"Well then, time to settle the matter."
With such cold lines, Hawthorne cut his palm with his cross, as blood then flowed out of the wound and formed a bunch of letters around him, which alerted us all in awe…
Yep, in awe, like the scenery of him manifested his ability seems pretty sick if you asked me.
… Yeah, that's kinda on me, gotta lock in right now.
"Nope ~"
With a childish manner, I quickly dial Kyouka's phone. And before everyone has the time to act, Demon Snow suddenly shows up on top of Hawthorne's with a bottle of water worth at least a litter and drops it all on him, especially on the wound.
With that, his blood also dissolves into water once more as the guy's now completely drenched in water, which looks pretty funny for me in all honesty.
"…"
Hawthorne's gaze on me became more intensified, as everyone else, including only Twain and Steinbeck, hole their faces from laughing out loud on how ridiculous he looked right now.
"!!"
I then catch a glimpse of something right outside my view. Without further thought, I threw both Atsushi and Kyouka away from me as they then landed on their butt in confusion, as my vision suddenly faded away…
"What the—"
Atsushi attempted to complain about something, but his expression then became horrified with what happened right in front of him. A bunch of tentacles have restrained the newcomer, wrapped him deep within his gasp.
Then, as if his worst fear of him became true, the tentacle crushed inward, spilling blood everywhere and terrified the duo just under its foot.
The newcomer… died. And he… just there, looking at someone else sacrificed in his place…
{You're their undoing, Atsushi.}
The word of the man he despised the most started to echo in his head, as he then subconsciously returned back to the orphanage.
{He died because of you, Atsushi.}
"Dayum ~ He even acts quicker than you do, Lovecraft…"
{You let him die in front of you, you let him take your place in that grasp.}
"Hm…"
{Your life is a curse, Atsushi, and you knew it.}
Their words, seemingly stacking on the director, started to fuel his guts with pure rage and anguish, and there's only one thing slowly creeping in his mind.
"You…"
Atsushi's face started to become that of a ferocious beast, befitting his own ability, as both his arms once again became tiger limbs.
He then lunged toward the middle-age man with a stupid speed, as in the fact that he closed the distance in less than a blink of an eye, with the claw already in motion toward the guy's face without anyone noticing yet..
And yet, before he could connect the strike, the middle-age man suddenly kicked him out of the way, notifying everyone else about what was just gonna happen.
"This is…"
"Dayum, not a bad performance ~ Too bad you're trying over Lovecraft, or else that would actually work."
"…?"
As Atsushi tried to stand up again, he suddenly found himself in a weird location, seemingly resembling a doll house with toys and stuffed animals lying arounds. Then, before he could actually try something, something had a hold on him and dragged the poor guy into darkness…
"Atsushi-san!!"
With a distraught voice, she lunged toward the red braids, who were suddenly doing some weird acts before the guy disappeared into thin air similar to the newcomer yesterday, but another figure suddenly stopped her dead in her tracks by pinning her down on the ground.
Looking back at the one who just swiftly took her down, she saw the young man, who was sniping Atsushi that day, one that toying with her like nothing…
"You… again…?!"
"There there, rest easy dear princess."
He smiles back at her with a soft expression, which only further boils her anger inside. But still, despite the anger burning inside, she couldn't budge one bit from this guy…
Suddenly, a whip of slashes swept through the guy, but he had already jumped back barely avoiding the attack. She then takes a look at the one who just attacked the guy, and is surprised to see the familiar yet distant figure floating above her.
"Get out of her, you filth!!"
With a resentment grunt, Kouyou steps up before her as to shielding, as Golden Demon then launches forward Twain, almost decapitating him in less than a second if not for his quick reaction.
"Jesus!!"
Let out a frantic swear, Twain ducks his head just in time avoiding another slashes from the figure, but it then changes to another attack, aiming straight for his heart. But as the figure prepares to strike, a bunch of roots suddenly grow from the ground and constrict the figure completely, shocking both Kouyou and Kyouka.
"Oh my ~ Don't be such a hassle, lady ~"
The farmer, now noticeable having a bunch of roots growing from his neck with blood still dripping, smiles towards the two girls with a hint of madness, as the roots continue to further strengthen their grip on Golden Demon.
Both the girls just blatantly leer at the 6, sweat dripping from their face from the stress due to the Guild dominating situation…
"Run, Kyouka."
"Eh?"
"You must escape, I'll buy you some time."
The Golden Demon, as if to follow her words, suddenly acts all ferocious and somehow manages to break all the branches over its body, but in exchange Kouyou then begins to breathe heavily, seemingly forcing her way to powering up the Golden Demon just to get out of the Guild grasp.
Then, without further words, the Golden Demon began to throw slashes toward the Guild members. But then, once again, Golden Demon got restraints once more with more roots and branches than before, to the point of deeming it immoveable for real this time.
"Is that all your trick?"
"Tch…"
Steinbeck giggles back at Kouyu with a challenging yet scornful, as she can only leer him back with a bloodlust gaze.
"Hm?"
As everyone's trying to approach Kouyou and Kyouka to finish their end of the job, the long coat man suddenly leers back at his tentacle with a hint of confusion, as a blade suddenly pierce through them all.
Then, the whole tentacle bunches blown away in pieces, revealing Demon Snow and the newcomer, who's a bit bloody, soon landing into the ground, which shocks everyone else…
Holy moly, one more second and I'm toasted… Demon Snow clutching this damn thing again!!
It's decided, I have to treat Kyouka to a gourmet after all this shit.
"Demon Snow…"
"So that's why it disappeared at that time…"
While Kouyou and Kyouka are still in awe of the situation, I immediately lunged toward the duo shielding them from the Guild.
Although this may seem useless, and it pretty much is, I still need to act like a gentleman after all. Professionalism, you know?
"Surprising…"
The long coat man, Lovecraft, looked at me with a slight hint of genuine surprise, while everyone else just expressed them out.
"Damn!! Yet another great escape?!"
"~ Looking good, Jouno-san!!"
"He's living through that?!"
"Hm…"
Everyone expressed their own way of expressing surprise toward me being alive after Lovecraft's attack, as I secretly dropped my ear while silently let out a grin in my heart. But then, I started to notice the absence of someone else, as my face started to fall down.
"Where's the tiger?"
"?!"
Kyouka suddenly shakes slightly with my question, which already answers it all. I then look back at Kouyou, who's also looking back at me with a confused face.
"Wanna let aside all the grudge and make a run for it? For Kyouka?"
"… Fine, but just this time."
"It's oka—-Hm?"
With a small grunt of dissatisfaction, she surprisingly accepted my pledge and stood by my side.
Hm… though the lady would be more hot-headed than this… Oh well, not that it matters for now.
"… What's your plan?"
"Well—"
I then whisper my intention to Kouyou, as her eyes slowly widen in surprise, then look back at me with a hint of uncertainty.
"You sure that's gonna work?"
"Well, I disabled Hawthorne power with a bottle of water, doubt that this plan would be worse."
"Hawthorne?"
Kouyou once again expressed a confused look with my words, but I ignored her as I'm ready to make some risky play with all of the Guild members…