In the end, I didn’t get much sleep after hearing Lily’s threat. On the contrary, Lily slept soundly without any problems. I watched as the sunlight filled the room from the window, hearing birds chirping outside. My eyes had dark circles underneath them, and my nose was dripping because of the cold night. Lily had somehow managed to take the whole blanket for herself during the night, and we only had one due to the cheap quality of the inn.

“Ah…” Lily yawned, picking herself up from the bed, stretching her arms. She seemed well-rested. She glanced at me in surprise, momentarily forgetting that I was in the bed too. “Oh, right, Kei… you were here.”

“Yep.” I was clutching onto my sides, trembling from the cold. “I-I am here...”

“You look terrible.” Lily commented, getting up from the bed. “Didn’t you get any sleep?”

“No…” I said. Thanks to you. I wanted to say, but held my tongue. I didn’t want to get another ass kicking.

“I’m going to the bathroom.” Lily said, then closed the bathroom door behind her.

I sighed, grabbing onto the blankets that Lily had left on the bed and curling inside them. Ah… it was so warm… I didn’t manage to get to sleep inside the blankets at all the whole night. It felt so comfortable… and… it smelt like Lily…

My face was getting red from the realisation that her scent was all over the blanket. You’re not doing anything perverted, Kei... I tried to cool myself down. You’re just enjoying the warmth after being out in the cold all night… There’s nothing wrong going on here!

It felt so good that I almost fell asleep, not realising how long I was there for, until the door to the bathroom opened, and I heard Lily’s voice calling out to me from above, causing me to jump.

“Come on, Kei. We have a long day ahead of us today.” She said, standing beside the bed, looking down at me. “You’ve already had a whole night to rest. It should be enough.”

I groaned, pulling myself out of the warm covers of the bed grudgingly. Lily was already dressed in her usual attire, now wrapping her dark cloak around herself. The cloak was big enough to cover her entire body, and had a hood that she could use to hide her hair and face.

Lily gave me a repulsive look as I stood up from the bed. My hair was sticking out at odd angles and my posture was slanted due to my tiredness. She seemed unsure of whether she should bring me along or not.

“It’s okay, I’ll be fine…” I said wearily, but tried to force some enthusiasm. Today was probably the day we were going to look for the demon that has infiltrated the city. There was no way I was going to skip out on going along with Lily. There was so much questions I wanted to ask… like why was my village the one that was attacked…?

An image of my family flashed in my mind, and I felt an intoxicating pain stinging my chest. I pushed the image aside, burying it in the back of my mind, suppressing the emotions that were bubbling to surface.

“Kei, you okay?” Lily blinked at me.

“I’m fine, I’m fine!” I laughed, walking into the bathroom.

We were strolling the noisy, city streets together, me trailing behind Lily as I always did. Another reason why I was behind her was partly because the sword and armour was damn heavy to have on. It was taking a lot of effort for me to keep up to pace with Lily, but I didn’t want her to complain about me lagging behind.

She was pacing the streets with her head down, reading the map portion of the king’s parchment intently. People that passed by glanced down at her curiously, as they moved out of her way, since she was almost walking right into people.

I apologised as those that moved out of her way walked past me.

Did she even know where she was going? I stared at Lily’s back, sighing. There were times where she would abruptly change direction or walk back to a place where we had already been before. I was beginning to have my doubts.

“Hey, Lily,” I called out to her from behind, “do you need help with the map? Maybe I—”

“No!” Lily snapped, without taking her eyes off the map. “I’m pretty sure I can read a map without requiring assistance.”

“Suit yourself.” I shrugged.

After several more wrong turns and dead-ends, we stopped in front of a large tavern at the corner of the city. The place looked extremely popular, there were lots of people walking in and out of the tavern. Those that walked out looked extremely cheery, their faces red, laughing in a group.

“We’re here.” Lily said, rolling the parchment back inside her cloak.

