"What the...

" Serena muttered as she slowly looked behind her

The trees could be seen from the inside and a could breeze could be felt as a hole on the ground extended all the way throughout the right side of the room.

Serena tried to understand it but nothing made sense, just how was it possible for something like this to happen? Was it really magic?

The ceilings and walls were gone, along with the floor having been scraped away. But what stood out the most was the fact that half of the hall and a quarter of the mansion was gone.

The screams and shouts of panic, resounded throughout the open room as people noticed that half of the others in their group had been wiped away along with the mansion.

Parts of corpses which hadn't been scraped away laid on the ground beside them and the anxiety within them also grew stronger.

"H-HELP!!

"

"G-GET US OUT OF HERE!!

"

"S-SOMEONE PLEASE!

"

Serena took in another deep breath to calm herself down. Had she not followed her instinct and stepped to the side, she would have ended up just like them.

"You... Why...?

" She asked with her voice slowly breaking as she clenched and tightened the grip on her fist.

As she looked around for him, she took in a deep breath to calm herself. Getting agitated now would only disrupt her concentration.

But she promised herself, that she was going to be satisfied until he paid for all of this.

People began to push and shove trying to get away as they could from the outside of the group. Because of this, Richart who still had the dark flames around him, ended up getting pushed further and further into the group.

The defensive transparent dome had been destroyed, so there was nothing protecting them anymore. They were surrounded and the exit which had been opened as they made a hole in the Mansion, was quickly covered by even more of his shadow followers as they appeared.

That moment that Serena focused on something other than Richart, she ended up losing sight of him.

Just as she lost sight of him, the sound of the duke telling everyone to calm down, resounded as she felt a shiver go down her spine.

As if moving to save her life, her body subconsciously ducked, and in that instant, she could feel the air above her being scraped away.

She looked up and her glowing golden eyes noticed a scythe going right past her.

*Voom*

The scythe with the same momentum as it had, did a quick turn before swinging down vertically straight at Serena. But without running, or hiding, Serena simply leapt straight at the boy in front of her with four golden flame orbs and 5 golden arrows formed.

Even if she had dropped her guard, her traps were still active. Not to mention, from this distance, even if he were to teleport behind her. The golden butterflies which were just about to reach them, would deal with his attacks for her.

He wouldn't be able to scrape away or erase all the attacks she'd send at him, so the tides were still on her side, or so she thought.

Just as she sent the attacks straight at him, a smirk was formed on his face as he muttered

"Void Eater.

"

Suddenly a distortion was formed in the space right in front of them and Serena who couldn't stop her momentum was about to get caught right in the middle of it.

Air was being sucked into it like some sort of drain, she knew that if she was caught in between it, there'd be nothing left.

As parts of her life flashed right before her eyes, they began to glow even brighter as a few butterflies were created in front of her before pushing her back.

They hit her with enough force to send her flying a good distance back, while at the same time, not hurting her.

As they did this however, they ended up being sucked into the distorted space in the process.

Serena expected the boy to chase, however, he simply stood in his spots as the butterflies from before caught up to him.

Just as they were about to attack him, he disappeared once again, just like she had predicted, The question was, where did he disappear to?

Serena used her legs to stop the momentum she had gotten when she was pushed back, before eventually stopping on her tracks. She couldn't go any further back otherwise; she would have ended up getting the others caught up in the fight.

Eventually, she could feel it, at the entrance to the main hall. There he stood, next to a guy with curly brown hair covering his eyes.

He wore a cloak but didn't bother to cover his head. Serena couldn't feel bloodlust coming out of him, but she could still feel danger. She used magic to increase her hearing sense to listen in on their conversation

"Sir, the royal knights are already on their way... We won't be able to hold them off for long... So could you, please stop playing around and capture the targets...?

"

Sir? Did he just call him Sir? And did he just say playing around...?

The boy let out a sigh before saying.

"The whole point of this is to awaken the king. We just need to make sure he's watching. But, you're right. I have a better idea.

"

Awaken the king...? Watching? Is he referring to-

Serena's line of thought was caught off as even more dark air began to surround the boy. One by one, people began to have difficulties breathing. The entire room was affected as he muttered the words.

"Complete posession.

"

His already dark hair, began to grow a dark colour as dark shadowy gloves and boot ssuddenly formed over his arms and legs.

His ears grew slightly more pointy as his hair began to grow longer and longer.

Serena didn't know what to say or do, she couldn't just run and leave everyone here to die, but their objective was them... Maybe running would have been the better choice.. She didn't know and she hated it.