Immediately as the army charged forward, three heroes flew out over the city walls, Tokio being the first to perform an actual attack in form of a growing golden orb of energy forming in his hands. It quickly took form of a second sun in the sky, and proceeded to fly at the masses of Absolute Soldiers. No doubt, this attack would eliminate many soldiers all at once. The mages within the absolute ranks cast barriers, but they were unsurprisingly no match for unique magic such as this. Luckily, it were not just the heroes against a mass of soldiers. Amael flew up, his task being quite clear. Protect the Absolute Army. With a swing of his sword, the ball was cut in half, and disappeared soon after. The soldiers, that were momentarily intimidated, now felt even more motivated. Having witnessed literal divine intervention, they felt not only blessed, but favored. Actual God was their emperor, how could they ever believe their enemies were capable of threatening their victory?
It was time for the previously assigned groups to split up and go look for their targets. The heroes had obviously entered the battlefield already. And Amael had assumed his position above the army, attacking and blocking whenever needed as the first elven soldiers clashed with absolute ones on the ground.
"This is so sad… I hope we can end this quickly, to reduce casualties on both sides…", Satomi said with genuine sadness in her voice.
"Yeah, a tragedy, really… Well, I will be off! Here, boo!"
Yuki handed Yamato a golden sword, as well as a really quick kiss, before her wings emerged and brought her up far into the air with a single flap, and another had her disappear into the direction of the elven castle where Cinderella and Musami presumably resided.
"We should get going too. Or else our heroes might decide to go after our precious soldiers instead of dealing with us."
"Yes, Sir. Everyone, clear a way for his majesty!"
As Lucy ordered her squad, they formed a spear like structure around Yamato, while shooting forward with aimed and precise shots that all hit their marks. The projectiles the gun shot seemed to be some sort of plasma, with clearly magical origins. As they supported the front lines, Lucy took aim up into the sky.
"Yamato, you wanted the woman with the black hair, correct?"
"Yes, you can divide the other two however you want."
"Okay, I will be taking the idol then. Aisha, you get the guy then."
"Fine by me~ Just to clarify, I get to do whatever I want with him, yes?"
"If you want to trick him with a wish, you will still have to tell me what kind of wish."
"Fair enough… Though, it hurts that you don't trust me with that!"
"I know what kind of person you are."
"Booh! But I guess I can just play around with him some other way~!"
As Aisha was talking with Yamato, Lucy made some adjustments to her scope, now having a clear shot at Shizuki.
"I can confirm that Shizuki, unlike the other two, has no flight capabilities. She seems to to piggybacking off the idol, who has some sort of platforms. The guy flies on his own."
"Can you shoot her down without hitting her?"
"Sure. Just tell me when."
Lucy took a small box that was clipped to her pants, and but it on where a magazine would usually be put.
"At your nearest convenience. Aisha, you have to catch her before she hits the ground. I want her at full health at the ground."
"M'kay~"
"Taking the shot now."
With a silent puff sound, after Lucy pressed the trigger, a shot was fired with no projectile leaving the barrel. Instead, the platform simply shattered, and Shizuki began a sudden descent.
"Wow, that's neat, Lucy!"
"It's Yamato's invention. He deserves the praise. Permission to take out the idol?"
"Yeah, sure. She's all yours."
Not exactly having time for much more small talk, Aisha teleported beneath Shizuka. Tokio was about to catch her, but Aisha was just a bit faster, her long braid wrapping around Shizuki, before giving Tokio a gentle nudge back which sent him flying away from them.
"Who the hell are you!? Let go of me! Don't you know who I am!?"
"I've heard about you… But I'm not here to deal with you. My Master will take on that bit. But it seems the space below us is already occupied… Guess a simple barrier will have to do~!"
Casting a bubble in the masses of soldiers, everyone was forced to evade that space, and she was able to place Shizuka inside.
"What are you crazy!? I will kill you for this!"
"No, I don't think so, Shizuka… Because I'd like for the two of us to have a little conversation.", Yamato said, who also made his way to the barrier in the meantime. It functioned as a perfect ring for their dispute, while Tokio came back dashing into Aisha. But she just turned into smoke, having him pass through her before materializing again, and grabbing his cape.
"Haha, you can't interfere with that! But how about you and I play a little game~? It's called "I spy with my little eye", and right now, what I spy is about to diieee! Can you guess what it is before the time runs out~?"
"Don't mess with me, woman!"
Tokio threw a punch at her, but she turned into smoke again to move behind him, grabbing his cape once again just to hold and tuck it a bit.