“Interesting…” I said, watching a group of drunk men walking out. “Lily, are you sure about—”

“Yes, I’m certain!” Lily snapped at me. “Now, let’s go in.”

I shrugged, following her lead as she walked towards the entry of the tavern. A tall, muscular man in fitted black clothing stood by the door of the tavern. He was even bigger than the shopkeeper we saw yesterday.

As we tried to enter the tavern, the man stopped us, raising his arm to block the door.

“We would like to enter the tavern please.” Lily said, speaking in her polite aristocrat demeanour. It was the same way she spoke to me when I first met her. Oh, how quickly I found out it was all a persona.

I could see a sword tucked onto the side of the man’s belt. He had a long scar running down his face and a serious expression that said he meant business.

“Sorry.” The man refused to budge in front of Lily. “No children allowed.”

“C-c-c-children?” Lily’s persona was immediately shattered, her shoulders stiffening and her face lighting up like a tomato.

The man glanced down at Lily. He was about twice her height, and had a good few inches above me too. He shook his head solemnly. “This isn’t a place for kids. You should go somewhere else.”

“I-I’m not a child—”

“I’m serious.” The man interrupted, his face unmoving. “You need to leave before I get your parents over here.”

Lily’s face darkened, her fists shaking by her side. I could tell she was about to explode. Even I was getting scared, standing by her side. I had never seen her this mad before, besides the time I accidentally fell into her chest.

“Haha, listen, man, you really don’t want to get her mad,” I laughed anxiously, trying to step in between the two of them, “just let us through, we won’t cause any trouble.”

“You can go in, but she can’t.” The man pointed down at Lily. “There’s a playground for kids a few streets away, I suggest you take this young lady there instead.”

Upon hearing this, Lily raised her head sharply, her eyes murderous. She took heavy steps past the man, ignoring his warning, and the man tried to grab her, surprised.

“Hey, you can’t go in—”

The man never got to finish what he was about to say. Before his fingers could even touch Lily’s shoulder, he was immediately blown into the opposite direction with an ungodly amount of force. The air barrier broke, as though an explosion had gone off, and I covered my body with my arms to avoid the aftershock, watching in horror as the man was flung faster than a bullet into a building that was on the opposite side of the tavern.

His body easily smashed through the concrete wall of the building, flying through the interior and out again on the other side of the building, pummeling through each wall he collided into as he disappeared in the blink of an eye. I couldn’t even tell if he ever stopped.

My eyes were wide open, witnessing what just occurred. He was thrown so fast, that even though the streets were crowded with people, no one saw what happened besides me, who was watching the man from the start. The ground was broken in violently from the pathway that he travelled, creating a long straight line that traced his flight.

Was he even still alive? How was that even possible?! My mind was in disbelief as I followed Lily into the tavern. I could hear hysterical voices from behind me, as people gathered at the first building he crashed through, confused as to what happened. Luckily, no one knew it was us.

Inside the tavern, the place was filled with people of many different background. Some were villagers, adventurers, plainly dressed nobles, and there were even a couple of off-duty knights sitting at the bar. All I could hear was the noise of people chattering, laughing, and moving.

Lily was walking ahead of me, still in a bad mood.

“H-hey, Lily! Wait up!” I called amidst the deafening crowd.

To my surprise, Lily stopped, turning to face me with her arms crossed. She waited for me to reach her.

I pushed past a crowd of people, stopping in front of her. “Thanks for waiting, I—”

“I’m going to search upstairs, you stay down here!” Lily shouted into my ear.

I winced, covering my ears and nodding, showing her that I understood.

“Don’t go anywhere!” Lily warned, before flinging around, tossing her hair as she stomped up the stairs of the tavern, where there was an even bigger crowd gathered.

God damn, she seemed pissed. Whoever got in her way today was going to have a bad time.

I sighed, feeling useless. Did Lily really just want me to stand here and wait for her? I thought she was going to take me along with her to find the demon. I didn’t want to just stand around and do nothing all day.

