Tokyo Dome was the dream of all idols and girls that dreamed to be idols. Currently, it was being occupied by the world's top idol, Stella, and her Cards. Though, to the normal people, they were just the biggest idol group in the world.

Over 50 thousand people were present, waving their penlights with such synchronism that it seemed like some military exercise. And there were probably even more people watching through the internet. All together, there were probably millions of people watching her now. That is simply how big of a phenomenon Stella was.

Stella and her girls sang hit after hit. The fans' excitement grew, and Stella could literally feel it.

She felt their mana coming to her. Simply having people thinking of her gave her mana, but Stella still preferred collecting it like this.

A part of the song where Stella left center stage for her Cards came, so Stella figured she'd take this chance to observe her Cards while she took a little breather.

Those 14 girls were all top beauties, chosen by hand by Stella. After accepting them as her Cards, Stella had also personally trained them, so she was proud of how much the public was cheering.

There was 1 girl that was special, that was Myaa Nekobe. She was a mixed-blood devil who approached Stella slightly before the athletic festival in Ginsei Academy. She worked hard and not only became one of Stella's Cards, but also became popular enough Stella felt she could probably retire and simply live as Myaa's manager.

That's not to say the other girls were bad. They were all the best of the best. They had to be. A Devil King Candidate can only have up to 14 Cards, but Stella chose a meritocracy to pick her Cards.

In short, she created a company called Star Productions to manage herself as well as her girls. That company managed many idol groups, but its main group was simply called Stars, which was Stella and her Cards' group. Stella admitted the 14 best girls into this group as well as into her Cards, but that also meant that, if they weren't careful, the girls from the other groups could very well take their place.

The time for Stella to take center back came, so she headed into position. Just as she was going to continue her song…

Everything went dark. Stella thought there may have been a power outage, but the screen behind her came back right after, but rather than a video, all that was playing on it was static.

The fans were unsure if this was part of the show or some real problem. Rather than let their uneasiness grow, Stella figured she might as well just be sincere with them.

"Everyone, it seems we're going through some problems. Please remain calm."

That said, Stella herself was uneasy. It would be one thing if it was a power outage, but the screen was on, so it couldn't be that. She wondered what the staff was doing.

Then, the static disappeared from the screen. Stella thought 'finally' for a second, but then saw things weren't back to normal yet.

The screen was still mostly dark, but some white text appeared on it. It read:

"No more interest in Stella Hoshigaoka. Go home, throw away everything you have related to her. You may as well forget her entirely."

Could this be some prank? That's what Stella thought. She was used to dealing with haters on the internet, so she just reminded herself to keep calm.

"Sorry, it seems there are still technical problems. Please just wait a bit more."

Stella thought this would be no big deal. If anything, it would probably work to her benefit given time. She could already imagine the internet blowing up with posts about her being unfairly attacked in the middle of her show.

But Stella couldn't believe what her eyes saw. Her fans were getting up and leaving. Even some of her staff were going out. She could understand it if they had to cancel the show, but not even 5 minutes had passed.

She couldn't have possibly known, but that was Brain Washer, Hisoka's Characteristic Magic. The name was very self-explanatory, it could brainwash people. Its limitations were that it only worked on humans and through screens.

But it was a deadly blow to Stella. One by one, she could feel her fans' mana being cut from her. The internet, which once allowed Stella to collect mana across the world, now made basically every human who knew Stella forget about her. Her devil fans weren't affected, sure, but the bigger part of her audience was human, and some of the devil fans simply went with the flow as well.

"S-Stella-samyaa, what's going on nyaa?"

"I also want to know that."

For now, Stella could do nothing but watch as everyone left. But it wouldn't be long until she was forced into action.

As soon as the last fan left, the lights came back on. And with them, a new girl was up on the stage. Stella recognized her. Tanned skin, clothes that exposed those tan lines and blonde hair. It was Summers, Sun's Candidate and Stella's self-proclaimed rival.

The first thing Summers did was take out her phone and take a photo of Stella.

"Pff, hahaha! You should see your face."

"You did this?"

"Me? No, I don't have that kind of power. But I did make the plans for this, yeah."

