The girl in front of them held her staff aloft in an incredibly exaggerated gesture. Her left hand was pressed against her cheek, with a wide gap left between her middle and ring fingers to reveal a single eye. She struck a pose, her lips curling upward into an involuntary smirk.
“Wa-hahaha! The Frost Demon Lord with the pitch-black magic bloodline, Nino Rialti, is invincible, you see!”
‘The last person who said they were invincible stopped thinking a long time ago.’
‘A bratty girl with chuunibyou traits? Who wouldn’t want to throw a punch?’
Aeryllis had certainly seen it all today. Not only had the girl exposed herself, but she was also a familiar face from her memories.
“Witches are attracted to one another. Don’t you think so? My great Rialti bloodline, the ultimate fusion of pitch-black and light, allowed me to sense your arrival in this place!”
“Um… sure, I guess,” Aeryllis replied. Although she maintained her smile, the corners of her mouth were starting to twitch.
She really wanted to give this chuunibyou idiot a piece of her mind. Couldn’t she just speak normally for once?
“Burst open, o gates of the Abyssal Realm! Release the darkness of the present and bring the power of the Frost Demon Lord of the end through the void and into this final world! O fellow witches, will you return to that boring forest cage, or will you join me in changing this shattered world? To be or to die, you have no other choice!”
A vein popped on Sophia’s forehead. A dark shadow fell over her face as she began to walk slowly toward Nino.
Aeryllis could clearly feel the air around Sophia grow heavy. Sophia gripped the hilt of her long sword. Though she still appeared to be smiling, it was a chilling, “nuclear” kind of kindness.
“Ho? You’re approaching me instead of running away? The Blade Soul Witch of Thunder and Lightning! I admire your courage, but you’ve overlooked one thing. Those melee ants of the Witch Hunting Squad have all been forced into total submission by my pitch-black ice magic!” Nino’s momentum surged as she continued to spout her incomprehensible, planet-sized delusions.
“Sisters of the Forest of Darkness, I acknowledge that you possess the Omnia bloodline, which stands above the ultimate fusion of pitch-black and light! But do not be mistaken. My mastery over pitch-black frost magic has long since surpassed yours… Uwaaaah!…”
**[Super Speed Enhancement]**! **[Flicker Slash]**!
Sophia didn’t waste any words. Before Nino could even trigger a spell, she had already leveled her sword against the girl’s throat.
Pathetic!
“Guh… can we settle this peacefully?” Nino’s eyes turned into two wobbling, poached-egg shapes. Tears were on the verge of spilling out.
‘Damned brat. If I hit her once, she’d probably cry for an hour, wouldn’t she?’
It had to be said that a magic swordsman like Sophia, who specialized in speed and agility, was the natural predator of mages.
How are you supposed to play when the enemy dashes right into your face while you’re still chanting?
“E-eh… wahhh! Sister Sophia, you’re a bully! Uwaaaah…” The chuunibyou girl plopped onto the ground. Her previous arrogance vanished as she began to wail, her face covered in tears.
“I… I was just playing around, uwaaa… I haven’t seen Sister Sophia or Sister Aeryllis in several years, ugh… how could you do this…?”
After crying for a long time until her face looked like a messy kitten’s, Nino finally calmed down. She removed the mask that covered the upper half of her face. Her black hair turned gray-white, and her tanned skin faded back to a pale white. After all, silver-white hair with cherry-blossom-colored tips was the hallmark of the Omnia bloodline.
Her face looked slightly youthful, and her pomegranate-red eyes were different from Aeryllis’s, but her other facial features were almost identical. Even the black dress she had been wearing transformed into a white witch’s robe once the mask was removed.
“Let me reintroduce myself. I am Nino Rialti, Sister Sophia and Sister Aeryllis’s little follower.” The gray-haired girl lightly lifted her skirts and performed a standard curtsy. “It is wonderful to see that both of you are safe and sound. I recognized you shortly after you entered North Town.”
“Nino, it’s been a long time. I really miss the days when we played together as children. Now that I’m about to hit you, you’ve finally started speaking like a human,” Aeryllis couldn’t help but tease. Then, she asked seriously, “I’m curious about your mask. It’s much more effective than a disguise potion. Can you tell me how it was made?”
