Isekai Journey Of The Magic Archer

[Eon's POV: ]

"You all guys are unbelievable! What kind of advice were you giving him for him to look so happy?!"

"What did you tell him to do?!"

"Hey! Alf! Tell me exactly what happened there! Everything! I wanna know every single thing that happened there!"

Carla was shouting at us and she wasn't alone at the moment. All the girls including Uriel, Titania, and Lizzy were shouting at us as if we had committed some kind of unforgivable crime and, this had been happening for the last six minutes now.

"Lucifer! You are the biggest suspect here! Tell us what did you tell him!"

"I have already told you many times and I will say the same thing again. He wanted advice to make a perfect first impression on her and not because he liked her or anything like that but only because he wanted to make her a friend."

"Bullshit!"

"Yes! Something that lame took you all twenty-one minutes?!"

"Yes! That's lame even for him!"

Prince Alph was walking on the other side with a smile on his face lost in his own thoughts and I could tell he was thinking of how he would go about all this and how he would befriend her.

But, his normal expressions were making them think that he was having his own love fantasies and Carla especially found this concerning so, she told others how this was dangerous. 

And, since she was the romance theory expert in this group, others followed her words and were causing a ruckus all around us even as we were walking through the corridor leading to the inner parts of the academy castle.

We all ultimately had to go to the house training areas so, we were walking together and the girls were yelling at us, just as I knew they would but it was getting too much at this point.

"Haaa… just stop everyone-"

[[ Master! Something just happens in the joint house training room! ]]

My feet suddenly stopped as soon as Celes shouted that and from her voice this didn't seem to be one of her pranks.

"Talk to me."

The others were confused by how I suddenly stopped but this wasn't the time to worry about all of this.

They can continue yelling at me later but there was a pressing matter before us right now.

[[ A while before, some other students came there and started asking about the book of alchemy and demanded that they let them use it.

They said you stole the book and then there was a debate and though Mia tried sending them back, they just continued with their argument and- ]]

[[ "Tell me what happened Celes?!" ]]

The others were now worried and my expression didn't look any great so they knew something was definitely wrong here.

[[ Yes! So! They continued arguing and then one of them picked up the book from the protective glass plate! 

The others tried their best to get the book back from them but they were taller than the others.

Mia had just finished her turn so she was still weak and the healthy boy Ball tried getting the book back but was pushed back by the others.

And then! Then! Something happened when the book was still in their hands! ]]

[[ "Purple words? Smoke? Were there small sparks and the ones holding them three the book away because of some sudden shock?" ]]

[[ Yes master! And then there was this- ]]

[[ "Shit." ]]

'Quick steps!'

"Lucifer?"

"Lucifer!"

"What happened to him!"

"Hey! Wait! Where are you running off to!"

"Anyone knows what happened to him?!"

"Forget that! Looks like something happened! Let's follow him! He seems to be going towers his house hall! Let's go!"

"Hey wait!"

"Heyyyy…!"

They were chasing after me but I didn't have enough time to look back at them or anywhere else!

Something terrible happened! And, I had hoped nothing like that would happen. Not when there were hundreds of thousands of students present in the vicinity!

"Haaaa! Haaaaa!"

I hurried and reached the training hall but it was already covered in a dense fog, some students were outside and some must have been still in there, unconscious.

"Vice-captain!"

"V-vice captain! That-!"

"Calm down everyone. It's alright. Nothing will happen to them."

I ran inside without talking much with them. Zoe was right behind me so she will take care of the things outside. What mattered right now was the inside.

"Ahum! Ahum!"

There was smoke all around me, some of the students lay unconscious, and in a certain corner of the place, the smoke was even denser than the other parts.

'The defense machines for the theft were triggered accidentally, fuck. It shouldn't have happened normally if the threat was only from some student but, if it was triggered, it means there was something else. Something that triggered the mechanism.'

Or perhaps it was a malfunction but it shouldn't have happened. 

If this was something like that, there were other protocols that should have been activated in the meantime but they didn't.

Which means there was something even more terrible at play here.

"Celes. Tag all the students here. All of them."

[[ Yes master! ]]

Lights of different colors quickly started appearing all around me. 

They belonged to her but not all of them from her cores. 

This was another one of her abilities that worked in a unique way… which wasn't important right now!

'Lucy. Protection and purification mask spells.'

