The dragon shadow beast threw up an air-quake-causing spell that combined the extremely high pressure of a water jet used by Benevirau and the insane melting properties of Roiso and Mirienne’s acid magic.

The result?

A hole creating an opening through the countless hair was blown up straight to the ground, and was only getting wider and wider the more strands were melting at a ridiculous speed.

The melting process looking like a speed-up video ended up revealing the utterly furious Oktria, whose usually pale face was covered with a sickly-looking blush of anger.

Creating a path for itself, the dragon shadow beast flapped its wings again and dived straight in.

The dragon and Elsby began their descent at a breakneck speed – but that did not mean that they had an advantage.

Even though they were incredibly fast, more and more hair would build up from the sides, away from the acid’s area of effect, and chase after them, sealing the hole fractions of a second after they dived into it.

The jet black walls and ceiling were closing in and if not for the night vision that both parties involved shared, it would be impossible to see a thing.

“GHUU…!”

“WAIT! DO NOT HARM HER!”

𝓞𝗏𝓵xt.𝗇𝓔t

With Oktria well within the reach of an attack, the dragon shadow beast trembled as another portion of the foul liquid was gathering in its mouth with a gurgling sound – prompting Elsby to cry out in desperation.

“(I know, but to have a talk, we need to get rid of all of those, unless you are into getting smothered by hair. Just hold on tight.)”

With its throat full, the dragon responded by using an altered version of a message spell and…

“…UEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELGH…!”

…blasted another stream of acid while beginning to spin around like crazy, sending it in every possible direction except directly at Oktria.

“!!!”

Oktria flinched and raised her arms defensively, building up a defensive wall of hair in front of her – but the moment it was grazed by the passing stream of highly pressurized acid, it disappeared right in front of the pale woman’s eyes, leaving her completely defenseless.

The long-haired member of the Ghosts of Bellcephora gritted her teeth seeing the rate at which her hair was dissolving shook her head, causing every stand over the length of her shoulders to get cut off.

…even though it was not necessary as the melting properties of the acid faded away in front of her feet.

The dragon shadow beast landed, keenly watching the opponent with its murky black eye – it was highly not probable that the change of image would be followed by a change of hearts in this case…

*puff*

“Okty! Please, let’s just talk!”

As the shadow beast and the pale woman were glaring at each other trying to anticipate their next move, Elsby jumped down from the dragon’s head, landing on a furry shadow beast she created just to soften the fall, and began talking immediately upon getting up.

“Please, think about it. I also wanted to believe that the whole family thing was a real deal! But that’s not how things should be! I know that you are angry at me, but I will do my best to make it up to you! But the Ghosts of Bellcephora are not on our side! I wasn’t given the right to defend myself – if we really were a big happy family, they wouldn’t attempt to kill me off without hesitation! They would try to at least learn my reasons before making a judgment!”

Elsby called out in a pleading voice, approaching Oktria in as not threatening pose that she could assume.

“…”

“…!”

The pale woman looked at her and her expression changed into one of disgust and annoyance, causing the approaching one to tens up and stop in place.

“Elsby. You are probably the only one except for Carcassuss, Kirissu, and Cherro, to actually think about Ghosts being a real family. You really are such an annoying dense moron, you know? I thought I saw the limit of your idiocy, but here we are AGAIN!”

Oktria covered her face with he hand and groaned with such annoyance that Elsby had no idea what to do.

“…”

The murky darkness in the dragon shadow beast’s eye swirled around as it glanced over at its ally with worry…

“Hmph~!”

Oktria certainly didn’t miss that moment of weakness, in a lash, her hair regrew and cascaded down her body like an avalanche, joining up with the weakened but not destroyed remains of the last batch and shot out at Elsby and the dragon shadow beast.

“(SLEAZY TRASH)”

The dragon roared, sending its thoughts through the modified message spell as its jaws were the first target to seal off by the countless strands of silky perfect darkness. The hair was like a web, sticking to every part of the shadow creature, sealing off its movement and basically turning it into one big cocoon with only small insignificant parts of its body still discernable from the outside.

“OKTY?! WHY?!”

Elsby wasn’t any better off either – although instead of being stuck in a cocoon, she ended up tied up in a rather inappropriate bondage outfit on top of her dress.

“Why? Oh, for the love of… Elsby! Forget about that weird instinct of yours and think about our history together!”

Oktria groaned, looking at Elsby through the spaces between her fingers.

“We were happy together!”

The bounded woman called back in desperation.

“Happy…? WE were happy…?”

Oktria swayed as if Elsby’s words physically harmed her.

She even took a step back and slowly removed her hand from her face, revealing a hateful expression.

“Screw this! I wanted to kill you off without explaining ** because in your own creepy way you weren’t that bad for a half-bread scum. But ** it!”

Oktria started shouting, getting red in the face, about to have a meltdown.

“I never wanted to be with you! The two of us were supposed to be just a hookup! Nothing more than a one-night stand! An experiment! An adventure that I could look back on when I was old and smile at how wild I was in my youth! But then you just started clinging to me like some sticky ooze and scared off everyone else! You locked me in a cage, damn it! I was trapped because of your filthy affection – trapped with no way out! Luring me in deeper and deeper into the quicksand of your degeneracy! Do you think I needed to hear Kiorterell tell us what intel he gathered on you to jump on the chance to kill you?! I was planning to do that anyway! AND EVERYONE ELSE KNEW THAT TOOAND DID NOT CARE!”