Isekai: The Eight Soul Fragments

"[Chronopause]!" With a single shout, Keith immediately stopped the time and closed his position towards Chris. But because of the fusion of holy and unholy energies spreading out far and wide, it was almost unable to pretty much get any closer easily. As time continued, he tried to resist the powerful force that was being expended by Chris. Because of the energy, it was difficult for both of them to land an attack as the force of energy is forcing them to keep distance. However, Keith ignored such trouble and activated [Chronopause] once more to get even closer. Since the time itself was stopped, the force that was resisting him wasn't around. Due to the twenty second stop, he was able to pretty much get a better chance when he uses the ability to pause time fully. He closed in to melee range and struck Chris with a flurry of attacks. After twelve seconds of paused time, he went back and got Wesley out of the incoming pinch of getting sliced with water and getting squashed with the sofas. Time then continued as Chris's magic was interrupted and he got knocked away to the wall. Wesley was surprised with the sudden movement but he wasn't able to avoid the possibility of Chris's magic going on a rampage. A large bubble began to form from the water that sprinkled out. With his judgement, there was only one way he could do to finish the battle in this underground space. "Keith... We'll use EMP... I'll form a shield barrier until this water bomb blows up, or the EMP to disrupt all magic... Once it does, kill Chris..." Keith nodded as he supported Wesley with his shoulder. A small cylinder was then thrown under the water bomb as Chris continued shouting without control. "[Shadow Barrier]" With a calm and rough tone, Wesley created five layers of shield barriers to prevent the explosive impact of the water bomb. After a few seconds, the water bomb and the EMP exploded at the same time, causing the explosion to disperse instantly. The shockwave itself was held back by the barrier which didn't last long due to the EMP, Wesley was affected badly and lost consciousness due to that effect. Keith took the chance to eliminate Chris with his kusarigama without any bit of resistance. The sickle that was swung sliced through Chris's left shoulder down to his right thigh, leaving him to bleed to death. Keith then began carrying Wesley on his shoulder and left the room wordlessly. After walking around for a bit, he found Viceroy who just woke up after getting his consciousness reaped. "Guh..." Keith briskly walked to Viceroy and asked him what had happened. "Viceroy... What happened to you three...?" Viceroy clicked his tongue as he was frustrated from losing against the battle. "We lost to Chris... The duality of holy magic and unholy magic was too powerful... We have to report the level of danger to Draxus." At that point, Wesley began to wake up which was a pretty quick pace of recovering. "G-Guys, let's head back to the base before the enemies wake up... Come here." Keith and Viceroy grouped everyone as Wesley was pretty much damaged internally due to the impact. After gathering near each other, they swapped with a shadow that was on the imperial castle of Preeliance and ensured that they had returned home safely. Keith sighed and sat down next to Wesley and Viceroy. "Mission accomplished..." Viceroy smiled a little while Wesley passed out after swapping with the shadow. He was laid down and leaning his back on the wall. The same went for Audrey and Mitch who were still unconscious. All five of them had secured their victory as they received a lot of damage.

The next day came as the entire group was gathered in the infirmary of the [Hall of Sentinels] in Preeliance's castle. Each once of them were being healed up slowly by the [Sentinel of Reverence] Maria. "Jeez... You guys went too far you know? Don't think of trying something like that again Audy!!" Maria reprimanded the five of them as Draxus was checking the pictures of each target that was killed. "With this, Begona, Elliot, and Chris are now gone. The threat of fighting against everyone from the [People of Earth] organization will diminish for the time being." Wesley who had some bones crushed asked Draxus while lying down in one bed. All five of them were lying down on beds that were laid out for exclusive use of the sentinels just in case they need to recover. "For the time being? Does that mean they'll cause trouble for us once more at a later time?" Draxus nodded as he lowered down his phone. "We may have taken out their current leaders, but we don't intend to let them rest easy since their goal is the same as us. However, they find us as enemies and intend to destroy us eventually. We're here to avoid that, we can handle a few members at most since all of them are almost as powerful as heroes in this world. We can't just recklessly attack them since our reputation would go down if we simply just eradicated them. Some countries would find that we intend to hog all the glory to ourselves so we have to make sure that they are the ones that attacked us foolishly and make it look like we defended ourselves." Keith and Viceroy fell asleep during the discussion while Audrey and Maria were talking about what had happened. Mitch then sighed as if the issue wasn't fully cleared up. "Can't be helped, soon enough we'll be dispatched to go for another investigation against them but I don't think they'll make a move within half a year at most." Wesley nodded to Mitch's words and continued asking Draxus about the things that they had reported. "What will we do from now on? We don't really feel great since we have murdered some people. But I think we'll be able to get used to this kind of thing if we're going to live in this world." Wesley smiled wryly which got Draxus somewhat worried about his group. "Don't worry, I'll let you guys move on from what you did. Take your time off and slack your way. I'll handle the rest of the things for the time being. Be obedient and let yourselves get healed up." Draxus stood up with a smile and shrugged off the worries as if it's unnecessary to worry about his team. Just as he was about to leave the room, Serkyrio himself opened the door. "Ah! Serkyrio, what brings you here?" Draxus reflexively asked that question which got Serkyrio to lower down the briefcase he was carrying. "Just going to say, congratulations to your team, and their rewards are here too, for killing the targets." Serkyrio opened the briefcase after placing it over the table and revealed the contents to them. It contained around fifty gold coins which is shared between the five of them. The excitement of the group weren't exactly directed to the money that they have earned. Draxus on the other hand had dead fish eyes as he saw five papers each having his name written on it. "Surely you've heard of [IOU Papers] from the hermits in [Minecraft] right?" Draxus turned his gaze away and let out a voice of frustration. "That's why you made us sign a hundred of those empty papers... I wonder how Remuel and Arlesk would react..." Draxus who knew the value of the items knew what was about to happen if Serkyrio circulated this within the Preeliance's direct members. "Serkyrio... This would be dangerous if people other than the Preeliance would hold the papers." Serkyrio laughed as he prepared the gave each member an [IOU Paper] which labeled that Draxus will do one favor for them. The rules of the favor actually limits things such as conquest, hunting targets, illegal activities, request for money, and things that can damage the alliance. "It's good that the rules are there, but seems like we got more things to worry about. At least we can decide when to take the task." Serkyrio nodded to Draxus's words and left the room afterwards. Draxus then left the room after telling the group once more to take a bit of rest.