*squelch*

”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Zoemi said and stomped on his intestines which caused Arisu to wheeze and his eyes flashed with whites, or reds, whatever.

Zoemi used enough healing magic to make him stay conscious as he stomped on his pink insides.

”Because of you, she had to suffer through the corrosion of the dark magic… Wouldn’t it be poetic to kill you the same way?”

”Phweez…!”

It was a miracle that Arisu managed to make a sound resembling a speech considering the state he was in, but well, as expected of a prodigy…

*WHAM*

Zoemi kicked the crushed intestines to the side and smiled.

”As if I would allow you to resemble her in any way.”

He said and gripped Arisus face.

At first, Arisu didn’t know what was happening, he realized that the ice blocking his mouth has melted off and he no longer felt the cold of the ice mana.

”Puhweeeez…? Phuah…?”

He wanted to plead to Zoemi but the moment he opened his mouth a puff of smoke came out of it.

Wait?

Smoke?

”Huaaagh…?!”

The insane heat that would make anyone mad kept rising.

Arisu felt his stomach has turned into a furnace, the heat was spreading through his body.

His bones were burning and his flesh was melting off from the inside, he wanted to scream but his tongue was already sizzling. He wanted to cry but his eyeballs burst into flames and melted out of the eye sockets.

”Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii…!”

The only sound he was able to make was a high-pitched wheeze.

Zoemi waited.

The black-haired boy didn’t let go until all flesh was stripped and every bone was charred, he was immune to his own magic so the temperature didn’t bother him at all.

Finally, when he was sure that Arisu’s physical body was dead, he let go of the charred skull, but before the skeleton could collapse on itself, Zoemi moved his hand and darkness surrounded it and grounded it into nothingness.

Zoemi looked at what was left.

Arisu’s shadow.

Zoemi sighed and the shadow got ripped apart.

The black-haired boy just watched it sink into the surrounding darkness merging into it…

~~~~~~~~

*********

~~~~~~~~

|NOOOOO! YOU MORON! WHY DIDN’T YOU ERASE IT?! WHY DIDN’T YOU DEVOUR IT AND THOROUGHLY GET RID OF EVERY TRACE OF HIM! THAT’S WHY HE SURVIVED AND THE TIME LOOPS CONTINUED!|

|!!!|

The original personality howled, and Zoemi was sure that he caught a glimpse of the shadow of a massive bear-like being moving in the corner of his vision as if he was intending to grab the screen.

|Now I understand what you meant by not being perfect… still, it doesn’t look like it’s the end just yet – maybe he rectifies that mistake later?|

The black-haired boy asked calmly, seeing that the screen was still there and the events kept playing out.

|…it does not… I vaguely remember what happens next… but sure – let’s watch it…|

The original personality agreed in a defeated voice and sighed.

~~~~~~~~

*********

~~~~~~~~

There was nothing left to do but to return.

Zoemi breathed out.

It turned out just as he thought.

The black-haired boy thought that Presence wasn’t too weak to defeat Arisu.

She also wasn’t too weak to just evaporate the Ghosts.

But the thing was, she herself believed it was impossible for her to do so.

Her trauma from the time she was alive was too powerful, her own mind bound her far better than any physical restraints ever could.

As soon as Zoemi stepped out of the darkness he got surrounded by the blinding light and transferred to the fake throne room.

”Zoemi! You did it! You actually did it!”

As soon as he appeared their presence threw herself at him and laughed and cried at the same time.

”You did it! You did it! I’m free! I’m actually free…!”

”Of course, didn’t I give you my word, master… Hmm?”

As he was responding to the presence, Zoemi felt something wrapping around his waist.

He looked down surprised and saw Miriette struggling to slither between him and the presence with a determined expression.

”Miri… What are you doing…?”

”I am your lover, so I should be the one to welcome you first!”

She complained grumpily and made everyone else laugh.

”Wh-what…?!”

She asked red as a tomato, but even so, she didn’t let go of Zoemi at all.

”Zoemi… You were the best toy, you know?”

The presence said meekly.

”Aha…! I was? Thank you, master.”

Zoemi responded a bit awkwardly but ended up with a smile.

”Thanks to you I think I can finally do that.”

”Do what?”

Zoemi asked a bit worried about what kind of crazy stunt his master will try to pull off this time.

