, but rather a hammer. Although, that was what Mashyuu said to him, in which Imai thought about it. With a quick nod, he charged upstairs to cast light on whatever obstacle that it would be this time…

“Hmpf… no wonder that I could never hit anyone’s head with the edge,” he mumbled as he made it to the door, still listening to the voices that came from the other side. He gulped, until collecting some focus and courage to open the door, in which he discovered the next challenge… a gang of 5 elder teens. The red-haired mage looked at them with blunt eyes, before commenting: “Well, at least it’ll suffice.” His eyes scanned the room, while the guys conversed about the situation: ‘Who’s this kid?’, ‘I don’t know, but perhaps he saw the body…’, ‘Damn it, if that’s the case… GET HIM!!!’. Surprisingly, two of the group’s members ganged on Imai, who disappeared in a flash of light, until spotted behind them and in front of the three others. While Sei was taking a nap on his back, Imai complained: “And here I expected a beas-“ His sentence was cut over by a sudden fist, unreal speed and having a good hold on Imai’s cheek. The fist’s owner grinned at the successful hit, before unknowingly receiving a bluish light right on his nose, crushing it and sending the rest of the body through the wall that crashed open. While wiping a little blood off his cheek, Imai continued: “Alright, alright; I’ll take you all seriously now. As in…” The second he finished that sentence, the four guys longed after him with knives, only to get them launched off their grabs by Imai’s telescope (which was held like a hammer this time). As they stepped back in shock, one of them was still cocky enough to send a kick towards the strange boy, in which he suddenly found himself freezing midair… and so did the others. All that was left now was for Imai to grab onto the dude’s leg and smash him into the others with a surprising force…

Quickly, the red-haired boy rushed down the stairs to meet up with Mashyuu and the teleporting lady, sweat dropping down his face and holding the crystal on his right hand. “Stage Cleared!” he cheered, “Let’s get moving. I guess that there are only…… ehm, this or that amount of planes left or something…”

As soon as the teleporting lady grabbed the crystal from Imai, they vanished from the lonely cottage and appeared in a new plane… or rather, mere space around them with no surfaces. They were literally soaring around the air, falling continuously. When the star mage spotted the stars around him, his eyes were locked. “OHH~,” he breathed out in amaze, “So many stars… it’s beautiful!” He was completely in another world for that moment, scanning through every blinking light in the sky, until Mashyuu pulled him back to reality with a warning. What seemed to be their opponent, as it was literally coming down on them like a meteor, appeared to be a flaming… dog? Some kind of burning wolf, it appeared. It was enormous, and its expressions were wilder than anything else that Imai had ever faced or felt. He felt a cautious thrill surge through his spine, before shaking it off to focus.

“Alright, then; be careful, senpai!” he replied to Mashyuu’s plan, getting more than used to the Japanese honorifics. He was to stay distant from the beast that passed the sky like a comet, having its fierce cloak of mythical flames following it. Luckily, he had some tricks up his sleeve to follow the plan; a bluish ball was formed on his palm as he launched a blast of heavenly light towards the being. However, it suddenly disappeared from the view, only to show up another place with its grinding teeth and glowing eyes. “Darn, it’s fast…” the star mage growled, while the companion that helped them pass through the planes appeared behind him, whispering a promise of support to move faster. “Huh… oh, sweet! No time to waste, then..!” he agreed, moving his eyes towards the approaching horror, “Now, keep our distance from it, and I’ll bring some hits on it meanwhile..!” With a quick nod, the couple disappeared in space and time, before appearing beside the wolf with a prepared blast to its side. It roared out in shock and attempted to launch its claws towards the boy and the lady from a distance, but they vanished just as the trail of burning air approached their position.

“This ain’t enough!” Imai realized as he spoke out, “Perhaps we should get closer, and it might receive more damage…” Just after he suggested that, the lady scowled at the red-haired excuse for a strategist. “As Mashyuu mentioned before,” she told to make it obvious of the actual plan, “You’re supposed to keep distance, or at least for now. This one’s far from the other monsters’ levels of strength.” As they left the time-space realm and appeared behind the wolf with quite the distance, she continued: “You must keep a safe range, and trust your partner. He should know what he’s doing…”

It appeared that even a couple of well-landed hits from Mashyuu wasn’t enough to call it a victory for the Sabertooth mages. That fire-cloaked canine was one tough bastard, and every successful attack on it contributed to its raging rampage. However, perhaps it was ignoring its severe injuries at the moment, which would be to Imai’s and Mashyuu’s advantage as they could surprise it with a sudden knockout. “It shouldn’t last for much longer now…” he mumbled to the lady that was assisting him. As she shockingly teleported them both away from a sudden fire blast that was unconsciously released from the angered fire beast, she replied: “Perhaps you should contribute a little. Mashyuu doesn’t appear to have fully advantage over the battle.” She was, seemingly, referring to the lack of earth, a very essential element to most of his spells, in which had cut off a good percentage of their quality. Compared to Imai, there was a clear distinction between the Earth Dragon Slayer’s disadvantage and Imai’s advantage as his magic was an embodiment of all this; the stars, the nebulas and all the celestial bodies that passed them at random times.

Meanwhile, Hoseki had seemingly performed a very reflective technique; every time that the fire dog launched an attack at the dragon, it was reflected towards itself. A rather efficient spell that reminded Imai of his… wait, he could use that at last. Just as Mashyuu mumbled something to the star mage, he was fully determined in what to do. “I have it!” he proclaimed to the ‘teleporting lady’, “Please, teleport me over to the fire dog! Just a few meters from one of its attacks..!” At first, their companion was kind of skeptical about his new plan, but nodded as she found herself and Imai in front of the abomination. Its eyes were crimson with rage, and its bluish flames illuminated the skies. Reflexively, Imai pulled forth both his hands as he called: “Give it your best shot, you shitty doggy!!!” His provocation was effective, resulting in a charging blaze that was aimed at the couple. However, Imai didn’t plan to commit suicide or whatsoever; just as it was mere inches from his fingers’ skin, the blazing flame seemed to fade into an invisible… hole. It was as if a black hole had appeared before his fingertips. Before even finishing its confused reaction, the fire wolf spotted a concentration of pure heat from the side; as its eyes travelled to the left, its own flames were engulfing it in a fierce explosion. Ashes of blue flames spread in all directions, and the couple had vanished just as the fire was about to take them with it as well…