“…!”

When Zoemi opened his eyes, forced awake by the roar of the wind in his eyes – the thing was, he wasn’t just exposed to the elements…

The black-haired boy was falling down from an unbelievable height as his body was dropped from the atmosphere and the howling of the wind was actually the insane pressure of his body descending to the ground.

The thing was, he was so high up that the thick layers of clouds fully blocked the earth below him!

“FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!”

Zoemi roared, although that action made him realize a few things.

First of all, he could scream and hear, although he should be hardly able to do either while descending from such mind-bogglingly high altitude.

At the same time, the feeling of fullness and the weight that appeared during his magic awakening were completely gone.

Despite the troublesome situation he was faced with, Zoemi never felt that light and free.

At the same time, he felt oddly empty.

The missing weight must have been mana, without it he did feel better, but it left the hollow emptiness that felt unbelievably alien and unnatural after all those years.

“WHAT THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO DO NOW?!”

The black-haired boy roared, but just as he expected, the god of the stars, Guide, didn’t answer his furious call.

“SCREW THIS! LAW OF ARIES! LAW OF CAPRICORN!”

With literally nothing else to try, Zoemi did the only thing that he knew was a common practice of both star power users he met – he roared the names of the laws he wished to use…

*WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO*

“HUH?!”

And to his own shock – it worked.

As Zoemi channeled his anger and panic into the call, within the emptiness of his mana-free insides he experienced a feeling of a spark igniting a blazing inferno that filled the gap without adding any weight.

While the mana was weighing him down, the new energy was making him feel even lighter and far, far more powerful!

“YES! Wait…! WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO NOW?!”

After the initial elation because of the discovery that indeed, he can use the star power, he was not fully aware of how to use it…

Thankfully his previous experience gave him enough of an idea.

During their fight in the Vitureo tournament, William used the law of Capricorn to run on air! If he could do that, why Zoemi, someone chosen by the god of stars, wouldn’t be able to do the same?

“Come on! WORK!”

The black-haired boy amped himself up before kicking the air behind him – and amazingly, despite literally nothing standing in his way, Zoemi’s foot connected with something that felt like an invisible platform.

Kicking it made the black-haired boy gain even more speed on his descent.

As for why he didn’t use it to slow down…

Guide already told him that they would send him to where Cherro is, and there was very little doubt n Zoemi’s mind that wherever Cherro would be, Miriette and Horeo would be too, trying to stop him.

He had no time. At all.

“First of all, I need to get through the clouds to get the idea of my location.”

Zoemi thought to himself out loud, putting together a plan of action.

After that, he gritted his teeth and began kicking the air, gaining more and more speed with every single move.

He had to hurry. Even a single second of Cherro being allowed to run free was a potentially life-threatening danger for Miriette and his friends…

Especially after Cherro’s power got augmented by all of the mana that Zoemi accumulated until the big fight with the self-proclaimed hero.

——-

“That’s not an appropriate expression for the moment. I don’t want you to be at peace with your fate. A villainess like you isn’t worthy of such an end.”

Cherro snickered and raised his hand into the sky causing it to turn gray as the thick layer of clouds created with mana appeared out of nowhere.

“Squirm and cry in terror as the mana storm tears your body apart… together with your ex-fiance of yours. He at least knows how to act.”𝞸𝗏𝓛xt.𝚌𝓞𝑚

The young man clad in jet-black armor laughed mockingly pointing at crying Horeo suffering a severe mana depletion.

“Shut up! You don’t get to call me a villainess!”

Miriette clenched her fists and scoffed, proudly raising her head and glaring at the person who took almost everything from her.

“Of course I do. I am a hero after all! Everyone who is against me automatically becomes the villain!”

Cherro laughed. Spreading his arms as the heavy magic clouds unleashed a torrent of heavy rain and howling wind that would be better suited for the deadly ocean storm than land.

The flashing of lighting and the thunder resounding over the crystalized wasteland only added to the atmosphere.

With another flash of lightning right behind Cherro’s back, even Miriette thought that he looked like a demon lord from more action-packed novels that she read.

Only that, in her novels, the hero would sweep in and save his love interest, even if she was painted as a villainess.

Unfortunately, this villainess’s hero was already dead.