I glanced around the busy tavern, taking note of my surrounding. Well… I might as well just make sure there was nothing suspicious going on down here. It wasn’t like I had anything else better to do.

Walking to the bar, I placed myself discretely next to the group of off-duty knights I saw earlier, trying my best to listen in onto their conversation. Maybe I could get some useful information from them. Their helmets were off, but they were still wearing the full-suited silver armour that was signatory for knights, the Rize symbol printed on their shoulders.

“—and so, I told her that I was going to be sent off with a thousand other troops to Leighton to secure an important military point for the Rize kingdom, and could you guess what she said next?”

“What? Please tell me you at least got laid.”

“No! In fact, she just exploded and said that she didn’t know why I was going over there anyways! She said something like ‘that’s not even part of Rize territory’! I mean, could you believe that? I’m doing this for the Rize kingdom, and all I get in return is one ungrateful woman!”

“What?! That’s outrageous!”

“I know, right? Days like that makes me wonder what I am doing all this for.”

“Hey, hey. Don’t forget this is all for the prosperity of the Rize kingdom!”

“Hear, hear!”

“It’s those damn women that don’t understand anything! Dying in the name of Rize on the battlefield is the greatest honour for us knights!”

Glasses clinked in unison, as the knights downed their beers together.

I took a moment to digest the information I heard.

From what it sounded like, Rize was trying to expand their territory at the moment. Leighton was a neutral city between the borders of Rize and Lunthia. It was probably a pre-emptive move in anticipation of the war with the other two kingdoms; Lunthia and Azrael. The thought scared me as it meant that the war tension was escalating at a faster rate than I had imagined. If there was another Great War… the world of Zenora would most likely suffer heavily.

The first and only Great War that occurred over 500 years ago between the three kingdoms ended up as a total catastrophe. As Lily said the other time, more than half the world’s population was wiped out meaninglessly in a fruitless struggle for power. Pictures of the war I had seen in books showed a permanently darkened sky, raging intolerable weather conditions, and land that was devoid of life, and instead ran an endless stream of blood and disfigured corpses.

The effects of the war could still be felt today, despite how long ago it had been.

…

Could a second Great War really be on its way?

Someone tapped my shoulder as I was deep in thought, and I turned around to see a girl with burning red eyes meeting my gaze. Dark, jet-black hair fell past her ears, running down to her shoulder bones. She was dressed in a gothic lolita-type outfit; her blouse revealing a healthy dose of cleavage, and her frilly skirt stopped above her knees. Long, black stockings, made of an almost transparent material, ran up her delicate legs. She was also wearing similar elbow-lengthed gloves that matched the rest of her attire.

“Hey…” The girl spoke with a playful smile. Her scarlet lips were contrasted by her snow-white skin. She was very pretty. “Are you Kei?”

I paused, slowly turning my body to face her. “How do you know my name? Do I know you…?”

“So, you are Kei…” The girl mused, then glanced around her as though looking for someone. “Listen, Kei… um… could you come with me, please?”

“What?” I gave her a disbelieving look.

She leaned towards me, surprising me, and I edged away, but she moved closer. That was when I realised she was leaning to my ear.

“Are you here to look for a demon?” She whispered, her warm breath touching the skin of my ear.

I glanced at her, surprised and cautious. “How do you know?”

“I can tell you where to find the demon.” She leaned back, that same playful smile still dancing around on her face. “You just have to come with me.”

I hesitated, thinking about her proposal. Lily told me to stay put… and more to the point, I didn’t trust this girl at all.

“No thanks, I’m waiting for someone.” I said.

She sighed. “I guess I have to do this the hard way.”

I raised my eyebrows, but was quickly shocked when she reached out to me, grabbing my arm with both her hands.

“H-hey—!” I tried to push her off me, but she was surprisingly strong. She hugged my arm, pulling me towards her chest as she led me forcefully away from the bar. I could feel her chest pressing up against my arm. It was making me dizzy.

