Chapter Six: Misdirected Affection

Part One.

“Very well, Anya, can you tell me purpose of you five being here, at MY private place?”

Asked Yozora in a very strict voice to the five [New Blood] that had suddenly barged into her and Engel’s apartment.

“Ye-Yeah! I-I mean, yes ma’am!... We-we are here for, for…”

*growl*

“For?”

“Fo...for…”

“Do not worry Anya. I will take it from here.”

Anya, as the representative of the [New Blood], tried to explain the purpose of their ‘sudden visit’, yet conflicted with her feelings of enmity towards Engel and respect towards Yozora she wasn't able to talk properly.

Due to Engel being a ‘goal’ for her, an element to surpass, she had set herself to look down to his image rather than showing respect. This, mixed with more personal issues, developed into enmity; totally different than the feeling she has for Yozora, which is respect and admiration. This comes from the first lose she ever got at her hands and as well, due to her strong image as a powerful, independent woman on the very top of [Camellia Academy].

“We, the [New Blood], came to this place in order to learn and be trained by you, Principal Sakurai. We received word of this place from your assistant, and decided to come here despite the great disrespectfulness this action represents.”

Cleared Adrianna, the pre-established sub-leader of the group. Among the five, she was the one with the best relationship with the others second-to Anya.

“Yet, we found ourselves in this situation…” Added Alba while adjusting his glasses with his left hand.

The situation he meant was the unusual surprise of Engel ‘having lunch’ at Yozora’s place.

Publicly, Engel was in a relationship with Krestin ever since the end of the [Known Second Part] of the [Old Tournament]. By itself, it wasn’t rare to visit the Principal of [Camellia Academy] as [Metatron], yet, Krestin was nowhere to be seen, and two unknown people were there too, as well as Brunnhildr, another higher up from the Academy.

It’s not that the group gave an air of suspiciousness, but rather the confidence Engel had with Yozora was rather strange for the [New Blood] group. They weren’t so dense at to not notice the certain air of ‘rosy air’ around the two, as well as the clear jealousy Shirayuki emanated.

“... I see… Well, I am really sorry but I must decline about this. There is no need for you to become stronger at all.”

“Wha-?! The he-!... *Cough* I’m sorry… What exactly do you mean, Principal?”

Reacted Anya to Yozora’s negative.

“Tell me; what’s the reason you so desperately want to be stronger?” Asked Yozora rhetorically. Just as Anya tried to answer the question, Yozora placer her hand in front of the [New Blood]’s leader.

“First of all, you’re the [New Blood]; not only you possess strength beyond any of your peers, but also received the [Legacy] of the 5 [Lost Gods]... Sorry, [Gods of War]”

Corrected herself Yozora while saying the name she was accustomed to, to mention Engel and co.; then, she continued.

“At this height, you have guaranteed a place in the top of the world’s major leagues of the [New Tournament]. Do you want unparalleled strength just for the mere feeling of satisfaction? Do you wish to dethrone those unreachable figures that returned from death itself? Or do you want to trample everyone below you?”

This time, it was an actual question for the five youngsters in front of her.

“””””“....................”””””

Anya, as well as the other members of the [New Blood] were no fools. They knew that any casual answer would plummet their already minimal opportunity to receive training from the head of [Camellia Academy].

*Chuckle*

“Exactly. The reason of your silence is not that you don’t have a suitable answer; You don’t even have a real reason to gain more power. In my eyes, you have more than enough power you need and the exact amount you deserve. The power and level of strength you’ve received and grown is yours truly, and you don’t need to seek the increase of it.”

“Th-Then?”

Nervously, yet with a clear voice, the one who voiced his need of an answer was [Elite Shadow], Alba Roth.

“Actually, we need to discuss the actual meaning of strength. Strength itself is the increase of the actual abilities you own right now. But, do you actually desire that? Do you want to increase abilities that ‘you can’t even handle right now’?”

The first ones who noticed the hint in Yozora’s words were Alba and Anya, followed by Adrianne. The whole place stood in silence for an eternity… Which actually was a mere minute.

The slowest, Kriss and Leonora took a minute to catch up.

“Principal, we do not desire strength more that the one we possess. We want to completely use, properly, every ounce of power we already have.”

Stood up Anya, as the leader, placed her right hand in her chest, and asked guidance from Yozora.

