Haunting Darkness: Harbinger

Night had decended on the Norvino Kingdom. From the confirmation that Brutus was indeed already in the kingdom, it had become necessary to patrol the area in search of him. At the same time, they couldn't let Brutus know that they knew about him so Shiro hd devised a plan to prevent that. Shiro, Kristel and Eugene would patrol the streets under the premise of a normal patrol. At the same time he had Ushio, Mina, Ren, and Sakura patrolling from the sky in the Storming Tornados hidden from view by the clouds.

"We must be cautious as we don't know his appearance" Shiro said. "Also, we should not immediately engage in combat with him if seen, especially in such a crowded area."

"That sounds like a good idea" Kristel said as she went over to them, wearing her royal knight outfit, "So how will the parings be?" She said with a curious tone.

"I will go observe locations on my own." Eugene said before disappearing into the darkness of the night leaving everyone else surprised a little.

"I'm still not used to him doing that." Ren said with a nervous smile.

"Don't worry, he'll be better off doing that. He has the ability to in a sense become invisible. He's even more of a shadow than me. If anyone went with him, we'd just be getting in his way" Shiro said reassuring Kristel before turining to everyone else. "Anyway, me and Kristel will patrol the ground making it look like a normal patrol. Everyone else will take to the skies and moniter from within some cloud cover. If any of you spot something suspicious, contact me immediately!"

"Understood Shiro-dono." Ushio said before he, Mina, Ren, and Sakura got into the Storming Tornadoes and took off into the sky.

"Now then, shall we get going?" Shiro said once everyone else took off.

Meanwhile in the darkest parts of the shadows on top of a building, Brutus's eyes could detect out the multiple Eternano signatures, each of them moving in different directions. This could be complicated, especially with the increase in security, I need to move carefully He thought to himself as he went in a rush, heading towards the shadows as he continued towards the castle.

In one of the nearby districts, Kristel was getting reports of all clears on the other sectors by the royal guards, "We're not dealing with an amateur, I can't even pick up his aura" She said looking to Shiro.

"Which is why I'm glad we have that labcoat on our side." Shiro said. "My friend Ren found a way to track down such an opponent. Because this Brutus has red lacryma that abosrbs magic energy we just need to use it against him. There's another reason why that ninja of a Dragon Slayer went off on his own. He has a machine Ren built that can release magic energy into a wide radius. Upon activation it will be like a magic radar and because red lacryma absorbs any nearby magic energy, whichever area got it's magic energy absorbed is where our opponent will be." As he said this, a bright wave of magic energy appeared above somewhat above them. "Looks like he's activated it."

Kristel decided to take advantage of the radar, tapping into it with her Sensory Magic as she focused on finding any trace-patters of Eternano being absorbed, but wasn't turning up anything "He must be in a different sector, because nothing is turning up" She said.

"Hear that?" Shiro said into a communication screen.

"Understood." Eugene replied from the other side. Soon enough, more waves of magic energy were appearing in different areas.

"He's fast isn't he?" Shiro said with a grin. "I predict that this will be an annoyance to Brutus sooner or later."

"Hmm, the most logical choice he would have to make is going somewhere that allows for a much more longer range and makes it easier for him to dodge the energy...." She said as the scans still turned up nothing.

"Hmm, Eugene widen area of search, use Futa if you have to." Shiro said into the communication screen. "If it's a longer range then we'll have to channel it throughout a larger area." As he said this he led Kristel into an alleyway. He pulled out a certain brick and there was a magical syntax behind it. "I wired the entire town with a long magical syntax a while ago. By channeling magic energy through this, it will release it all over the town." He then took his hand and placed it on the magical syntax before releasing a large amount of magic energy into it. Almost immediately, it went through the entire town before being released. "That should do it." Shiro said tiredly afterwards.

Kristel looked around, finding a small part of the area was slowly drawing in energy, "We got him, he's at the old shopping district" She said as the others went in to get him while Kristel helped Shiro up.

"You heard her, everyone head for the old shopping district!" Shiro exclaimed into his communication screens as he got his strength back. "Code  Aqua Seven Two, Storm Three Five!" At that, all of them headed over to the location mentioned. Eugene arrived at the location first and could see the person that was absorbing the magic energy.

"Found him." Eugene said as he drew his sword. Pretty soon Shiro and Kristel arrived as well as the ones on the plane.

All of them looked at the person standing in front of them, but saw that he wasn't moving, "What the hell...?" Kristel said recognizing that there was absorbing happening, but then realized what it was as suddenly smoke bombs appeared all around the group. As they were being engulfed by the smoke, they began to feel like their own energy was depleting.