“L-let go of me!” My face was red, trying to pull away but it was futile. She was freaking strong! It was like trying to tug away at a machine. “Where are you taking me?!”

No one at the tavern was taking notice of what was happening. It was too loud and too chaotic to call out for help.

“I’m taking you to safety.” The girl said. “You’re not safe with that person.”

That person… who was she talking about? Could she be talking about Lily?

“You saw what she did with your own eyes. You should know very clearly what she’s capable of.” The girl said, her eyes looking ahead as she led me towards the exit of the tavern. “Unless, that is… you want to end up like the guy she killed just then.”

“Y-you saw that?”

“Uh-huh.” She nodded, glancing around again. “We have to go, quick.”

The sunlight hit my eyes, as we left the tavern. The noise of the crowd inside faded from my ears, replaced instead, by the sound of the bustling streets. There were knights gathered around, inspecting the damage that was done from what Lily did to the tavern’s security guard.

“I really need to go back inside—” I tried to say, but instead what happened next took me completely by surprise.

The girl braced her knees for a brief moment, before leaping into the air, pulling me with her. I gasped, but instantly lost my breath. The ground left my feet, and an immense force pulled me upwards, feeling as though my innards was crushing, as the cold wind fluttered past us. All the blood in my body rushed to my head from the force at which she jumped.

We were flying into the air at a rapid rate, and the streets quickly became an obscure part of the Rize kingdom as the city turned into an aerial view. I could see the entire city from the top-down, the royal palace of Rize in all its glory at the center of everything.

I waved my arm and legs uselessly in the air, flailing around involuntarily. The girl pulled me closer to her, keeping me from falling down to my death.

Suddenly, we were plummeting downwards, heading towards the outskirts of the Rize kingdom. My heart felt like it was going to leap out of my chest. It was an experience I had never felt before.

“ARGH—!!” I clenched my teeth as hard as I could, the wind felt icy and harsh, hurling past my body and pulling at my skin. The view of a forest at the edge of Rize was quickly expanding in my vision, as though I was staring into a magnifying glass that was constantly enlarging.

We were heading down to a clearing in the forest, crashing down from the sky at an alarming rate.

The ground hit my feet hard, and I fell down, feeling the girl release her grip off my arm. I rolled onto the grassy ground, my heart was pounding inside my chest, my breathing uneven and frantic.

“Geez, it’s okay.” The girl said. She landed on her feet without any problem, now watching me with pitiful eyes as I was bent on all fours, my face staring at the ground. I was trying to recover my breath. “You’re fine now.” She said.

“I-I…” I exhaled, sweat dripping down my chin. The adrenaline was still flowing inside my body, and my ears were pounding from the blood rushing to my head. “W-where… where did you take me…?”

I lifted my head up slowly, still not fully recovered, and glanced at my surroundings. We seemed to be in a forest outside the Rize kingdom. There were tall trees encircling us, their branches sheltering some of the sunlight.

“We’re outside the Rize kingdom.” The girl said. “I thought you said you wanted to find the demon.”

I raised my head up, hearing the word demon. “Y-you…” My breathing was slowly going back to normal. I was trying to recollect my thoughts. “How did you jump like that?”

She ignored my question, now turning her back on me. She was looking down at her hand, lifting it up to inspect it. “Lilionel won’t find us here.” She muttered, pulling her long black gloves off her hand, dropping it to the ground.

I stopped. “You know Lily?”

“Of course.” She said, then nothing.

…

I was getting a bad feeling from this.

“Where is the demon you said you would take me to?” I asked.

“Here.”

She turned around, her petite hand raised in the air. It had perfect skin, much like her face.

I waited cautiously, but nothing happened.

I was about to open my mouth to say something when suddenly, a small bubble expanded underneath the skin of her forearm, before disappearing back into flesh.

I blinked. Did I imagine that or…?

