BOOM!
Beside the hole Takina had previously smashed in the wall, a fresh spiderweb-like crater silently formed.
After punching the delicate-looking girl away, Luo Shu didn't press the advantage. Instead, he turned to glare at Chisato:
"Foolish girl, have you forgotten your own limits? You actually brought Takina along to fight a Demigod?"
"Are you trying to die faster?"
"Huh?"
Chisato Nishikigi froze at those words, then immediately flushed red and retorted:
"How was I supposed to know the girl who barged in was a Demigod? None of us knew, okay!"
"Besides, from the moment she entered to when Takina got sent flying, it was less than ten seconds. Ten seconds! Who could react that fast?"
Hearing this, Luo Shu immediately sensed something amiss.
But before he could ponder further, violent gusts of wind came howling towards them.
The sharp winds were like invisible blades slicing towards Luo Shu from all directions.
Faced with such a saturated attack, Luo Shu narrowed his eyes in that instant.
Just as the intangible Wind Blades were about to strike, Luo Shu raised his hand and slapped violently.
Bam!
The swift, invisible Wind Blades shattered into nothingness under Luo Shu's palm strike.
"Spare me these pointless probing attacks."
As he spoke, Luo Shu looked up at the blue-haired girl slowly floating out from the crater in the wall.
Seeing the emptiness in the girl's eyes, Luo Shu's gaze suddenly sharpened.
A dull thunderclap erupted abruptly, as if lightning had struck out of nowhere.
Yet upon closer inspection, one would notice there was no flash nor dark clouds.
The muffled thunder seemed like a collective hallucination.
But the floating girl in that moment convulsed violently mid-air as if truly struck by lightning, her body bearing scorch marks.
The Demigod Rank Calamity Bestowal - Thunder Disaster - struck the girl instantly, briefly paralysing her.
And facing a tenacious Demigod, Luo Shu showed no mercy.
Instead, he immediately activated Apocalypse.
Almost simultaneously with the ability's activation, the world in Luo Shu's vision turned monochrome.
All people and objects became crude black-and-white line drawings.
It was as if the entire world had transformed into a rough sketch in some artist's hand.
'So this was the vision when Apocalypse activated?'
As this thought surfaced in Luo Shu's mind, his gaze instinctively focused on the lines representing the blue-haired girl.
Within the black-and-white line world, colourful lines abruptly appeared.
The sole splash of colour in this monochrome world naturally stood out vividly.
Without needing to think, Luo Shu's attention was drawn to those coloured lines.
And in that moment, Luo Shu realised these coloured lines represented the weaknesses revealed by Apocalypse that could instantly defeat the girl.
The number of lines indicated the quantity of weaknesses, their total dependent on Luo Shu's strength.
Had the enemy been Angel Rank, Luo Shu might not have seen even a single line - and even if present, grasping it would have been difficult.
But now, Luo Shu wasn't facing an Angel, but a Demigod - one who seemed to be under someone else's control.
This fact resulted in an unusually high number of coloured lines on the girl's form, resembling a ball of tangled yarn.
Considering this girl could potentially become Familia, Luo Shu naturally wanted to subdue her without causing harm.
As this thought formed, a long, slender coloured line appeared in Luo Shu's hand.
The thread's origin stemmed from the blue-haired girl's chest, while its endpoint appeared in Luo Shu's hand.
Without hesitation, Luo Shu grasped the colourful thread in his palm and instinctively crushed it.
In the next instant, the world's colours returned all at once.
At that very moment, a muffled explosion sounded from the blue-haired girl's chest.
As the noise echoed, a necklace that had shattered into three pieces fell silently from her chest. Simultaneously, the girl in midair quietly closed her eyes and began plummeting downwards.
Thud.
By the time the girl hit the ground, kicking up dust, a bewildered Chisato Nishikigi, who had been preparing to retreat, asked blankly:
"What just happened?"
"Weren't we about to fight? Why did the enemy just collapse?"
"Did you do something, Director?"
Hovering midair using her IS engine, a dishevelled Takina Inoue, covered in dust, immediately assumed Luo Shu must have intervened.
And indeed, that was precisely the case.
"You both noticed this Demigod was being controlled by someone else, correct?"
After Luo Shu spoke, he saw Takina and Chisato nod in understanding before continuing:
"I used some methods to directly destroy the device controlling her, hence what you just witnessed."
"So that's what happened!" Chisato exclaimed in sudden realisation.
"I was just wondering how you, Luo Shu, as a vessel summoned by the page, could be so powerful as to take down a Demigod in one strike. Turns out you took a shortcut!"
"If that's the case, then it's not surprising at all."
Watching Chisato Nishikigi nod solemnly with her arms crossed, Luo Shu couldn't be bothered to comment on this airheaded woman anymore:
"Since you've figured it out, shouldn't you hurry up and detain them? Can't you see Takina's already gone over?"
"Eh?" Chisato turned her head and saw Takina Inoue crouching beside the blue-haired girl, pulling out specialised restraint straps, clearly about to showcase her expert rope-tying skills in front of Luo Shu.
Seeing this, Chisato immediately rushed forward:
"Wait, Takina, let me do the tying!!"
"This is capturing a live Demigod! At least let me be part of it!"
Luo Shu sighed in exasperation at the ridiculous Chisato.
But before his sigh could finish, his gaze suddenly sharpened, focusing instantly on the entrance of the space.
At that moment, a woman's voice full of regret echoed from the entrance:
"So the Anchor of Faith stabilising the child's personality has been removed this quickly?"
"It seems I've underestimated you after all."
Amidst a soft sigh, a figure with jet-black hair and the delicate, pure face of an eighteen-year-old girl appeared before Luo Shu, looking up at him as she spoke:
"First meeting, Director Luo Shu of the Hidden Management Department."
"You may call me Lana!"
With that, the witch Lana flashed Luo Shu an utterly innocent smile.