That made Miriette wriggle and a grimace of jealousy twisted her face momentarily.

Zoemi saw that and smiled softly and he winked at Miriette to show that it was fine.

”Master. Do you believe me?”

He asked the presence.

”I do… You are the only being that I trust…”

Her muffled voice came out weak but she did respond properly so maybe the worst had passed.

”Then that’s enough for me. I will wipe Arisu, the remains of that bastard self-appointed hero, from the world. Just for you.”

Zoemi declared.

”Don’t! Don’t! You are too weak! You will die!”

Presence cried and clung to him with all of the power that the weak physical form could muster.

”I won’t. I give you my word.”

The black-haired boy promised.

”…you will…?”

Presence asked meekly.

”Of course. So you can just stay here together with Aspie and Miri and only send me alone back there.”

Zoemi said with a warm smile, looking at the timid girl, who despite witnessing so much didn’t actually manage to mature.

For her and her alone, the time had stopped.

”O-okay… Could you…?”

Presence nodded bashfully and tugged Zoemi towards the throne, motioning at it with her little chin.

”Ah, of course, Master.”

Zoemi instantly guessed her intention and he placed the little girl back in her rightful place.

”Aspie, Miri. Play a bit with my master. She can be a bit scary and bossy, but deep down she’s a good child.”

”Eh..? Ah! O-of course!”

Aspakeony shook off the shock and agreed a bit awkwardly, glancing at the presence with disbelief.

It was an odd situation because she was the one who supposedly knew the young princess longer and better than the black-haired boy…

As for Miriette, she stayed silent, puffing out her cheeks clearly grumpy about Zoemi paying attention and being so nice to anyone other than exclusively her.

”Oh, and Miri, my love. I mean it. Be nice to my master. I promise it won’t take long and I’ll be right back by your side.”

”!!!”

Zoemi laughed lightheartedly but his words caused a tremendous effect on Miriette.

Her legs shook and she had to grab the throne to keep her balance.

That only made Zoemi grin and looked at the presence.

The little girl gave him a little nod.

”Then, I’m off!”

”I will be waiting, my protector.

He said and disappeared as the platinum-haired young girl waved her arm weakly muttering, still very much worried and straight-up scared.

——–

”Umm… If I may… Youngest, say, what was that about? Why did you suddenly get so weak-legged?”

Aspakeony asked curiously, peeking over at the platinum-haired girl standing by the throne next to the young platinum-haired girl.

”Silly.”

”…?”

The one who answered her was the presence, the second princess sniffled and wiped her eyes and smirked a bit, regaining a tiny bit of her natural cheekiness.

”Can’t you see? My toy has finally stopped thinking about this girl as his master. He dully separated me and her in his heart. With that, he can fully commit to loving her for who she is. She’s just super happy, and that’s.”

She explained.

”EEEEEHHHHH?!”

Aspakeony gasped and stared flabergasted at Miriette.

”…basically, yeah… she’s not wrong…”

The girl in the spotlight blushed crimson red and looked away but then she nodded just barely enough for the necromancer to notice.

”No way! But…! What about our deal! And the queue?!”

”Sorry, it looks like the plans have changed… But… I hope my Zoemi will get away… he doesn’t need to win… just.. just… I’m so scared…”

Once again it was the presence who answered, clenching her hands together in prayer.

~~~~~~~~

*********

~~~~~~~~

|Master began to smile again, she was still hopeful at that time…|

The original personality let out a heartfelt gasp as he looked at the screen where the events were playing out.

|Hey, think about it that way – now we will see how the other me deals with Cherro and the Ghosts and we will be able to use it as a foundation of our strategy. You will see her smile in person.|

Zoemi declared, and if he could reassuringly pat the shoulder of the artificial soul, he would have done that.

|This is the first timeline in which I am truly awake – I pray for your words to come true.|

The original personality declared and they both focused back on the screen.

~~~~~~~~

*********

~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile, the group of Ghosts of Bellcephora who was happily reconciling with the reincarnated member back in the real world suffered a surprise attack…

/What comes after is an utter and complete annihilation of the strongest force in the world of magic, Ghosts of Bellcephora.

~~~~~~~~

*********

~~~~~~~~

|Oh.Okay…?|

Zoemi let out a confused noise as he certainly wasn’t expecting an announcement like that flashing on the screen.

Still, if it happened, it must mean that the next parts were very important, at least in Bellcephora’s opinion.

