*BOOOOOOOOOOOOM* *WHOOOOOOOOO* *KSHHHHHHHHHHHHH*

“Wha…?! Why did you do that?! We need to stop her!”

Metavicero was the first one to gasp and voice her complaint as their group in the almost full roster as they witness the destruction of the surface level of the most important building in the kingdom of Bellcephora as the brilliant white flames were battling and losing a neon-pink acid in one of the most violent chemical reactions their world had the misfortune to be exposed to.

“I could attempt that and I’m certain to succeed but that would wipe out that city from the map and kill your friend. Not to mention that I’m cheering her on.”

The gold-haired king announced in an indifferent voice, pointing with his thumb at the night view of the capital seen from the royal castle’s gate.

“What are you cheering her on?! Killing herself?! Her altered attribute is too powerful and her body cannot withstand it – that’s why she is wearing that suit with all mana stones – it’s not for protecting others – it’s slowing down her own body from killing her! If her acid started melting through, it means she is on a timer…!”

“Then I hope that she will kill Cherro and Ehmi before she dies.”

Metavicero shouted at Horeo, moving so much that even Benevirau had a hard time holding her – but if she thought that she will receive a thoughtful and encouraging response… she had no idea what kind of tyrant she was dealing with…

“Wh-what…?”

The snow magician flinched and stuttered, thinking that she misunderstood the young king’s response.

“If her death will erase the scum that killed Zoemi, so be it.”

Horeo clarified what he meant, leaving everyone speechless as the battle between Ehmi and Roiso continued with the flames rising higher and higher and the acid chasing and melting through them.

“You…! What would lord Banemor say to that?! Lady Espine, please tell him to…!”

Metavicero’s anger boiled over and if she could get red in the face, she would – but instead, she clenched her fists on Benevirau’s clothes and turned around expecting to see the platinum-haired girl…

…only to witness an empty spot…

“Where is she…?”

The snow magician gasped in disbelief before turning towards the quickly disappearing royal castle.

“Miriette is the only person besides Zoemi that I believe in no matter what. She doesn’t need my protection in this case.”

Horeo’s next words only confirmed the unspoken suspicion.

“YOU LEFT HER THERE?!”

“Did I stutter?”

Metaviceor shouted in terror mixed with blood-boiling fury, to which Horeo responded with bone-chilling annoyance.

“You believe in her as you believe in lord Banemor…?! HE IS DEAD AND LADY ESPINE COULD DIE AS WE…!”

*&^%$#@*

The white-as-snow girl continued to shout and she actually managed to strike a nerve – a single golden orb appeared above Horeo’s shoulder and a beam of light shot straight at the girl’s head.

“…ghh…!”

“Sir Benevirau…!”

Metavicero had no chance of dodging, but she was also being carried by the dark-blue-haired water sage who reacted in time…

…well, he reacted in time to get her out of the danger but got his shoulder pierced straight through by the young king’s spell…𝞸𝗏𝓛xt.𝚌𝓞𝑚

“Zoemi and Miriette are the only two people that have my admiration. They cannot fail at any task they chose to complete. Zoemi, Miriette, Veo, and Patishi, are the only people in this world I care about, respect their opinions, and would die for.”

Horeo declared, not caring about the damage done to the water sage, moving his hand to the side and extending his fingers as he counted out the names.

“As for the rest of you trash. I would not even notice if you all perished. Do not push your luck, or I will erase you myself. I haven’t wrath-of-lighted the capital only because Patishi and Veo believe that I care for the wellbeing of the ants sharing our world and that I will be a good and benevolent ruler for them.”

“…!”

The terrifying reveal sent chills down the backs of everyone unfortunate to hear it – even the former member of the Ghosts of Bellcephora, and the being of darkness, Immeri – despite the blazing inferno that the former royal castle had turned into.

“…your majesty, if you don’t care about our lives, could I have your permission to help out ladies Roiso and Mirienne?”

“Sir Benevirau…!”

Despite being wounded by Horeo’s attack, the water sage’s voice didn’t carry any anger as Benevirau asked, lowering his head to the gold-haired youth while the snow magician he was holding almost cried.

“Was I not clear about how much I don’t care about anyone besides the four I named? Do whatever you want.”

“Thank you, your majesty.”

The young king didn’t even spare the water sage a single glance but the dark-blue-haired man still bowed his head deeply, before placing the teary-eyed Metavicero on the ground and activating his enchantments.

