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nZoemi shrugged his shoulders, ending up agreeing with his sentinels, just so his expression turned gravely serious at the thought of the group of traitors all conveniently gathered in one place like sitting ducks.

n”(Ready for… what exactly, master?)”

nThe sentinel asked trying to act as if it did not understand Zoemi’s words.

n”To kill them. If we count all the sentinels at my disposal – we have a ridiculous advantage over them. Even without that, the element of surprise is on our side too.”

nThe black-haired boy held back a sigh and explained as if the sentinel in question was a stubborn child that did not know any better and was in need of guidance.

n”(Master… All the time that you were… unconscious… I spent attached to the Ghosts… By the way – I made the decision to move to Elsby.)”

n”…You were attached to Kiorterell so that it would be easiest to kill at least him…!”

nThe sentinel sent its thoughts explaining and the black-haired boy ended up interrupting it, as the anger filled his weakened body.

n”(If I stayed stuck to Kiorterell, I would have been disposed of the moment soon after I have been discovered after Cracassuss called everyone back. And since I alone did not possess enough strength to kill Kiorterell on my own, I simply chose the best option available.)”

n”…?!”

nThe sentinel continued its report, causing Zoemi to flinch as his eyes widened in a realization just for him to squint in suspicion the moment later.

n”…you just made it sound like Elsby knows about your presence…”

nThe black-haired boy’s voice dropped dangerously as he was holding himself back from shouting.

n”She does – we are cooperating on thinking up a solution how we could get her and her partner, Oktria, to get them permanently away from the other Ghosts. And before you start shouting – that solution indeed includes killing Kiorterell as a part of your personal vendetta.”

nThe more they talked the more verbose the sentinel became but also the higher became Zomei’s anger.

n”Cool, cool. Transfer your consciousness back to me, so we can talk it out more – and immediately detonate whatever mana is left, right now.”

n”(…)”

nThe black-haired boy hid his face in his hands before nodding his head repeatedly, to finally order in an ice-cold commanding voice – leaving the sentinel momentarily silent.

n”(…no…)”

n”!!!!”

nAnd the sentinel ended up refusing to comply!

n”Listen – I do not order you to stop existing, separate the exact spell construct that contains your consciousness and sent it back – as I said – and just blow up the rest – here I’ll transfer you more mana – just get Elsby to get in range of Kiorterell so that at least the two of them will…”

n”(I said NO, master.)”

nZoemi scoffed and began instructing his sentinel step by step on what exactly to do – but then met an adamant refusal that cut short his words brimming with fury.

n”(All you have to know for now is that the original Ghosts of Bellcephora are of no threat to you – I will report if that will change or when Elsby and I figure out the right solution to this situation. Thank you for understanding. I will not respond to your calls unless you calm down and think things through. Goodbye.)”

n”!!!!”

nUsing the chance of the black-haired boy being literally stunned by the words and actions of his own creation, the sentinel keeping an eye on the Ghosts of Bellcephora declared his own plans and then cut off the message spell connection.

n”…”

nZoemi blinked repeatedly, trying to wrap his head around what exactly happened.

nHe tried to use the message spell again to forcefully connect with the mutinous sentinel, but any attempt at contact was cut off.

n”Ghhh…!”

nThe worst part was when the boy attempted to send out mana to the sentinel regardless, his abdomen exploded in unbelievable pain that forced Zoemi to almost lose consciousness again.

nAfter a minute or so of such attempts, Zoemi closed his eyes and burrowed his face into his hands again – this time going as far as to lean down to s semi-embryonal position, although that did not seem to help with the pain that flared up within his stomach.

n”I was warning Miriette about her air emperors gaining sentience and turning against her so many times, and now my own spell did exactly that to me…”

nHe groaned, fighting bot the overwhelming disappointment and nausea.

n”(Master… he didn’t turn on you… you are very weak right now. You don’t sense it, but your mana reservoir actually got severely damaged during your fight – it is literally leaking mana even now. That’s why you are in pain – and that is also why you were in a coma for so long. That guy was a bit harsh, but in your current state, gaining the attention of the Ghosts -especially now when there is no reason for a preemptive strike as they aren’t planning anting against you – would be suicide.)”

n”(Master, Ludier would be sad if you did something so reckless like that.)”

nTwo other sentinels spoke to him instead, both sounding extremely worried.

n”And now you are pulling Ludier into this? Are every single one of you the same then?”

nZoemi scoffed, clenching his fists on his abdomen while fruitlessly trying to use increasingly stronger healing spells to ease his pain – which honestly brought an opposite effect.

nThe more powerful the spell was, the more pain assaulted the boy’s body.

n”(Master! Stop being such a whiny baby and stop hurting yourself just to prove something! No one betrayed you!)”

n”(We are all worried about you! You think that we gained more free will over time – but that is a mistake – we became like we are now when Ludier was hit by the law of Aquarius, and the mana holding his consciousness together was erased. Before that Ludier realized that it would be bad to get hit with the strange attack, so he tried to escape moving his consciousness back to you – just like you told the other guy to do – but Ludier was too late, and his consciousness dispersed through all of us.)”

nAnother two sentinels joined in the explanation as their master was trembling in pain.

nBut he understood what the sentinels were trying to tell him.

nAt least to some extent.

nAlthough the part about Ludier’s consciousness was a bit sketchy and sounded like the sentinels trying to outsmart him, the boy could believe the part about his mana reservoir being broken.

nAfter all, as much as he didn’t want to feel that sort of pain – the feeling was somewhat familiar.

nThe thing about the mana reservoir was a bit complicated.

nBecause although it wasn’t a flesh and blood organ – it was a part of every magician’s body.

nNo, not just every magician – every people living in the known part of the world.

nNo matter whether they experienced awakening or not – which was in fact just the body gaining access and control over the mana reservoir – they still had it.

nBut Zoemi was diferent.

nAlthough he was born in that world, he originally had no mana reservoir and no mana whatsoever.

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