~~~~~~~~

*********

~~~~~~~~

The Ghosts were so overjoyed about the revelation that Arisu was in fact the reincarnation of their comrade, Cherro, that they didn’t even notice the disappearance of the three people behind them.

They were equally unaware of the sudden reappearance of one of the missing three, Zoemi.

The black-haired boy’s vile darkness magic emerged from his hands bubbling like a foul black tar, it scooped down in strings of black hair-like substance and formed two boiling blades. The number of different types of magic, most of them that he invented on the spot, would boggle the minds of the mages who dared to call themselves the strongest.

Above Zoemi’s head, a shadow clock appeared and its hands moved forward several times, augmenting his body and winding up for release.

*…*

Next was the silence.

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOM* *SHIIIIIIIIIIIING*

*HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA*

”!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!”

Then an explosion shook the earth as three of the Ghosts got slaughtered, chopped in halves, then beheaded, and the mana they gathered through the years suddenly unleashed vigorously sending everyone else flying.

Instead of the usual sound of a person breathing out in relief, it sounded like an annoyed roar.

The attack was so fast that the deafening sounds caught up only after a few seconds.

*WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH*

The next thing that happened was the sudden gust of magic wind sucking in all the free-to-take mana and it all got devoured by Zoemi.

”Interesting.”

The boy muttered before his left hand extended like a tentacle and wrap around the closest Ghost.

It was the big round woman who, in the moment of danger, sprouted giant black wings from her back.

The tentacle retracted and the round woman came flying towards Zoemi against her will…

…straight into the scorching spell that was ripping the flesh off of Zoemi’s own hand.

*KSHHHHHHHHHHHH*

The spell burned through the woman like a hot knife through butter.

The shouts of other Ghosts that finally came to, were accompanied by the sound of the round one’s fat sizzling and her mana getting transferred to Zoemi.

”…!”

Though after the few initial shouts of surprise, the Ghosts went silent.

They could communicate far more efficiently telepathically than they could verbally after all.

”Mother, it’s alright, I can fight, I’m a hero!”

Arisu, or Cherro, or however he wanted to be called, tried to push past Kirissu who desperately tried to cover him.

Zoemi didn’t even bother.

He already covered the whole parameter with his decaying darkness and now he used the shadow of light spell to create a giant ball of murky gray light that created the same murky shadows connecting all of the Ghost to his darkness.

Like flies in a spiderweb.

The Ghosts launched a counterattack, various shapes and sizes of darkness stormed Zoemi, but he only stood there taking all the attacks head-on!

Instead of deflecting or dodging, he was absorbing them all.

His whole body was the decaying tar-like darkness and even when an attack tore a chunk out of him, that piece would just sloppily crawl towards him and connect back in its place.

”You are all but just too fragile when you try protecting someone, as expected of someone who can only kill everything, even their masters.”

Zoemi mocked the Ghosts.

He knew that they possess enough power to destroy the whole kingdom if they wished so, but he also clearly saw that they weren’t eager to do so.

Why?

Because they were focusing on keeping Arisu safe.

And Zoemi was going to use that weakness to its full extent.

One of them, an elderly man tried to back away into the darkness, probably to unleash one of his spells.

”Hmph~!”

Unfortunately for him, that was precisely what Zoemi was counting for.

The man disappeared but he was still connected to Zoemi’s darkness.

The old man’s darkness and Zoemi’s darkness mashed together, one gaining the properties of the other, but Zoemi’s magic was like a deadly poison, spreading, contaminating, and taking over everything it touched, so ultimately it came on top.

Thanks to the black-haired boy, the decaying properties of the darkness mana were enhanced several thousand times.

The elderly man died off stage and his mana was added to Zoemi mana reservoir.”Just kill him already!”

Carcassuss couldn’t stand the current situation, five of his precious family members were killed just like that.

Actually, at the time he shouted his obvious order, another woman got nabbed by Zoemi.

Countless spears of condensed blackness pierced her and then turned into wines that enveloped her body that proceed to wrought the life out of her.

The wines sprouted buds and the buds blossomed into black flowers – as the gust of wind caused by Zoemi ripped them apart and the petal storm whirled and turned into a tornado that swallowed and mowed down another Ghost, this spell worked like a meatgrinder – and with no time wasted, Zoemi gained even more mana.