The girls became interested and turned to Ex, who seemed to be hesitating. But after taking a deep breath, he nodded. "Let's do it. It doesn't make sense how something like that could work, but I can actually feel improvement."
Kisuke then stood up and turned to leave. "Then I'll prepare it. And by the way, you will be fixing the damages this time."
Ex waited for Kisuke to leave before turning to his siblings, who were all giving him questioning looks. "What was that about?" asked Robertina.
Ex cleared his throat before saying, "It's hard to explain, so you'd have to watch. However, please make sure that you all remember his fourth demand. No word of this should leave this place."
"That weird term was added because of you?" Shirayuki asked to confirm.
"Well, probably? I'm not certain." Ex scratched the back of his head. "Most importantly, please don't interfere no matter what happens."
Helmwige frowned and asked, "Is it dangerous?"
"It is... But not really for me." Ex looked at his hands and could see them shaking minutely. "I still wonder how he's doing that."
He then looked up at them with sudden determination and seriousness that caught them off guard. "So aside from non-interference, please watch him carefully and tell me what exactly he's doing."
.
.
.
Robertina, Shirayuki, Kurobara, and Helmwige watched Ex as he went toward Kisuke, who was waiting by the lake. The four of them noticed that Kisuke was now wearing a white glove that extended to his elbow and a white bow attached to it.
[What do you think, Yuki-chan, Kuro-chan?] Helmwige established a telepathic link between them and asked the Nekomata sisters.
[We thought that he's an Etoulde initially.] Shirayuki gave an answer that shocked both Robertina and Helmwige. [Etoulde!?]
[Initially, nya~!] Kurobara clarified. [But now we're not so sure.]
[What do you mean?]
[See that bow in his hand? That's a Spiritual Construct, nya.]
The term was a bit familiar to Robertina, and she knew it had something to do with the Etouldes, but she wasn't so sure what they were about.
Seeing her confusion, Helmwige gave her the breakdown. [Some Etoulde Clans possess the ability to solidify their Spiritual Power and construct various weapons or armors with special abilities, hence, called Spiritual Constructs.] She then turned to Kurobara and followed up. [If that's a Spiritual Construct, what makes you doubt that he's an Etoulde?]
[The absence of movement of his Spiritual Power, nya.] Kurobara answered, and Shirayuki continued. [He's not solidifying his own Spiritual Power; instead, he's pulling the materials to construct that bow from his surroundings. That's not how a normal Etoulde could do it, so we have our doubts.]
However, they couldn't continue discussing this topic due to a sudden turn of events.
The sisters were carefully watching, as Ex requested, and saw him take a deep breath before taking a yellow pill and swallowing it.
It only took a few seconds after that before everything changed. Ex's face contorted, and veins all over his body began popping up from his skin. His eyes glowed red, and his Dragon Wings spread out four times their normal size.
The sisters didn't know what they were looking at, and they instinctively jumped in to save him. "Ex!!!" Helmwige shouted.
But before they could even approach, the Magic Power that Ex was holding back exploded out, creating a shockwave that pushed everyone back. At the same time, the [Boosted Gear Diabolus] manifested in his arm before his Scale Mail slowly took over from there.
But unlike his normal Scale Mail, the one growing on him right now was a bit distorted, and when his whole body was covered, it further warped, turning the young man, who's only under 6 feet tall, into a 12-foot-tall, towering, lanky humanoid.
The transformed Ex released an ear-splitting roar with his now enlarged and fanged mouth. The ground beneath him caved in as he left an afterimage.
The next thing they knew, Ex was already beside Kisuke, swinging his long arm with five sharp claws.
Helmwige was almost certain that she wouldn't make it in time but still tried restraining him using her Magic. However, before she and the others could fully act, they saw Kisuke's cold stare directed at their direction as he calmly leaned back and dodged Ex's claw attack without even sparing him a glance.
Ex's claws generated sharp winds and shockwaves that cut everything in their path up to 50 meters, raising a cloud of dust and debris.
The next instant, Kisuke's voice resounded inside the girls' heads. [I was certain that he warned you about this. Please don't interfere.]
Helmwige gritted her teeth and yelled back, "What's happening to him!?"
Sadly for her, Kisuke didn't bother answering, and they found him standing on Ex's shoulder.
Ex immediately reacted and tried grabbing his leg, but Kisuke had already somersaulted upwards, aiming his bow downwards. Still, he didn't pull its string when he saw Ex opening his mouth toward him.
Bright red flames instantly erupted from Ex's mouth, engulfing Kisuke within them.
While it looked like a low-temperature flame due to its color, it was a true Dragon flame—hotter than most flames in the world and capable of incinerating Ultimate Class Devils.
Robertina covered her mouth in shock because she thought that Kisuke had died on the spot. But later than her sisters, she noticed Kisuke's unique and weird aura a hundred meters away from Ex, aiming his bow at Ex with a light blue arrow already nocked on it.
"...Since when?" Robertina muttered aloud.
[High-speed movement technique, nya.] Kurobara answered. [But I can't think of anything that's even remotely similar to that.]
Kisuke released several arrows, but most of them were just smashed away by the rampaging Ex, and the few that hit didn't do anything to his armor.
While destroying the ground with each of his steps, Ex soon reached Kisuke and tried wildly swinging his arms around at him.
In response, Kisuke would just casually lean his body side to side, using only minimal movements to dodge all of his attacks.
After about half an hour of Ex's useless dancing, Kisuke got tired and finally started retaliating for real.
He manifested an arrow in his hand and threw it toward Ex's feet, causing him to lose his balance mid-swing. Kisuke then used Ex's own momentum to give him a quick swipe under his chin.
A very simple movement, but it still caused Ex to be stunned as his brain was directly rattled, using his neck as a pivot point.
Ex wasn't able to do anything as the sole of Kisuke's geta was planted on his face before he was thrown like a ragdoll. "You're getting better, but where are these inhibitions coming from? It's going to take a whole day at this rate."
While Ex was shaking his head and recovering from the concussion, Kisuke was thinking of ways to speed things up, and when his sight caught the group of girls with jaws dropping, a brilliant idea came into his head.
[Shirayuki-san, Kurobara-san. Can you perform a good illusion technique?]
[I-illusion? Yeah... We can...] Shirayuki inadvertently answered without thinking much about it.
[Then can you show Ex-san that you took an arrow in between your eyes?]
[You want us to show Ex we died, nya?] Kurobara asked for clarification before immediately saying, [That won't work, nya! He won't believe it!]
Kisuke then looked back at Ex, who was back on his feet and roaring wildly. [...In that state?]
[...]
A second later, Helmwige's voice was also heard. [Assist him.]
The other three were shocked at her words, and Robertina hurriedly asked, "But nee-san! Ex nii-san is..." She wanted to continue but didn't have any idea of what's going on nor how to explain what she's seeing.
"It's fine. He's not hurt." Helmwige answered with confidence.
Kisuke wondered where she was getting her confidence from and noticed numerous Magic Circles circling within her aquamarine eyes. 'Now that's interesting. A newly developed spell? I wonder what she can see?'