Chapter 65 - First Contact

Star city was a quaint little city situated in a quiet environment mile's away from the nearest city and was surrounded by pristine forests and rivers, the city was famous for its special environment that was away from chemical pollution and this made the environment and air very clean and fresh and also made the starry sky extraordinarily bright and beautiful which made it a hot tourist spot for newlyweds and couples looking for a romantic scenery this was true for mortals but for the magician and occultist hidden behind the scenes it was a special environment that aided the practice of magic involving stars and summoning which was why the holy grail war was always held in this location.

Lilith's home was a rundown occult shop situated on the edge of town not too far away from the abandoned church.

The shop although aptly named house of occult was basically a gimmick shop for mortals, its location was remote because it was far away from visible magic hotspots, that is centres where magical energy converged and where concentrated, the magic hotspot at the abandoned church was deeply hidden virtually unknown and only by Constantine special treatment was Lilith able to use the location to perform the summoning.

Holding Lilith's palm and following her directions Layton quickly moved towards her home, he had constricted his colour haki, shrouding him and her in it making them both virtually in stealth as he absorbed all information and light and smell they were inadvertently giving off.

A few moments later he noticed Lilith was dozing off trying hard but failing at staying awake, picking up the little girl he gave her a reassuring smile as he set her on the back a few seconds later Layton felt her gentle even breathing apparently she had fallen asleep, controlling his body expertly Layton sped up heading quickly to his destination while making sure his passenger was still comfortable some moments later they had arrived at an old looking shop in the corner of an old residential street, the shop was endorsed with a dilapidated signboard which spelt House of Occult.

Taking the still sleeping Lilith who was still resting quietly on his back into the house of occult, Layton quietly opened the door passed the counter and headed back into what seemed to be a storeroom and library filled with numerous manuscripts scrolls and handicrafts scattered around, Layton just glanced at the room and continued to the door at the edge of the room to reveal the only bedroom in the whole place, it was somewhat spacious and was filled with various scattered outfits and underwear apparently Lilith did not know how to take good care of the house, ignoring the clutter Layton gently place Lilith in the surprisingly clean bed and tucked her, silently closing the door he went out to the living room full of cluttered manuscripts and scrolls.   

The articles scattered around were mostly work involving the magic system of the plane, he guessed this was Constantine's final help to him, after all although no one outside the holy grail would interfere in the battle and subsequent plans but the summoners themselves were also magicians and some old monsters or geniuses might be hidden among them, so it would be best to have a good understanding the magic system of this world so as not be caught unawares in battle.

On this dark starry night, a figure stealthily rushed towards an old abandoned church in the woods, the figure shrouded in the shadows quickly searched looking for something but he only saw some clutter and rubbish scattered around, squatting down in the area where the array that summoned Layton was previously located, the shadow figure seemed to sense something from that spot and quickly vanished leaving the dark building.

A few miles away a blond haired burly man with his arm full of dense tattoo's sat closed eye, a few seconds later the man opened his eyes looking at the young man armed with a samurai sword on his waist walked in, the man was dressed in an ancient swordsman costume and his long brown hair was tied in a ponytail, the man's squinting eyes stared at the blond man piercingly

"Have you found anything?" the brown haired man asked in his hoarse croaky voice.

"No everyone is hidden very well, the only clue we have is that the berserker was summoned in the abandoned church on the edge of town, I have no idea why he was summoned in such a deserted place with no magic hotspot…." suddenly a bizarre aura was radiated from a certain part of the city interrupting the blond man's words, the young man stared silently at the blond haired individual for a moment before leaping out of the window heading towards the area that the bizarre aura originated from.

Layton also sensed the aura that shrouded the city for a short moment, Layton could sense the aura was filled with blazing fighting intent, he guessed it was one of the participants holding out a gauntlet looking for a fight, for very powerful forces and rich second generation who were warlike they were not really interested in winning but were looking for a fight and powerful opponents of the same level to temper themselves after all this was a rare opportunity to fight wholeheartedly and die without any consequences.

Although he was not interested in fighting right now he also wanted to understand what was going on so his perception was fully turned on collecting all the information being transmitted through various mediums he did not concentrate on the battle area as a more sensitive person might be able to follow back and lock his position, a minute later there was a sharp sword aura and a huge battle and explosion took place ensued.

The sharp aura clashed with the first aura which was now filled with burning blazing intent, from his perception they clashed quickly numerous times before the explosion resounded disturbing the peaceful night of star city and the sharp sword aura wilted as if defeated then suddenly another explosion resounded and the sword aura vanished. In the rubble of collapsed roads and buildings stood a severely injured brown haired man, his clothes torn to shreds, blood-forming a pool around him and his palms were severely shredded part of his bones being exposed to the naked air but his samurai blade was still held firmly and stably in his palms he stared into the dark smoke, suddenly a threatening aura rose from the smoke but before both confronting characters could react a shadow figure quickly sprang out of nowhere wrapping the severely injured brown haired swordsman and then vanished quickly before the red giant sword slashed down on their previous location.

Although Layton was not there he was able to infer the battle situation, the second aura which emerged was probably a martial practitioner specifically a swordsman as for the owner first aura Layton wasn't exactly sure what the individual was practising but he had a hint of special higher energy basically at the same level as zero's mystery but less pure and more diluted in his attacks which was probably why the swordsman was so quickly defeated after all their confrontation was a fast-paced direct one.

As for whether the swordsman was defeated Layton guessed no, after all the native magician summoners of the core world were still present and they still had some tricks up their sleeves so it was highly likely the swordsman had been rescued by his summoner at the last moment.