“My lady… Are you okay? Did I scare you?”

The black-haired boy faced the girl in his arms and asked with a worried expression.

His usually dark eyes shone with the light of a clear starry sky.

“Wha… what did you just…?”

Miriette muttered in disbelief.

“I have no mana, the same as my father, but that doesn’t mean I cannot protect you, my lady.”

Zoemi smiled and declared, showing off the unharmed right hand that should have been horribly scalded by Grazio’s spell.

“Allow me to demonstrate why I am best suited to stay by your side and protect you.”

The boy’s smile became a bit more serious and he stepped away from the shocked dark-haired girl.

“Zoemi! Zoemi, don’t!”

The knight who stayed behind stepped in between the tense Grazio – who seemed to be slowly realizing what grave offense he just made – and the serious black-haired boy.

“He was intending on harming young lady Espine, what kind of bodyguard would let that slide?”

Zoemi asked dismissively and took a stance from some unknown martial art.

“A hit for a hit. He almost hit my lady but was fully intending on doing so. If you wish, you can act as his shield and try to block my attack, sir Helke.”

“Calm down!”

The black-haired boy with the light of the stars burning brightly in his eyes announced and breathed out, causing Helke to nervously put his hand on the handle of his sword.

“LAW OF ARIES!”

“STOP!”

Zoemi roared and kicked off the ground, causing Helke to shout and actually take a swing at him!

“ZOEMI?!”

*THUNK*

Miriette gasped in panic when she saw the flash of the blade coming to meet the black-haired boy who was going to protect himself with his bare hand – but when the blade actually met the skin, it barely graze it, not penetrating deep enough to even draw blood, and bounced off.

Actually, Helke had lost his balance completely, as if he didn’t just hit a young child but some unmovable boulder instead!

“Serves you right!”

“AAAAHHHH!”

Zoemi roared and charged at Grazio who completely lost his head from fear and raised his hands to protect his face…!

“…alright, that’s enough, wouldn’t you say…? What was your name again… Kiorterell?”

But just as the hit was about to connect, undoubtedly causing massive damage to the red-haired boy, Miriette breathed out and sighed loudly, rolling her eyes.

“…”

The world around her stopped in place – but not because of the time attribute spell being used.

“Did Arisu, or Cherro, or whatever that degenerate is actually called, not tell you how strong my will is? You will not possess me, no matter what illusion you will show me, idiot.”

Miriette scoffed and brushed off a strand of platinum hair that got loose in her complicated hairstyle.

She no longer was a child and instead turned back into an adult wearing the beautiful ballroom dress.

“…I wanted to lock you up in perfect fantasy so it would be easier to control you, but I guess dabbing into too much of my own knowledge made it too obvious… How annoying. The only other option I have is to bruteforce my way in and turn your brain into mush. Broken dolls are no fun to play with. People will notice that something is wrong, but, oh well…”

The world around Miriette began to crack and the jet-black darkness was becoming visible from the inside of the box that she was locked in.

When the reality shattered and the darkness took shape of an enormous nightmarish monster, the beast opened its fanged jaws and spoke in a mocking tone.

“Oh really?”

Miriette asked, raising her brow without a trace of amusement.

“REALLY! NOW DIE! YOU WORTHLESS SCU…!”

The monster roared deafeningly and dived at the defenseless platinum-haired girl…

…just to stop in place, staring at her in disbelief…

“M-M-MOONSTEEEER!”

Because the girl began growing all of a sudden – within a few heartbeats she reach the height so unbelievable that the monster forgot any reason it had and began running away with its tail between its legs.

“Pathetic.”

Gargantuan Miriette rolled her eyes and lifted her slender foot…

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

…and with a graceful kick, she crushed the monster into a jet-black pulp…

——————–

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHGHHGHBHBHBHBHBGHBHBHHBGH..!”

“Hmm?”

When Miriette came to, she was greeted by a tormented howl of a young man frothing from his mouth and rolling around so fast that it was impossible to recognize him.

The stranger was coddling his head in his arms and crying, utterly terrified of whatever happened to him – or rather, of whatever he thought happened to him.

The platinum-haired girl got up from the ground and looked around…

…she did not recognize the location at all…

…mostly because she was completely surrounded by really old ancient looking trees and she hasn’t been to many forests…

“Where the hell was I teleported to? And why not with MY ZOEMI?!”

Miriette pouted crossing her arms after confirming that there were no breathing humans other than her – and the screaming Ghosts of Bellcephora rolling on the ground – in a ten-mile radius.

“I better finish him off, before I’ll move from here.”

