"HALVE!"

(DIVIDE)

The white dragon emperor may as well be screaming his heart out for all to hear atop this nameless mountain.

He's up against a massive being of ice with a girl with an uncharacteristically cruel grin on her face, and his balance breaker sparkles like a newborn star, hovering over his comrades.

Furthermore, the rage in his eyes was palpable.

It didn't matter to the boy that he was currently confronting one of Oz's four great witches and the owner of the Longinus Incinerate Anthem, because this woman had committed an even more heinous act.

"This hag..."

The master spellcaster casts several evocations at the child's small frame, but all the boy does is raise his hand in response.

"Negate!"

(DIVIDE!)

To her surprise, hundreds of the spells Augustus cast are vanishing without a trace.

Vali then directs tremendous quantities of energy onto the body snatcher, who attempts but fails to defend herself.

"This bitch..."

The white dragon emperor then flies over to the massive ice doll and begins to exert pressure on it as well.

"Be reduced to atoms!"

(DIVIDE!)

The half-demon child resisted the doll's attempts to knock him back with its own aura and held his ground.

"How dare she take what's mine!"

"BEGONE!"

(DIVIDE!)

"Not again... NEVER AGAIN!"

"LAVINIA!"

Vali hits himself in defiance, staggering from the unrestrained strength coursing through him.

"Tch, come on body, don't give up on me now!"

Vali forces himself to fly up straight. "If I can't do this, how can I s-!"

But before he could continue, a soothing voice cut him off.

"Vali"

The boy slowly turns around, his eyes wide with surprise, unaware of his friends' screams below.

Right behind him, his servant floats beside him. If the flower print mask wasn't covering it, she would be wearing a somber expression.

"I-I thought you couldn't make it, Melusine." In contrast to how he was yelling before, the boy's tone of voice has unexpectedly changed to something more appropriate for his age.

She lightly hits her master over the head before he can continue.

"It was my fault that I was teleported, so you can rest now."

As soon as she says those final words, the boy loses all energy and collapses in her arms.

Melusine descends gradually, oblivious to Tobio and the others' questions because the only time they'd seen her before was when she appeared to defend them when one of the five families launched a surprise attack.

After handing over her master to a suspicious Samejima, she confronts her "opponent."

"Now then..."

Without looking back, she calls out the name of the person wielding the slash dog.

"Tobio Ikuse." Her tone conveys no emotions.

The young man, stumbling since he was still stunned by her entrance.

"Y-yes?"

"I'll now replace my master in the structured plan and be ready to execute it correctly." Her tone, offering no way to refuse, before he could respond or address any concerns, such as how she found out about the plan or who she was, she turns slightly and speaks in a softer voice for the first time since she began speaking with him. "Don't tell Vali I used my noble phantasm on someone else first before using it on him." She puts a finger to her lips and gives him a slight smile.

Following their conversation with the mysterious person, everyone's mind is left with one question.

"What's a noble phantasm?"

Tobio's aware that he's new to the supernatural world as a whole, but going off on Augusta's suspicious stare, he's certain that our new ally(?) was out of place.

But before he could formulate a response, the servant turns to face the women who were controlling their friend's body.

"And now, witch," She resumes speaking in the same toneless manner she did at the start of Tobio's conversation, but with an enigmatic weight.

"You dare trot into our territory and think you wouldn't be punished?" Removing her mask reveals, in any other circumstance, a surprisingly pretty face, even for someone her age. But the more noticeable trait was her true undying, cold rage on it as she glared daggers at the one who ruled over the east, not so similar to what her so-called master had. "I don't care even if you hold a divine artifact, no one takes what is ours! Now prepare yourself, mage!"

Sensing killing intent, Agustus opens her magic circles all aimed at the girl, and they fire many elements, hexes, and spells at the small girl.

Despite people yelling at her to move out of the way, she sighs and slowly moves in the direction of the spells.

Before they could command their beast to cover her, worry turns to shock at the sequence of events. Even the caster was speechless.

Unlike Vali, who renders all spells completely ineffective, the fairy knight's actions were much simpler, but no less impressive.

Without a single pause...

Facing every single spell with...

Her ruthless strikes.

Hundreds of spells fly by, yet they all match fist for fist.

And all throughout, keeping the same icy stare on the hag.

"..."

Tobio and the others swore they were seeing afterimages of her fists moving at such a fast rate.

All the while continuing to close in on Agustus gradually.

Coming to the same conclusion, the woman let out a "tch," causing her stolen Longinus to fire off ice projectiles.

Despite this, they all met the same fate as her spells, annihilation being the only outcome without forcing her to stop an inch.

"Hah!"

The enormous ice doll changes tactics with the sound of a shout from its master, freezing the surroundings and the servant.