“Very good. Really, do I need to take you by the hand as a frightened kid in a haunted house?”

Awkwardly, everyone ignored her statement.

“At least say something…”

“Alright; leaving aside unnecessary remarks, we accept your petition.”

Said Brunnhildr while clasping her hands as Yozora sulked in her seat and avoided everyone’s gaze.

“We?”

Marked Leonora, puzzled.

“Yes. I don’t mean to say Yozora’s guidance is insufficient, but it’s not the guidance you need right now.”

“I… I have already talked with the involved, and the idea I thought of is ready to be applied from this exact moment.”

Added Yozora while recovering from her sulking.

Part Two.

“I must say this once again, but is a great honor to receive advice from the leader of the [Gods of War].”

*Sigh*

“Can you please drop your uptight attitude? It’s troubling me…”

“I am afraid that your request is impossible to fulfill, Mr. Falsch.”

(Well, I tried to be nice…)

Thought Engel, just after Adrianna Livingstone rejected his plea to drop any formality between them.

“What’s wrong about it? It’s nice to be recognized. Mine is just a grumpy face and uninteresting remarks.”

“Wha-?! I don’t say any uninteresting remarks if I say so!”

“What about yesterday’s talk?”

“Guh!”

Contrary to Engel, Lene seems really pleased with Adrianna’s attitude and quite uncomfortable before Alba’s personality.

It was the next day, and Lene, Engel, Alba and Adrianna were lying down on a building in the centre Eken City, a prominent city recently built for the sake of imitating [Camellia Academy]. They were in the heliport waiting for a cooking alarm to ring. This simple cooking alarm had 10 minutes left in it.

“Are’ye sure this thing is exact?”

“Of course; The times of arrival were provided by [Quarta], and this Terrance Ace is supposed to be an insanely punctual individual.”

Lene pointed skeptically the cooking alarm as Engel confidently proved his point.

“May I excuse myself, but, I have the humble need to ask the reason we lie in this exact place at this exact hour.”

Asked Adrianna, while getting a bit tired of lying with her back to the sky and just gaze at the neighboring skyscraper for 10 minutes straight.

“Eh? Didn’t I tell you?”

“No, you didn’t at all, sir.”

“Huh… Sorry then. Thought I had.”

Replied Engel to the two Elite’s remarks. It seems he got a really straining night trying to deal with two jealous women who constantly tried to kill each other despite Engel’s attempt of a truce, which made it so he even forgot to tell the pair who accompanied Lene and him the purpose of their current actions.

“Well, we’re here to get information from our target, Terrance Ace, who works in this building. As he previously said, this person is insanely punctual so in… 9 more minutes he’ll arrive to this place and get into the building.”

“Terrance Ace… You mean the head of the [Council of Schwan Enterprises]?”

“Yup, that very one.”

“After that, we’re going to steal any kind of compromising information about him and the council surrounding him; this will allow us to take the upper hand in any kind of negotiation we proceed with.”

“I see… So why do we want to take that kind of secret information from him?”

“‘Cus personal issues.”

“You don’t need to know about the circumstances, nor the complete content of the information you’ll steal.”

“Wait a minute, ‘you’ll steal’? Does that mean that only us are doing this?”

As smart as he had to be, Alba noticed immediately that Engel specifically mentioned that this was something they had to do.

“Yeah, I mean, aren’t we ‘helping you’ to control your current abilities, right?”

That’s right; the reason they are together is because the five [New Blood] have been paired with a respective [God of War] so they can gain experience and have clear guidance in order to control their powers. Alba was assigned to Lene, and Adrianna to Engel.

In the case of the other three, Leonora was paired with Isold, Kriss with Krestin and Anya with Izaak. On a side note, Leonora was supposed to be paired with Lene but she refused with all her might.

Her excuse was “I can deal just fine with Isold, but people similar to her are a pain in the butt”.

“In what way we doing this classifies as guidance?”

“We need to get you current strength measured. If we don’t know what you can do, in which way are we going to help?”

“Pardon my intrusion, but is not fine as long as we have a mock fight against the two of you?”

Interrupted Adrianna, as she got curious about the reason in Engel’s thinking.

“No good. Practice is still practice. To see the actual limits you posses, real experience is what we need to witness.”

“Oh, I understand.”

“Well, you need to get ready. I’ll give you intel you need to know in order to obtain the information.”

