Clawing his hands at the ground, Cherro turned around, with tears and snot dripping from his face as he cast the shadow gate spell.

His shadow turned inky black and spread underneath him, and his body sunk into the puddle of darkness, softly muffling the pathetic whines of pain.

“Where do you think you are going?!”

“HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!”

Zoemi asked, glaring down at Cherro, causing half of the young man to let out a high-pitched sound and swing his hand at the black-haired boy.

*SHING* *SHING* *SHING*

*haaaaa* *haaaaa* *haaaaa*

The three jet-black chained daggers shot out of Cherro’s wrist but even though they reached their target and hit Zoemi’s head, neck, and heart, they all turned into dark mist as the mana composing them lost its shape and dissipated after coming in contact with the black-haired boy’s ridiculously tough skin.

“Law of Aries. Increases general toughness and endurance. Apparently works really well against mana too.”

Zoemi explained without changing his expression while raising his hand for a follow-up hit.

“HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!”

Despite the black-haired boy taking his time, not a single sensible word came out of Cherro’s mouth as he completely lost it and tried to waddle into his darkness gate just a little bit faster.

“Moron.”

Zoemi scoffed, shaking his head in disbelief over the detail overlooked by his terrified opponent.

Shadow gates were composed of mana.

And the spiritual energy filling Zoemi’s body at the moment was breaking apart the spells composed of mana.

As much as Zoemi liked to be helpful and show others better use of their spells, this case was not the same.

Just as Cherro’s head was about to disappear in the darkness, Zoemi reached out and grabbed him by the hair, lightly brushing his knuckles against the surface of Cherro’s shadow gate…

*haaaa*

“!!!”

With the sound of a person breathing out in relief, the spell released, cleanly severing the connection between the upper half of Cherro’s head – more specifically right in the middle of his nose – and the rest of his body.

“As I was saying. Moron.”

Zoemi scoffed, lifting up the part of the self-proclaimed hero’s head and turning it towards himself to look him in the eyes.

“…!”

For a couple of seconds, Cherro’s eyes did indeed move, as his brain did not fully register that there was no body left to keep it alive – funnily enough, the young man’s eyes still widened in fear as they met Zoemi’s dark eyes reflecting the light of the stars above.

*plop*

“…”

But that expression soon ended when Cherro’s brain dropped onto the crystal-rubble-coated ground because of the lack of any support, and the self-proclaimed hero’s eyes rolled into the remains of his skull.

Zoemi raised his brow and scoffed, dropping Cherro’s leftovers and…

*CRUSH*

Grinding them into a pulp with his heel.

“That… seemed a little too easy… AH!”

Zoemi furrowed his brows, looking around as the crystal dust began to settle down, as the tension lowered, the fire in his soul was put out and the spiritual energy settled down, not to mention that his attention was taken by something much more important to him personally.

“…!”

Up in the air, high enough to dodge the power of the impact with which the black-haired boy arrived at the surface creating the meteor-like crater, a certain dark-haired girl was floating thanks to her free flight spell.

The girl was carrying an unconscious gold-haired king, but despite the young man’s high status, she was holding him by the scruff of his clothes like a stray kitten.

Just as the black-haired boy was looking up at her, she was looking down at him.

For a good few seconds, Miriette didn’t even budge.

Zoemi was alive. Despite what Cherro and even Zoemi’s sentinels have said, her beloved was standing right there over the insignificant splatter of blood and gore – the only remains of the self-proclaimed hero that nearly ended it all.

The only reason Miriette didn’t rush at Zoemi was that the overwhelming relief that spread through her body made her feel faint and lightheaded.

If Zoemi was there, nothing could go wrong.

With that in mind, the dark-haired girl slowly floated straight down to put the unconscious Horeo down first.

It would be extremely troublesome if despite putting out an amazing fight all this time, the young king died of something like hitting the ground after getting dropped from the too high altitude.

As for Zoemi himself, he didn’t rush at Miriette despite having the full power of the law of Capricorn that allowed him to run freely into the sky, using the air itself as convenient footholds because of quite a different reason.

He was not nearly as overwhelmed as Miriette was, but although he was incredibly happy and relieved seeing her well enough to use her spells.

“…Ghh… I knew it was too easy…”

No.

The thing was, he couldn’t move because of the dark mist raising from the ground and climbing around his body, attempting to invade his body.

I… I am a hero…! HERO! I will not die someone like you…!

The voice from the dark mist transferred straight to Zoemi’s brain.

