When the light faded – only Horeo and Carcassuss, the leader of the Ghosts of Bellcephora were left with others either erased or teleported away according to plan.

“…you brats have the help of the presence, I felt her power in that attack…!”

As Miriette’s spell wore out, the giant man with the massive scar going down his face and torso regained his ability to move and hissed furiously while glaring at the indifferent young king who seemed to be too busy having the crown stay properly on his head than the threat in front of him.

“You have more pressing matters to attend to than some emotionally underdeveloped almost god, royal bastard.”

“…so you know that she helped, huh…”

After making sure the crown will stay on, king Horeo pointed out in a bored tone, making the royal bastard Carcassuss frown and clench his fists.

“What if I do? Believe it or not, after I beat up Bellcephora she was kind enough to contact her creator for me. That kid is messed up, but helpful. But that is beside the point. Let me just show you why your inferiority complex that pushed you into betraying the kingdom is not something in your head, but simply a fact.”

The monarch added, and his body began glowing with golden light like never before, not just adding some color to the young man’s body, but straight up making him look him look like a statue of solid gold.𝓞𝗏𝓵xt.𝗇𝓔t

“Cocky brat… The trace of presence’s power is no more, so I can deal with you properly. You really remind me of my father – especially that I will kill you just like I killed him. I can already imagine the desperation on your face the moment you realize that you can’t protect yourself against me.”

Carcassuss scoffed and put his right hand forward – the next second an obsidian blade matching the length of a two-handed sword emerged from the top of his wrist.

The aura of death surrounding it was staggering – Carcassuss darkness blade had the simplest and most straightforward form amongst the Ghosts of Bellcephora, but it was also the strongest one amongst them all.

A close combat spell made purely for killing and nothing else, no utility or defense – only wiping off his opponent from the face of the earth for good.

“Pfft…! You are so pathetic it almost makes me want to go easy on you~”

Horeo snickered and instead of barraging the giant man with long-range light beams, he used a spell to create a blade of light for himself to use.

“Your funeral.”

Carcassuss scoffed and raised his darkness blade.

——————–

When Kirissu could see again, she found herself and two other Ghosts standing on a frozen plain surrounded by snow-covered pine trees.

“…that felt… odd… did the presence interfere…?”

The woman thought to herself looking around cautiously.

“Ghurgh…! Ffffffuuuuucccckkkk…! That huuuuuurts…! Why isn’t it healing upp…?!”

Next to Kirissu, the long-haired woman who got a hole through her chest blown by Horeo’s light beam growled clawing at the edges of the wound.

“Krantha, Sveothirllo, can you contact the others? I don’t want to believe that this brat was powerful enough to get us all but… Cherro! Where is Cherro?!”

The one-handed woman was acting like a vice commander should and began accessing the situation before her motherly instinct reawakened and she gasped and started calling her son’s name while looking around in panic.

“It huuuuurts…!”

The woman with a hole through her chest cried out, too preoccupied with the pain to care for anything else.

“I cannot sense anyone… I cannot sense even the two of you! What the hell is going on?!”

The other Ghosts, a middle-aged pale woman with short curly hair answered the first part of Kirissu’s questions while looking around with a confused and almost fearful expression.

Something like that never happened to the Ghosts of Bellcephora who thought themselves to be at the top of human capabilities.

There were times when they were warded off but never were they so thoroughly messed up as they got this time.

“We’re going back.”

After getting no response from her son that she was certain must have been still alive, Kirissu gulped down her saliva and declared.

She waved her hand and the shadow that she cast thanks to the bright moonlight spread around and…

*crack*

p …froze over and shattered into fine dust right under her feet…

“Even mana can be frozen, lady. None of you are going anywhere.”

“…!”

Two out of three Ghosts on the frozen plain looked around in search of the owner of the voice find her not even trying to hide.

Metavicero – a pure-white girl wearing pure-white clothes was standing in front of them the whole time but it was just that she was mixing with the snow so well that as long as she didn’t move she was basically invisible.

“Little bitch, what do you think you are doing?!”

Kirissu roared furiously and activated her shadow blade – the darkness sipped down from her stump and formed a jet-black monster arm much larger than her other limb and almost comically disproportionate to her body.

“My job? I mean, I was kind of shoehorned in but I will not complain about getting paired up with an actual water sage.”

