Chapter 697: Cleaning Up the Mess

"Alright, let's go!"

A silver light flashed around Lingyun, and Yoshino, Kurumi, Xia Shi, and Tina all appeared by his side. Following that, another flash of silver light swept by, and the five of them vanished from the spot simultaneously.

"I, I didn't see that wrong, did I? Is this place the one where the Swordsman and the others fought against DEM?" Kannazuki Kyouhei, aboard the Fraxinus, stared at the battlefield below, his mouth hanging open in spite of himself.

"That's right, it's this place!" Another crew member's tone was also somewhat trembling.

The original dense forest was riddled with holes, flames were burning everywhere, and there were large amounts of wreckage and corpses on the ground.

"No, such an intense battle just happened here, why did no one know? Even our instruments didn't detect it?" Kannazuki Kyouhei exclaimed.

"We discovered that on the outskirts of this area, there is an invisible barrier, and it is precisely this barrier that has isolated everything here." One of the crew members tapped rapidly on the keyboard in front of him, then pulled up a spiritual power fluctuation map that had just been detected.

"A spiritual power barrier, isolating the information here—it really is the Swordsman's handiwork." Kannazuki Kyouhei nodded. "How long can this barrier last?"

"Judging from the current decay of the barrier's spiritual power, the barrier in this place will lose its effect by around six o'clock tomorrow morning," a crew member said.

"Six o'clock tomorrow morning? That time is really quite tight!" Kannazuki Kyouhei said, frowning.

Currently, with Itsuka Kotori, who served as commander, having gone to the Ratatoskr headquarters to attend a roundtable meeting, and Murasame Reine having been forced to go to Itsuka Shido's side as support due to the appearance of a Berserker, it could be said that he was now the highest-ranking commander of the Fraxinus.

"Attention all personnel, everyone deploy; you must finish clearing away all traces of this place before six o'clock tomorrow morning," Kannazuki Kyouhei ordered.

"Re, report!" Just at this moment, a crew member suddenly cried out in alarm.

"What's the situation?" Kannazuki Kyouhei hurriedly moved to the crew member's side.

"Vice-Captain, look at this wreckage—don't you find it particularly familiar?" The crew member pointed at the screen and said.

"These patterns, I seem to have seen them somewhere!" Kannazuki Kyouhei couldn't help but frown. "DEM, and with this kind of pattern? Could it be, could it be that this wreckage belongs to DEM's aerial warship, the Arbatel?"

After recognizing these patterns, Kannazuki Kyouhei's expression couldn't help but change slightly. One had to know that the strength of an aerial warship was very formidable, but now the wreckage of the Arbatel had actually appeared in this place; although it was only a part, it was enough to shock anyone.

However, the subsequent discovery still made Kannazuki Kyouhei's mouth hang open in spite of himself. The fragments of the Arbatel found throughout the dense forest were increasing, and based on this situation, he was basically able to conclude that the Arbatel had already been shot down, and the person who shot down the Arbatel was highly likely to be Lingyun.

At the same time, there were large amounts of robot wreckage and the corpses of DEM wizards in the dense forest. Judging from the traces left at the scene, a portion of the wizards had actually died fighting those robots. As for the remaining wizards, they had basically all died from gunshot wounds, though some wounds looked like they were caused by flintlocks, while others were caused by large-caliber sniper rifles.

"Vice-Captain, according to the traces left at the scene, the force DEM invested in this battle was terrifying. If we were the ones facing them, even with the Princess added, we would not be their match. To think that such a force was actually completely annihilated by the Swordsman; judging from the traces left at the scene, it seems not a single person from DEM escaped," a crew member said, swallowing hard.

"My god, look at this place!" A crew member suddenly pointed at a certain spot and said.

"This place is?" When Kannazuki Kyouhei saw the place the crew member was pointing at, he couldn't help but gasp.

The dense forest had been plowed into a long channel by something unknown, starting from an open space in the forest and ending at a massive pile of rubble. This channel almost ran through the entire forest, and the area around the channel was filled with shattered trees, looking extremely gruesome.

"Report, at the end of the channel, some wreckage of a Realizer has been found," a crew member quickly zoomed in on the pile of rubble and said to Kannazuki Kyouhei.

"This Realizer wreckage looks somewhat familiar; perform a comparison immediately," Kannazuki Kyouhei said to the crew member.

"The comparison results are out. These Realizer fragments should belong to a wizard in DEM named Ellen. This Ellen is, is the number one ranked wizard in the world! However, judging from the traces at the scene, Ellen should have successfully escaped, but the others were all annihilated." By the end of the sentence, the crew member's voice had begun to tremble.

After all, that was the legendary strongest wizard, said to be an existence possessing power surpassing that of a Spirit. But judging from the traces at the scene, these broken Realizer fragments all served as proof that this world's number one wizard had suffered unimaginable, heavy damage. And as for who could heavily damage Ellen, besides Lingyun, they could not think of anyone else.

"Tsk, shooting down the Arbatel and then heavily wounding the world's number one wizard, Ellen—this is an incredible matter. However, such things are better left for the people above to get a headache over. Our most important task now is to clean up this mess before this spiritual power barrier disappears," Kannazuki Kyouhei said.

"Lingyun, you're back?" When Lingyun returned to the dormitory area, he happened to see Itsuka Shido. "Tobiichi-san has returned safely; how are those people who pretended to be kidnappers doing now?"

"It's good that she returned safely." Lingyun smiled and nodded. "As for those people who pretended to be kidnappers, I gave them a beating, and then they ran off."

"I really didn't expect that people from DEM would actually pretend to be kidnappers." Itsuka Shido's tone was somewhat helpless.

"Perhaps. For those who can conduct such terrifying human experiments, it's understandable that they would do all sorts of inconceivable things. But as for you, your luck with women is really quite good; you've got one on each arm all of a sudden!" Lingyun looked at Itsuka Shido, who was being held by the Yamai sisters, and a strange smile appeared on his face.

Hearing Lingyun's words, Itsuka Shido's expression suddenly collapsed: "Mr. Lingyun, please don't make fun of me! And you should have been able to tell, right? These two are not ordinary people!"

"No, no, no, I actually think this is a very interesting matter!" Lingyun said with a smile. "However, I am also aware of their identities!"

"Lingyun, you knew?" Itsuka Shido's tone held some surprise.

"Regardless, the degree to which they mask their own spiritual power is not very high, so it's not strange that I would see through it," Lingyun said with a smile. "By the way, you should know that I accept commissions here; if you have any commissions, you can all come find me!"

After finishing, Lingyun turned around and walked in the direction of the convenience store. He had come out this time to buy snacks for Tina and the others to reward them.

"That person is not an ordinary person; he gives Yamai Kaguya a very dangerous feeling." Yamai Kaguya narrowed her eyes as she watched Lingyun's back.

"Agreed, Yamai Yuzuru senses an extremely vast power from him," Yamai Yuzuru also nodded.

"Indeed, Mr. Lingyun is not an ordinary figure," Itsuka Shido nodded.

But remembering what Lingyun had said to them earlier, a trace of unease rose in Itsuka Shido's heart. He vaguely felt that the relationship between the Yamai sisters was not as simple as what he was seeing right now.