Chapter One Hundred-Six: Qualities of Humanity

"It's…over for us,"

The seven who were trapped in Glamour World stood in silence, repeating the words Reve had just spoken to them in their minds.

However, the first to break the silence was Rades. "Nice try, but we're not dying here, I have to get revenge on Licht,"

"On Licht? And what exactly has he done to gain your ire?" the possessed dream mage was curious.

"He talked about making us and our group powerful, we were supposed to take over the Clover Kingdom, but he backstabbed us and left us for dead!"

To his surprise though, that garnered a chuckle from her. "And what's so funny?"

"Licht can't have done any of that, he's been in slumber, even now he somewhat is. The one you speak of is Patri,"

Rades tilted his head. "Patri? So, Licht isn't his real name? And it's instead somebody else's name? Which he for some reason took for himself?" he was trying to make sense of it, but gave up halfway. "Licht, Patri, I don't give a shit about what he wants to call himself, my point stands, that bastard is going to pay,"

"You are wrong again, human, after all, the only way you can possibly leave here is as a corpse," she said.

"Hey, the corpse talk is my thing," he fired back as he faced his male ally. "Valtos, get us out of here,"

"No problem," he nodded, making a portal in front of them.

"Ah, the perks of a spatial mage. Well, we'll just be on our way, have a shitty night," Rades walked toward it, but instead of entering it like he's done many times before, his body slammed into it.

"Shit!" he held his nose that was throbbing. "What the hell?" he extended a hand, but it too was denied entry. "Damn bitch, what did you do?"

"Here in Glamour World, my imagination becomes reality," she answered simply.

"Is a spell like that even possible?" the wraith mage said aloud to himself.

"As you can clearly see, it is,"

"So you're saying that it's even possible for you to alter the properties of magic?" the question came from Vanessa.

"Not exactly," she confessed. "When it comes to that portal you're trying to get out from, I merely conjured a thin, invisible, and indestructible material to go in front of it that's obstructing you,"

"If that's how you're doing it, the solution is simple," Valtos attempted to counter it by making a portal beneath their feet, but instead of sinking into it, they stood atop it. "Huh?"

"You really think I wouldn't suspect you'd try that? I had another one ready,"

The thread mage eyed her shoulder, seeing her cat. "If she can't interfere with the laws of our spells, Rouge is still keeping us safe, there's still hope to win this,"

Meanwhile, Luck was looking around, his eyes darting everywhere. "Shit," he cursed.

"What's the matter?" Charmy inquired.

"I'm trying to sense where the spell ends to see if there's an alternative exit, but there doesn't seem to be an end. This space…it goes on forever, doesn't it?"

"Don't be ridiculous," Magna protested. "An infinite space is impossible, there has to be an end. Maybe you just can't sense far enough to detect it?"

"No, what your friend says is true, Glamour World goes on and on. In this place, where nigh reality itself bends to my whims, the impossible becomes possible," Reve spoke with seriousness.

She then extended her hands, shooting out vines to ensnare them, but Vanessa was ready, sending out threads to meet each one, resulting in a stalemate.

"If the impossible becomes possible here, then it's possible for us to kick your ass!" Magna commanded his grimoire to flip to a page.

"I'm joining in this one," Luck added as the rivals leaped into the air.

"Flame Magic: Gargantuan Exploding Fireball!"

"Lightning Magic: Electric Conquest!"

Reve appeared unphased by the strong pair of spells coming her way, and for good reason. All she needed to do was snap, and from there, two bubbles formed around the orbs of fire and electricity, killing their momentum entirely as they were now suspended in mid-air. She then made a waving motion, the bubbles removing themselves from sight.

"So, she can stop projectiles? Let's see how she fares against this!" Charmy was up. "Cotton Creation Magic: Strike of the Sleeping Sheep!"

"Ooh, I want to help too," Sally assisted her. "Gel Creation Magic: Sticky Salamander!"

Both elemental constructs came to life, and with orders from their casters, they quickly rushed at the elf.

Reve snapped again, and this time, two figures formed behind her, identical to the opposing spells, granted, her constructs were visually more sinister-looking. "Attack," she gave her own order as the counterparts engaged with the originals. It appeared to be a stalemate at first, but then the fakes were able to take the advantage and win out in the end by brutally tearing them apart.

"Does anyone else feel like wasting their mana?" the elf taunted them as they could only grit their teeth. "Good, I will reassume the offensive then," she raised a hand, conjuring a flurry of swords.

"Sweetie, you know what to do," Vanessa spoke softly to her cat. "Everyone, stay close to me!"

They did so and were kept safe from the barrage as while some swords got scarily close, not a single one hit them.

Reve hummed to herself, intrigued by what happened. "Fascinating, so that's how you managed to keep your allies safe. Are you manipulating probability? Or maybe…are you controlling fate itself?"

"Try the latter," the woman smirked.