Metavicero tilted her head and shrugged her shoulders acting surprised by the question asked by the unhinged vice commander of the Ghosts of Bellcephora.

“Water… sage…?”

“We meet again, Ghosts.”

Kirissu and the other Ghosts looked at each other when a person who was actually hiding his presence spoke up and revealed himself from behind the cover of snow and ice to the right of the jet-black-haired sages.

“Benevirau…!”

Although Kirissu recognized the dark-blue-haired man too, the other Ghost was the first one to call his name out loud.

“You… ummm… I don’t actually remember your name. It’s not important either, I only hope to deal with you fast enough to get a hand in killing Kiroterell.”

Benevirau furrowed his brows, trying and failing to remember details about the curly-haired woman whose mana signature and voice he couldn’t really recognize all that well.

“Now then. Die.”

The dark-blue-haired man shrugged his shoulders and flicked his hand dismissively – the next moment a thick fog rose from the frozen ground completely engulfing the three Ghosts, blocking their view and erasing any sense of direction.

*WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO*

*SPLASH*

“GHH…!”

Next second a stream of highly pressurized water shot out of nowhere and Kirissu barely blocked it with her monster arm darkness blade, letting out a furious gasp when even the deflected split streams ended up digging into the ground beneath her feet.

“That… overconfident blind freak…!”

“Fuuuck! It doens’t heal! It huuuuurts!”

The curly-haired woman growled, actually offended that she wasn’t the target of the water sage’s attack while the one with a hole through her chest wailed in distress.

“Shut up and focus, Sveothirllo. Krantha pull yourself together already too! I’ve got my son to protect! I am not going to lose him a second time!”

Kirissu snapped at the other two and got even closer to them so that they would not get separated in the fog.

Thankfully their darkness blade spells worked pretty well together, so despite fighting an opponent who repelled their group in its full number in the past, Kirissu was still feeling pretty confident, although more and more impatient.

“Tsk… I will be the one to finish him off.”

Sveothirllo clicked her tongue but wasn’t going to defy her vice commander’s order and activated her darkness blade – her hands got engulfed in liquid darkness that began pouring down onto the ground.

“Do you recognize this, you old bling freak?! Rethaq had her mist while I have my water! I will show you why mine is stronger than yours!”

The curly-haired woman snickered and the black liquid started spreading around as if searching for the prey hidden within the fog…

*crack*

“…!”

… just to get frozen over and crumble into dust mere moments later when the mana comprising it was frozen solid…

“I get the feeling that you are forgetting about me. I don’t mind though, makes things easier.”

“OH, YOU LITTLE BITCH!”

Metavicero called out through the fog causing Sveothirllo to growl in fury.

“Krantha! Don’t stand there like that! Get rid of the fog with your darkness blade!”

“It huuuuuuuurts!”

Sveothirllo roared but the woman with a hole through her chest wailed back, clawing stronger and stronger at the wound.

“Fucking useless…! Vice Commander, we can’t count on her to…!”

*crack*

“…ghhh…!”

After the curly-haired woman cursed at her wounded comrade under her breath, she turned to Kirissu to complain but at the same moment, half of the monster’s palm broke off and shattered into icy dust causing the vice commander to let out a troubled hiss.

*SPLASH*

“FFUUUUUCK! LEAVE ME ALONE! IT HUUUURTS SO FUCKING MUUUUUUCH!”

Before another second passed, a much weaker water attack got Krantha, but instead of wounding her it merely pissed her off as she got drenched and started screaming in fury.

“UGHRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA…!”

“Finally!”

The wounded woman roared and clumps of darkness began forming around her, causing Sveothirllo to breathe out in relief.

*KSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH*

“…AAAHKGJMGJHGBNHGNJHJNHGHJGBMVMHVJHMVJHGMVBJHMGJHVHMHVJG?!”

“EH?!”

Unfortunately for them, the feeling wasn’t meant to last because right after Sveothirllo breathed out, the sound of sizzling coupled with the awful stench filled the foggy air and the wounded woman’s roar turned into a barely recognizably growl of utter suffering as she collapsed and started rolling in the snow trying to rip off her own skin.

“Oh. You thought this fight was two on three? Sorry, it’s three on three.”

“Four on three, actually.”

Yet another voice resounded in the fog after Krantha started foaming from the mouth, short on breath – and said voice added another sentence right after the first one was finished, although it was said in a slightly different mannerism.