The sensation felt superior to their previous kisses and was more wild and lustful – maybe because having her mind away from the proper behavior and manners, Miriette let herself go wild.

Despite Zoemi being the one wanting to get the whisk of darkness out of her, Miriette was the one to have her tongue enter his mouth in a hungry deep kiss.

*haaaaaaaaaaaaaa* *GHAA*

With that action serving as a trigger for the activation of the law of Aquarius, Miriette’s mana evaporated with a soft sound of the person breathing out in relief while the small fragment of Cherro’s consciousness got evaporated with the woeful scream of a tormented soul.

Unfortunately for Miriette, that was also the time that her consciousness was cut off because of the mana depletion.

She was probably the first person to suffer such severe consequences of mana depletion – but truth be told no one before suddenly got their mana wiped out so suddenly.

All in all, she could end up worse – much worse, even – considering her position.

In turn, she ended up slumping limply in Zoemi’s arms while the thin line of drool still connected her lips to the lips of the deeply blushing black-haired boy.

“…”

Zoemi breathed out trying to calm down – in all seriousness, the passionate kiss pushed out the worry and tension right out of the young man’s mind.

Miriette was safe.

Unconscious but definitely safe. Her steady breathing was enough proof of that.

As Miriette’s head slumped against Zoemi’s chest, making him smile, the black-haired boy raised his head to look around.

“I wonder how far from the capital are we…? This place looked like a wasteland even before I landed…”

Zoemi thought out loud to himself while beginning to walk up the slope to get to the unconscious gold-haired boy that Miriette put to the side before running off to him.

*thump*

“…nnng…? Huh…? Zoemi…? Oh, and Miriette is with you… So I guess we all died…? Nooo… If I die, Patishi and Veo will be sad… I don’t want to leave them all alone…!”

As Zoemi sat down heavily by Horeo, the unconscious young king actually woke up and started mumbling after having a single look at the black-haired boy’s face.

“…heavens above…! Horeo… you… you are actually drunk off of mana depletion?! Weren’t you a sage?”

Zoemi raised his brows and gasped, immediately recognizing the reason for the rather loopy behavior of his gold-haired best friend, even after loosing the ability to see the unique shadows.

“I… I am not sure… I suddenly got lightheaded at the same time that this cunning fox lost her time attribute… Zoemiii…! I can’t believe you dieed…!”

Horeo mumbled, sniffling and grabbing onto his friend’s arm.

“Well… I am actually alive right now, and so are you and Miriette, though… But I appreciate the sentiment.”

Zoemi patted Horeo’s shoulder back with a cheeky smirk while glancing at Miriette making sure that she isn’t uncomfortable in her sleep.

“Wait… you alive…? But then… wouldn’t that mean that I and the cunning fox are alive too…?”

Horeo looked at Zoemi’s hand and furrowed his brows looking up at the black-haired boy’s face.

“Yeah, you are. Look at her, alive and as cute as ever.”

“Nnng…?”

Zoemi nodded and propped Miriette a bit higher before poking her cheek with his finger, making her let out a confused groan.

“…oooohhhhh…. what about Arisu…? Or Cherro… however it was supposed to be…?”

Horeo sat himself up with great trouble and tilted his head, looking around, taking in the full view of the carnage for the first time.

“Oh, no. He is definitely dead. I am reasonably sure about that.”

Zoemi assured him, letting out a relieved sigh while smiling at Miriette’s sleeping face.

“…good… He deserved that… Teo, Benevirau, that acid magician – Roiso and Mirienne – I’m sure they will be laughing at him and that traitor Ehmi from above…”

“…wait… all of them… died…? They weren’t just teleported away or…? Wai… they were killed by the Ghosts of Bellcephora they were paired together with?!”

The young king breathed out and nodded with a solemn smile – under the mana depletion he acted like he truly was, this kindhearted personality was normally buried and hidden even deeper than his tyrant persona – still, the information he shared certainly shook Zoemi to the core.

“Not at all. Everyone won their respective fights. I was led to believe that the bunch of old traitors are already gone. Miriette fought with Kiroterell, Your two sentinels annihilated, like, six others. Elsby and the other sentinel got rid of Oktria, I finished off Carcassuss… Benevirau, Mirienne and Roiso, and Metavicero got three, including Kirissu.”

The young king started counting, and had to take break to catch a breath.𝞸𝗏𝓛xt.𝚌𝓞𝑚

“The problem started when we got back and Ehmi broke free to help her husband… She killed most of them, just to be killed by the guy she was married off to… While we speak about heartbreaking disappointments… Miss Metavicero… she surely will hate me after everything I said tonight… I will have to apologize. Alternatively, if you could use that fancy time magic and bring our fallen allies ba…”

Horeo shook his head, before slowly raising it and looking hopefully at Zoemi.

“I can no longer use magic. I don’t have even a speck of mana to use anymore.”

Zoemi’s expression turned blank as he stared bitterly into the distance.

“Oh… well, happens. But, if you don’t have mana, does that mean that you aren’t in pain anymore?”

The young king nodded in disappointment, but instead of blaming Zoemi or complaining about the disappearance of convenient ability, he looked back at the black-haired boy and smiled in reassurance.

“Yeah. Now everything is fi-GH-UHGH…!”

*splat*

“ZOEMI?!”

Zoemi smirked and nodded, when his body suddenly trembled and he spat out a mouthful of crimson-red blood, causing Horeo to shout and get up to his knees in shock.

“…GH-OUGH…! Wha… what ish ghoing on…?”

Zoemi coughed up even more blood again and asked, feeling the metallic taste fill his mouth while he could feel a tickling in his nose.

“ZOEMI, YOU ARE BLEEDING!”

Horeo o panicked and hurriedly tore off his shirt and put it to his friend’s face.

“Wha…? Frhom where…?”

“Your mouth and nose! You are hurt after all! And really seriously too!”

Zoemi asked unable to swallow all the red liquid in his mouth, getting Hroeo to panic even more.

“N-no? I… I don’t think so… I… ah… Mana is poison… they all said that to me at some point, didn’t they?”

The black-haired boy shook his head and mumbled in confusion, before realizing something and freezing up.

“Mana is poison? But, isn’t mana literally everywhere around us? In air and ground and Miriette an me?”