Heaving a heavy sigh wasn't enough to calm down the Vessels, especially if the situation hadn't been settled completely. Not to mention that there were petrified victims who they all needed to save before the Triske Monster's given time limit. Though at some parts, Itsuki couldn't help doubting the Triske Monster's words.
"Well, I think the damage that Erika and Eichirou-san did is enough to shut him up for the time being," Misae stated after placing all the victims in one room for the meantime for protection's sake.
"Yeah, and that means we need to do all that we can to bring them all back to normal."
"The only question is, how we'll be able to do that. It's not like we can drag that monster out of the Tareus Dimension and send him to the spot. That would mean suicide for all of us," Eichirou said, speaking for the first time.
But the other Vessels noticed something weird about the photographer. Only at that point, they chose not to say anything at the moment as they knew how pissed off Eichirou was. Or at least it looked that way.
"Yes, it does mean suicide. But we're not that crazy to die immediately when we still have a job to finish here," Shuichi said after a few moments of silence. "And I think right now, you better finish that other job you wanted to deal with for some time now, Eichirou."
Of course, that only made the photographer face the biker placidly looking at him. It didn't take him long to understand Shuichi's words. Eichirou soon turned to one area of that building after disintegrating his armor and saw Kanako and the woman Haruna talking quite heatedly to each other for some reason. The sight made him frown, though.
'I wonder what they're talking about.' Nevertheless, he had issues to deal with at the moment. His friends gave him the chance to do it without worrying about Macera for a while. He might as well take it.
Right after taking a deep breath since he needed it, Eichirou started walking to approach the two women. But he hadn't even walked halfway when suddenly, Haruna turned sharply in his direction which made him halt to a stop. Debating for a short while whether or not he would smile, he just looked at the said woman.
"Don't include me in any of your plans, Mizuhashi. Especially if it has something to do with your mother," Haruna started rather icily which made Eichirou frown.
After that, she left him there a little speechless and at the same time, confused because of Haruna's actions and attitude. A few moments after recovering, he sought an answer from Kanako who just sighed quite disappointingly and shook her head. Eichirou could only watch Haruna walk away from that place.
What happened to her to become like that?
"Are you alright, Eichirou-san?" Itsuki ventured when none of the group could approach the photographer.
Eichirou sighed without tearing his gaze from Haruna. "I don't know."
xxxxxx
Minus Eichirou, the rest of the Vessels returned to the mansion to figure out what to do to save the victims within the 24-hour limit that Macera gave. Though if one would be honest, having to deal with time limits that a Triske Monster gave was even more frustrating than dealing with due dates for their projects related to their fields.
"24 hours? I wanted to say it's a joke, but--"
"No, it's not. Macera always does that, even in ancient times."
That voice made them turn to the source, only to see Akira and Hideoki entering the living room, with the former holding two scrolls in his hands.
"What are those scrolls for?" Itsuki couldn't help asking with a frown.
Akira sat on the sofa first and placed the said scrolls on the center table before facing the Vessels. "These scrolls contain information about Macera. It was the first Vessel of the Heavenly Water Spirit Guardian's Powers who first encountered this Triske Monster 5,000 years ago. And believe it or not, the time limit that Macera gave at that time for someone to save his victims was shorter than 24 hours."
"You're joking?" Misae asked with wide eyes.
But Akira remained stoic as he shook his head. "No, I'm not. For some reason, with the way he lengthened his time limit now could mean that the Tarean's imprisonment in the Tareus Dimension had weakened them considerably."
"Well, 5,000 years is no joke," Erika commented.
"You could say that," Hideoki smiled at Erika's comment. "By the way, how come Eichirou didn't come home with you?"
The Vessels looked at each other for a few moments before facing the head of the Mizuhashi household with a sigh. Shuichi decided to speak for the group. "Well, he has his issues to deal with and I said to him that he should settle it first before we deal with Macera again."