“Wait a minute! I understand we have to get that intel, but, why does we specifically need to wait until Mr. Ace gets to the building?”

*Chuckles*

“Wait and see… Just wait and see.”

Limiting herself just to chuckle by Alba’s remark to both of them, Lene tried to squeeze some ‘mysterious’ words from her as Engel was trying to organize the feed on what the two [New Blood] had to do.

Part Three.

A bear-looking bodyguard opened the door of an of-the-year limousine.

From it, a tall, lean and handsome man got out. He has fashionable spiky blond hair, wears a 10,000$ suit, 5,000$ shoes and inverted triangle, black glasses.

This appearance belongs to Terrance Ace, the young leader of [Schwan Enterprises’ Council].

This limousine stopped in the entrance of the building Engel and co. were keeping watch over.

The handsome and overwhelmingly-rich looking man walked towards the entrance. Just after a couple of steps, a mere meter before reaching the entrance-

“Eh?”

“Catch him!”

The man was tackled after a bewildered look in his face.

He was tackled by the black suits looking over the entrance.

“What are you lowly peasants doing?! I am the powerful Terrance Ace! Who do you think you are?!”

“Shut the fuck up!- Yeah! Miles! Go look for the van!”

“On the move!”

“Travis, call Josh and cover us while we take this con out of this place!”

“Okay!”

“Get off me lowly peasant! You’ll suffer less if you let me go now!”

“Shut! Up!”

Part Four.

“”............................””

“Did the two of you clearly see that?”

“Yeah…”

“We did.”

Engel, Lene and the two Elites- Alba and Adrianna kept lookout in the process of the guards taking custody of “Terrance Ace”.

“Imma going to ask ye two a question; Did you two notice the crappy red line around the building?”

“Yes. Faintly, but I saw it.”

“I am afraid to accept that I barely noticed the membrane around the building separated by a meter of distance.”

“I see… Well, that line you saw is an [Antimagic Field Barrier]. Everything that gets inside, can’t produce not even an ounce of magic outside the body. This barrier is designed as to not to kill, but suppress; so you won’t die of magic depletion.”

“I knew something like that existed but… To this extent…”

“May I know, if you two know or suppose that this barrier is a byproduct of a [Skill] or a man-made [Artifact]?”

Adrianna, turning a little bit sharper, asked a pretty good question to Engel.

“Unluckily for you, it is a man-made [Artifact]. If it were a skill, you’d be able to get in while in the shift.” Replied Engel.

“So it’s a given we go inside alone? And how?” Asked Alba while witnessing how the now unconscious, and similar-psyched to Mr. Ace, poser was being dragged away to a black vehicle.

What these four people just witnessed and analyzed, is how a ‘fake’ Terrance Ace tried to enter by the front door using an Illusion-type [Skill]. Because this type of skill externalizes the [Spirit], this antimagic field was able to nullify it.

[Wait a minute- If this dude used a [Skill], but this [Antimagic Field Barrier] uses [Mana] based energy, doesn’t it means that the [Spirit]-based [Skill] would be intact?]

[It should be, but somehow our world is ages behind the practical and everyday-use level of [Spirit] [Gargantúa] has. That’s why in order to maintain a [Skill], the current age people uses [Mana]. This creates a composite structure that allows less [Spirit] consumption, but a high-vulnerability to this type of [Barriers].

Because, these type of barriers will ravage the spell to it’s basic level and destroy the ‘Spinal Cord’ that is the [Mana] and make the [Skill] crumble. Remember how we used to utterly fail at the beginning of our training there? Was because of this.]

[I see… Tch, that mofo used to laugh at me because of this… Fucker]

[Don’t call that your mentor!!!]

[Shaddup!]

(Are they fighting?)

“Hey Sir. Falsch, you tryin’ to cheat on Mrs. Krestin or somethin’? You two look on such good terms it seems like you datin’ or somethin’”

*Sigh*

Then, while an obvious small argument by a network was going around Lene and Engel, Alba made a comment that ignored any kind of TPO. Adrianna, getting a bit out of her character sighed at his usual, accent-like comment.

No one knew if he tried to be funny or was something intrinsically of [Elite Shadow] himself, but as far as the people who were near to him knew, he did these kind comments at the worst moment.

“Shaddup you too!”