”I think that now I will be finally able to reincarnate myself properly.”

Presence said and silence befell the throne room.

”Reincarnate… But… But you are like a god to our world! What will happen to us if our god will just disappears?!”

Aspakeony came forward with a worried face.

”Oh? Why would I be bothered about this?”

”””…!”””

The collective gasp of the other three made presence tilted her head.

”Oh, I see, you still don’t feel anything, right?”

Presence realized and laughed it off.

”Zoemi gained around the same strength that I had at my peak when he defeated all the Ghosts, he will be a perfect replacement for me. And also, so that my toy wouldn’t feel lonely I started transferring my power to the two of you.”

She pointed at Miriette and Aspakeony.

”I’ll just spare myself enough for a reincarnation. Maybe I’ll pick the word that Zoemi was in before I summoned him back? I’ll choose some nice wealthy family or something.”

”Second princess… That’s… Being a god is not something that you can just drop on to others just like that…!”

Aspakeony exclaimed.

”Eeehh…? Why not? Actually, look I just did! Besides, this world has a proper god, just this small part of it that I contaminated with mana needs an overseer on its own. It’s nothing much.”

The little girl laughed and took one hand away from Zoemi’s neck and waved it.

”See…? Reincarnation in progress, my soul is being transferred.”

Her hand was getting translucent.

No – it wasn’t only her hand, her whole body was slowly fading away.

Presence was disappearing from the world and moving on.

”Zoemi… Miriette… Aspakeony… I know I was being a terrible terrible person to you all, especially to you Zoemi, my beloved toy… But I hope you can forgive me… And… Don’t forget me… alright…?”

Her voice was disappearing along with her body.

Zoemi could no longer feel her weight.

”Master, don’t worry. Just do your best in your next world, I’ll be rooting for you!”

Zoemi gave her a big smile.

Miriette pouted a bit but also smiled.

As for Aspakeony, she had trouble holding back the tears but somehow she managed to send the presence, the second princess she knew from her birth, off to her next world with a smile.

”Oh! And don’t while you still can, say hello to that physicist we talked about way back for me!”

Zoemi called as he remembered something.

”Silly… That person has moved on ages ago…”

Presence laughed and disappeared…

—-

And as she vanished the light surrounded the three of them and they were sent back to the academy grounds scorched to the ground and ravaged by Zoemi’s fight with the Ghosts.

”So… We are gods now…”

Aspakeony let out a heavy sigh.

”Do you kids feel any different…? Like… Grander or something?”

She asked and then she jumped up as she witnessed Miriette wrapping around Zoemi and kissing him passionately.

”Hey! Not fair!”

She complained and stomped her foot.

Miriette ignored her and gazed into Zoemi’s abyss-like eyes.

”She has a point, there is something different. What about you Sir God? What are we going to do now?”

Zoemi tilted his head and looked up at the clear blue sky.

”Well… I think we will just figure things out as we go, truth to be told planning was never my strongest point.”

——–

The young platinum-haired girl didn’t truly disappear nor did she reincarnate – she merely phased herself from the timeline feeling extremely bitter.

So close.

This time it was so close…

Her dream was almost complete, if only the black-haired boy was more thorough with dealing with the white-haired young man…

”…I can feel you…! We can be together…! Forever…!”

”!!!”

In the next moment, an eerie whisper sent chills down the girl’s spine – she turned around and saw a mass of perfect darkness amassing right behind her, reaching out its tentacles towards her.

Zoemi from the other timeline was wrong.

She wasn’t powerful enough to erase Cherro – that’s because Cherro became connected to her when she died and was thrown out of time.

They shared a connection that neither of them could break.

While the second princess wished to get rid of it, the son of the Ghosts of Bellcephora wanted to strengthen it as much as possible, going even further and merging their existences together.

The only way to break free was to get help from somebody else – and after countless retries, the only one who even came close to truly saving her was Zoemi.

Tears clouded the second princess’s eyes, but she did not shed them – tears were useless in her situation and she knew that better than anyone.

”…I hate you…”

The young platinum-haired girl whimpered, while trembling, staring at the lustful mass of perfect darkness approaching her, and closed her eyes.

With a flash of a platinum light, she cast the only spell that she confirmed to keep Cherro away from her for a certain amount of time.

She began yet another time loop, praying that this time things would be different.