"Own issues? Are you talking about Odagawa Haruna?"
"The famous fashion designer?"
"Yes, it's about her," Shuichi replied placidly. "It seems that Eichirou wouldn't want to rest until he gets to the bottom of the problem regarding her."
"I don't think that boy would easily convince Haruna to help him with his project because she hates Mariko to a degree."
"Hideoki-san, I think 'hate' could be a really heavy word to use for that," Misae commented with a wince.
The historian just gave a small smile. "But that's the truth, my dear. At least, Haruna stated it that way."
"Why does she act like that towards Mariko-san, anyway?" Itsuki asked.
For a few moments, Hideoki peered at Mariko's picture placed in a picture frame on top of the fireplace. "That's because Odagawa Haruna had been Mariko's apprentice until my wife died. And yet, even if she'd been dead for a long time now, it appears that my wife's shadow continues to cloud Haruna's real identity in the fashion world. People would associate Haruna with Mariko most of the time no matter how hard she tried to stay away from it."
"But... isn't that the same as us? Our parents' achievements in their respective fields that people would always associate with our achievements," Erika couldn't help commenting that only made the others nod in agreement.
They could understand where Haruna's hatred would stem from. But they could also see that they appeared to have handled it differently from Haruna.
"Anyway, we'll just leave it to Eichirou for now. I think he'll be able to figure something out," Shuichi soon stated with a determined voice that disrupted the temporary silence surrounding them. "What we need to worry about right now should be Macera's time limit to the victims."
Itsuki nodded before speaking once again. "The only way for us to counter that would be to deal with his flashing light attack. The camera-like hand of that monster is the key."
"The problem is we need to destroy that hand without getting petrified by the light coming from there. Doing it one by one would be suicide. The same goes for doing it together," Misae reminded. "Now I can finally understand why Eichirou-san said that earlier."
"Speaking of Eichirou-san..." Erika paused and faced the others with a confused expression. "Did any of you see the blue light that suddenly flashed from his helmet a while back?"
"Blue light? The only color of light I saw at the time was white and that was coming from you, Erika," Itsuki stated. "Remember? You suddenly used your light powers to reflect with Eichirou-san's ice spell earlier." The composer's eyes soon widened right after saying that. "Wait a minute! Of course. Why didn't we think of that?"
It didn't take too long for the other Vessels to realize something from there. But Shuichi had another matter to think of besides the plan to destroy Macera. Erika said about the blue light flashing from Eichirou's helmet...
'Is it possible?' If it was, then the Vessels could have another advantage in the next battle besides Erika's powers. The biker couldn't help smirking at that.
xxxxxx
Meanwhile, the gathered energy coming from the petrified humans' hopelessness was pouring down to the still slumbering emperor. Though it was enough to make Emperor Darshao open his eyes and talk to his retainers, it still wasn't enough to make him stand up and move completely.
"What do we expect? It still isn't enough. Our emperor needs more energy coming from those filthy humans' hopelessness." Alvre's disappointment was expressed as she said those words.
Of course, as expected, that news had caused another frustration to the said Tarean leader expressed through growling. But since he was still unable to move properly, the emperor could only do so with his leaking powers enough to cause thunder and lightning to roar and strike around the Fortress of Screams once again.
With a sigh, Karkino faced Macera who was only busy jumping up and down and swinging his flashlight-like arm.
"Macera, are you done recovering your energy?"
"I did, my lord." The Triske Monster bowed as soon as it uttered that reply.
"Then go back to the surface and continue your job. Petrify more humans and make them feel even more hopeless than they ever had in their lives. Not just the humans. End the Seitengers, as well. No excuses!" Karkino ordered with a firm tone that left the Triske Monster no choice but to obey.
With that, Macera left the Emperor's room to proceed with its mission.
However, just like in the previous attack, Orcus could sense that something was about to happen to the Seitengers' growing powers.
