43-prologue



 
'I expected them to ambush us around here, though!

 This is a mountain road that connects the towns and cities of the small Asian country of Millamar. However, it is not a main road. Mizuho and the others deliberately avoided those main roads and chose to travel on the interstices that only the locals would use.

 The spirit user Shitenji Ruiho was in front of the deformed monsters, and she took the spirits in her hands.
 It was also the first move that a spirit user must make when activating a jutsu.

''Haha! O Eternal Fire, the beginning of rebirth shall not come from nothing, reap!

 A spirit user doesn't need spells or chanting.
 It's like a switch that increases your sensitivity to spirits. That's the secret of the Shitenji School of Spiritual Arts.

 As dozens of flaming spheres appeared above Mizuho's head, the flaming spheres drew a circle and spun at high speed, looking like a single large ring of flame.
 This time, Mizuho checked the escort target behind her requested by the World Ability Agency and Marion Mia Shurian, who was sent by the World Ability Agency as well as Mizuho, and signaled the flames above her head and spread her hands to the left and right.

 Marion, who was firmly attached to the side of her escort target, built a defensive wall to prevent her escort target from being hurt by Mizuho's technique.
 Mizuho and Marion were synchronized as rank holders of the World Ability Agency. The two of them were inspired by the rookie exams they took when they obtained their ranks, and Marion, a lifelong loner, has taken up residence in Mizuho's family home, the Shitenji family, at Mizuho's suggestion.
 Perhaps because of this, the two of them were able to activate their skills in sync with each other without having to say it aloud to each other.

 At the moment when Mizuho put strength into her eyes, the spheres of fire that looked like a circle as they rapidly circled above her head attacked the oddly shaped assassins that surrounded Mizuho and the others.
 The soccer ball-sized chunks of flame are released over a wide area with Mizuho at the center, but one by one they are released with precision. And when the flames landed, they burned an unimaginable area from their original size.

 With Mizuho's powerful wide-ranging flame attack, the target of the demons' assassination... that is to say, the superiority of the state of siege on Brigadier General Mathew, a soldier of the Miremar State, who was the target of Mizuho's and the others' guards, was completely broken.
 The attacking demons were struck down one after another without being able to evade their overwhelming firepower, and the situation was reversed at once with some screaming for decisive action and others avoiding only fatal injuries in the nick of time.

 Mizuho let out a small breath and issued a proclamation to those around her.

''Sweep the rest! Marion, continue to escort and look for the other surgeon while you guard!

Oh!

I understand!

 The trained soldiers under Matou's command spread out in such an order. Then, Marion, without leaving Brigadier Matou, spotted the enemy to several hundred meters around.

 This was a mountainous area about three hours after Mizuho and the others set out in a jeep from the city ahead.
 They were completely ambushed by assassins who wanted to attack Brigadier General Mattow.
 Considering this situation, Mizuho and the others had divided the fake team into three teams, each taking a different route, but apparently they had been spotted with flying colors.

 When Mizuho had received a mission from the World Ability Agency to escort them, and when she found out that the task was to escort a politician who was also a soldier from a small Asian country, she had wondered why they needed two high-ranking abilities like herself and Marion.
 But now he forgot about those things as well.

''Totally! I really wasn't expecting this! Check the institution, too! I didn't know the person I'm dealing with could be so formidable! And there are at least two of them!

 The current situation for Mizuho and the rest of the guards was extremely difficult.
 The World Organization of Gifted Persons knew about the existence of gifted people hired by the assassins, but they had no prior information about their abilities and capabilities.
 Then, when Mizuho and the others were assigned to the mission, they opened their lids and found out that those with extremely powerful skills and abilities were hired by the organization planning to assassinate Brigadier General Mathew.
 Although it is a rare one now, they are definitely not abilities that belong to the agency. If that's the case, the agency is aware of it, and also the agency forbids requests to kill non-humans, that is, civilians.
 In other words, the other party is a free gifted person.

 And another thing that makes the situation tougher for Mizuho and the others is that they are always forced to guard themselves in a passive state. In other words, they are always getting ahead of the assassins.
 What's worse, this escort duty doesn't quite fit with their leader Mizuho's nature.
 The belligerent Mizuho didn't just want to escort him, she also wanted to destroy the attacking organization.
 And she also thought it would be easy.

 Although Mizuho was a newcomer in the World Ability Agency, her ability was touted as a genius, and she was a spirit user that was unrivaled in her generation.
 This generation was full of extremely talented newcomers, and was known as the Golden Age, attracting the attention of gifted people around the world.

 Mizuho was the one who was outstanding among them, having obtained a rank A.
 And the only ones who could be said to be of the same rank in that test were Marion, who had obtained Rank A as Ruiho, and Huang Hero, the heir apparent of the Huang family.
 To our horror, these three have even attached to their careers a saga of saving other recruits by cooperating to fight off an S-class alien vampire (Nosferak) that attacked during the rookie exam, a major incident in the history of the World Ability Agency.

 An S-class outsider is an existence that could be called a demon god, one that has the power to destroy major cities in developed countries if left unchecked.......
 Because of such, these three are newcomers, and they already possess two names.