—–

Although outside the main battlefield things were quite troublesome, the center stage wasn’t much better.

…it was much, much worse, actually…

Although Roiso’s attribute triumphed over Ehmi’s fire, Cherro was still alive and Miriette was continuing to hold him back with her time attribute spell standing on the only untouched remains of the ballroom floor – which was also the only untouched fragment of the royal castle still standing.

The reason for that wasn’t that Roiso’s acid wasn’t’ working on the time attribute mana, nor even that Mirienne had enough control over her body to stop Roiso from hurting her idol.

…it was just that Roiso’s eyes were melted off by her horribly acidic tears while the following spells ended up damaging her ears, resulting in her losing all sense of direction and causing her to attack wildly from whatever side she sensed danger or suffered an attack…

And because Ehmi was the only person attacking her, she turned into the main target of the acid magician’s wrath by default.

The acid attribute that Roiso and Mirienne were using was one of the attributes that toy Zoemi created their claws with during his fight with Cherro and was most definitely not supposed to appear in the world because of the damage to the user who would not survive the magic awakening in their childhood.

To boot, Roiso’s mana acidity was only increasing as time passed. By the time the royal castle was in ruin – which took a terrifyingly short amount of time – her body fluids melted through most of her hazmat suit.

But that only meant that they are around her that was melting off any potential danger was growing too.

“WHY AREN’T YOU SUFFOCATING?! THERE’S BASICALLY NO AIR?! AND YOU SHOULD BE FRIED BY NOW TOO!”

Ehmi was honestly panicking by that point, the enemy she faced seemed to crawl out straight from some kind of nightmare – the hollow eyes of the melting skull shedding neon-pink tears were turning in whatever direction an attack crushed and melted against the sphere-like invisible barrier.

During the confrontation that wiped off the royal castle, the fire sage haven’t landed a single proper hit even though she was sure that doing so would result in her immediate victory.

That result came not from the lack of trying – the flights of fire swallows, the spell that got inspired by the spell that Zoemi used during the semi-final tournament fight – were circling the area trying to find the weak spot of the acid magician’s barrier while pillars and hurricanes of fire were ravaging the area.

Countless fireballs were raining down upon the already ravaged ground in an endless onslaught of fire magic entirely – the very attack pattern that was the specialty of the fire magicians.

All to no avail.

*KSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH*

All magic had to bow down and got melted by the neon-pink tide that carried the acid magician.

*KSHHHHHHHHH*

“…”

Ehmi gulped down her saliva and backed off as the splash of acid landed dangerously close to her and instantly created a deep crater evaporating the ground and stones as if they were cotton candy exposed to water.

Unfortunately for Ehmi, Roiso didn’t need the air nor cared about the elements, the one affected by them was Mirienne, the original owner of the body that got her attribute forcibly changed during multiple experiments.

Roiso was only an ingredient, the original girl known as Roiso Baru Efemare was long gone from the world with the personality residing within the acid attribute being the only proof that she ever existed.

The truth that even the person behind the experiments that made Mirienne into the acid magician wasn’t aware of, was that Mirienne’s attribute wasn’t exactly acid – her attribute was Roiso, because Roiso became the mana.

It was extremely similar to how the original members of Ghosts of Bellcephora’s bodies changed from flesh and blood into darkness mana. Only with Roiso it was that she became somebody else’s mana.

At least that was how it was until a few moments before when Mirienne was still alive.

At the very moment, the being rampaging around was literally no different than the corpse puppet.

Mana moving the dead lump of flesh.

“BURN ALREADY!”

Ehmi who was getting quite panicked shouted so loud that she hurt her throat – the instant-immolation flames raged on shooting up into the sky turning the night over the royal capital into the brightest day.

*KSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH*

“!!!”

But her unrelenting opponent burst through in the explosion of the neon pink acid, causing the crimson-haired girl to freeze for a moment in pure horror.

The thing that was charging at her, riding the neon-pink wave wasn’t a wounded human, it was a corroding skeleton emanating the overwhelming neon pink light.

*STAB* *KSHHHHHHHHH*

“GH-AAAAAAAAAH…!”

The moment of hesitation cost Ehmi dearly – the skeleton’s bony hand sunk into her stomach and the acidic residue it was covered with began digging and melting her flesh without giving her a chance to escape.