“Mother Rachel made it. She said she’s almost finished with an improved version. If you two want the updated ones, I can bring them to you later.”
The white-haired witch suddenly felt like the disguise potion in her hand wasn’t so great anymore. Who knew that Aunt Rachel possessed that kind of “black technology”?
Aeryllis continued the conversation. “Since Nino said that, where is Aunt Rachel now?”
As Nino organized her words, Aeryllis recalled fragments of memories regarding the aftermath of her mother’s fall—memories that had been buried until her conversation with Sister Ann.
“Mother Rachel is currently the Chief of Staff for the Pope Resistance. We are all quite safe. After Lady Felicitala fell all those years ago, most of the divine races in the temple joined the Pope Resistance.”
“I traveled to the barrier near the Arden Forest many times, but I couldn’t get in. That was a protection meant for you two. I placed several teleportation markers for scrolls near the barrier. I used the scrolls to leave directly from the barrier’s edge to avoid being tracked.”
“Oh? So little Nino cares about us that much?” Sophia’s eyes sparkled as she spoke.
“N-No, I don’t! Sister Sophia, don’t get the wrong idea! I—I wasn’t worried about you at all! I just didn’t want you to cause me any trouble! Y-Yes! That’s right!”
‘Wait, could it be…?’ Aeryllis began to suspect Nino had another personality trait, though she wasn’t certain yet.
Sophia looked for another way to steer the conversation. She was quite excited about one particular question. “In that case, who is the leader of the Pope Resistance?”
“Well, he is a leader with a great deal of charisma among the people. I’ll have to keep that a secret for now, but neither of you are strangers to him.” Nino avoided Sophia’s gaze as she spoke, her eyes darting around.
“Oh my, Nino is quite the naughty one, keeping secrets like that. But Sister Sophia likes that about you.” Sophia seemed to see through Nino’s thoughts in an instant.
Nino, feeling exposed and embarrassed, tried to change the subject with more intense language. “W-What are you talking about! H-How could I possibly have those kinds of thoughts about you! Stupid! Idiot! Shut up!”
“Oh dear, it seems you really do love Sister Sophia more.”
“You… you… what are you talking about now? If you keep talking nonsense, I’ll hit you!” Forced into a tsundere state, Nino’s face turned red all the way to the tips of her ears as she made a futile attempt to hide her feelings.
‘This is bad,’ Aeryllis thought. ‘Chuunibyou plus tsundere… this kid is hopeless.’
***
After a long while, Nino finally calmed down. She suddenly remembered something important. “Oh, that’s right. Sister Sophia, in Sunderland Town ahead, there is a famous dwarf master who is an expert in forging. Mother already spoke with him. You must go there in a few days to have a proper weapon made.”
***
Inside the Papal City, Karenpolis.
The former Temple of Felicitala had been transformed into the Papal City. The usurper, Pope Dusseldorf Ratzinger, had toppled the statue of Felicitala that once stood atop the holy temple, shamelessly replacing it with a statue of himself holding the Holy Scripture.
A blonde, blue-eyed, and beautiful ice queen carrying a knight’s sword walked slowly into the temple. The fact that she was allowed to enter the residence of the nation’s supreme ruler while armed was enough to highlight the Pope’s trust in her.
Adjacent to the holy temple was the residence of the Cardinal—the Pope’s home. After Christina reported to the Pope’s attendants, she was permitted to enter the Pope’s drawing room.
This wasn’t her first time here. Every time she visited, the attendants at the door were different people. Her intuition told her that these individuals were all highly skilled assassins.
“Honorable Pope, good afternoon. I am here to report on the recent witch hunting progress. A total of twenty-three demon women have been captured and delivered to headquarters.”
“As cold and heartless as ever, my Great Knight Commander. How have you been lately?” The man who had been a white-haired elder not long ago had strangely regained his black hair, as if time refused to leave its mark of aging on the Pope.
The knight princess performed a salute, one hand over her chest. “I am well, Your Holiness. I have one more matter to report. A rare and powerful magical reaction appeared in the Arden Forest recently. There were even witnesses who claimed to see the silhouette of a giant dragon in the sky.”
“I can feel that familiar magical reaction. However, the time is not yet ripe. More accurately, I still need to absorb more power before I can break that cursed barrier in the Arden Forest.”
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