[Demon God Killer]..........

 Initially, Mizuho had planned to leave Marion, one of the rank A's, in charge of guarding the enemy's hiding place as soon as he found out, leaving Marion to escort him, and himself to ride to the enemy's headquarters and drive them to destruction there.
 However, the enemy was clever and had no idea of their whereabouts after they set up, and even if they were repelled like this time, they could not get any information.
 Moreover, the information hadn't told him that there was more than one enemy capable person. No, it was said that there was one.
 While it was being attacked several times, it became clear that there were at least two enemies.
 And those enemies' abilities remained hidden, and Mizuho and the others were attacked one after the other by a demon that had probably been summoned by one of those abilities.

''We'll find them this time!

 Zuiho shouted, and the leader Zuiho herself joined in the sweep. Then, she ordered the wind spirits to send a probing wind into the surrounding area, and this time, she searched for the location of the enemy's ability.
 Then, a reaction occurred in the wind. Marion, who had already been ordered by Mizuho to search for the enemy psychic, also reacted at the same time.

''Mizuho-san!''

I know! That way!

 Mizuho lifts her eyes and turns into a mountainous beast path and runs through the trees. The probing wind spirit makes a commotion and tells Mizuho the location of its enemy.
 The enemy is ahead, and it's close. Zuiho stopped and began to take intense control of the spirits.

''I don't care where the details are! If only I knew the direction! I'm going to kill it today!

 Ruiho ordered the spirits and took control of their tremendous number of spirits without leaven.
 In order to repay the debt he owed them until now, an angry Mizuho was clearly trying to unleash a great technique.

''It's okay if it's just one mountain........ Haaah!''

 In the uninhabited mountainous area, Mizuho decided that there was no need to refrain from... or rather, she let her blood climb completely into her head. It seems that she had been forced to fight a number of uncluttered battles so far, and her stress was building up.

''Hmph........ I'll erase it for you........

 That brilliant face of Mizuho's, a fearless smile that even feels awesome.
 
 But just then, the grass and leaves near Mizuho swayed violently, and when the leaves made a sound of rubbing against each other, Mizuho clicked her tongue.

''Shh!''

 As if aiming for the moment when Mizuho's jutsu was perfected, three muscular, deformed demons suddenly emerged from the trees and attacked Mizuho from her side.
 Mizuho was disconcerted for a moment, but she quickly regained her composure and calmly disarmed the jutsu and switched to close combat.
 She had trained in this area a lot in her parents' house, the Shitenji family.

 A spirit user's strongest range is medium to long range. Therefore, the theory is to bring the spirit user into a close range battle when dealing with them. If you do so, you may not be able to neutralize the spirit user, but you can't use your big moves.
 However, the Shitenji family, a prestigious family of spirit wielders with a long history, is well aware of this.
 Therefore, the Shitenji family even had their own body techniques systematized.

''Oh this!''

 With the power of the spirit of fire in her fist, Mizuho unleashed a supple yet fast thrust with an orange glow.
 The demon who received that demonstration-like thrust let out an unspeakable decapitation as it pierced his chest.
 Mizuho swiftly drew her visually contrary rigid fist from the demon's chest, and without stopping to move, Mizuho sank her body to avoid the remaining two demons' sharp claws.
 Then, she swung her orange-illuminated leg up from inside her flared skirt and vividly hit the two demons in the temples with two consecutive blows, a spinning kick and a backward kick, hitting the two demons' temples.

''Ugoaa!''

 The demon was blown away by the powerful impact, and when its entire body was engulfed in flames that flared up from its face, it turned to dust and disappeared.

''Wind..... Ha! What about the surgeon?!

 After defeating the demon, Mizuho hurriedly checked the location of the enemy, but the signs of the enemy's abilities that she had detected earlier had completely disappeared....
 If Mizuho had unleashed a great move earlier, the enemy would not have been able to get away with it.
 However, the enemy, anticipating this, attacked Mizuho with the demon they had lurked, brought her into close combat, and then found that she had left in the little time she had gained.

''They got away again........''

 Mizuho is frustrated as she grits her teeth, but she has to admit that her opponent seems to be quite used to fighting. They also seem to be well versed in the characteristics of spirit users.
 If this is the case, they will be able to plan their strategy as well as ours. In such a case, it was clear that the always passive Mizuho and the others were at a disadvantage.

 Mizuho quietly clenched her fists.

''If there was at least one more ally who was good at close combat...''

 That way, he could leave the target of the escort to Marion and let that person buy time to unleash his own big move on Mizuho himself.
 Also, even if a great move was impossible, it was possible to put on an elaborate exploration wind so that the enemy wouldn't notice it and find out where the enemy's abilities were based.

 Several times, Mizuho had thought about this idea as well, but the World Ability Agency was currently short on manpower.
 Originally, the job they accepted this time was not something that would come to the Japanese branch in terms of location. However, both the Chinese and Indian offices were overwhelmed with requests for help and could not spare a suitable candidate for the time being, so they asked the Japanese office for help.

