*WHAM*

Just as Miriette closed her mouth, the wall to her left exploded and the gold-haired Horeo burst inside, breaking the stones with the head of the jet-black-haired Carcassuss.

As anyone in the way moved out of the way, the two hit the ground and the young king with his body shining pure gold dragged the commander of the Ghosts of Bellcephora through the floor, breaking it apart and leaving a trail all the way to the podium where he was welcoming the guests at the beginning of the evening.

“YOU…! FUCKING BRAT!”

Carcassuss spat out inky darkness instead of blood while cursing at Horeo and clenched his fist, causing the broken obsidian-like blade to regrow out of the top of his wrist, aiming to impale the young king’s face.

“HMPH!”

*GHYAAAAAA*

Instead of dodging or even letting go of the man in his grasp, Horeo merely scoffed and headbutted the darkness blade causing it to break apart as the dispersing mana let out a pained cry instead of the usual sound of a person breathing out with relief.

“I was expecting more from someone sharing the same bloodline as me.”

“…YOU…!”

Horeo scoffed causing Carcassuss’s face to twist in furious expression.

“Shut up. You wouldn’t be a match for Bellcephora and there is no world in which you had a chance against me.”

“PFU-GUHUAGH…!”

The young king declared with a bored expression and twisted his own blade of light that was stuck deep within the guts of the commander of the Ghosts of Bellcephora.

As they both came to a stop Horeo straightened his back and pulled out his sword, causing more inky darkness to spill out of the Carcassuss’s beaten-up body.

Without wasting his breath for saying another word, the young king threw his opponent up towards the ceiling…

And pointed his index finger at him with a cold-blooded expression…

*%^&#$%* x 424242

Then, within a spawn of fewer than three seconds, dozens of spinning halos composed of twelve golden orbs each appeared behind the gold-haired youth and launched numerous beams of light eviscerating and straight up erasing every trace of the commander of the Ghosts of Bellcephora with an unrelenting barrage of light.

“Lasers are a man’s dream.”

After being sure that Carcassuss was dead, Horeo allowed himself to smirk and say out loud his favorite catchphrase from his early childhood – the same one that always made Zoemi shake from holding back the laughter.

“…oh… you all returned. It seemed I was taking too much time dealing with that guy… hmm…? Where is Zoemi?”

Horeo breathed out, releasing his enchantment and returning back to his normal appearance, looking over at the group of returnees and raising his brows, slightly confused and very much concerned.

——

“This is problematic… Zoemi could not use magic properly, right? I am not doubting his swordsmanship or anything, but how in the world he is supposed to defeat anyone in that state?”

After the group shared their information and discussed their situation, the gold-haired king made a bitter expression and pondered.

“It’s Zoemi, he will manage. He will require extensive medical care afterward, but he will surely manage. I will definitely help nurse him back to health this time…”

“…”

Miriette declared in a flat voice and Horeo was about to roll his eyes and scoff at her for saying stuff like that in this situation, but the moment he turned his head towards her he noticed that the platinum-haired girl was clenching her fists so hard that her shoulders were trembling.

So he closed his mouth and said nothing, the young king was sure about one thing – Miriette’s care for Zoemi was just as great or even greater than his own.

The proud girl was simply doing her best to not fall apart and start panicking.

Just as Horeo was about to speak some words of encouragement to Miriette, the platinum-haired girl started walking and ended up by the inky puddle that got a few shades lighter and did not carry any mana.

“…I don’t reckon that Burushi’s magic can fix that…”

Miriette crouched by the puddle and hesitantly dipped her finger in, confirming that it was a liquid and not a differently shaded shadow gate.

Unfortunately, the optimistic scenario was not the one used in this case.

“…it’s…”

“Teo. You’ve seen what happened too, didn’t you?”

Horeo furrowed his brows and asked at Miriette’s back and the platinum-haired girl nodded in confirmation, rubbing her index finger and thumb together.

“…”

Miriette breathed out and stood up in the silence that befell the group.

Without speaking up about her intentions, the platinum-haired girl reached out her hand above the remains of her first actual female friend and gritted her teeth.

The next moment a shining platinum clock appeared behind her back and right over the surface of the inky puddle. The hands of the one above the puddle began to slowly tick back in the counterclockwise motion.

As minutes passed the surface of the puddle began bubbling and darkening, bringing back its pitch-black darkness.

Miriette bit her lips concentrating so deeply that even if Zoemi showed up by her side at that very moment, she would not notice him.

“…come one… work…! Stupid Teo, who allowed you to die on… me…?!”

