Day 1: An energy wave, just the usual. No blue-haired witch in front of my door. The day starts as normal as can be. I open the window and a shade is in front of my window and tries to claw at me. I blast it with an [Fireblast] It feels good to not care about hiding our identity and just go loose. We should have done this earlier, everyone will forget anyways after we destroy the root, and on our last timeline we will disappear from this town forever so it would have never mattered. But this is hindsight. I wondered if I should just walk over the streets with my tails out but I decided to not do that yet. I hop out of the window and the streets are filled with shades again. They have physical forms now and are causing some damage to the city but so far, the civilians are safe. People are using the rooftops to navigate the town again. I decided to watch what was happening from my rooftop to make sure I don’t run into trouble.


    I don''t feel cold but it would have been nicer if the weather was a bit warmer. It doesn''t get that warm up here in the mountains. I notice a windblast coming from the direction of Raishin’s hut. Aah so convenient, because of my Elgards eyes, I don''t need to go there and check out what is happening. I can do that from here. It seems Raishin is fighting some shades, he is also fighting the troll and Charlize. Good luck Raishin! He seems to have forgotten that we don''t have to hold back. Not my problem, yet. Maybe I should help him. I got up but got hit by a dizzy spell so sat back down. Ugh, what is this? I’m not even using magic. I looked at my hands and I was seeing double. My Elgards eyes didn''t seem to be able to see through this. The problems just keep piling up. The dizzy spell left as suddenly as it arrived. I decided to stay put in case it comes back. It was almost time for Raishin to arrive here to go to Uraya’s shop but he was still locked in battle.


    Oh, Gregory appeared and started to help Raishin. Oh wow, He knocked Charlize out in no time, he wasn''t playing around. He bonked the troll unconscious with his hammer and dropped all the shades in a shadow. I clapped at Gregory’s display of power. Technically his firepower is still low but that doesn''t matter if he can banish a whole army into the shadows to never return. Carelessly shadow melding might be a bit risky now though. I still could only shadow meld myself but that was all I’m interested in. They seemed to head over to my house while defeating and banishing shades in the process.


    As I looked by as they approached my house, I noticed that Gregory seemed to have a new magic skill that he hasn''t shown us before. He creates a big shadow whirlpool that pulls the shades to the middle while it shrinks. He uses it to pull shades on a shadow and banish them. Without moving from my spot, I cast [Confusion] on several shades blocking their way. Some shades like to aimlessly flail their arms which seems to be counted as an attack so confusion instantly pops them. My buddies seem to like making things difficult for themselves. If they would just use the rooftops. I decided to meet with them. I jumped from my roof to my neighbors'' roof and tried to meet up with them. When I reached them, I pulled the up with wires.


    Good morning tryhards. The rooftops are safer. I was trying out my new skill. It is super cool! It goes swirl and all the shades get sucked in!


    Yeah, I saw it from the comfort of my rooftop. Shall we head toward the town square? I don''t think Charlize and the troll will be bothering us this time. Good! We arrived at the town square. The town square was crowded but not with people.


    What do we do? There are not many options, we either do nothing or clear them out. How about we destroy them by causing as much collateral damage as possible!


    Ugh, I guess these days were stressful for you, it seems like your villain arc has begun. Just an explosion here and there. I thought you vented enough.


    I decided to vent over future problems! So unreasonable!


    “There you are! I was expecting you but I was unsure if you would still bother to visit me due to the current situation.” It seemed Granny Uraya got out of her house and was waving on her balcony. Sup! I probably don''t have to tell you but if you go outside, you will get clawed by a pink zombie!


    “Yes, I’m aware of that Raishin but thank you for the warning.” How is your potion coming along?


    “Oh, it is almost finished thanks to all of your efforts.” Hehe, no problem! What have you done?! As far as I know only Ted, Agnis, and I have helped her out!


    I was moral support and I helped you guys out so that means I helped Uraya out! He is kind of right you know.


    “Watching you guys interact is always refreshing, come on in.” Oh, by the way, Uraya is also a witch. Oh, so do you turn people into frogs and the like?!


    “Are you interested in becoming a frog?” Ehh, no no no! I’m ehh asking for a friend! Gregory wants to turn into a frog! What? Absolutely not! frogs are water creatures! I hate water! Technically they are amphibians so they can do both water and land.


    As long as water is involved it doesn''t matter if it is an amphibian or a dragon! Come on Greg! Take one for the team!


    You take one for the team! So, is there something you want to show us Uraya?


