[Well, this is a fine mess,] Hurricroak commented as she watched Alice, Olstenna, and Antonio get involved in an increasingly messy street brawl. [I know our girls and boys are going to win this battle post haste, but I can already predict that the authorities are not going to be happy about any of this in the slightest.]

[Should we get involved and end this fight a little sooner?] Porcelain Doll asked. [Or do we wait for the battle to resolve itself?]

[I wouldn't mind getting involved and throwing a few punches in myself,] Corpse Doll added. [Maybe it'll be the catalyst we need to finally form some Cores.]

[As much as I would love to have fun with this particular idea, I'm pretty sure the Maestro would not be please with either of us if we decide to get involved,] Hurricroak refuted her battle-hungry junior. [Besides, I am fairly certain that the other girls would want to get involved as...wait a minute...why am I sensing something sinisterly familiar?]

[I think it's coming from over...uh oh...]

...It's never a good sign when a Kaijin goes uh oh...

At this point in time, Bellona, Taurna, and Lyona were basically done with their clothes shopping and were in the process of exiting the store after paying for their goods.

To be more precise, Bellona was the one who paid for everything, including some dresses and accessories for herself.

"I didn't think it would be so easy to get other clothes made once we got this first dress," Lyona commented as she looked over the bag of outfits that Bellona had generously bought for her. "Thank you, again, Miss Ecaredies."

"Please, call me Bellona," the sheep Bloodliner princess retorted with a smile. "You might as well get familiar with calling me that since we might be sharing a husband."

"I—what?!"

"Hah, told you you were wearing your heart on your sleeve," Taurna commented as soon as she saw Lyona's shocked expression.

Needless to say, this rather straightforward statement made Lyona's brain sputter.

"Don't feel too shocked, I am well aware of how Zhen Liu has a habit of accidentally charming every girl he seems to meet," Bellona joked as she attempted to clam Lyona's nerves. "Besides, there are actually quite a number of benefits in following your heart in this situation."

"Eh? Like what?"

"Well, for starters—"

However, before Bellona could continue her explanation about the majin and the supplemental cultivation path they got from being consorts of a Kaijin Lord, the sound of an explosion and a body being sent flying towards their direction had thoroughly interrupted them.

"Whoa!"

"What the hell?!"

Following the flight line of the flying bastard, the group eventually settled their eyes upon what they assumed to be the man's origins.

Before their eyes was an incredibly messy riot of a street brawl consisting of multiple people they didn't know and a trio that they definitely recognized.

"You want some?! Come get some!"

"Come on! Try and punch me again, but harder this time!"

"Is that all you can muster?!"

"Oh...shit."

Bellona, Lyona, and Taurna didn't even need to expend much effort to see that in the middle of this street brawl was Alice, Olstenna, and Antonio being in the center of it all.

They were throwing fists, feet, whatever they could do in order to inflict pain on whomever they were fighting at and given time.

There was probably a good reason for all of this fighting, but it had gotten to the point where it was so chaotic that there appeared to be people unrelated to the initial conflict getting involved as well.

"Should...should we be getting involved with any of this?" Taurna asked the others. "Or do we just leave it until it naturally ends with someone getting rendered unconscious?"

"I think we should..."

"Okay, time to put an end to this mess."

Lyona was about to answer her adoptive sister when she got interrupted by Bellona stepping towards the ongoing riot.

The sheep Bloodliner was channeling [Chaos] into her throat, preparing to use an ability that would release a special cloud of smoke that would cause everyone that were brawling with one another to fall asleep.

[Slumbering—!]

[Enough.]

But before she could even inhale, another more dominant force of [Chaos] suddenly surged over the crowd and caused nearly everyone to stop fighting.

"What the fuck was—"

Thud, thud.

"Whoa!"

To be more precise, some of the fighters with a bit more spine to them paused as soon as they felt this surge of power. Everyone else, passed out immediately while their eyes rolled back into their heads.

Thankfully, Alice, Olstenna, and Antonio weren't affected by this surge, but they were confused by the results nonetheless.

"What the hell just happened?" Antonio asked as he saw the guy he was about to punch in the face suddenly pass out while in his grasp."And why does this aura feel familiar as fuck?"

"Because we know the guy who's causing it," Olstenna answered as he stopped himself from stomping in the face of a guy who had just passed out. "Over there."

"Oh joy, he's here..."Alice muttered while directing her gaze towards the source of this overwhelming aura.

"Well, well, well, ain't this a fine mess."

Walking towards the trio was yet another entourage of warriors being led by the most visually striking man they had ever seen.

Dressed in a silk suit of foreign make, with skin that looked like obsidian held together by golden lacquer, and surrounded by an aura that seemed to encourage violence in everyone around them, the trio immediately clocked the man as being someone who could wield [Chaos].

Not only that, but they immediately recognized who this asshole was.

Then again, it's kind of hard to forget the face of a guy who was originally the bodiless fragment of a god.

"Here I am, going on a walk through my new home and I find that a riot had broken out over...what was the reason for all of this fighting?" Smoking Mirror asked the still conscious members of the riot.

Judging by the way that Smoking Mirror was acting and talking, the fragment of a war god had failed to recognize Alice, Olstenna, or Antonio.

Whether that could be attributed to the bastard actually forgetting who they were or because they never actually formally fought each other in the [City of Mirrors] was unknown to the trio, but they weren't going to try and correct the mistake if they could help it.

Especially when they saw, out of the corner of their eyes, Hurricroak and the Doll Twins gesturing them to stall and talk with the guy.

Apparently, Zhen Liu had a plan of some kind and needed time to enact it.

The trio looked at one another for a brief moment before deciding to just wing it.

Thankfully, no one else has decided to speak up and answer Smoking Mirror's question just yet. Then again, that could've been attributed to nobody but then knowing why this riot broke out in the first place.

"Well? Anybody have any answers?" Smoking Mirror asked again, looking a touch more annoyed than before.

The silence was getting thicker and thicker by the second at this point, thankfully, but Alice figured that now would be a good time to cut through it.

"These bastards here were trying to cause a commotion in order to rob these artisans and merchants of their hard-earned coin," Alice answered with confidence as she pointed out the devious bastards were the start of all of this noise.

As additional proof, she unlatched the coin pouch that was on her side and tossed it towards the merchant who was the target of this harassment.

"Thank you!"

"No problem."

In the midst of this gratitude swap, Smoking Mirror directed his gaze at the accused thieves, his expression looking a touch more sour than it had moments ago.

As for the accused themselves, they looked like scared dogs whimpering for their lives.

"Well...isn't this a funny coincidence," Smoking Mirror said with an icy tone. "Aren't you lot members of that gang we had just subjugated not too long ago? The Muddy Hyenas or some nonsense like that?"

"They called themselves the Bloody Hyenas,sir," a subordinate to Smoking Mirror answered while providing his superior with a freshly lit cigarette. "After you had decapitated their boss, they had all scattered to the wind."

"Indeed," Smoking Mirror commented while taking a long drag from the smoking implement. "And it seems that the wind has decided to have the trash return before my feet. I was hoping to have these fellows keep their heads down and think about returning to grovel at my feet. But they appear to have caught me in a bad mood. So...I think I'll make an example of one."

Pointing his finger at the group, he began to hum a little tune before stopping on one particular individual.

Incidentally, it was the one who got initially clotheslined by Alice moments ago.

Smoking Mirror didn't even say anything at this point, he didn't even throw a fist.

The obsidian skinned bastard simply lifted his hand and snapped his fingers.

Pop!

"Holy—!"

And in just one moment, the thief was no more.