Stella figured as much. There was no way Summers wouldn't be involved in this.

Stella heard a while back that Death's Group had basically disbanded, but it seems Summers got some help to fight Stella. That said, Stella can only feel Summers close by.

Horoscope, Stella's Characteristic Magic, was unusable without the mana from her fans. But if it's just Summers, Stella can handle her with the mana she still has. After that, she can ask Neith or Lizel for help while she finds a way to regain her fans.

But something quickly made Stella throw these plans out the window. Her luck might have been gone, but her instincts were still on point. Rather than using her mana for an attack, Stella used her mana to teleport her Cards and the staff that remained out of here.

A second after, a black blob of liquid fell where they were. That liquid then took the form of Death's Candidate, Lost.

"So you'd save other people before yourself? Not sure if that was the right move."

Lost had tried to eat Stella's Cards to gain their powers. The girls may have been no good in a fight, but Lost figured he might as well use them as appetizers since he promised to let Summers have her fun with Stella first.

When Stella saw Lost's form made of black liquid, she remembered the man that killed her parents and brother. But, instead of going after her, Lost turned, maybe trying to find where Stella had sent her Cards.

So Stella was left with but a single choice:

"Release!"

Stella shouted, making sure Lost would hear her. When the Candidate broke the contract with their Card, it was called Release. What Stella had just done was let go of all her Cards, taking away all reasons Lost had to go after them.

"Are you dumb or something?! If you had used them as a distraction, you could have lived for longer."

"Shut up! I just have to deal with the 2 of you at once!"

Even Stella didn't really understand why she did what she did. She's not a bad person, but if she must choose between her own life and someone else's, of course she'll pick her own. Yet, she didn't want those girls to die because of her. Maybe she'd grown a bit soft.

She didn't think she could fight both Summers and Lost as she was now, but she had to keep up the bravado. At least long enough for her to escape. She had enough mana to teleport once more.

"So the little girl who made her entire family sacrifice themselves to save her can now save other people? I guess you really have grown."

It was a strange man's voice, but it stuck to Stella's mind for some reason. She turned to look at Lost and then remembered the man who had killed her entire family way back.

That man had also been part of the Golgothas' experiments, and had been eaten by Lost at some point. Whether Lost had decided to tease Stella a bit or had been taken over again was unknown. What was known was that he transformed into that man.

Like a deer in the headlights, Stella's legs started trembling and her brain stopped working properly. She had reversed back to the little girl from all those years ago.

"Hey, master Lost, you said you'd let me dispel my grudges."

"I know, I know. I'll let you have your fun before I eat her."

Stella wasn't even properly paying attention. She only remembered she was still in a fight when she felt an incredible heat behind her.

"Prominence!"

It was Summers' other Characteristic Magic. Prominence created a miniature sun on the palm of her hand. Summers then threw the mini-sun at Stella.

The right move would have been to dodge, but Stella was too out of it to do it. If Horoscope had been active, something would have happened to help Stella. But it wasn't, so Stella was left with the wrong move.

"Barricade! Kyaaaaa!"

"Hahaha! Burn, bitch, burn!"

Just the heat from Prominence was already a lot to handle, but it easily broke through Stella's Barricade as well.

As a reminder, Stella was born with a very low mana capacity for noble devils. Her fans' mana wasn't just meant to feed Horoscope, it also allowed Stella to put up a fight. Without it, Stella was much weaker than the usual noble devil, even more so a Devil King Candidate.

When Prominence broke through Stella's Barricade, she felt the heat on her palm. Stella's body dodged on its own, and with good timing to boot. If it had taken a little more, Stella would have been left with no hand rather than just a burned hand.

"I'm not done yet! Take a few more!"

Not giving Stella any time to rest, Summers fired more mini-suns at her. Stella was forced to jump out of the stage, but it wasn't enough to save her.

Summers continued firing more mini-suns at Stella. Stella didn't notice it, but Summers was directing where she wanted Stella to go. By the time she noticed, there was no more way out.

"Supernova!"

"Gaaaaahh!"

Right after Summers shouted that, her mini-suns expanded and then exploded. Of course, Stella was caught up in the blast and took a lot of damage.