    “I want to give all of you something. In the end, you 4 are going for the tree, right?” Yeah.


    “I created some charms that can ward off the high energy density that is present there, these will protect you.“ She handed each of us a charm and one extra for Ted. Oh cool! But we don''t really need them, right? Greg can fix that for us!


    “Oh?” Ah, right, I’m a 3 tailed shadow cat so I can deal with energy-related problems but these charms will become a useful asset in our battles.


    “Ooh, so Agnis is a nine-tailed spirit fox and you are a three-tailed shadowcat, now I’m wondering what Raishin and Ted are.” You told her? Incorrect! I showed her! She needed the blood of some ancient or mythical beast so that was an easy request. I’m a six-tailed lightning tiger and Ted is a brown war bear!


    “Oh, those combinations of races sound familiar just like the Calamity trio. I was a big fan of theirs. Wait… Agnis what was your last name again?” Hourai Uraya looked shocked.


    “You all are from Hourai? Agnis, are you related to Edea Hourai? The Edea Hourai?” Somehow everyone seems to know my mom. Hey, Agnis help! She fainted!


    Isn''t she a bit too old to fangirl over my mother? Stop complaining and help out! I don''t get it; how does she know your mom? I helped Gregory with getting Uraya on a chair.


    I don''t know, but it seems Paul, Paula, and Uraya have been stuck here for a good 2600-ish years, so it wouldn''t be that surprising if they were familiar with our mothers. Yeah, at that time period, our mothers were still active down here, it was only later that they moved to what we know as Hourai. Hmm so like a living time capsule?


    Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    Uhh, I guess? So, what are we going to do now? I guess we wait, and you should probably prepare an autograph to give to Uraya or something. After 10 minutes Uraya woke up.


    “I had a wonderful dream, I dreamt that I met the son of Edea.” Ehh, yeah, don’t let your dreams be dreams! When this prison is gone you can go out and try to find him and meet him! I’m conflicted, maybe I should just shut up.


    “Hmm, anyways, it seems you didn''t need my assistance for the charms then…” Nope! We smacked Raishin. We appreciate the charms. I’m sure they will come in useful! We left Uraya’s home.


    Something is wrong with you Raishin. We already knew that though… Hey! Sup guys! What are you up to?


    Scolding Raishin. What did he do this time? Gregory explained what we have been up to. I follow a shade in my eye corner. This shade had a slightly different color than the others. According to my knowledge about games and movies, this might be a mutant. Please be wrong, please be wrong! The shade moves to the corner of Uraya’s shop and tears down the wall with one swipe.


    Shit! I jumped down and froze all the shades. The mutant shade didn''t seem to get its energy sucked up by my frost magic. What is going on? My buddies also jump down. Raishin and Ted kept the shades at our back busy.


    Doesn''t this shade seem different to you? Yeah, after you said that I noticed. It doesn''t get instantly defeated by your frost magic. Let me shadow meld it. I jumped back and Gregory used his [Shadow vortex] and banished it.


    That''s it? That’s it. Ted and Raishin wiped out all the shades that were on the plaza.


    Anticlimactic but a good change for once. I hope that is all there is to it. I think more of these mutants might appear sooner than later.


    Do you want to wipe them out now? If I do that too often all the shadows will be full of shades and shadow melding might become risky, some might also ooze out of the shadow and become shadow shades, and it would be even harder to fight something like that.


    Right then it is Raishin’s turn! Also, because I feel a bit lazy! What?


    Go shoot some glitter on the shades and nuke them! Chop chop! But what if I hit civilians with the glitter? Uhm, just don''t hit them?


    My aim isn''t that good! What if I give Agnis the glitter and he tags every shade with it, then I can do it! Ugh, I thought I could slack, fine I’ll do it, you can use some spotlight. There are 1492 shades in the town, that is how much glitter I need.


    Here have 4000! Right, lightning tigers aren''t precise creatures, I’ll just store whatever I have in surplus. I froze an ice pillar and made an ice bow. I stuck glitter on the arrows and shot them at each shade. Because I was using ice, they didn''t get one shot. I might as well have dealt with them myself if I had to do this. It seems my sniping pillar attracted a lot of attention.