*Smack!*

Yelled Lene while she created a small lump of [Mana Ice] and threw it to Alba’s forehead, perfectly sniping it.

“Alright, alright. I won’t bring up that topic once again… But-”

While resisting the intense pain in his forehead and stroked it, he asked about the biggest hole in the situation around them.

“You said that Mr. Ace is as exact as a mechanical clock, so, if this person is a fake- Where’s the real Terrance Ace?”

Part Five.

“Sir; another low-life thief has been dealt with. His companions have seem to run away in the spot, but in this city, they won’t get far from us.”

Reported a silver-haired, silver eyed woman in his early twenties.

She is incredibly gorgeous and unfathomably charming, radiating elegance and serenity.

In the whole floor, there was no one except she and-

Terrance Ace.

Just as the poser form before, the looks and demeanor was totally the same. Except his aura. The aura that Terrance emits is unique of a leader; someone who stands above others to deprive and obtain all he so desires.

A high-up among the white whales of business and politics.

“Many thanks Silber. As always, you’re so reliable. I must say that no one is more reliable and receives my trust than you.”

“I’m humbled.”

“You can leave.”

Then, Terrance’s assistant- Silber, left.

In the whole floor, there was nothing else than Terrance’s desk, a telescope and doors leading to rooms as a bathroom, bedroom and a living room.

Of course, these are all for the sake of Terrance’s living.

The reason that the leader of the council of [Schwan Enterprises] wasn’t at the exact moment of the imitator’s appearance; Terrance Ace never leaves his office at all.

All this starts as a plan to catch thieves and enemies against Terrance; a plan made by Silber.

The plan consist on leaking fake intel about Terrance. His place, his habits, his routine. Terrance uses a double to act as himself outside when there’s no important issues around.

Then, people confuses the fake as the real one- And is baited by it.

From the lowest of the low to the highest tier of enemies- Terrance lures them on with this system.

Silber has predicted any kind of movement that could harm Terrance in any way, and devised a plan to counter-attack.

[Terry]

“???!!!!”

[How is it going?]

“Go-Going what?!”

[The issue; about the [Gods of War]. Did you got their [Status]?]

“No-No… Not yet. They’re about to share them though. They have the archives ready.”

Just as Terrance was alone, a transmission arrived to his [Twin Call] device. It was a woman’s voice. Ladylike, elegant and charming… As well as eerie, cold and piercing.

[Alright. I’ll expect your report.]

“As you wish, my Liege.”

*BANG!*

Terrance has just smashed his hand on his really, REALLY expensive desk.

He, as the leader of many world leading companies, had his own share of pride. And refused to be frightened to such extent; moreover, be used in such unsightly and ‘against-his-principles’ methods; like kidnapping.

The kidnapping, as well as the ‘paranoia’ [Schwan Enterprises]’ Council expressed was all a calculation made by Terrance and Silber.

He knew that, after cornering [Camellia Academy], they’d like to stand and counter- And the only way of doing so is to show overwhelming strength. Also, there could be the case of them trying to get into a peaceful contract, as well as a mutual agreement.

Whichever it was, Terrance was ready to obtain, by all means, the [Lost God]’s [Status].

This was not because he himself wished it. On the contrary, he wanted to form an Alliance with [Camellia Academy], but his unknown benefactor prohibited it.

His benefactor, who controlled him and created a gigantic ball of fear inside Terrance, desired to create enmity against [Camellia Academy], as well as to know their current prowess a.k.a the [Lost Gods]’s current strength.

Depending on their inform, the reaction would be one fitting to deal with the situation- Or so knew Terrance.

Even if he ruled the world, Terrance knew he only was a small pawn in a bigger game.

(She helped me to rise from the bottom, and even allowed me to have Silber with me. I can disobey her… I can’t…)

Said Terrance in his mind, frustrated.

He only received some money and status- While his rise was all done by himself and SIlber. He climbed the mountain of society with fair and square means, which no one thought possible.

So, something like bribe, blackmail and kidnapping wasn’t to his liking.

“I wish there could be something that could free me… And fix all this situation.”

Just as he mumbled with his head low-

“Terrance!”

Suddenly, Silber got into his office with a pale face and hurried demeanor.

“Wha-What’s wrong?”

Asked Terrance, a bit thrown off due to his own inner conflict, as well as the rare sight of a panicked SIlber.

“We have intruders!!”