Another bubble expanded on her hand, but this time it didn’t disappear. “H-hey…” I said, but lost my voice as I saw what happened next. The bubble exploded, gushing blood down onto the ground. But that wasn’t all. More and more bubbles were now rapidly surfacing on the skin of her exposed arm as though her skin was boiling right off.

“W-wha…” The words couldn’t come out of my lips.

The shape of her arm was violently twisting, stretching and wrenching in horrifying, impossible angles. The once perfect skin on her arm was melting off her flesh, dripping onto the ground like candle wax. What took form instead was a grotesquely deformed arm, with giant claws instead of nails.

“Your…” I raised a shaky finger, pointing at her arm.

“Oh, this?” The girl stared down at her arm. “Try not to be too alarmed.”

“What do you mean…?” I edged away from her slowly. “Who… what are you?”

She sighed, closing her eyes for a second, then reopened them. Instead of the burning red eyes she had on earlier, they were now inhumanely blood red, seemingly alive with a distinct eerie glow, illuminated by a sinister presence.

My heart froze, seeing her eyes. For some reason, they were even more frightening than her horribly disfigured arm. It was like the atmosphere around us completely changed at the same time her eyes changed colours. The once chirping noise of birds and insects, and wing swaying past, disappeared, replaced by a tense, deathly silence.

“I’m Zoel.” She said tonelessly, taking slow steps towards me. Her mutant arm was hanging loosely by her side. “A demon.”

At that moment, a pair of terrifying dark-feathered wings exploded from her back, sending black feathers and dark red blood into the air behind her. The wings extended out from her shoulder blades at a wide distance, covered in sticky blood, as though stretching, before fluttering behind her, causing the wind to blow out chillingly in a circle, sending even more blood splashing into the ground.

There was a ominous aura emitting from her, keeping me from moving and paralysing me with an illusionary fear. Was this... was this a demon's aura?

I had felt the same thing too when I saw Balzard for the first time.

My eyes moved slowly to the sword at my back.

Fuck.

I have to move!

She was approaching me slowly, step by step. Her face as cold as ice.

But, I couldn't move my body. It felt like I had lost control of myself. Now a passenger in the vehicle that was my mind.

She stood in front of me, towering over my frozen body that was lying on my behind, my arms keeping me up. I was staring up at her unmoving because of the aura she emitted.

"I'll make this quick." She muttered, staring down at me with hollow eyes.

"...!"

Her claw came rushing down at my face, and time seemed to slow, my view blurring in front of me.

Was this it? Was this how I was going to die?

She disintegrated in front of me, as the blurring worsened.

What the…?

…

Was I dead?

….

Gradually, my view returned, although everything still seemed blurry. My surroundings had changed. I looked around, confused. I was at the river where I gathered water for my family, and I could feel water streaming past my ankles, the rocky surface of the ground underneath my feet. Everything felt so real… what was this…?

“Kei!”

A voice called out to me, and I turned around.

I couldn’t believe my eyes at who I saw.

Shoulder-lengthed black hair and brown eyes. An innocent face of a girl that had not experienced much of life’s cruelty.

It was Ali!

She was holding a bucket in her hand, looking at me with a confused expression.

“Why are you just standing there, Kei?” Ali asked me. “We’re never going to fill the buckets if you don’t help out.”

I glanced down at my hands to see that I was holding two wooden buckets.

I quickly looked back up at Ali, my mouth gaping. I threw the buckets away, running up to her as best as I could against the stream of the river.

“Kei—?” She started to say, but gasped as I reached her and pulled her into a tight hug, refusing to let go.

“Ali! I thought you were dead!!” I shouted, tears gathering at my eyes. “I’m so glad to see you!”

“I-I…” Ali blushed, glancing away. “What’s gotten into you, Kei…?”

“I had this dream that the whole village was destroyed by a demon! I was then saved by this girl that was a powerful sorceress, a-and I made this weird contract with her to get revenge for you! Then, we went to the Rize kingdom, and somehow I was going to be killed by this demon girl!” I was speaking rapidly, the tears now streaming down my face uncontrollably. “I-I’m so happy it was just a dream!”

