Ibaraki's instinct turned out to be true. Just after a few minutes, she felt that the puppet that her master controlled had met with one of the enemies, the Boogeymen, as he told her through a telepathic message.
Around that time, she felt something from a distance, belonging to a familiar person.
She immediately opened the window as she felt that this person would've tried to get Kai, just as he had planned.
And it didn't take long for that person to arrive, hovering in front of the window in her original form of a flaming bird.
"Ibaraki! What is going on?" Amber asked with a raised voice, clearly confused. She noticed Kai's figure sitting on the bed and continued, "Can you explain it to me?"
"Master will explain to you later," Ibaraki responded as she walked toward the bed, carrying Kai with her arms and walking back to the window. "Just take Master with you right now and go to where you feel his Spirit Power being split. It's your turn to protect Master, Amber."
"What do yo–" Amber suddenly stopped as she turned around, feeling a massive Spirit Power that suddenly appeared and some smaller ones popping up one after another all around Bucharest. "This is?!"
"A part of Master's plan. He planned this to bait his enemies out of their hiding place. This is still according to his expectation." Ibaraki calmly replied to the confused phoenix as she slowly handed the still meditating Kai to Amber.
Without much choice, Amber turned her back around and gently let Kai sit on her back before looking over at Ibaraki again.
The Oni girl smiled softly as she pulled back her Spirit Power that she used to hide Kai's presence.
"My turn to protect him is over. It's now time for me to take care of those with Master subordinates on the roof." She pointed at the roof, where Robert and Rebecca peeked their heads to look at them.
"A real Phoenix?!" The blonde woman expressed her amazement as her eyes shone brightly. "I can't believe It! She's the real phoenix!"
"…" Amber was speechless. Were they the ones Kai trusted to protect Bucharest alongside Ibaraki? She couldn't deny that they were skilled, even among the Slayers, and Ibaraki was more than enough to deal with the new threat, but…
Well, she didn't want to say anything because she knew nothing at all. However, she felt left out because she was the only one who didn't know what this plan was, and Kai didn't tell her anything.
So she could only do one thing now, escort her master's real body to where the puppet fought the Boogeymen and defeated the creature they had been searching for with him.
"Master trusted me, Amber. So I won't disappoint him."
Ibaraki's voice was full of conviction. Amber looked at the Oni girl and nodded slightly.
"Alright. I will trust you with this. I don't know anything, but… Good luck. It will not be easy."
"Yes."
Amber took off with Kai on her back and disappeared into the distance, leaving Ibaraki and the other two humans. Only a trail of fire had proved that the Phoenix was here a moment ago.
Watching Amber leaving, Ibaraki's smile was gone from her face. She stepped on the window's frame and climbed on the roof in one go. It was easy with her physical ability. Her loose Kimono fluttered in the air, revealing her bodysuit underneath.
However, that didn't matter to her.
Arriving on the roof, she was greeted by Rebecca. The blonde woman wasn't afraid of Ibaraki Douji as she wasn't even involved in the fight that night.
"T-That was a real phoenix, right? A real phoenix just appeared! In front of my eyes!" Rebecca said frantically, gaining a bitter wry smile from Ibaraki.
It seemed like the woman was a fan of a phoenix. It wasn't like she was foreign to something like this. She knew that when someone was famous, many fans would act like Rebecca. She knew from experience when she accompanied her former boss, Shuten Douji, on her tour.
"Indeed." She nodded at Rebecca.
Then her expression turned serious. "We can talk about that more later. More importantly… we have something to deal with." She then looked at Robert, who held a Talisman and tried to activate it.
Feeding it with his Spirit Power, the Talisman got activated, and a barrier appeared with the hotel as the center, engulfing the whole Bucharest. The sky turned blue, not purple like the usual Talisman.
As you've guessed, this Talisman was special, and Robert bought it from the Vultures alongside the puppet that Kai used to bait the Boogeymen. The effect was not to allow something inside to leave before they achieved a certain condition.
Even when Robert, the caster, died. The people inside wouldn't be able to leave unless the condition was met.
And what he set as a condition was either to defeat Ibaraki Douji or Ibaraki Douji herself deactivate the barrier by saying a certain catchphrase.
The target he chose was the creatures and Spirit Power that suddenly appeared in Bucharest and the vampires. Slayers were left out of this one because of Kai's order. The Slayers weren't involved at all, while the vampire had promised him to lend their manpower.
"This will be a large-scale fight," Robert muttered as he saw the creatures that flew over the sky toward them, sensing that they were the ones who put up the barrier.
Those creatures were unexpectedly the mix of small Jack-o'-lanterns and Boogeymen's fake bodies made from dirt and tree branches that stood only a meter tall. Clearly, they were only sent here to create some chaos.
And then there was the biggest one out of them – standing 10 meters tall, one big hell of a Jack-o'-lantern. Its body was made entirely of joined skeletons and bones covered in a dark blue robe. Its head was a round pumpkin, spewing fire from the carved hole.
Some vampires began to prepare themselves in the distance, engaging with some of the creatures that passed their house. Even the Vampire lord stepped out from his base, standing on the roof to look at the force that approached from the distance.
Grigori looked in their direction and nodded slightly. The Vampire lord seemed to know what had happened and was thankful to Robert that he quickly put up a barrier before the creatures could significantly damage Romania.
Robert nodded back and smiled bitterly. That was all he could do, after all.
"That's the biggest Jack-o'-lantern I've ever seen. How do they get the burning coal to act as its core? That must cost quite a fortune as the Devil won't sell the one that big to someone without any identity." Robert exclaimed, smiling bitterly.
Surely, even with his wife's help, Robert knew he wouldn't be able to beat that big crap of pumpkin. He would be burnt to a crisp or shredded by its skeleton's hands.
Thankfully, though, someone seemed to be excited to fight that. Looking back, he saw the Mythical Oni girl had an excited grin on her face.
'I am glad I don't necessarily make that man my enemy.'
Rebecca stood behind Robert, readying her fire Talisman to fight, with a serious expression. An impressive and fast decision of the woman.
But that wouldn't be necessary.
"You and you."
Ibaraki stepped forward, putting one of her slender legs on the edge of the roof and pointing at the two humans.
"Protect yourself. Let the Vampires deal with the little one, and let me handle the big one. Focus on finding what Kai had asked you."
"Roger," Robert replied.
After confirming Robert's answer, Ibaraki then jumped toward the crowd of Jack-o'-lanterns and Boogeymen fake bodies that approached the group of vampires without fear, covered in black Spirit Power.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is fre𝒆w(e)bn(o)vel