The platinum-haired girl said to herself in annoyance and walked over to the mind-broken person.

“Hey, Moron, stay still so I can kill you, understood?”

Miriette sighed and raised her foot over the frothing man.

“HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIH…! SHA-SHADOW GATE!”

*WHOOOM*

But the moment she did that, and the Ghosts caught a glimpse of her, he let out a high-pitched scream and scuttled to the side – before diving into a puddle of darkness between the roots of the nearest three.

…disappearing and leaving Miriette all alone and stunned in silence…

“Was… was that this whole Geroizen Tencelion or whatever Zoemi called him…? Since when he was a Ghost too…? Unless…!”

Miriette put her foot down and wondered, before flinching and gasping in realization.

“This just got really annoying…! Free flight!”

The platinum-haired girl clicked her tongue and switched her attribute back to the wind before launching herself straight up, through the trees, and into the starry night sky.

“Wha…?! Where the HELL am I?!”

…and roared after finding herself surrounded by unknown landmarks she didn’t even read about…

“Am I a pigeon or something?! Am I supposed to fly around in circles and pick a direction based on the magnetic field?!”

The platinum-haired girl groaned in annoyance and actually was bout to do exactly what she said -if not for…

“BURIAL OF MANA…”

“…AND DEATH OF HOPE~!”

“A what now…?”

*GHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA*

Familiar voices rose into the night sky not that far away from Miriette’s position, and she tilted her head surprised by rather ominous things she hear – just to be startled by an even more ominous sensation.

The air quake caused by the unknown spell was so powerful that it made the area in ten-mile radius become blurry as if from a heatwave.

The particles of mana itself got torn apart, causing an ungodly scream that could only be compared to the choir of tormented souls and erasing a huge chunk of forest.

And it wasn’t limited to trees. If she wasn’t used to enormous heights thanks to flying, Miriette would have her head spin from peering into the chasm that was left after the devastating spell that could not be cast by just anyone.

Even Horeo with his Wrath of Light would have to try to match the destruction – especially since it was directed and controlled perfectly, with not a single tree or even a leaf damaged outside the parameter of the restricted area of effect.

“If you are Zoemi’s allies then speak up!”

Miriette shook her head, trying to get rid of the blurry vision – the aftermath of the air quake that sent a shockwave through the night sky, and called out.

“We are~!”

“Yeah! Dad is our dad!”

The platinum-haired girl didn’t have to wait long at all – the two voices that shouted the name of the devastating spell before it turned out they belong to the corpse puppet sentinels that were always by Zoemi’s side.

“Ettemi and Oemir, right? Is Zoemi with you? And why have you used caused something like that?”

Miriette tilted her head, trying to remember the names of the androgynous pair as they flew up to her using the copied spell, and leaned to the side expecting to see the black-haired young man somewhere near the edge of the brand new cliff.

“No… we don’t know where dad is… We got sent here and there were a few of those Ghost people alive.”

“We asked them what happened to our dad, but they didn’t know so we got rid of them.

The two answered, pointing at the chasm with a lighthearted shrug.

“…how many did you kill, by the way…?”

Miriette raised her brows and nodded, with a cautious expression.

“Six, or maybe seven?”

“I think six – the seventh one was just a shadow puppet, or a clone or something.”

The corpse puppet sentinels answered with no restrain whatsoever, cheerful as always.

“Did we do a good job, mom?”

Oemir flew closer to Miriette and asked looking up at her expectantly.

“…m-mom…?!”

The platinum-haired girl shook her head and asked in a shocked voice.

“Oemir! Don’t be like that! Miss Miriette isn’t dad’s wife yet – you are being rude! We’re sorry…”

Ettemi clicked their tongue and scolded the other sentinel before turning towards Miriette and bowing apologetically.

“Now hold on, let’s not jump to conclusions – the yet in not Zoemi’s wife yet is the key word! I was a bit surprised, that’s all. Go on, little ones, call me mom to your heart’s content!”

Miriette raised her hand, stopping Ettemi from scolding Oemir, and declared with a flushed face.

“See? I told you~!”

The second corpse puppet sentinel declared happily proudly puffing out their chest.

“My lovely little ones, mom is proud of you both, you did a good job! Now… do you think you can send us all to where our Zoemi is?”

Miriette smirked with contentment and asked with a hopeful expression.𝓞𝗏𝓵xt.𝗇𝓔t

“Of course, we can, mom~!”

“Let’s go see him, m-mom!”

The two sentinels perked up even more and cheered, grabbing Miriette’s hands before disappearing in a flash of murky light, leaving the empty ruined forest.