Saint Knight Lola Bell, why is this woman here?
This woman who claims to be Aurora’s younger sister—if she remembered correctly, hadn’t that younger-sister personality already been replaced by her? But then why, just now, did she see such a strange emotion in her eyes when she looked at Aurora? What was her real purpose in coming here?
Beatrice stared intently at the woman on the podium, who was calmly giving her lecture. The feeling she gave now was completely different from when Beatrice had first met her.
When she first saw this red-haired woman, she was like a child, unable to hide her emotions. An almost pathological possessiveness burned in her fiery red eyes. Every action she took seemed to be driven by her own desires. But now, Beatrice couldn’t see a hint of genuine emotion beneath that false smile.
A sense of wariness rose in her heart. If this woman’s purpose in coming to the Academy was Aurora, then this trouble had to be eliminated as soon as possible.
Thinking this, Beatrice’s gaze shifted slightly to the side, glancing at Aurora. Suddenly, her eyes widened.
In Aurora’s eyes, she saw nostalgia, sorrow, and even a trace of heartache. That heartache—she had never seen that look before. Jealousy and anger welled up inside her. Why? Whether it was pain, sadness, or anger, shouldn’t those feelings be shown only to her? Why show them to someone else? It should be enough for her alone…
She gripped Aurora’s hand tightly and pulled her even closer.
No matter what she came here for, she had to make her understand one thing: Aurora belonged only to her, both in body and soul…
On the podium.
While writing and lecturing at the blackboard, Lola Bell suddenly felt a chill behind her.
The murmurs and whispers of the students faded from her ears, replaced by a cold wind that shouldn’t exist in the classroom, whistling past her…
She looked around and found that, at some unknown point, the classroom had transformed into a vast desert. Sand stretched under her feet, and vultures circled in the sky.
“Space Magic, is it…”
She set down her teaching wand, smiled, and slowly turned to meet Beatrice’s gaze, who was hovering two meters away on a broom.
“Teacher Eisenberg, is there something about my lesson you’re unsure of?”
“Heh. No, actually, you explained everything perfectly. I couldn’t have put it so clearly myself, especially about Light Magic. However…”
As she spoke, Beatrice snapped her fingers toward the sky.
In an instant, a purple Magic Circle appeared in the air, and viscous purple sludge began to flow from it, dripping onto the sand below.
The purple sludge bubbled like a boiling kettle, then started to rise and take shape, eventually forming into a giant hunting hound.
…You’re starting to become an eyesore.
“I don’t like beating around the bush, so let’s get to the point. What exactly are you here for?”
Facing the black-and-purple hound, which glared at her menacingly, Lola Bell maintained her smile and calmly replied, “I’m only here to take back what belongs to me.”
“What belongs to you? Don’t tell me you mean the dignity I trampled that day? Hahaha…”
“I’m here to take away my sister, Aurora.”
Beatrice’s smile froze at those words. Her laughter instantly faded, replaced by a cold, icy expression.
“Heh.”
‘Snap.’
Without another word, she snapped her fingers again.
The giant hound at her side, upon receiving the command, immediately charged toward Lola Bell.
Formed from sludge, the hound bared its terrifying fangs as it lunged at her, its claws stretching to nearly two feet long.
But the expected scene of Lola Bell being torn to shreds never came. Instead, the hound instantly turned into a cloud of purple smoke, dissipating into the air.
Lola Bell flicked the sludge from her sword blade and returned the Holy Sword to its sheath.
“If possible, I don’t want to kill you right now. After all, if I kill you before my sister completely forgets you, it would only make her sad.”
“You bastard…”
Beatrice was thoroughly enraged by those words and snapped her fingers in the air once more.
“I’ll show you the price for your arrogance.”
As her voice fell, the ground suddenly began to shake violently. Countless enormous purple tentacles burst from the sand, each nearly twenty meters tall. One of them even seemed about to pierce the clouds, as if intent on wrapping up the entire sky.
Surrounded by these giant tentacles, the sand beneath Lola Bell’s feet slowly began to slip away. She could feel the ground she stood on being lifted.
The tentacles started to close in from all sides, gradually blocking out the sky. Lola Bell was completely trapped.
Beatrice didn’t care if she was a Saint Knight or not. Anyone who dared to take Aurora from her would die. She had killed entire towns before—what was one Saint Knight to her?
“Heh, ‘little sister,’ is it? Don’t worry, once you’ve turned to sludge, I’ll mold you into a little figurine and put you by my bedside. That way, every night, you can watch your beloved sister’s face twisted in pain.”
“Pain… Tell me, what did you do to my sister?”
Within the tentacles, Lola Bell slowly drew her Holy Sword, and was soon completely engulfed.
Just as Beatrice thought the red-haired woman had lost all ability to resist, golden Saint Light suddenly burst forth from within the tentacles. The purple sludge instantly vaporized into smoke, dissipating into the air.
Lola Bell, radiating golden light, still stood in place. Her smile was gone, replaced by a sick, frenzied, and unsettling look that inspired fear.
“What did you… do to my sister?”
Her head tilted slightly to the right, but the pupil on that side did not match the golden light radiating from her body. The right pupil, which should have been gold, was now black and red. It was the same as when Beatrice first met her, but the only difference was her control over her power.
“Tch.”
Beatrice instantly sensed danger. She could feel the magic power radiating from the woman before her was enough to cover even the ground beneath her feet. In other words, she was well within her opponent’s attack range.
Beatrice soared into the air, thinking she could catch her breath. But in the next moment, the woman on the ground suddenly unfurled a pair of huge white wings and appeared in front of her in an instant.
With a swing of her Holy Sword, she slashed through Beatrice’s ten barriers, cutting through each one as if slicing through paper.
As the blade was about to break through the ninth barrier, Beatrice’s figure vanished, reappearing more than a hundred meters ahead. In her hands, several purple Magic Circles had already formed, each inscribed with complex patterns, some even glowing with a menacing red light.
“Damn it, do you think I’m afraid of you?!”