“THEN LET ME SHOW YOU HOW A VILLAINESS FACES HER DEMISE! I MIGHT NOT BE A SAGE, BUT I WILL SHOW YOU THE POWER OF THE STRONGEST WIND MAGICIAN! YOU WILL REGRET TRYING TO USE STORM AGAINST ME”

But it was Miriette we are talking about – her spirit could not be broken!

With a roar that pierced through the raging mana storm, she raised her hand to the sky, just like Cherro, and her body shone with the green light of the wind enchantments as she braced herself for the power of her own counterattack.

“IT’S TIME FOR YOUR REINTRODUCTION, MY AIR EMPER…!”

The dark-haired girl drenched with mana-infused rain called out, calling forth her summon – and before she even finished, a blazing meteor-like object pierced through the clouds, disintegrating them and clearing the sky and erasing the storm in an instant.

p “Wh-WHAT?! HOW CAN YOU STILL HAVE SO MUCH POWER?!”

The display was so outrageous that Cherro gasped, taking a step back while staring in disbelief at the spell that destroyed his own creation.

“Wait.. no… that thing doesn’t have a shadow – it’s not something made out of mana! YOU! WHAT DID YOU SUMMONED, YOU VILL… huh..?”

The self-proclaimed hero growled in fury, clenching his fists and glaring own at the dark-haired girl, only to have his words stuck in his throat once he saw her expression.

Miriette was just as shocked and confused at the sight of the incoming object as he was…!

“TSK…!”

Still, Cherro had no time to search for the answer – whatever it was, the burning meteor erasing all mana in its wake was definitely aimed at him, and the jet-black-armored young man had no choice but to dodge!

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

*CRACK*

The self-proclaimed hero didn’t even consider blocking the unidentified object and instead launched himself away with the power of the multiple enchantments stacked together – as he did, he barely dodged the impact that smashed the crystalized ground into pieces, sending the shards flying and then raining down into devastating downpour.

“!!!”

Cherro gritted his teeth, with his heart beating so fast it felt as if it was about to jump out of his chest.

His darkness armor swallowed all the debris flung his way, but it didn’t change the fact that the object just smashing into the ground turned the entire crystalized surface of the former capital city of The Bellcephroa kingdom into a crater that could swallow up the entire city many times over…!

“WHO DARES TO CHALLANGE ME?! ANOTHER SAGE?!”

As the sharp crystal rain continued to fall down, the self-proclaimed hero shouted out trying to mask his nervousness…

*CLANG* x65432

“!!!”

Only to have the unknown object getting launched right at him through the falling crystal shards, breaking them as they went.

“AS IF I…! Y-YOU…?!”

Cherro jumped back and shouted, nervous but confident in his armor’s ability to absorb anything launched at him – at least he was confident until he saw what the object turning the shards into crystal dust was!

The devilishly handsome black-haired young man whose evil grin could not be mistaken!

Zoemi who launched himself back to the earth’s surface bounced off the ground thanks to the power of the law of Capricorn and was channeling the acceleration into a single punch!

“STEEL WALL!”

In his panic at seeing the face of the person he was certain to be dead, Cherro called conjuring the additional barrier between himself and the attacker.

*GHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA*

But that effort perished in vain as the substance born of mana was composed of mana – and star power was the fiercest opposite of it.

When the fist channeling the law of Aries accelerated by the law of Capricorn touched the protective spell, the escaping mana released a hurtful cry of a tormented soul, breaking apart and fading away – in the same manner, the jet-black armor composed of a shadow gate spell that should swallow anything and everything gave way and left Cherro’s abdomen perfectly exposed.

*WHAM* *SPLASH*

Before Cherro could let out a tearful cry, the punch connected, sending a wave of spiritual energy right through the self-proclaimed hero’s stomach – causing the remaining jet-black armor on his back to bulge out and burst, releasing fireworks of the crushed internal organs mixed with gallons of blood.

As the fireworks should, the gory mass exploded in the air adding a tinge of red and pink to the crystal rain.

“GHRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

Cherro howled in harrowing pain that assaulted every remaining part of his body, pushing out every single sane thought.

The possibility of using healing magic to numb the pain and heal up did not occur to the halved young man.

Instead, he reverted to the most primal instinct of prey hunted by the apex predator.

Run and hide.

At all costs.