Chapter 2301 – Death Mage Side Chapter 33 (2/2)

“'Flare Bullet!'” the group leader shouted

Banda was glad that he had declared the simple truth that he was the cri as he had planned He put up no resistance as he was showered in the group leader's bullets

The bullets produced sned to explode within their targets' bodies, causing fatal wounds… but the bullets were being deflected by the Dele scratch on Banda

“Hmm, hmm I see,” Banda murmured “Could you please tell me more about what kind of barrel that revolver has and what kind of bullets you're using? With that information, I could more accurately determine my own –”

“Shut up! 'Bolt Bullet!' 'Heavy Bullet!'” the group leader shouted, continuing to cast wind and earth-attribute and pull his revolver's trigger, despite being shocked at the fact that his bullets were being deflected

It seemed that he possessed an affinity for ic wasn't particularly special In other words, he was a jack of all trades,up for that fact with the ical medium in his revolver

“I could more accurately deter his sentence

None of the bullets even ed to scratch Banda's exoskeleton, let alone pierce it Some of the bullets had hit his joints and face, but even those hadn't daed him at all

“What the hell is your bodyoff his face, finally out of bullets

The sense of danger see man back to his senses “Goddamn! Mana, fillspirit of iron!” he shouted, charging at Banda

His fists ca with the sharp technique of a professional boxer A restraining jab, a deep hook and a straight punch that looked for a gap in Banda's defense It was a spectacularly executed rush-down

All of these bloere stopped by a single one of Banda's four arms Banda deflected the punches with the soft pal man's fists wouldn't be harmed

“Your fists were like boulders before, but they're like metal now… An enchantment spell that makes your fists as hard and heavy as iron or steel, is it? Hainst an ene bullets,” Banda murmured

A right punch, a left, another left, a third left, a feinted right into yet another left punch with a right straight punch follow-up the moment the left was blocked – Banda blocked all of these with the palle hand and continued his observations with his other three arms folded

“J… Jesus…!” the wild-lookinghis punches but with a look of despair finally dawning upon his face

“I'm sorry, but to me, you people are too weak,” said Banda

Banda was a being that Vandalieu froether pieces of his own soul; he was a branched clone of Vandalieu

Thus, he possessed the same experiences, skills and physical capabilities that Vandalieu himself had possessed at the moment of their separation

He possessed physical strength thatmonsters with his bare hands Bears, lions and even tyrannosaurus rexes looked adorable in comparison He possessed such speed that he could toy with his enemies, and his stamina exceeded theirs

And he was not only aTechnique' as well

For an ordinary person in La a combat-related Skill at Level 5 would fir a first-rate user of that Skill Soin, would be a superhuman… the kind of master that existed only in fiction, not in reality

A superhu with the physical strength of a in

“I'th, but let's put that to an end now,” said Banda as he tightly grasped the wild-looking man's fist

The ony “M-MY ARM, MY AAAAARM!”

Banda easily crushed the man's iron-like fist, and his claws sank into the man's skin

“W-wait! Do you not care about what happens to these brats?!” the group leader shouted

He had reloaded his weapon, and was pointing it at Hiroshi+

It seees Considering that he was ai at Hiroshi+ rather than Mei, whom his employers considered to be of more importance, it seemed that he had not completely lost his mind But his face bore an expression of fear, the expression of a cornered animal

Banda si Hiroshi+ and Mei, not even glancing in their direction

The membranes that had been invisible up until now suddenly concealed the children, causing the criasp in shock

“Those membranes are as solid asto theo ahead and try,” said Banda “Ah, I don'ttheed”

Despair was now co both men's faces

“Sh-shi+t… Why do those damned Bravers have a eman muttered

“You're not only e on Amemiya Hiroto? If your older brother was killed for sos of hatred,” said Banda

“W-what?”

