Return of the Mythic Bloodline

Chapter 524: Illusion spell

"Wh-what is that monster doing?" Subaru murmured, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he tried to make sense of the situation before him.

He was observing the battle between Ume and Alaric from a distance, taking cover on the high floor of a towering building, safely out of the range of Alaric’s arrows. He had wanted to witness firsthand just how powerful Ume truly was, to see the extent of the strength that had turned a nuclear missile into a firworks of snow and petals.

That was what he had thought, at least.

What he had been watching for the last five minutes was Alaric lying flat on the roof of the building from where he had been attacking. He was kicking his legs and flailing his arms frantically in place, his movements wild and erratic, while laughing like a madman, his voice echoing through the empty streets.

Ume was still standing at the same spot on the ground where she had stopped the arrows that were shot at Subaru, her posture relaxed, her expression serene.

With an elegant sway of her hand, a spiral of petals materialised around her body, covering her completely in a cocoon of pink. The petals slowly vanished from the place, along with Ume, as if she had dissolved into the night air.

Subaru blinked in confusion, his mind struggling to process what he had just witnessed. "Where did she g—"

His words stopped mid sentence as he saw a similar spiral of petals appearing on the roof of the building where Alaric was still flailing across the floor while lying on his back. From behind the petals, Ume emerged.

"Pathetic," she murmured, shaking her head in disappointment, as several petals moved from her hand toward Alaric’s face, drifting through the air.

It was only when the petals had completely surrounded his face, leaving only his eyes uncovered, that he actually stopped moving. His limbs froze mid flail, his body going rigid.

"Wh-what happened? Where am I?" He muttered in confusion, his voice suddenly sober, the madness draining from it. His grey eyes widened as they fell upon Ume, standing before him completely unscathed, her dress immaculate, her skin unmarked.

"H-how are you still standing? I just killed you," he demanded, bewildered, his voice cracking with disbelief.

"You did not even touch a strand of my hair," Ume revealed, her tone casual.

"I clearly chopped your body into a thousand pieces. It was my complete vict—"

"It was an illusion spell," Ume sighed, as if she was bored from this conversation.

"B-but when... I never saw you casting any spell!" He shouted, as if his loud tone could somehow change the reality of his defeat.

"When you first looked into my vertical pupils," Ume revealed, as two more petals moved down from her hands toward him, drifting with grace. "You were already under my illusion spell."

Alaric’s pupils shrank in shock as the realisation dawned on him. He had only looked at her eyes for a moment when their pupils had strangely shifted from round to vertical. That single glance had sealed his fate.

"How c-could I, Alaric, the Assassin King, be defeated so easi..."

Before he could finish his sentence, the two petals Ume had sent forward covered his eyes, sealing his vision in pink.

The petals illuminated with a soft pink glow before exploding into a swirling cloud of pink mist, expanding outward in a silent bloom.

When the mist finally dissipated, Alaric’s headless body lay sprawled on the roof, black liquid seeping out from his neck, painting the floor beneath him in a spreading pool of darkness. The body twitched once, then fell still.

Just like that, a threat that could have leveled an entire nation had been dealt with.

"She is in a completely different league..." Subaru gasped, unable to believe what he had just witnessed. His hands trembled on the window ledge, and he sank back against the wall, his heart pounding in his chest.

---

"Oh right, he mentioned that he needed the bodies of these monsters," Ume spoke to herself as the tails behind her vanished as if they had never existed, retracting into her form.

With a flick of her finger, Alaric’s whole body was covered in pink petals like a coffin. It floated toward Ume through the air and shrank into her storage ring on her finger. She did not want his body to ruin her clothes and other important products placed in her storage ring

"I should move to the next location to deal with the monsters," she murmured to herself, her palm placing on her cheek which was slowly turning a rosy hue. A dreamy smile spread across her lips. "We need to prepare for the wedding after all."

While she was getting butterflies all over her stomach from the thought, her heart fluttering at the mere idea, the petals surrounded her completely, and she vanished just like she had arrived, leaving no trace behind.

The massive rift at the centre of the city gradually closed, the fractured space knitting itself back together until nothing remained of the diamond shaped black hole. The sky above Tokyo returned to its normal darkness, the stars emerging once more.

---

"Celestia, I am confused," Nymeria said, her brows furrowed in deep contemplation. "Should I keep the veil over my face when I exchange vows with Taranis?"

Her finger pressed against her chin as she continued, her voice carrying the weight of a truly pressing dilemma, "The bride in our tradition usually places a translucent veil over her face. But it would be difficult to share the Soulbinding Cup with a veil on."

Celestia had not even answered that question when Nymeria released a gasp, her eyes widening as if something catastrophic had occurred.

"Oh no! We do not have the Soulbinding Cup or the Soulwine either," she exclaimed, her voice rising in panic. "The marriage cannot occur without either of them."

"Lady Nymeria, I understand your worries and excitement about your marriage," Celestia’s groaning voice came from front of her, strained and breathless. "But it really is not the time to be discussing such matters."

It really was not. Celestia was fighting for her life against the massive four legged monster, her sword arm trembling with the effort, ignoring the fact that she was already dead. The monster had the torso of a human but the lower part of a horse, a towering centaur clad in broken, rusted armour. On its hands, it carried two swords, pressing down Celestia beneath it with overwhelming force, the blades grinding against her own.

Nymeria was standing a few feet behind them, lost in her thoughts of marriage planning.