"I'd like to see this one for myself one day. Grow stronger, Seitengers and we'll see if you had truly surpassed your predecessors far better than any of your kind had ever done..."
xxxxxx
Erika took a deep breath right after heading out to the garden. Hearing her brother and the others continue to discuss their tactics in defeating Macera had only given her more headache than usual. She should've expected that, though. Besides, she chose to take this path so she might as well learn to deal with this.
But as soon as she stepped outside, she saw Helen still busy reviewing the footage from their last fight. With a sigh, she approached her childhood friend and sat beside her. Helen just smiled at her before continuing the task in front of her.
"Anything unusual?" Erika asked just to break the silence between them.
Helen shook her head without looking at Erika. "None, by far. But I think we could take advantage of the spell you used a while back with the help of Eichirou-san's ice spell." Soon after, however, Helen stopped typing on her laptop and eyed her friend with a frown. "I thought you guys were discussing your next counter attacks to defeat Macera."
"I have to stay away from them for now. I had enough issues about Triske Monsters and tried to come up with a way to defeat them. Let's just say I need to take a breather."
Helen just smiled at Erika's way of trying to lighten up things around them despite the obvious tension because of Macera's time limit. At that point, she was able to discern what was truly wrong with her friend. "Is there something you want us to talk about? Other than the Triske Monster?"
Erika eyed the novelist before nodding somberly. "How did you know?"
"I just... know. We might not have the longest time to be together, but I was still able to figure out a lot of things about you." Helen sighed before continuing. "So what do you want to talk to me about?"
It took Erika a while to finally speak. But Helen remained patient in waiting. The latter was aware that the pianist wanted to be ready. Erika sighed after a few more moments of silence between her and Helen.
"You went to the Four Clubs Building yesterday, right?"
Helen nodded almost immediately, without hesitation. "Yeah, I did. Not just yesterday, but the other day, as well."
"Was it about the painting that was there? The one that previously belonged to Mariko-san?"
Once again, the novelist nodded. "How did you know?"
"The painting that was displayed there... looked similar to the vision that I had before the fire ten years ago. Once in a while, I keep going there to look at it, hoping that it would provide some answer as to why I keep dreaming about it before," Erika explained.
"But no answer showed, huh?"
Erika nodded and sighed heavily. "What about you? Why did you go there to see it?"
It took a while for Helen to provide an answer since she was still busy replaying the footage. "Just like you, I was hoping it will give some sort of sign or answer. But my reason wasn't about a vision or anything. It's about one of Professor's research a long time ago."
"Research?"
"About... the first Seitengers... and the priestess that they were tasked to protect at the time 5,000 years ago."
Of course, Erika wasn't expecting such information at all. Then again, she was still new to these things so it was natural. "There was a priestess that they had to protect?"
Helen nodded. "When the Professor first told me about that, I thought of it as a mere fairytale. Until he told me of the Celestial Five Lights stored within a single vessel. And that's her, regarded as the most powerful maiden of her time. Her powers alone could defeat a great army of Tareans and could even deal with the Seven Great Shadow Defenders."
"Wow... I didn't know there was someone like that fighting the Tareans before."
"There was more to that story, I know it. But the Professor didn't mention much about it to me since he said that every record about her was scarce."
What the two girls didn't know was that Eichirou had been listening to them the entire time. He just arrived from his talk with Haruna regarding his plans for the exhibit, which didn't turn out quite well, much to his dismay.
For some reason, he was able to hide his presence from the two girls whom he knew could detect Hasureiki and even some magical presence faster than he and the other Vessels could. It was then that he was able to realize the answer to his earlier question about the painting.
'Was that the story of the painting that Mom received before? Could that woman be the priestess that Helen-chan and Eri-chan are talking about?'
Eichirou could only shake his head to try to clear his thoughts. His realization only led to more questions rising with regards to what they were fighting for.
'Why would Mom allow that painting to be displayed there anyway?'
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