The lancer did nothing but take a deep breath.

"Hmph!"

And with it, the majority of the ice outside of the lake where the witch was standing disappeared.

After exhausting nearly every weapon in her arsenal, Agustus' only option was to stare at the small girl-no monster.

"...What exactly are you?"

She wasn't a devil, angel, God, or mage; the thought of someone with such power existing without notice before this is terrifying.

Instead of responding to her question, she simply walked in the direction of the witch, but with each stride, a sword erupted from her gauntlet.

All the while, she glares and speaks monotonously.

"True Name, Feigned Deployment..."

"The pure lake surface will reflect the moonlight..."

Speaking these words causes the aura to slowly gather around her and begin to sparkle.

"Answer me!" The mage screams out in frustration.

As she speaks these words, an aura begins to form around her and begins to glitter.

"Please respond!" The mage's voice is filled with rage.

For the first time since Vali passed out, her bearing changes. Now having an expression that the witch is boring her, and the question was like the most obvious thing in the world, at least to her, but it has such intensity that it all but tells her prostate.

"Albion."

She charges at the ice colossus and shouts before anyone can react.

"Innocence Arondight!"

Absolute Demise had a massive hole in it and was crumbling before anyone could blink.

Before the witch even realizes what is going on, the fairy knight yells to the high schoolers while flying high above them.

"Go Fallen Dog God! Save her!"

In contrast to before, Tobio reacts quickly, rushes in with Jin by his side, grasps the beads in his palm, and begins chanting.

"Behowlest the slaughter of a thousand mortals."

The pitch-blackness of the night gathered slowly all around him.

"Besingest ten thousand goblins slain"

It envelops and transforms him.

"My name is the Imitation God traversing the Polar Night, which is immersed in the deepest darkness."

His hands become talons, his feet become claws, and his face transforms into a beast with fiery eyes and ferocious fangs.

"Ye perish by my own black blade, O ye"

The previously ambiguous boy sprouts numerous tails, and symbols appear on the weapon of the large dog.

"You are fools, deformed Creator Gods."

"AWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOO—"

Once, a person and his companion howling triumphantly to announce their presence.

The Night Celestial Slash Dog is here.

Not wasting any time, the duo charges at the witch.

"Tch" As the wizard extends her hand in defiance, another massive flame is born. "Even if without demise, I still have my anthem—!"

"You do not."

Before the being of flames could take its first steps, the fairy dragon blasts down obliterating the sacred gear.

"!"

The two black animals were looming over her, ready to deliver a fatal blow, and she couldn't say or think of anything else.

But there was no sound from the strike.

The blow is meant for the soul entering their friend's thoughts, rather than the body.

And it strikes true.

X-X-X

As the Tobio gang stood outside the Grigori hospital, staring up at the sky, the troublemaker Samejima Kouki eventually bit the bullet.

"Sooo… What do you guys think of her? Lucidra-sensei, assumed older sibling?"

After defeating the witch, they heard what they thought was Barkieal approaching, but before they could turn around and question the enigmatic companion, she vanished, leaving no trace.

When Azazel begins to ask about what happened, it is discovered that the dragon plush glitches on a regular basis. They all assume the girl is to blame and that she wanted to remain anonymous because they could still feel some sort of pressure surrounding them. They claimed that the strategy worked without the armored female appearing later. Tobio and Lavinia were confined to the hospital for a few days after being rushed there.

The first to respond was Natsume Minagawa.

"Even if they appeared and behaved so similarly, they couldn't be that different. Hmmm... What's the best way to put it?"

"Um… contrasting?" Sae Toujou guesses timidly at her pondering.

The four fiend users react by snapping their fingers.

"Yeah, that's it!" She then moves to the final participant, who'd interact with the little dragon emperor. "Tobio, any thoughts?"

Tobio answers while assuming a contemplative position with his hand on his chin. " If only I could express it in words... Vali appears to be attempting to mimic Melusine, which is what I'm presuming her name is already."

Even if the origins are still off (Vali was like this long before Lancer), the Longinus user is correct from the outside looking in. Vali appears to be putting on a self-assumed cool guy act, but what he sees as an adult only makes him look like a brat with middle schooler syndrome. Melusine, on the other hand, appears to live and breathe the child's fantasies. She is just a small adult with childish tendencies, if not self-centered and selfish, but almost does what Vali push as if it's second nature.

"But if anything,…"

As they all stare up at the sky, an image of two smiling siblings with smug faces forms in the air.

"Those two are unquestionably related."

They remain silent as Vali introduces Lavinia to the servant. Shigune Nanadaru's sacred gear, the group's newest member, was the only one making a racket while eating... something?

"Poh!"