 That's why Mizuho was hesitant to ask for another gifted person to be dispatched.
 Besides, this request is different from the usual request.
 The content of the request was just an escort, but considering the position of the target of the escort, Brigadier Mathew, failure to do so could affect the fate of the Miremer nation.

 The World Ability Agency does not basically take jobs with ordinary people. The agency's main business is to save people who are harmed by outsiders from harming others. This request was a kind of political struggle for a country and was not supposed to be within the scope of the World Ability Agency.

 However, there was information that there was a high possibility that the other side had a person with abilities to manipulate other people. This was something that the World Organization of Gifted Persons, whose purpose is to enhance the public's trust in gifted people, could not afford to overlook.
 Furthermore, the use of gifted people in political battles could leave a bad example.
 It was for this reason that the agency also came to accept this request.

 However, that would leave the gifted institutions in the same riddle. So, in accepting the request, they have a few conditions.
 The first is that they would not get involved in the political struggles in the country, although they would provide protection.
 The other is that the contract is terminated as soon as we capture or repel a person with abilities that would be employed by the opposing organization, or incapacitate the other person with abilities for any other reason.
 Afterwards, Brigadier General Mattoo approached me to accept this condition, and the contract was approved.

 Initially, the reason why the Japanese branch of the ability agency dispatched the high-ranking Mizuho and the others was also with the intention of quickly defeating the abilities hired by the other organization and resolving the request as soon as possible.
 They also thought that it wouldn't be difficult to do so.
 The precious rank A's Mizuho and Marion were the main forces of the Japanese Branch.
 The reason why he had sent those two, even though they were rank A, was also to give them experience, as they were young and newcomers in age.
 In part, Mizuho had accepted the request as a result of the wishes of her relative and branch head, Omine Hisaee, who was also a relative of hers.

 However, even though she was a newcomer, Mizuho and Marion were rank A ability holders recognized by the World Ability Agency. Their power is beyond human knowledge.
 The jutsu that Mizuho tried to unleash earlier was enough to turn the area into a burning field if the enemy was not in the way.

''It can't be helped. I'm going to ask the head of the branch to do it for me.

 There were only a few high rankers in the world, and it was not allowed by Mizuho's pride to ask for reinforcements, but she had thought about it.
 It was partly because the enemy was more formidable than he had imagined, but it was not the only reason. Mizuho feels that this enemy's ability is mysterious.

 For someone hired for assassination, this enemy's ability is far-fetched, direct and inconsistent in its methods.
 And most of all, it makes me doubt his seriousness. For a man who is thoroughly intent on assassination, it's easy to do. But they are also relentless in their attempts to do so.
 It's as if they're stalling for time.

 Moreover, the enemy must have already grasped that a high rank ability person of rank A was coming here.
 Knowing that, there was no place for them to be afraid of anything.
 They are either too confident or unsure of themselves, or........

''Utterly irritating people!

 Mizuho spat that out and left to join her friends.




 Ten kilometers from where Mizuho and the others were attacked, in a cold village in the mountains, a group of people gathered in an unreliable people's house that was empty, made of wood and straw.
 A man in a hooded robe closed the thick book he had been looking at. The man's hands hit the sunshine that was coming in slightly through the cracks in the wooden walls, revealing countless wrinkles and stains.

'Kukuku, did I fail?'

Ha ... as you wish.

 In front of the robed man were two brown-skinned men kneeling in front of him.
 One of the men is not even pictured kneeling, perhaps because of his bloated body. And the other is slender and surprisingly long-limbed, and his knees come up to his face when he kneels, which is an oddity.

''I hear from the Ability Agency that a group of rank A's have arrived?''

''Yes......... One of them is an exorcist lass linked to the lass of Shitenji and Orlean's blood.

 The slender man responds reverently.

''Well that's good for you, Kukuku. Now the assassination can go down without suspicion.

''Yes, and as expected of his abilities, he's a rank A, but he's still young and inexperienced in judging the situation. With that in mind, I think he's the best opponent to be my enemy...
 
 The slender man responds from time to time, but the fat man has an ecstatic expression and a sadistic smile on his face at the mention of the rank A girls. He then muttered to himself in some kind of rough breath.



"Phew, well, you can wait. When the time comes, you can do what you want. Pretty soon, I'll get my employer to give you what you want.

'Yes, yes..............

 The fat man sniffs vulgarly when the hooded man tells him so.

'A little more ... we'll have this country in a mess. So, once we get what we want, we'll be done with what we've become.

 The slender man falls flat, his body shaking with emotion, and tries to draw out the rest of the hooded man's words as if to ask, to confirm.

'Haha! And then.....

...the world is in turmoil, a screaming mess.

 Hearing this, the slender man looked up and looked up at the man in the hood.
 The face of this slender man who has been answering the hooded man intelligently up until now, his drooping eyes droop further and his mouth slackens, and then he falls flat once more.

 

 Ahead of the hooded man in this small house.......behind the two brown-skinned men, the remains of flesh and bone that would have been the inhabitants of this village, regardless of gender, young or old, were strewn about.......