*Interlude*

At the same time as countdown 4, Shion is looking at the Signal Anchor magic circle above the town.

(Pillar of Light... light magic attack!?)

Relying on her gut feeling, she quickly uses Overtake on the Signal Anchor magic circle in order to prepare on what's to come.

She changes the formula of Signal Anchor and turn it into other light magic formula.

(Light Reflector... a magic that absorb light from all around it and reflect it into single direction. Hopefully with this- !?)

Before Shion finishes thinking, a large crimson ray comes towards her right from above.

*FLASH!!!*

The large crimson ray is being absorbed by the Light Reflector magic circle above Liasr Town. But the amount of light is so large that the magic circle does not seem to stop absorbing at all.

Panic suddenly ensues among people in Liasr Town. Many of them screams out of surprise and fear. Even Stephanie the Orc Guild Master is speechless looking at the crimson ray.

Shion is concentrating really hard on controlling the Light Reflector. The white magic circle's colour turns into crimson the more it absorbs the crimson ray.

(I can't even Overtake that crimson light... so it's a magic attack that is outside of my knowledge !?)

*FLASH!*

A crimson lightning comes down from Light Reflector magic circle striking one of the houses.

"!?"

Realizing that the Light Reflector magic circle is not enough to contain the crimson ray attack, Shion starts shouting while looking at the magic circle.

"Everyone! Get out of here! Now!"

Guild Master hears Shion's words and starts talking.

"Shion!? Don't tell me, you're-"

Before Guild Master finishes talking, two crimson lightning comes down again and struck Pepprica's house and a tree in the town.

Pepprica's house suddenly explodes and starts burning due to it contain many flammable materials inside.

People becomes even more panic after that.

"Hurry up! PLEASE!!!"

Shion shouts even louder out of desperation.

"Everyone! Go towards the south gate!"

People starts panicking and running away.

The three Guild receptionists automatically assume their role to control the crowd and help those in need without Guild Master's order.

Miika is also about to go to the South Gate but notice that Shion is staying.

"Shion! Let's get out of here!"

"I need to stay here! You go first!"

Surprised and Confused by Shion' reply, Miika talks again.

"Huh!? There is no way I can leav-"

However, before Miika finishes talking, his small body is grabbed by Stephanie the Orc Guild Master.

Stephanie immediately leaves Shion behind while carrying Miika.

"What are you doing?! Let me go! Shion! SHIOOOOOOON!!!"

Miika shouts that as he is being brought outside of the town.

Aegandr, the flying battleship who launched the Signal Anchor, is currently being protected by a magic barrier from incoming shockwave by the crimson ray.

Inside the battleship, one of Victorious' men starts talking.

"The barrier is functioning properly. But we can't get a vision outside because of the light!"

Victorious' advisor, Elbehnna, immediately replies.

"For now, focus on maintaining the barrier."

"Yes sir!"

At the same time, Veylene Reverangel the black-haired elf is shocked looking at the crimson magic circle absorbing crimson ray above Liasr Town.

"W- what the hell!?"

Veylene shouts that as she covers her vision a bit using her right arm due to the blinding light.

Veylene is not the only one who are surprised by what happened at Liasr Town.

Nelsia and others are speechless looking at the large magic circle absorbing the crimson ray.

The one-eyed goblin starts talking with confused expression.

"W- what is that..."

Unable to hide his surprise, Firth immediately replies.

"That magic circle... is not Signal Anchor...?"

Nelsia realizes something and look at Midora.

"T- this is our chance! The Mriento's position is clear! Strike it down now!"

However, Firth replies instead.

"Wait! Hold off the attack!"

"! W- why?! The Mriento is-"

Before Nelsia finishes speaking, Firth talks again.

"It's too careless to attack it until we know what's going on."

"!? ..."

Nelsia becomes silent upon hearing Firth's words.

Midora who is looking at the magic circle does not pay any attention to Nelsia and Firth's words.

Instead, he looks surprised as he looks at his status window revealing the name of the modified magic circle, Light Reflector.