Hatred was an eh reason Considering the fact that the older brother had been killed by Aer brother, it was almost certain that he had been a criminal, and a vicious one at that Even so, Banda had no intention of denying the man's hatred

Even if it was allowed by the law, even if it was justice, it was still killing No matter how much others tried to reason it away, it was up to this man as to whether he felt hatred or not

“But with that said, it doesn't change anything,” said Banda as he threw out a second arm in a hook punch that tore into the side of the man's body

He felt the light sensation of thecrushed by his fist as the air was squeezed out of the s

“Just as you have your ownyou And I aly more powerful than you are,” Banda continued as he unleashed a body bloith a third arm

He held back just enough so that his fist didn't pierce through the e out the other side, but even so, ans were crushed

Theout blood

“And I have a e for you 'Onii-chan isn't poop'”

With that, Banda's fourth arht punch aith to try and protect his head, but… Banda's punch s with the hand that was in the way

It looked and sounded like a hard-skinned, fleshy fruit being smashed to pieces That noise echoed across the inside of the container

Leaving the body of the man whose head, body and both hands had been coroup leader once more

“… Alright I won't resist, so at least killhis revolver aside as Banda approached

He got onto his knees, as if offering Banda his own head

“If you're going to kill yourself, I think shooting yourself with that revolver would have been easier, wouldn't it? You still have bullets left, don't you?” Banda asked

“… I can't coroup leader replied, closing his eyes

“You can't for religious reasons, huh,” Banda sighed in exasperation

Just what kind of religion allowed the kidnapping of an infant and theof people, but forbade suicide?

The probleht

All the same, he approached the man to decapitate him

“Travel through empty space and return to my hand 'Apport!'” the man murmured

In the next instant, he suddenly stood up and thrust his right hand towards Banda It was holding the revolver that he had cast aside moments earlier, and its barrel was pointed directly into one of Banda's four eyes

A gunshot and an o explosion echoed inside the container

The man's surprise attack had succeeded spectacularly But…

“W-what…?” he murmured

He could not declare victory over Banda; his voice was instead filled with astonishment and utter despair

“I was careless To think that you would surrender, then use space-attribute ic to return your weapon to your hand and shoot ot closer,” said Banda

His four eyes stared at the revolver that had been broken by the explosion and the face of the

“It was a good choice to aim for my eye,” Banda continued “It is indeed softer than the other parts oflike your gun”

His body was coe with anything other than equipendary metal of another world that could only be created by the Gods

Banda's eyeballs were no exception to that

“You damn… monster,” the man whispered

Perhaps a fragun had found its way into his brain; the man collapsed with a thud Banda stood on his neck, crushi+ng his vertebrae and finishi+ng hi roup of criminals, in the driver's seat

With thisfrom the container, he would certainly have noticed that so

Banda undid his 'Materialization' and passed through the wall of the container towards the driver's seat to see Woo with a panicked look on his face, continuing to drive with one hand and furiously tapping at his cell phone with the other It seeain to find out what had happened

Banda simply watched Woo until he finally lost his patience with nobody answering his calls and stopped the truck in a place with nobody around

“'Poison,'” Banda h death-attribute et out of the driver's seat

Banda then returned inside the container to check that Mei, Hiroshi+, the bodyguard and the babysitter were unharmed

“Everyone is unharmed and the truck has stopped safely on a road withoutturned out well In terhed in relief

Banda's main body was Mei However, his personality was completely separate from hers Thus, he didn't need food or sleep, and his form was very different from that of a human

And he was powerful, just as he had deh the crie suits, they had uards while keeping them alive And yet Banda had killed five out of those six criminals, and captured the last alive

There would be no turning back if Banda were to becoan to look down on the people of this world There would be no turning back if he were to take lives for no reason without feeling any guilt, or coe acts of terroris himself that it was for Mei's sake

In the end, none of that would be beneficial for Mei Banda beco her as well

“And… no matter hoerful ainst Anore the,” Banda co the blood of the criminals scattered all around the inside of the container

“My voice

“Ah, you've woken up,” said Banda, undoing the 'Silence' spell on her “Just wait a little longer, okay?”