“Ah, there we have it… shame that you are just as dumb as before…!”

Zoemi gritted his teeth, breathing out to push the mist away from his mouth.

Surrender yourself… to me…!

The remains of Cherro that existed within the darkness where his body disappeared, growled within Zoemi’s head.

“As if… Do you think that just because you’ve turned into a vapor of darkness the star power stopped working on you?”

The black-haired boy snickered as the black mist became denser and more visible even from afar.

It is working…! Don’t fool yourself thinking otherwise – I will take over you!

Cherro’s will scoffed wrapping itself around Zoemi in order to swallow him whole.

“Law of Aries.”

*GHAAAAAAAAAA*

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGHHHHHHHHHHH!

𝞸𝗏𝓛xt.𝚌𝓞𝑚

As the black-haired young man clenched his fists and called out, the core of his body reignited into the blazing inferno fueled by the spiritual energy – the scream of mana composing the black mist was almost deafening, but the scream of Cherro’s consciousness being burned away and disintegrated resounded even louder within Zoemi’s mind.

The pieces of the mist tore themselves away to escape annihilation, but the black-haired boy was already winding up to get every single one of them with his fists…

“ZOEMI~!”

“!!!”

Unfortunately, that was the time when Miriette, clueless about the surviving remains of Cherro, chose to cry out to the black-haired boy as she ran down the slope of the crater, stumbling on the debris.

She was coming to Zoemi, ignoring everything to be reunited with her beloved.

“MIRI! STOP! DON’T!”

Zoemi’s tension skyrocketed at the sight of her and he shouted while chasing the pieces of darkness before they would manage to hide from him.

When he lost mana, he lost the ability to see the unique shadows, so he could only rely on his own eyes to spot the whisks of black mist.

“…eh…?”

The dark-haired girl flinched and looked around, confused as to why the black-haired boy was still so panicked despite turning his opponent into a bloody mess.

“…Ekhe…! Ugh…!”

And then, as she opened her mouth and let out a confused sound, the final whisk of black mist slipped through her lips, causing Miriette to flinch and start coughing.

“MIRIETTE!”

Now it was time for Zoemi to call for the dark-haired girl and rush to her in panic, catching her before she slipped and fell on her back while choking on the darkness mana invading her body.

“Urghh…! Ah… now I get it why you wanted me to stay back…! I can hear that bastard inside my head.”

Miriette groaned while frowning, visibly struggling as Zoemi held her in his arms with a worried expression.

“So annoying… doesn’t he know who is he dealing with? Ghh…! He is going all in, I see… it doesn’t matter, I will not let some delusional bastard take over my body!”

The dark-haired girl scoffed although Zoemi could clearly feel how much her body was trembling as she struggled to fight off Cherro’s possession.

“Miri…! What am I supposed to do now?!”

Zoemi gulped down his saliva in panic.

He had the law of Aries and the law of Capricorn at his disposal, but what that could do? Was he supposed to punch the fragment of Cherro’s consciousness out of Miriette?!

Nonsense! Without her physical enchantments – that would not work against the spiritual power in the first place – Miriette was far below average in terms of physical strength and endurance!

What else could Zoemi do…?

“Ah…! Law of Libra! I could use the other laws with it…!”

“Zoemi… it’s not the best time to… you now… speak crazy…”

Miriette scoffed at him, gritting her teeth as she struggled with the fierce internal battle.

“No, I’m serious! It’s like with that guy, William, remember? I will use the law of Aquarius to cleanse your body of all mana. You will get hit with a terrible mana depletion, but Cherro would be gone too!”

The black-haired boy explained, clenching his hands on the dark-haired girl’s shoulders,

“Tsk…! He is nothing…! If you want to help me out… why don’t you kiss me? That will definitely… give me a boost in mental power…”

Miriette frowned and scoffed again, clenching her fists while grabbing onto Zoemi’s already torn and slightly burnt clothes.

“Not much of sedation if you ask me, but we have nothing else. Alright, concentrate on two laws… Guide, this better work… Law of Libra – Law of Aries to the law of Aquarius. Law of Aquarius!”

‘Wait, really…? Dear goodness, ya-mmmmmng~!”

Zoemi raised his brow and snickered, propping Miriette up while he murmured to himself leaning down to the girl in his arms – Miriette was so shaken that she momentarily forgot about the strain in which her body was as she was fighting Cherro, and pulled herself up to meet his lips with her own.