A wolf-shaped shadow beast opened its jaws in a soundless howl of agony while strands of jet-black hair squeezed until it turned into an inky pulp.

Similar scenes were playing out within a mile radius – countless shadow beasts, both canine and feline-shaped with sizes varying from a cub to a full-grown bear.

The bigger shadow beast, mostly those with massive claws and fangs, was putting up a good fight against the vicious hair but it was blatantly obvious that the other side was winning.

“Okty! Why are you doing this? My instinct is telling me that you cannot contact the others! Let’s just stop this and talk!”

Elsby shouted from the top of the head of an enormous shadow beast shaped like a dragon, its imposing jet-black figure was towering over the lush valley she got teleported to.

“You can shove that stupid instinct of yours!”

A pale young woman with insanely long hair that was cascading down her waist and legs and spreading across the ground like a humongous spider web, shouted back in annoyance.

“O-okay… could you at least tell me what did I do wrong? Weren’t we happy together?”

Elsby leaned down, going down on her elbows to look from the side of her dragon shadow beast, and asked feeling her eyes sting from holding back tears.

“Oh, I don’t know. How about your betrayal?! You were scheming with an enemy, planning to kill off the other Ghosts!”

Oktria roared back and one strand of her hair whipped through the air and snapped at the shadow beast that Elsby was sitting on had to back off to dodge the lightning-fast attack.

“Okty! Are you stupid?! Of course, that didn’t include you!”

Elsby who fell flat on the dragon shadow monster’s head in a desperate struggle to stay on called out as if it should have been the most obvious thing in the world.

“You are the only stupid one here! The Ghosts, no matter how flawed, are the only ones who accepted us, and you wanted to cut off our ties to them and kill them! Disgraceful! I thought that you were different, that you could change, that I could change you – but it became clear that I was wrong!”

Oktria shouted back and her hair began snapping around like crazy – the small and medium-sized shadow beasts that were keeping up against getting strangled got cut in half by the jet-black whips reaching ultrasonic speed.

The dragon shadow beast hosting Elsby no longer had a valid option to dodge the attacks on the ground and jumped up, spreading its massive wings and escaping into the air from the hundreds and thousands of ceaselessly multiplying jet-black strands trying to get it.

“You can’t be serious! Were we connected to different groups or something?! Being reluctantly tolerated is not the same as being accepted! How many times were we both cursed for liking each other? We were being sent on different missions because they didn’t want to work together with us because us even smiling at each other was making them sick?!”

“At least they didn’t try to openly attack us!”

Elsby shouted down and Oktria snapped back at her with both words and her darkness blade.

“They never tried because we were too strong and useful! Your endless hair is unparalleled in reconnaissance picking up and recognizing all sort of mana signatures and cannot be stopped by barriers. Neither Rethaq’s mist nor Sveothirllo’s water could compare. My shadow beasts are like that too but with tracking. Correct me if I’m wrong but if we tried, we would get at least the same kind of treatment from whichever military organization we would try to join. Actually, I am pretty sure I found a place that would actually accept us! My intuition is telling me that!”

The short-haired young-looking woman shouted, sounding almost pleadingly while her dragon shadow beast danced in the air dodging the strands of jet-black hair climbing higher and higher in pursuit.

“Gah…! Again with that bull**! Do you know how annoying you are always going on about that instinct and intuition of yours?! Oh, how special you are! Must be really nice to be always right – oh, wait – you are not!”

Oktria roared, and her hair began attacking so furiously that it looked as if they were boiling over.

The strands of hair were no longer snapping like whips towards the dragon shadow beast but instead straightened, turning themselves into spikes and shot out straight up in unison, forming a rising tide of jet-black death.

The only way to dodge them was going up, higher and higher – so high that it was impossible for Elsby’s voice to reach Oktria anymore and vice versa.

“But… I am right every time… does that mean… I am not special to you anymore, Okty…?”

The short-haired girl whispered to herself feeling her throat dry out and a sensation of an ice-cold spike piercing through her heart.