The right side of her body was burned, almost charcoal even. And the dirt that fell on her wasn't helping. But, at this point, the pain was so much that Stella's brain simply stopped processing it.

But Summers wasn't done with her yet. She flew to where Stella was, grabbed what remained of her clothes and then started punching Stella.

Of course, it was no normal punch. It was powered by all spells Summers thought would make it hurt more. But again, by now, Stella barely felt anything.

"Why do you seem so weak? You're making me look bad. Not that I'm complaining."

One more punch, and Summers left Stella with her face in the dirt. It seemed like a big weight had been lifted off of Summers' shoulders.

"Master Lost, you really don't want to rape her?"

"I'm good. If you're done, can I eat her now?"

"Just a little more."

Summers wanted to make Stella feel all kinds of humiliations possible, but that one was one she couldn't do herself. She regretted not bringing Balance, Marios and his Cards now.

Summers decided she'd content herself with just beating up Stella a bit more. But her next punch hit the ground. Stella wasn't there anymore.

"Pf, even all fucked up like that, she still tricked you."

"Shut up, don't you want to eat her? Then we better find her."

Summers and Lost began looking for where Stella had teleported to.

Because of how little mana she had to work with, Stella wasn't able to go very far. And ironically, she teleported face-first into a mud pit. It wasn't deep, so it mainly just got her dirty, but strangely the mud helped a little with the burns.

"Aaa, gaaa!"

Stella had to pull herself out of the mud, but she couldn't do much more than rest against a tree. She had probably teleported to some park near Tokyo Dome.

No matter how much she tried thinking of a way to escape, it seemed like this was Stella's end. Without mana and hanging on to her life by a single thread, there wasn't much she could do now.

[I saved you when you were a child because I wanted to play with you, but I won't do it now. So, what's going to happen next?]

Stella thought she heard someone, but there was no one nearby. She figured she was probably just hallucinating.

"I guess I should just accept it…"

She told herself, but, much like everyone else, she didn't want to die. She cried, hoping for anything that would let her live.

Then, something fell out of her pocket. Stella grabbed it and saw it was a magic crystal. It took her a second to remember what exactly this was.

Months ago, right before Lizel pretended to be kidnapped by Aspite, Stella met with Yuuto and gave him a magic crystal that would teleport him to her if he broke it. She said she'd save him, so long as he gave her his Cards after.

Yuuto accepted it, but he also asked Stella to make one for herself, he said it was so that they could help each other. Stella found it funny and agreed to his proposal.

She did that because she figured there was no way a human would make it far in the Devil King War, even more so with Lovers Arcana. But, as time passed, Yuuto proved himself quite strong, so Stella just forgot about this. It's ironic that it was her last chance of making it out alive.

"Where are youuu?"

Stella heard this voice that reminded her of her past. She knew it was Lost saying it, but the voice was just like that man's from long ago. So she froze for a second.

"Found you."

Before she noticed, there he was. The man who'd killed her entire family was there to finish the job. Rather than dash towards her, Lost walked slowly, making sure to terrorize her with every step he took.

"Aaaaaa! Aaaaaaa!"

Desperate, Stella tried to break the magic crystal, but she couldn't muster up enough strength. So she hit it against the ground, and again, and again.

She probably broke a few fingers trying, but Stella managed to break the magic crystal just before Lost got to her. She was gone before she could be eaten.

"What?!"

"Who's the dumb one now?"

"Is this thing working? You're forgetting I'm your master?"

"Meh."

Again, Psyconnect's effects were… quite interesting, on some people. Regardless, Lost decided to stop playing around and actually look for Stella.

He looked all over Japan, but couldn't find her. Summers couldn't even feel her mana. In the end, he and Summers simply had to assume she teleported and died somewhere no one would ever know. Quite ironic for the world's former top idol.

But what actually happened was quite different. She had teleported to Yuuto, who was in Italy at the time. Yuuto felt some strange mana around him, so he stopped training for a second.

"Woah!"

Was all he managed to say when Stella showed up in front of him, almost dead. Yuuto immediately asked Michael to heal her.