X-X-X

"So why did you send everyone away Va-kun?"

In response to the older blonde's question, the boy shuffles nervously.

"Well... I'd like to show you something." He responds by scratching his chin.

"So, what exactly is it?" The older girl encourages him despite his shyness.

He wasn't, however, the one who gave her the answer.

"He is referring to me." A disembodied voice echoes through the room, and Vali Lucifer's servant appears in front of her, dressed casually in a blue and red jacket that covers everything but her legs.

"Excuse me, but how did you do that?" Lavinia had to question. Even though she is now resting, it is unusual for someone to bypass her senses, and she assumes she has been here for much longer.

"I–"

But her master cuts her off before she can start a lengthy explanation of her background.

"Her name's Melusine, alright?" He spoke, indifferent to the fairy knight's scrutiny. "The only thing that matters right now is that she is... my sister." It's incredibly difficult to get him to say this on a regular basis, so the glare from earlier morphs into a beaming smile of pride.

"Oh!" Given Vali's past, it is somewhat surprising, but it seems that the demise princess appears to understand that it isn't as simple as it seems but chooses to roll with it. "So, Mel-chan is it? I saw how helpful you were to Va-kun. You have my appreciation. " As she tries to pat her head, the servant moves it away without even opening her eyes.

"San is fine and of course I am."

"San?"

To clear up any confusion, the half-devil continues to explain.

"She is much older than the two of us put together. She's probably around two hundred I think. "

"Two... hundred?" The girl had to repeat it to herself several times.

"Yeah," Vali says, a vicious grin on his face. "While not as awful as Azazel, this is still ancient bat territory."

"Vali… I warned you not to use my age in that way." The bearers of sacred gear notice an increase in the aura in the area. Livinia tenses slightly, but Vali, unfazed, changes the subject.

"By the way, Melusine, what about keeping a secret from me?" Vali asks, his eyes shut and a phony smile on his face, in response to his servant's abrupt aggression.

The pressure is dissipating, leaving behind an uneasy atmosphere reminiscent of a morning mist.

"Albion…"

"I was awake the entire time." The boy dismisses the accusation directed at the dragon within him.

"..."

The fairy had no choice but to pause for a moment before speaking.

"Well shit." The boy's patience broke with that answer while holding a vacant stare.

"MELUSINE, DAMN IT! YOU PROMISED!" She puts her fingers in her ears to try to hear him out as he yells and shakes her.

"Well, as you get older, you'll realize that promises don't mean much in this cruel world, which is a valuable life lesson to learn." She tries to sound as intelligent as possible by speaking matter-of-factly.

The boy, on the other hand, was understandably unwilling to accept any excuse.

"BULLSHIT! Don't try to convince me otherwise; I know you did it out of laziness and you got it from a commercial!"

"Geh."

He understandably got the motive right on the money after living with this person for over a year, but that doesn't mean his servant has to tell him.

"I may or may not have picked it up from an infomercial. The answer is unimportant, and I will neither admit nor deny that I was irritated after being teleported and wanted to get it over with," the servant replies robotically.

"WHY YOU—!"

The girl, who is currently hospitalized, just watches as her eyes bounce back and forth as two similarly sized people argue in front of her and get brazenly off-topic.

"I knew you took the last ramen cup I left hidden!"

"Where's your proof?!"

After observing how differently the way the boy behaves toward his so-called sibling, all she could do was laugh to herself.

"I'm glad to see he could also act like that, rather than being all bottled up," Lavinia couldn't help but feel relieved that this mischievous boy always had someone by his side.

"What's so funny?"

Interrupt her Melusine curtly asks, which surprises her, oblivious to the fact that they are both staring at her, having to gather herself. "It's nothing. I'm just relieved that you're never truly alone when you're off by yourself. " Smiling, she didn't make any attempt to refute her thoughts.

Melusine cracks a sly grin as he blushes and turns his head away. "Well, Albion was still there..." He tries but fails to refute it.

"All right," the magician says, extending her hand to the fairy hero. " I hope we can work well together from now on, Melu-san."

The dragon extends her hand and shakes it as her eyes dilate slightly before softening into a small grin. "I certainly hope so, Lavinia Reni."

"Also, tell that shark guy I'm going to train him to death for insulting my master's bloodline." Her eyes suddenly develop a bright gleam promising pain later, which Vali in turns looks away and refuses to accept any reasonability for what she does next.

Lavinia could only nod and chuckle awkwardly in response, wishing her new friends the best of luck.

X-X-X

*Achoo!* Samejima catches a cold and sneezes. "Someone must be talking about me... Is anyone else noticing a chill in the air?

All shaking their heads, the group denies feeling anything similar.

"Huh," the delinquent thinks, unaware of the horrors that await him.