"Did you honestly think I wouldn't have figured out a trick for that move" A modulated voice said in the shadows as everyone tried to find where it was, but had no luck. "A simple Lacrima onto a mannequin can easily outwit your radar" He said as suddenly a figure appeared, kicking Kristel as she slammed into the wall.

"I already figured that you wouldn't fall for such a thing. I  let  you lure us in like this as part of the first part of my plan." Shiro said with a smirk as he pushed up his glasses. "Now we're going to be buying time for part two to show up if we don't already beat you here." As he said this, his eyes turned into an orange color and his hair turned a darker shade of black. He then took out what looked like a candy dispenser and ate two pieces he took out of it before putting that and his staff into his cloak which he took off afterwards. "Black Doppleganger!" Almost immediately, Shiro began moving fast enough that after images of himself appeared. At one point when he got close enough, he struck at Brutus with another move. "White Twister!" With that, Shiro hit his opponent with his palm combined with a strong spin launching his opponent away on impact.

Brutus felt the impact of the attack, but was not moved at all, "Mages, you believe yourself to be so superior thinking you have it all figured out" Brutus said looking right into Shiro as he quickly send out a multiple barrage of punches right at him. All of a sudden, a large burst of water was blasted at him making Brutus jump back. The spot he was just at now had a crater in it, showing the power of the earlier blast of water.

"That's not true." Ushio said holding something appearing like a very large water gun. "Whe'r a person hath a superiority complex hath nothing to doth with magic. Thou'll find people like that in both categories. " ''Ren said he'd make one with the power of a tank but I think this is overdoing it. ''Shiro thought with a sweat drop seeing the crater.

Brutus smiled under the mask as he pulled out his two guns, blasting at everyone in the area, including Ushio. The sounds of sword slashes then rang out as Mina landed on the ground, Sakura having taken control of the plane. As soon as Mina landed and resheathed her sword, the bullets fell into pieces before they could hit anybody. "It would've been troubling if any of those were to hit anyone wouldn't it?." Mina said with a smile as her demonic visage began to appear behind her. "Also, you'd be unwise to underestimate us that we'd be useless without magic."

"And you'd be wise to not assume I can't handle anything" He said drawing his sword as he jumped down, going towards Mina as he began fighting her sword to sword, easily matching her as a few others attempted to attack, but easily countered them as they attempted to strike him, but easily pushing them back with ease as he moved almost like a ninja.

"I have to say, I'm impressed by your swordsmanship." Mina commented as they clashed blades again she making sure not to allow her blade to be trapped by her opponent's hilt. "But at this rate, you'll be overwhelmed because you're blind to certain things because of your anger towards all those who possess magic power."

Brutus simply chuckled as he let down another red lacrima smoke bomb as he quickly went upward to the shadows, concealing himself as multiple throwing stars were thrown at everyone in the smoke's range.

"Body Shift: Wind Dragon's Roar!" Eugene exclaimed having been out of range. Using the changes he made to his body, he breathed in a large amount of air before blasting it out in a spiraling blast, blowing away the smoke.

Kristel's hearing discovered the sounds of throwing stars aiming towards them as Kristel drew her dual blades, slicing bringing them down, but unable to slice through them due to her blades possessing magical properties as she attempted to sense if he was still in the vicinity, only seeing multiple spots with lesser and lesser Eternano energy, "The Lacrima trick again, we have no clue which is him or which is the lacrima" She said growling.

"Actually, it's quite easy to figure out where he might be." Shiro said as his hair and eye color returned to normal. "Think about it, his target is the queen. If we follow that logic, we find the trace most closest to her. We'll have to hurry if we want to ensure the queen's safety. Perhaps I should ask him to protect her highness while we try to find Brutus. He's the closest to her at the moment." Shiro then proceeded to message said person.

Burning Castle
In the hidden shadows of the castle, along with the incredible number of in every section of the castle, all of them waiting to make sure that no one would ever attempt to try and harm the queen. However, in one of the lower levels, a squad of soldiers were seen knocked out, all while Brutus was shown to be on the look-out for anyone attempting to attack him as he made his way up to the main throne room. Inside the throne room, Daichi, the Black and White Squadron's 2nd in command was already there to protect the queen Aivenna.

"Shiro informed me that Brutus is on his way here, I bet he's already in the castle." Daichi said to Aivenna. "I won't allow him to cause harm to you. I will protect you with my life if needed."

"Please be careful Daichi, I do not want to lose any one of my citizens, even if it for my safety" She told Daichi as she continued eating her dinner.

"Of course Aivenna-sama." Daichi replied with a slight smile as he readjusted the splints on his legs. "If I died, the people that care about would be sad, these legs remind me of that. I don't want to cause anyone that pain again."