Zoemi thought to his sentinels, and they acted without hesitation.

*WHOOOM*

With a well-known to the black-haired boy sound, a puddle of darkness spilled beneath the acid-attribute-wielding girl, ready to swallow her whole at a moment’s notice.

*KSHHHHHH*

”(OWWWWWWWW…!)”

…or at least it was supposed to.

Right as the feet of the real Mirienne sunk into the murky-black puddle, the darkness attribute mana began sizzling and burning away from the contact, sending the poor first sentinel away, crying.

”(HUH…?! YOU…!)”

The second sentinel gasped in confusion and their voice grew deeper in anger.

*SHING*

*KSHHH*

*crumble*

Without Zoemi having any time to formulate a clear thought about the situation, the second sentinel emerged from within his shadow and unleashed an icy wind blade.

The spell did not harm the acid magician as it sizzles out and melted despite being much faster than the boulder from before.

That said, the attack did have an effect.

The wind blade created by the furious second sentinel was too large to be completely annihilated by the protective area around the acid magician and ended up slicing straight through the wall underneath her feet.

And since the wall was already bent out of shape and holding together just because the material was solid enough, with the merely inch wide crevice suddenly appearing and dividing it, the whole construction began to crumble.

”Tsk!”

Mirenne clicked her tongue, glanced forward at the black-haired boy below, and jumped off to the side…

*SHING*

*KSHHHH*

The helmet-wearing Miriette tried to use the chance that their opponent was showing them her back and unleashed a wind blade on her own – but even without looking at it, the acid magician defended herself by melting all of the offensive spells away.

*SPLASH*

Mirienne landed on the ground below, and the earth beneath her feet turned into a gooey mass that cushioned the fall.

”…not very lady-like behavior you are showing there. Masked miss… quite annoying. You do know that you are using my name? At least try to behave!”

She scoffed aggressively, glaring at Miriette who just so happened to land in Zoemi’s arms.

”You have your priorities mixed up. Weren’t you killing people before we got here?”

The helmet-wearing girl snorted while sticking close to the black-haired boy.

”This and that are different, you simpleton!”

*splash*

”How so?”

Mirienne shook her head and stomped her foot into the goo she created, splashing it around – to which Miriette shrugged and asked in a mocking voice.

”I can tarnish my own name however much I please – no one gets to do that for me!”

The acid mage responded, waving her hand to the side for a dramatic effect.

”Oh. Zoemi, I like her. She knows what being an aristocrat is about.”

Miriette snickered and leaned towards the black-haired boy’s ear, careful not to hit him with her helmet.

”…so could you forgive her for harming your sentinel and not kill her…?”

She added after a closer look at his face.

”…”

Zoemi’s expression turned bitter, but then it softened as he made eye contact with the girl in his arms before putting her back down on the ground.

”Maybe.”

The boy nodded and…

*BOOOOM*

”!!!”

Launched himself straight at the acid magician despite knowing what happened to each spell used against her.

”Wait…! Did you say maybe?!”

The helmet-wearing girl realized and gasped in disbelief at the boy’s back.

*KSHHHH*

Just as Zoemi expected, his ice armor began to sizzle and melt off at a certain distance – but the same couldn’t be said about his body.

Even with the mana reservoir spilling each second, the only thing affected was the already active spells.

*WHAM*

Despite losing his armor that enhanced his movement, the black-haired boy still had plenty of momentum going on, and he used it all to get to the acid mage taken by surprise, and punch at her gasmask.

*CRACK*

”GHHHH…! You brute…!”

He cut his knuckles open, but he managed to shatter one of the mana stones and sent Mirienne stumbling back while gasping in utter shock.

”Wha…?! Lord Zoemi would never hit a girl!”

”…?”

Mirienne groaned, touching the fragments of the mana stone still attached to her face accessory.

”I see that your outfit also hides the light of your enchantments.”

The black-haired boy didn’t respond to the odd accusation and motioned at the pinkish light visible from underneath the partially torn gas mask with his bleeding hand that he didn’t bother to ask his sentinels to heal.

”It does. What about it? Having the enchantments active was never a point that we discussed.”

The acid magician backed off defensively while Zoemi was still well within her range.

She did not attack back.

At all.

”Miss Etwistrall. What are you doing here? Why is a member of the nobility – even from a fallen family – doing, working with barbarians?

Miriette called out from a distance as she preferred to keep a reasonable amount of space between herself and the real Mirienne.

”Ha! Everything will start making sense soon. I am not fighting against the Bellcephora kingdom.”

The acid magician looked at the helmet-wearing girl and snickered, and as she did a line of droll spilled through her broken gasmask and fell to the ground.

*KSHHHH*

…and immediately burned through the goop and the earth that the magician herself was standing in and on.

”Say. My spell didn’t work on you as it did on everyone else because of that mask you are wearing, right? That means that if I drop the level of oxygen for you right now, you will be knocked unconscious.”

Miriette spoke up, doing her best not to glance at Zoemi because that could cause the easily distracted girl to remember to actually attack him back.

Still, it wasn’t just a fake-out either, the helmet-wearing girl raised her hand and pointed her index finger at the acid magician…

*WHOOOSH*

Once again Zoemi felt as if got trapped in an invisible bubble, with the difference being that the air quake didn’t spread all around them, but was focused solely on the hazmat-wearing girl.

”See? It’s not hard to ask like that. And the answer is no. My mask – and clothes, for the matter – do not protect me from the outside world.”

”…!”

”…”

Mirienne revealed with a short shrug and a nonchalant wave to the side.

*KSHHHHH*

As she did so, yet another drop of drool spilled out from within her Mas and sizzled in the ground, burning a hole into it.

There was something wrong with that image – and not because of an adult girl drooling – or the fact that she could function perfectly while the oxygen was driven off from around her…

When her magic was melting the spells coming at her, the vapors were all neon pink – but it was normal. The spells were composed of mana.

Then why Mirienne’s saliva was just like that too?

On top of that, while the drool was traveling through the air, it was cashing the air to tremble slightly in its wake.

It wasn’t a full-on air quake, but a stadium just before it.

”Miss. You seem willing to talk. Your fellow brainwashed troops aren’t going to be up for a little while, why not take it easy?”

”…”

Zoemi spoke up, asking the acid magician in a friendly voice, making her look at him and raise her brows.

The black-haired boy was expecting that the spell that Miriette had cast had to take some time.

Considering that the mana forming the spell wasn’t melted off, it should mean that Miriette had driven off the oxygen from everywhere around the acid-wielding girl.

The only thing left was to wait for the air around her to stop providing the actual life-saving particle.

”Pffft…! No, no, no. I mean, yes – but no.”

*KSHH* *KSHH* *KSHH*

She snorted and started giggling and spewing neon pink drool everywhere – her sudden loopiness could have been caused by the spell the helmet-wearing girl had used…

…or it could not…

”They will not be up at all. None of them. I mean… In preparation for your arrival, I have melted eeeeveryone except for the lot that hid in the main building~ they were all expendable anyway, so why bother?”

She declared in a joyful voice, pointing at the structure Zoemi and Miriette emerged from.

”…”

Zoemi furrowed his brows and glanced at Miriette.

The helmet-wearing girl was concentrating and after a few short seconds…

”…besides us three and the unconscious men inside there, there are no people breathing in the outpost…”

Miriette gasped in disbelief and glanced over at Zoemi.

All of a sudden their situation became a lot more serious…