Ali listened to me, letting me say everything that I wanted, then smiled gently. “It’s okay, Kei… Everything’s okay now…”

I sniffed, unable to control my emotions, burrowing my face into her shoulder. “I-I… I’m just so happy to see you again…”

“I’m always going to be with you, Kei…” Ali said softly. “You’re my brother... We’re always going to be connected… no matter what…”

“I…”

Suddenly, Ali was blown away from me. The space in between us was distorting, the surroundings disappearing at a rapid rate. I lost my hold of her and I tried desperately to grab at her hand. My body was flying into the air, being tugged away at the opposite direction from her.

“Ali!!” I screamed at the top of my lungs.

“Kei!” She reached out with her hand, frightened and shocked. A strong force was pulling her away from me. I managed to grab onto her fingers, clutching onto them as tight as I could, but the force was unimaginably powerful. I felt excruciating pain all over my body as I grabbed onto Ali, but I still didn’t let go.

“W-what’s happening?!” Ali cried. Her body was up in the air, being pulled away.

“I-I…” I glanced around, the river had disappeared into a blur as though we were travelling at the speed of light. “I-I don’t know!”

I looked back up at her, and she was gone.

“Ali!!”

I felt myself rushing backwards, my view turning into a blur of green, until a forest appeared in place of the green, and I was back at the ground, watching Zoel's claw flying into my face.

“AHH—!!” I reached behind me, grabbing onto the handle of my father’s sword and pulling it out, an insurmountable rage, that I didn’t know I had, surging from within.

Zoel’s face flashed a look of surprise, and I swung the sword, deflecting her attack, then pushed myself off the ground, swinging the sword at her.

She grabbed the blade in between the fingertips of her human hand, stopping it from reaching her. My hands were shaking as I pushed as hard as I could, but was unable to move it a single inch. I screamed, continuing to push the sword down, but it wouldn’t budge.

Zoel stared into my eyes curiously. “Interesting…”

“I-I’m going to kill you!!” I shouted between clenched teeth, glaring at her with an intoxicating look. “I-I will kill you!!”

Zoel pushed the blade away, sending me flying backwards into the air.

I crashed into the tree behind me, snapping its giant trunk, and continued flying further backwards, unable to stop myself. My back continued smashing into trees painfully, but I could barely feel it against my anger.

In front of me, I saw Zoel rushing towards me, her wings stretched, and her monstrous arm preparing to strike. She was travelling at a faster rate than I was flying back.

Her claws rushed at my face, and I swung the sword, deflecting the blow. Her arm came again from the other side, and I met it with another swing of my sword, while flying in the air. The blade clashed with her claws, creating a sharp clanging noise.

“Tsk.” Zoel’s eyes darkened, seeing that I was blocking her attacks. She mumbled something to herself and a shining red light appeared atop the palm of her human hand. The ball of light spun around violently, becoming a ball of flame in the span of a second.

My eyes widened as she threw the ball of flame at me. I placed my sword in front of me, trying to block the attack, but the ball of flame caught onto my sword, quickly spreading to my entire body.

“ARGHH—!!” I screamed. The fire was burning me everywhere, both the outside and inside. It was a scorching pain that sent blinding white flashes into my vision, hotter than anything I had ever felt before.

Zoel flew closer to me, kicking me downwards with her heel.

The power of her kick felt like a giant wrecking ball had dropped on me. I felt all the air in my lungs leaving my body, and I couldn’t even gasp. The path of my trajectory quickly changed, shooting downwards with the movement of her kick

I crashed into the ground, breaking the surface, sending pieces of the ground flying into the air, and slid further still, the ground tearing where I moved. Eventually stopping at a far distance from where I first crashed.

I was still covered in flames, every cell of my body screaming at me to run away.