[[ *Yes master!* ]]

-Ooooooooooong!

Some spells covered them and now they will be safe and the effects of the strong sleeping potion in the air will be purified soon.

They will be back to their senses and it will be fine-

"Where's the book Celes?"

[[ Master! There's someone here who seems to be in a worse condition! …it's the boy! ]]

'Shit… no no no!'

Ball.

He was sleeping in the back corner and there were his purple magic circuit-like vines all around his body.

His body was trying to absorb this fog as well and doing it would mean he would die!

'He has the power to absorb but not purify! This is bad shit!'

The fog was a strong concentration of sleeping gas that quickly puts people in a deep sleep state, and though it doesn't harm someone directly if one's body tried to absorb this fog, which is not possible in normal cases, that body would be exposed to the various lethal toxins this nonlethal sleeping potion was made of.

'The defense mechanism creates a parameter that affects every single being present in its range so even the familiars who usually have a unique constitution from the humans and other humanoids, fall victim to this dangerous thing.'

But even they couldn't do what this bastard's skill was doing at the moment!

"Shit, shit, shit. He will die at this rate!"

His body was turning purple with each passing moment, and it was shivering like crazy! 

He was in no good state and to make things worse, he was having a seizure as well!

"Celes! Tell Zoe and Rein to block everyone from this place! Tell them it's an emergency! Tell Rein it's code Eta B 9!"

[[ Yes master! ]]

The skill was passive so it worked on its own even though he was uncloious! 

The skill was forcefully pumping the fog in his body and his body was in no state to handle something so lethal.

His body was rejecting it, and there was no way to stop this skill… which left me with only one thing.

'Lucy! I am going to perform an external extraction! Guide me!'

[[ *Yes master! Leave it to me!* ]]

I had to extract the excess toxins from his body myself, which was in no way an easy procedure.

"Alright!"

But I had to do it or else this bastard will die in under five minutes! And I can't possibly have that!

I first activated my third eye called out to Asta and placed the tip of her blade above his heart, and after that, a few images appeared before my eyes.

'Nice. This is it. Keep this up until the end Lucy.'

[[ *Yes!* ]]

This was one of her abilities that we had discovered a while before.

She could show me some of the things that I knew already or guide me through the procedures that I had performed before.

She can show me the things that should be done to have the same kind of results as the last procedure and this was more helpful than one can think.

'Huuuuuu…'

This was just like tracing lines, but instead of normal lines on paper, there was a precise flow of Mana that I had to control, some certain spells that I had to employ on some certain parts of his body, and since we were going to extract these toxins, I will have to create an extraction pump with Asta as the center and have to take out all the toxins from his body that it was continuously gathering.

It wasn't easy but thanks to Lucy, I managed to pull it under the golden time, and right after that, I left the extraction to Asta and ran towards the source of this toxin, the book of alchemy that was still left cold in the other corner of the room.

"Whoever bastard was here will have to pay for what they did."

They weren't getting out of this unharmed but that was a concern for later.

"Alright."

The book was the source of the fog and this fog would stay here until someone turned the security function off manually.

And until the fog was gone, that bastard's uncontrollable skill would continue absorbing this toxin…

"Haaa… but it's alright now."

I turned the function off and activated the other protocol that sucked in all the remaining fog in the room and after that was done, Asta also finished the extraction completely on her own.

The students would soon come back to their senses but, this was a dangerous incident that must have been reported to the headmaster. 

"How the hell did this happen anyway? Who came here? Which bastard?"

Thankfully, everyone was alright but, something bad could have happened… and those bastards aside, it was my negligence of the normal human nature that led to this whole catastrophe.

[[ I… I am sorry master. I didn't know something like this- ]]

I didn't take proper precautions and ultimately because of me…

"Something might have happened to them."

I looked around myself, at the unconscious students who were my responsibility, at the housemates that I was supposed to protect from anything like what happened right now.

"Nothing happened, yes, but…"

I looked back at the gate and Zoe was standing there, blocking the path with a wall of fire behind her, and Rein was behind this wall of fire, assuring everyone that it was alright… perhaps.

I couldn't see what was going on behind the wall of fire, but, I knew one thing after this incident…

'We will have to change some of the things here.'

But before we do that…

"Celes, who were they? Which house did they belong to?"

Some people will have to see a side of mine they will not forget for a long time.