The ocean of spiky darkness was rising higher and higher – the name that the pale-faced girl bestowed upon her original darkness blade, endless hair, wasn’t just fancy but empty title.

As long as Oktria had access to mana, there would be no end to the number and length that her hair could reach.

“Fly down.”

Elsby glanced towards the oncoming attack and demanded, tapping the head of the shadow beast with her palm.

“…”

The dragon shadow beast breathed before slowly tilting its head from side to side in a slow version of shaking its head in denial – only gently so that its passenger would not fall off.

“Don’t be fussy. I know you like this body, but I can not only repair it but make you an even better one to use. Please? You know that Okty isn’t like that!”

“…I merely know that you want to believe she isn’t like that…”

Elsby patted the dragon shadow beast’s head and asked in an urgent voice – and the dragon responded to her…!

Although it certainly didn’t sound too happy or encouraging, that’s for sure.

“Please? You don’t have to do it for Oktria’s sake, but will you do it for me?”

The short-haired young woman leaned on the top of the dragon shadow beast’s head and peeked over the side looking the speel in a giant eye.

“…”

The dragon stared at her in silence for a moment and its murky-black eye that was a clearly different shade from the rest of the body gleamed with a murk light and the shadow beast sped up its ascension.

“Whoa-ah…!”

Causing Elsby to let out a surprised voice and cling to its head that much stronger.

The dragon shadow beast suddenly stopped at an altitude far above the clouds after gaining quite a satisfactory distance from the pursuing ocean of jet-black spikes.

“Is your intuition telling you that Oktria can be convinced to join us?”𝓞𝗏𝓵xt.𝗇𝓔t

“…eh…?”

The dragon asked, taking Elsby by surprise.

“I believed in her too, before the other Ghosts learned that you wanted to betray them – after that not so much. But I believe in your intuition. So tell me. Is it telling you that Oktria can be convinced to join us?”

The massive shadow beast repeated itself, adding a bit of information to clear out the possible misunderstanding and clearly state its own doubts on the matter.

“If you say yes. I will dive into that.”

The dragon added, looking at the approaching tide of millions upon billions of hair that completely took over the sky beneath them, blocking off the earth.

p “…”

Elsby remained silent, biting her lips with a truly pitiful expression.

The answer to the dragon’s question was…

No.

Truth be told, the intuition or instinct, whichever name was preferred by Elsby at the time, was telling her to stop clinging to the affection she still harbored towards Oktria.

Especially after the last words that the pale young woman spoke to her.

But Elsby couldn’t stop herself from clinging to the hope, that the love Oktria felt for her matched her own and that this time her intuition was wrong indeed and Oktria will change her mind at the last second.

“Ye… yes. Yes, my instinct is telling me that Okty can have a change of heart, I just need to try harder.”

So after a moment of hesitation, the short-haired young woman breathed out and lied.

She lied in such an obvious way too, as if she didn’t want to lie, she even stuttered too and looked away from the dragon shadow beast’s eye.

“I believe you, let’s do this then.”

“…sorry…”

But despite that, the dragon spoke in a soft voice and flapped its wings, positioning itself straight down – Elsby could tell that her lie was found out and couldn’t stop herself from muttering an apology.

“…”

The dragon shadow beast didn’t say anything, acting as if it didn’t hear her, and instead dived straight down into the sea of jet-black spikes.

The endless sea of hair was the only thing they could see, it was getting closer and closer the faster they approached – and, when either the dragon shadow beast or Elsby could tell apart the individual hair composing each spoke-shaped strand the dragon opened its jaw, bearing its massive jet-black fangs.

But the fangs themselves weren’t the weapon that would be used against the darkness blade of the palest member of the Ghosts of Bellcephora.

Instead, a foamy murky-black mist began forming by the corners of the shadow beast’s mouth as the foul liquid was building up in its throat.

“GHUUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELGH!”

In a split second, before the jet-black spikes would reach them, the dragon launched an attack.

It was not a majestic and cool move… instead, it was straight-up horror fuel.