The platinum-haired girl mumbled to herself, staring at the puddle before suddenly tensing up wide-eyed.

“…eh…? Wait! WHY?! WHAT DO YOU MEAN?!”

She gasped before gulping down her saliva and raising her voice causing the others to look between each other in confusion before Horeo walked up to her with concern as Miriette reached out her other hand above the surface.

“Yo, cunning fox, care to explain what is going on?”

The young king asked, tapping on the platinum-haired girl’s shoulder.

“It’s… it’s Teo… she said to not try to bring her back…”

“What?!”

Miriette explained, making Horeo tens up and gasp in shock.

“I am forcing her soul to come back with time magic – but she asked me to stop… She said that it hurts and that she is sorry and can’t face us after being used as a conduit for the Ghosts appearance…! That stupid girl!”

The platinum-haired girl explained while droplets of sweat were appearing on her forehead as her mana was being drained so fast as if her mana reservoir broke.

“Listen here! Don’t you know who I am, idiot?! No one is blaming you for anything! And more importantly, I did not give you permission to die! I will not let you…!”

The proud girl gritted her teeth and shouted towards the ceiling directly above the puddle as if that was the direction the voice that only she could hear was coming from.

“MIRIETTE!”

“WHAT?!”

Horeo raised his voice at Miriette and the platinum-haired girl responded back the same way but with much more annoyance in her voice.

“Didn’t she say that she was hurt? Stop tormenting her with your magic! Wasn’t she your friend? Respect her decision.”

The gold-haired young man shook his head and scoffed at her in a calm and collected voice.

“No, she didn’t mean it in that… eh…? You did…?”

Miriette scoffed in annoyance, shrugging off Horeo’s hand but then flinched and teared up looking up as the soul of Teo communicated with her.

“Miriette, just stop it.”

Horeo’s expression didn’t change but in his eyes, there was more sadness than Miriette ever expected out of him.

“But… but… Besides you and Zoemi… she is the first friend I ever made… I… I don’t want her to be gone…”

Miriette’s chin trembled and she lowered her head, trying to hold back the tears.

“Unfortunately, being selfish in this case will only hurt Teo more. Please, release her.”

“…”

The young king asked in a solemn tone and the platinum-haired girl’s body shook from a held-back sob.

“…I am the one who is sorry, stupid… Goodbye…”

Miriette muttered back to something that only she could hear and the platinum clocks faded away.

She then lowered her hands and stood over the inky puddle in silence without raising her head.

“…”

Benevriau felt Metaviero hugging him tighter seeking comfort, and this time he didn’t try to run away.

Then, suddenly…

*thump* *thump*

“Immeri…? What happened, are you hurt…?!”

The silence was broken by the sound of someone collapsing and Elsby’s panicked voice full of concern.

When the Horeo and Miriette looked over to see what was going on, they saw both corpse puppet sentinels, Ettemi and Oemir, slumped on the floor with completely broken expressions, staring at the floor as if their world collapsed.

Similarly, Immeri, the being of darkness by Elsby’s side would have collapsed too, but the jet-black-haired young woman caught them the moment she realized something was wrong.

“Li-little ones, are you all okay?”

Miriette, still very emotional after saying her farewells to the soul of her friend, sniffled and asked, looking between three sentinels.

“…mom…”

Ettemi spoke up before suddenly breaking down in uncontrollable sobbing.

“Dad… dad is…!”

Immeri picked up after them but also couldn’t finish the sentence before hugging Elsby and crying into her shoulder as she started gently patting their head.

“…mom… just now… dad died…”

Oemir grabbed onto their corset and held onto it with their trembling hands before looking up at Miriette and revealing.

“Wh-what…? No. Come on, it’s not the time to joke around…!”𝞸𝗏𝓛xt.𝚌𝓞𝑚

The platinum-haired girl tensed up and took a step back before smiling nervously and scoffing at Oemir with a panicked voice.

“…”

But the corpse puppet sentinel didn’t need to say anything to clarify what they said, their miserable look of utter despair alone was enough for the confirmation.

“…no… impossible… how?!”

Miriette shook her head and asked, clenching her fists and looking between all three sentinels.

“I don’t kn…”

“I killed him~!”

Oemir shook their head with a heavy heart, but his sentence was interrupted by another voice.

The voice of someone who appeared in the middle of the ballroom in a flash of golden light.

“Greetings everyone, a hero and your true king have returned after slaying the monster~!”

Cherro donning the jet-black armor cheered out, spreading his arms around with pride.