"Aww, that's the wrong anser! And your time is up, boy you really don't have talent for anything, do you?"
"Who do you think you are!?"
Taking another frustrated punch and missing spectacularly, Tokio's was push to the back and Aisha created a couple of meters of distance between them.
"Mhm, maybe when it's your turn you will do a better job… What do you spy, with your little eye~?"
The last thing he saw, was Aisha's unsettling smile, before a thick, black mist surrounded him and blocked all his vision. He could not even see his hand in front of his face, making it quite impossible for him to spot anything. Aisha's voice echoed from all sides, as if she were everywhere around him.
"Ooh, no hints, I think I know already! Is it complete and unter darkness~?"
"What did you do!?"
Tokio attempted to fly off, but no matter how far or in which direction he went, he did not find anything but darkness.
"Yay, I win~! Now, what should we play next~…?"
Meanwhile, Lucy clipped another thing onto her rifle, taking the previous attachment off again. As she was about to take her shot, Rara shot a bright pink projectile into the air. It looked like a flare, and even acted like one, blinding Lucy and causing her to miss her shot just barely. This time, there was a clear projectile in form of a line carved through the air. Like a stronger, slightly lingering plasma beam, that went on into the sky in a perfectly straight line.
"What the hell, how do you guys have guns!? Tokio, they have guns, no fair! Uh… Guys?"
It was then when Rara noticed both Tokio and Shizuka were engulfed in black spheres on the battlefield. Tokio's was in the air, while Shizuka's was on the ground, the barrier in which she was trapped not being see through from the outside.
"Urgh… Guess I'm on my own. As all great stars are~"
Snapping her fingers, a microphone on a monopad appeared in front of her, as well as a guitar in her hand.
"Everyone, stand ready for the show of a lifetime, by your one and only star, Rara!"
As Lucy was about to take another shot, the clip she attempted to attach seemed to be malfunctioning, and she was not able to fix it in time, so she strapped the gun over her back and pulled our a smaller pistol, with the same design.
"Everyone close in on the target, two stay on the ground for back up."
Eight of the ten special soldiers attached a clip from their utility belt onto their backpack, which seemed to function as a sort of jetpack. Though the actual mechanism was based on Charlie's experimental "stored spells", or spells in a bottle. Though this iteration used card-like clips, in this case a flight spell. The external supply of spells had the advantage of not being traceable as a actively cast spell, as well as not costing the user any mana, since it had been originally cast and then stored in the clip at an entirely different location and time. Their guns worked the same way.
As they closed in, Rara began playing and humming a single note, at which a massive shockwave originated from her, redirecting the incoming projectiles shot at her into the masses below. It also seemed the elven soldiers were somehow strengthened by her voice, cheers breaking out in the middle of the elven side of the battle.
"That's right, look at me! Me and my performance are one of a kind, spectacular, awesome! I truly am a star~!"
While the battle was happening outside of town, inside the elven palace at the highest point of the central tree, Cinderella stood on her balcony like last night, drinking again. She seemed to be content with simply watching, and did not feel threatened in the slightest. It also appeared as if she had picked clothes just for this occasion, wearing a white summer dress and having her hair opened like Yuki, making her thinks Cinderella tried to imitate her in an attempt at flattery. Or some strange way of flirtation.
But of course, someone was on her way to this exact location, and she now arrived, hovering in front of the balcony the same way Natsumi did last night, though the intentions could not be more different. Yuki's white robes fluttered in the wind as her wings majesticly framed her beautiful appearance, her flight being achieved by magic and the wings merely being there for show and getting here in the first place.
"Mhm~ I knew you'd come. Though I expected you to bring your boyfriend with you, I like it better if it's just the two of us anyway."
"…You look repulsive. You should have died at birth."
"Aww, but I made myself pretty just for you~"
"If you kill yourself now, I accept your apology."
"You say such hurtful things… But for what reason would I apologize, I wonder~…"
Finding great offense in her claiming being oblivious of her wrongdoings, Yuki lost the motivation to converse with her any further. Cinderella Exploded, and there was nothing left of the pretty dress she prepared especially for Yuki. While the balcony was now stained red, and dripping down onto the platforms and buildings below, another Cinderella came through the balcony door, wearing her usual clothes and tied up hair, happily skipping and humming as she took the glass of the previous Cinderella. She looked at the once clear liquid inside, now finding it mixed with blood that had spilled into it. She gave Yuki a seductive look, and took a sip while holding intense eye contact. Cinderella's imaginative eyes meeting Yuki's pitch black ones, as around twenty golden swords appeared behind Yuki and pointed at the balcony.