Looking at the light screen in front of him, Yuto let out a heavy sigh, as if he was truly helpless in this situation.
"It took me about ten times of breaking it to get this one upgrade... To completely scrap it, I probably need to do it over forty more times..."
Thinking of this, Yuto felt his scalp tingle for a moment.
This amount was a bit too much.
Moreover, he couldn't deal with this armor in a flash; even now that he was familiar with its attack patterns, it still took him half a day to resolve it.
Feeling his muscles wailing from being pushed to their limit, Yuto slowly closed his eyes and sighed.
"I need to figure out how to quickly dismantle this thing..."
With that, Yuto suddenly opened his eyes, and the longsword in his hand, which already had some nicks, was once again wreathed in surging lightning, indicating that he had entered combat mode.
As the empty shell armor slowly landed, the purplish-black greatsword it had been holding in its hand once again burst with light, disappearing from its spot in an instant.
"This again?"
Yuto wasn't surprised by the armor's sudden disappearance; after roughly estimating the time in his mind, he subconsciously dodged to the left.
Almost the moment he moved to the left, the empty shell armor appeared behind him, and the giant sword in its hand swung down without the slightest hesitation.
Bang—
The wide blade that was meant to cleave Yuto in two directly smashed onto the platform, and the immense force instantly created a crack in the platform, which was capable of withstanding high-intensity elemental bombardment.
Looking at the crack, which was smaller than any previous one, Yuto was momentarily lost in thought.
"Indeed... Is this the result of losing the gauntlet? Its power has been weakened."
Thinking of this, Yuto transformed into a bolt of lightning and charged towards the armor monster that had just pulled its greatsword out of the crack.
Clang—
In the blink of an eye, the silver-white longsword collided with the purplish-black armor.
With the assistance of Electro elemental power and the Law Enforcement Agency, even a longsword with some nicks could leave deep scratches on the seemingly impenetrable armor.
Feeling the strange sensation from the sword's edge, Yuto raised an eyebrow in surprise.
"So that feeling earlier wasn't an illusion... Does it really lose its defense as it gradually reconstructs? If so, then this will be easy..."
The corner of Yuto's mouth curved slightly upward, as if he had found a way to quickly deal with this guy.
As he directly confronted the armor monster, he casually raised his left hand, and a ball of purple light began to gather in his palm.
The next second, this ball of purple light instantly intensified, then began to spread, finally forming a magic circle inscribed with profound runes.
"Thunderclap"
As if these two words were a special switch, the Electro elements in this space began to stir the moment Yuto uttered them.
Those agitated Electro elemental forces began to spontaneously reorganize and condense in the air, finally forming a purple greatsword suspended above the armor monster's head.
Looking at the already formed greatsword, Yuto suddenly withdrew a small portion of the strength he used for swinging his sword, choosing to withstand the power from the greatsword to the maximum extent.
Clang—
As the longsword and the greatsword collided once again, Yuto, who had deliberately held back some strength, was unsurprisingly knocked back several meters.
At first glance, it seemed Yuto's combat strategy had gone awry, but... this was part of his plan.
Looking at the armor monster that remained standing in place, its position not having shifted in the slightest, the smile on Yuto's face grew more and more eerie.
He raised his left hand and pressed it down fiercely—
"Drop!"
Almost the instant this word left his mouth, the thunderous greatsword condensed directly above the armor monster fell.
Boom—
As an explosion-like sound rang out, Yuto's ears once again heard the crisp and pleasant sound of shattering.
Along with a purplish-black mist inexplicably drilling into Yuto's Vision, the light screen once again appeared before his eyes.
[Extremely Evil Skill: Law Enforcement Agency Completion: 40%]
...
If anyone in Fontaine most wished for Yuto's return right now... it would definitely be Furina and Lord Neuvillette.
The former was concerned about her beloved, while the latter... hoped his workload would lighten a bit.
Lord Neuvillette looked at the mountain of documents piled before him, a hint of weariness in his grey vertical pupils.
It wasn't that his administrative ability was poor, but rather... he was a bit unaccustomed to it.
After all, he had done this kind of work for eleven years when he first joined Fontaine, which was enough to prove his own competence.
But time is a cruel thing; it can easily erase the existence of many people or things—
—including the Lord Neuvillette who was once highly proficient in paperwork.
Looking at the half of the documents still remaining before him, Lord Neuvillette let out a long sigh.
"It seems the time required to pick up the seashells I once discarded is far more than I imagined..."
Lord Neuvillette mused.
But musings aside, life had to go on.
After a brief moment of relaxation, Lord Neuvillette continued to review the documents.
However, before he could even properly finish reviewing two documents, the door to his office was pushed open again.
"Lord Neuvillette! These are the documents submitted by the Law Enforcement Office and the Shadowy Court today, as well as this month's financial statement. Please review them."
Sedna said this as she placed a stack of documents as tall as herself onto Lord Neuvillette's desk.
Lord Neuvillette looked at the increasing workload before him, slowly closed his eyes, and took a deep breath.
"Alright, thank you for your hard work, Sedna."
"You don't need to be so polite, it's what I should do. Well... I'll be going now!"
And as Sedna was about to leave the office... she suddenly turned around, looked at the person she respected most, and quietly asked:
"Lord Neuvillette, when will Lord Yuto... return?"
Hearing Sedna's question, Lord Neuvillette paused slightly, seemingly pondering how to answer her.
After a long silence, he slowly raised his head, looked out the office window at the pouring rain, and softly said:
"He will return... when Fontaine's rainy season passes."
-------------------------------
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