Author's Note: Stage three! I had to change the circumstances of the battle a bit, so it would fit Sanae's personality in my opinion, hope that ended up well! As for response to the review, ahaha, I guess that would be normally the case, however, let's say that Sanae is actually "playing on the harder difficulties" and the baka fairy just ended up declaring "easy version" of her spell card by mistake. Without further ado, please enjoy the chapter!

Sanae landed near the mansion, she was still some distance from it, but she felt a bit exhausted from all the dodging and flying, and the mist wasn't helping too, so she wanted to take it slowly for a bit and walk there.

Thankfully, no fairies attacked her during the walk there, perhaps they were reluctant to attack her after she defeated a fair amount of them without even getting hurt in the process.

Or perhaps they were scared to get that close to the mansion...

She was getting closer to it, so she took a good look at it.

The mansion was enormous, the size of it reminded her of some kind of castle than anything else. The building was also scarlet-colored, windows, walls, everything. The architecture style also looked like European one. There was also some kind of clock tower on the roof of the mansion. According to the clock, it was afternoon, close to the evening already.

Huh? Did she really take that much time getting here? Well, then again, she got delayed a lot by the fairies and the youkai.

Now, that she took a look at the mansion, the mist was actually coming from the roof!

Looks like she hit the jackpot! The only thing left to do was to confront the owner of the mansion. But she still felt a bit uneasy, the one that spread that mist must be extremely powerful. She only hoped that when it came to fighting them, she would be able to match them in prowess.

After a bit of walking, she finally reached the mansion. She was standing some distance away from the gate.

There was some woman standing guard near it.

She had aqua-blue eyes and long, scarlet hair. She was wearing a green beret and dress that resembled traditional Chinese clothing of some guard.

The gatekeeper noticed the wind priestess and addressed her.

-Stop right there! My mistress isn't expecting any guests, so turn around and go back where you came from, human.

-Oh! Your outfit reminds me of a character from a manga that I read some time ago.

The gatekeeper was surprised.

-You read manga too?

Sanae smiled.

-Of course, I do! Do you like reading them too, Miss gatekeeper?

She waved her hand dismissively.

-Just call me Meiling. Calling me "miss" makes me feel old. I'm a big fan of them!

The wind priestess nodded.

-Got it! I'd like to talk about them more with you, but I really need to speak with your mistress, could you please let me pass?

The gatekeeper had a troubled look on her face.

-I'm sorry, but I can't do that, but how about we decide this with friendly danmaku duel? If you win, you're free to enter the mansion, then perhaps when we're all done we could swap our manga next time we meet?

Sanae nodded happily.

-I'd love to! Let's do this then!

Both wind priestess and gatekeeper floated to the air, preparing for their duel.

Sanae declared her spell card first, she used her weakest spell card Esoterica "Gray Thaumaturgy"

Meiling didn't flinch and dodged the spell card easily, she was certainly something else compared to her previous opponents.

-Wow, that's impressive! The last opponents that I fought didn't really put up a fight.

-I'm training every day to protect the mansion from intruders, so, this is nothing for me!

The gatekeeper then declared her own spell card Rainbow Sign "Colorful Rainbow Wind Chime"

The pattern of the spell card was certainly more challenging than the spell cards of her last opponents.

She actually had to concentrate on dodging to get past it.

-You're not half-bad yourself! You did gracefully dodge my spell card without much issue.

Sanae smiled in response and declared another spell card Miracle "Night with Overly Bright Guest Stars"

The gatekeeper was actually struggling with this one, it looked like she could dodge some easier spell cards, but she really had trouble with complex ones. But even so, she did dodge the spell card, even though it was sloppily done so.

This time Meiling didn't say anything and declared another spell card Colorful Sign "Dazzling Color Typhoon"

The wind priestess noted that this was a harder spell card than the previous one, but it wasn't that much harder, so she could get past it with a bit of concentration again.

Sanae likewise didn't say anything and declared her spell card Preparation "Star Ritual to Call the Godly Winds"

Gatekeeper at first was doing good, but then she slipped and got pelleted by the danmaku one by one, making her lose her balance and fall to the ground.

Sanae dissolved her spell card and landed on the ground to check on her.

Meiling just laughed heartily.

-Ahaha, I guess, I'm just not that good at danmaku. Well, looks like you did win, so you're free to enter! Beware, though, you will meet more dangerous opponents than me there.

Sanae nodded and started heading towards the entrance of the mansion.

-Wait! Before you go, can I ask you for your name? I did tell you mine, after all.

The wind priestess turned around to face the gatekeeper.

-I'm Sanae Kochiya! I'm shrine maiden of Moriya Shrine that's at the top of Youkai Mountain. If you get a day off sometime, you're free to visit us there!

Meiling scratched the back of her head.

-Considering that I let you go past me, I most likely won't get one anytime soon, but I'll consider it in future!

The wind priestess gave her thumbs up and moved towards the entrance.

It was time to find that mistress of this mansion and stop her from spreading this mist.