He produced the Deertip and used it as a brush to draw a skull with an octagon around it on the wall of the container

“The Eighth Guidance'slike this, wasn't it? … If I ever ize for using it without their permission,” Banda murmured

The cover-up operation that he had thought of was to hth Guidance, ere supposed to have been destroyed

All of the Eighth Guidance's ainst the Bravers, but the only ones who knew that were the Eighth Guidance themselves and the reincarnated individuals who had already been reincarnated in Lambda

Sohth Guidance's h they were considered to be dead, their status was unknown, strictly speaking

For example, there was Shade who had possessed 'Oracle' Endou Kouya's body and killed hia, who had blown herself up along with the 'Mage Masher' Minai

There were other members whose only discovered remains were pieces of flesh, and there was also Ghost, whose existence hadn't even been known to the Bravers until the final battle

Thus, if Banda were to leave this ht be hth Guidance's survivingthe final battle

“I've roup, so they ed to transfer hih they would probably question why the Eighth Guidance would save Meh-kun,” Banda murmured to himself

But as long as the authorities believed that there were other crih for Banda

And the Athen the security around their children

There was someone out there who had hired criminals to kidnap the children, so the current security setup was insufficient

“Well, I've captured one of the criminals alive, so I'll let the authorities do their best to investigate the person who hired them,” Banda told himself

He would try asking the spirits of the dead criminals, but… he didn't possess the ability to charm the dead, so he didn't knohether he could successfully threaten the

He couldn't break their souls, since it was possible that Rodcorte would take notice of him if he did that

And even if he e of movement was limited to within fifty o after the mastermind

Having finished his cover-up operation, Banda looked around for the cri to report the presence of a suspicious truck to the police so that it would be found

As he did so, he noticed that Hiroshi+, who

“… He must have been very frustrated”

This incident would potentially beco mind It was too opti back from this painful experience and use it to develop as a person

He would likely need soet back onto his feet If the Amemiya couple could provide that to hi But if this were to have a lasting effect…

“If the tiic I'm sure it would be helpful for hi Power Enhancethen Physical Ability'”

No-attribute ic was undiscovered in this world, but it fell far short of the cheat-like abilities of his parents that had created his co for him to lean on

“Banda, Nii-chan, bacam friends?” Mei asked

“Weherto hi myself to him… It would be easier if I could appear in his dreams”

Finally finding a cell phone, Banda looked for buttons to press… and found himself quite confused as to how to use it for a while, as it was a smartphone

The kidnapping of A this report, the 'Avalon' Rikudou Hijiri wasn't disappointed

“Everything is as planned,” he said

The kidnapping's failure had been planned all along Or to bewas supposed to succeed, but infor the criminals would be leaked to the authorities before the situation progressed to the point of no return, and Mei and Hiroshi+ would be recovered safely The criminals would be arrested or shot, and the 'client' would be later discovered as a corpse The true mastermind would remain unknown

The objective of this plan was to ly perceive a notion that their children were being targeted And since they trusted Hijiri, he would suggest to them that a member of the Bravers should be with the into frequent contact with Mei

In other words, he would create a situation where Mei was in the palm of his hand

“Amemiya Mei… That child is an important sample to my research into the death attribute Full-scale research will have to wait until she turns three years old, when the Mana in her body stabilizes and scans can detect her attribute affinities, but there's no har up this environment now,” Hijiri said

“I understand that, but… things happened differently from hoe planned it,” said the 'Shaman' Moriya Kousuke, another reincarnated individual as one of Hijiri's subordinates, as he handed Hijiri a copy of a report of the incident “Before we could leak the infor authorities, the police were alerted to the presence of a suspicious truck When the police investigated the truck, they found the four kidnapped victiroup responsible The four victims are all alive, and five of the six crih this has been kept secret frohth Guidance was found drawn on the wall of the container”

“What did you say?” Hijiri uttered in surprise as he looked down at the report

The report was filled with nothing but bizarre details

As the one as pulling the strings of Murakahth Guidance were dead Co the members who had escaped from research facilities, there was no mistake in this fact

It was difficult to iine that there were multiple exceptions like Ghost, but…

“… It's io as far as to do this The 'Undead' and the Eighth Guidance have clearly demonstrated that death-attribute Mana contamination occurs when certain conditions are fulfilled In the sahth Guidance may have contaht that if this had occurred, then the only possible person it could have happened to is Amemiya Mei, but it seems that we e the fact that uard Ahth Guidance' Their objectives, their abilities, where they are, everything”

“Yes Please leave it to me,” said Kousuke

Kousuke ihth Guidance,' but he failed to find any leads whatsoever

Because the one he was looking for was alith Mei