(That magic circle changed... this is...)

Meanwhile, Stephanie and other Liasr Town's residents are getting away from the town.

The Liasr Town continuously got strucked by more lightning resulting in the wooden houses catching fire not only from Pepprica house's explosion but also from the lightning itself.

The crimson ray shows no sign of stopping and it is still continuously gets absorbed by Light Reflector's magic circle.

One more lightning comes out from the magic circle and it strucks at the ground behind Shion.

"!?"

Despite being surprised, Shion barely maintains her concentration in controlling the Light Reflector.

(This is bad... at this rate, the Light Reflector will be overpowered by that crimson light. Then...!)

Shion once again concentrates while looking at the magic circle above.

(Instead of absorbing all the light, I'll let the excessive light go through the magic circle but with divided amount!)

Right after the modification through Overtake, rain of lightning starts bombarding the town.

Shion cannot move from her spot due to her fully concentrating on using her Overtake.

Many lightnings strike the ground around her. A single crimson lightning is powerful enough to destroy houses and other buildings but she somehow manage to not get directly hit.

(As long as Light Reflector's main function is still intact...!)

Few seconds later, Mriento (MASSIVE RIDDANCE JUDGMENT ORDNANCE) exhausts its firepower.

The crimson ray dissipates in space.

Various witnesses notice that the crimson magic circle finishes absorbing the light while the town below is burning all over the place.

That includes people in Aegandr as the ship no longer gets the shockwave from the crimson. However, the moment they look at the targeted town, many of them are speechless looking at the burning town because they expected the town to be completely eradicated with no trace left.

Meanwhile, Shion is still standing while the lightning eventually stops striking the burning town.

(... that was close...)

Right after Shion thinking that, the main function of Light Reflector finally activates and shoots out the crimson light it absorbs back to the sky.

At the same time, in Eigre mansion back in Brahmastra Kingdom, Eigre sits down with a smile on her face.

"Now all that's left is to receive the report from Victorious. Good work everyone-"

Before Eigre can finish her sentence, one of Eigre's men starts shouting.

"Unknown object is approaching Mriento!"

"Huh? What do you-"

Eigre says that while looking at the big screen in front of her. But a crimson light approaches the screen really fast and then the screen shuts down before she can finish her sentence.

Upon getting pierced by the Light Reflector's crimson light, Mriento silently crumbles and collapses in space. However, those people within Eigre mansion has no way of knowing that.

"T-... the connection with Mriento has just been severed..."

Upon hearing that from her subordinate, Eigre's face turns pale.

(No way... our relic... No, there is no way that can be true...!)

The shock comes really strongly because she has absolute confidence that her family's relic, Mriento, will never get attacked considering its position.

While the subordinates asking orders from the stunned Royal Knight, witnesses in Elverwad Continent are also stunned by what they see.

Stephanie the Orc Guild Master is holding Miika to prevent him from running away. He also see the burning Liasr Town together with many other residents.

Stephanie and others are at position that is already quite far from the town.

Many residents just look at the burning town with disbelief. The town that they live in not too long ago is engulfed in fire.

Inside the town, Shion suddenly becomes dizzy and falls to her knee.

"Ugh...!"

(My body is...!)

Shion struggles to move inside the burning town.

Meanwhile, the one-eyed goblin starts talking while still looking at the burning town.

"... let me ask this so that I know that I'm not hallucinating... Did you guys see that magic absorb Mriento's attack and shoot it back?"

Firth replies while also looking at Liasr Town.

"Don't worry. I also saw the same thing. It's definitely not Signal Anchor. It looks like Light Reflector magic but-"

Before Firth finishes his sentence, Midora starts talking.

"That is not magic."

Upon hearing that, Nelsia, Firth and the one-eyed goblin look at Midora with confused expression.

Midora is looking at a map screen in front of him that only he can see from his Hero System.

In that map, there is a dot where it has a name, Graize Els Shion, attached to it.

"That is... Cheat."

After finishes saying that, Midora's face shows a maniac smile.

*End of Interlude*