    I tagged all of them! I decided to stay up here to observe Raishin''s skills. Alright here I go [4000 lightning bolts!] So that is why he made 4000 glitters. What is he going to do with the surplus? This skill though isn''t a special skill he just fires off [Lightning bolt] in quick succession. It is dumb but it seems to work. All the shades are zapped. The lightning bolts hit random spots in the town… This idiot. I took out the remaining glitter and threw them into the air. The lightning zapped at the glitter. Phew catastrophe averted. It seems Ted is giving Raishin an earful. Suddenly the earth started to rumble. I don''t know what is coming next but I''m sure it will worsen my headache. All the manholes got launched and the shades were pouring from the sewers. Corrupted mana flowed out and even corrupted sewer rats emerged.


    Well, that was unexpected… Ugh, disgusting. Any chance that a plumber can fix this sewage problem for us?


    What plumber do you know that can fix this mess? I know one!


    One that isn''t a game character! I don''t know anyone… Suddenly ignoring the problem seems like a good idea.


    That is quite the amount of mutated shades, there even seem to be some super mutated shades. They are almost red! So, ehh about that idea to banish them? Fine, il do it. Gregory made a [shadow wall] to block 2 lasers aimed at us.


    I''m so done with these things! Greg I’m going to slide them out of the town like the last timeline but with ice. What about the citizens?


    What about them? They either get mauled, lasered down or frozen for a bit. Is there no other way?


    There probably is but it is either going to take too long or take too much mana, Greg let''s go! Right! How do I get there before you do though?


    Hehe! Wait! I shouldn''t have asked that I can figure it out myself! Hey, Agnis wait! What are you doing with that cannon?!


    After shooting Gregory with my [Steam cannon v2.0] I started to use [Frozen ground] and slowly raised the floor at the most southern part of the town slowly creating an enormous ice ramp. I made sure that the parts that became shade free got thawed. I wanted to freeze manholes made of frost to block more from emerging from the sewers but these would feed me energy constantly. Ted, can you start going south and make sturdy earth manholes to cover up the sewers? Sure, I’ll try to get there in time.


    Hehe. Oh no.


    After shooting Ted to his location, I continued my ice ramp. I made a snowboard out of ice and enjoyed some snowboarding while cleaning up the shades. I saw Charlize and the troll approaching but they got caught in my snowboarding trick and got temporarily frozen. I dumped all the shades north of Boshi town in the shadow of one of the mountains Gregory was waiting at. My work here was done. The enormous shadow the mountain cast on Boshi town devoured the shades and corrupted rats. It seemed this quantity forced Gregory to use mana. He popped an anti-nausea potion and downed it. As I returned to Boshi town I saw Ted place thick sturdy and heavy manholes on the last sewer openings while Raishin was dealing with the rats and shades that escaped in the meantime. Phew, that was the last manhole. This is starting to become a real pain in the ass.


    The people are staring at us. Let them, it is not as if we took our tails out, we should still be fine. The people were indeed staring at us but more in an appreciative manner. I wonder how fast that will change when we will inevitably be forced to go all out.


    “Hey, ass! You froze us! That was not cool!” I am sure you would be one of the least affected, the others aren''t as ‘lucky’ to have an ‘insulation layer’ as you.


    “Huh? What does that mean?”


    ”I think he just called you fat Dunkey.”


    “What! I’ll show you!” I shot a purple lightning bolt at his feet. I don''t have time to deal with you clowns, scram!


    “Ha! I can also use lightning!” I didn''t have time to wait a minute before he could show off his weak blue spark. I created shadow clones and we all rushed at the bullies.


    “What?! Clones?” All my clones kicked them into the air toward one point. My clones arranged to stand in a circle and shot a dagger with a wire attached toward them. I stood in the middle of the circle, took a spear out of my dimensional pocket, and kicked it up with a lightning-augmented kick. The clones ran lightning magic through the wires and let go of them. [Lightning Umbrella]. The lightning umbrella unfolded and spun while ascending, pushing the bullies skyward while continuously zapping them. Good riddance. I looked at how my [Lightning Umbrella] was slowly ascending. It is a cool skill but it requires quite some setup. It looked super cool though. I saw people stop to take a look at the spectacle that was my lightning umbrella. I tuned the damage to be low because I would instantly kill these bullies if I was serious.


    “Did you do that?” It seems Charlize met up with Cecilia and came after me again. Do you want some of that too?


    “What trick did you use? Water users generally can''t use lightning,” Cecilia was correct, the arrangement of all my affinities doesn''t make much sense to normal races down here. Charlize and Cecilia dodged a hammer flying at them. I don’t know who I should be stopping here but I will warn you 2, engaging Agnis is a bad idea.


    “It seems we got a 2 for the price of 1 sale Cecilia.”


    “We can take revenge for what they did yesterday!”


    Are you ready for this rematch Greg? No more running.