Zoel landed a few feet away from me, watching me.

I pushed myself up from the ground with all my energy, still clutching onto my sword as tight as I could. Despite the flames burning my entire body, there were only scratches on my body. The scratches went from the tip of my head to my toes, and blood was seeping out of the wounds.

Zoel seemed impressed. “You’re still alive?” She glanced at the fire covering my body. “You should have burnt to a crisp by now.”

“I-I said I was going to kill you…” I panted. The loss of blood was making me dizzy. Half my face was covered with blood. I could feel it seeping down from my hair and over my face. The fire on my body was gradually dying down.

In my mind, I was trying to form a plan, glancing over her body for a sign of weakness, but seeing none.

How the hell was I going to win against her?! She was so freaking strong! I couldn’t even manage to get a scratch on her!

Was this the power of a true demon…? Did I already give out everything I had in me…?

No…

I couldn’t give up now. I couldn’t just die here. I still had to avenge my family!

I gripped firmly to the handle of my father’s sword, bracing myself with the last remaining resolve I could muster.

“You still want to keep going?” Zoel sighed, then raised her human hand to eye level. Her eyes were suddenly very serious. “Well…” A dark ball of demonic energy was materialising inside her hand, bending the dim rays of sunlight that passed through. “Playtime’s over.”

I squinted at her hand, and felt my heart drop.

A sphere of pure blackness was constructing itself out of thin air inside her hand. It was nothing like the ball of flame that she threw at me earlier. This…. was the real deal… It was her true power. There was no doubt about it. I could sense an overwhelming killing intent emitting from Zoel’s aura, unlike anything I had witnessed before. Sparks of destructive lightning cracked into existence, engulfing the ball with more power as Zoel whispered words I couldn’t understand, her eyes closed in concentration.

The ground suddenly jolted violently, and I lost my balance for a second before picking myself back up as fast as I could. I gapped to see that the ground was breaking beneath Zoel’s feet, cracking as Zoel continued channeled her spell. All the wind in the area was being sucked into the black sphere, the giant trees bending, as the energy in her sphere continued to build up.

I stabbed my sword deep into the ground, clutching onto the handle with both hands, to keep me from flying into the air. It was taking all of my strength to hold my position. The force was insanely tremendous!

“ARGH—!!” My teeth was clenched, veins popping from my muscles. I could hardly even keep my eyes open, as the wind cut past my body, leaving deep scratches across my back. The trees around us was breaking now, flying towards the sphere, ripping entire roots from the depths of the earth, and evaporating into nothingness as it was sucked inside the sphere.

I couldn’t do anything but watch helplessly as the sphere reached the pinnacle of its power, and Zoel’s eyes snapped open, now glowing even brighter than before, in its otherworldly vivid blood red colour.

At the same moment her eyes opened, the sphere blasted out of her hand, flying towards me at the speed of a lightning bolt, tearing everything in its path, even the ground. I couldn’t move out of the way no matter how hard I tried. The absorption force of the sphere was relentless, like she had just summoned a black hole in the form of that dark sphere.

“ARRRGGHHHH—!!!”

I stared directly into the sphere, feeling nothing but despair.

This was it.

There was no way I was going to live through that.

The sphere came closer and closer until it was right in front of me, destroying all my hopes of survival. Then all of a sudden, a dark hooded figure stepped in the path of the sphere, their lips whispering.

“Del Tres Efante.”

The figure raised their palm to face the demonic sphere of energy, and the sphere crashed into their palm, instantly vaporising from existence. The absorption force abruptly dissipated along with it, and the whirling wind around us stopped, turning into a calm, gentle breeze.

“Y-you—” Zoel had a look of shock, then her face instantly turned pale with fear, when the figured slowly removed their hood, letting bluish hair with a silver tinge drop down to their back and revealing a pair of cold lapis lazuli eyes.

It was Lily!

Lily smiled, her eyes now beginning to emit an eerie blue glow.

“Playtime’s over.”