"Hm, if that's the case, taking you down in the traditional manner will be more difficult, but I suppose I'll have to deal with it. It isn't all bad though, you lasting longer than you normally would gives me ample opportunity to vent my frustration,"

Magna crossed his arms. "Y'know, I haven't faced many elves, but the ones I have were way more emotional than you're being right now, it's actually a pretty nice change of pace all things considered,"

"Be not deceived by my outward demeanor, the mere sight of you makes my blood boil beyond all measure," the elf said with contempt, sending out another flurry of swords.

Vanessa was about to repeat her move, but that's when Valtos stepped up. "I've got it this time," he spawned a fairly large portal in front of them, the various weapons sinking into it as another portal appeared above Reve, her own attack coming back at her.

"A move like that will have no effect on me," she commanded a wall of air to form above her head, protecting her. "I know that it's in the nature of creation to fight back against adversity, but even you should know that prolonging the inevitable is pointless. Don't waste your strength,"

"Shut it, lady!" Charmy flipped her off. "As long as I'm here, we'll have more than enough mana to fight you for however long we're here," she called upon the Master Chef, the sheep making her a cupcake that she proudly showed off.

"Allow me to demonstrate," the cotton mage was ready to assert her confidence as she moved to gobble up the confection, but before she could, a metal box formed around it, her teeth hitting that instead.

"Damn it!" she dropped the box and held her mouth.

Reve put a hand on her hip. "There is no need for a demonstration, I know what that power does, it's the whole reason you're even here. It'd be much more bothersome if we continued to let you run rampant back in the regular plane, but here, I can keep that pesky thing under control,"

"Sorry guys, it looks like my main support has been shut down," Charmy apologized.

"No worries, what you've given us so far should last," Luck told her.

Rades sucked his teeth. "Then it looks like we're dealing with a battle of attrition on the enemy's home turf, what great odds," he groaned. "Hey, Sally, you're the smartest one here, what do you think we should do?"

He asked the question, but got no answer, so he turned around, seeing that the gel mage was squatting down, staring at a lodged sword. "What are you doing, dammit?! Answer me when I talk to you! Haven't you ever heard of common courtesy?!"

"Calm down, Rades, she must be thinking of something important," Valtos moved in to cut the conflict short.

"What he said," the magic scientist agreed, not taking her gaze off of the item, going so far as to flick it a few times.

"You can't even see well without your glasses. What can you possibly be noticing?" the wraith asked impatiently.

Sally stood up at last, grinning like a madwoman. "You'll see," she ran to the front, pointing at her foe with both hands. "Hey, elf lady, wanna play charades?!"

"You cannot be serious!" the others thought in unison.

Reve was just as bewildered as they were. "Charades?"

Sally nodded vigorously. "Uh huh, I volunteer to go first!" she fashioned both pointer fingers and thumbs into circles, pressing them against her face. "Can you guess what these are?"

Magna couldn't take anymore. "Enough of this! I already had the idea that you were all crazy, but you gotta be on a whole other level of insane to play literal games with the enemy-,"

The flame mage needed just another second to finish what he was saying, but before that second came, a pair of glasses somehow spawned on the gel mage's face.

Magna lifted up a finger, speaking plainly. "Ignore what I said, you're a genius," he said while the others, including the possessed dream, were shocked.

"Oh yeah, it feels so good to see properly again! From now on, I'm carrying spares!" Sally cheered for herself before she was swarmed.

"How the hell did you do that?!" Rades demanded. "Wait, does being in this place let us all make our imaginations real?" he tried to test it out, imagining Mikeal Caesar, but nothing appeared at all. "No dice. Spill it, how'd you pull it off?"

"I did it thanks to an observation along with pre-established knowledge," Sally began to explain her plan. "I first noticed it with those swords she sent after us, they're giving off low amounts of mana, which is expected since they're creations of this space, but upon giving it a focused look, I realized that it wasn't just made of magic, but partially of physical matter. And if these things are partially physical, they have to abide by physical laws,"

"Which is why those glasses actually work," Valtos deduced. "But how did you make it appear?"

"That's where my prior knowledge comes in. I didn't make it appear, she did," the woman replied. "When it comes to the brain, the way it registers thoughts can at times be spontaneous and unfocused, allowing thoughts about the things around us to just pop into our heads at random. So, all I did was plant the idea of glasses in her head, and she unwittingly made them for me,"

Luck stroked his chin. "Is that how you say it works? Hm, that gives me an idea," he cupped his hand around his mouth and took a deep breath.

"EXIT!"

This action proved to be fruitful as a multitude of doors manifested around them, the four-lettered word he wished to see plastered proudly atop it. "Nice, now let's get the hell out of here, if her creations are partially physical, it should bring us back where we came from,"

"Awesome work, blond guy," Sally gave him quick words of praise that he returned with a thumbs-up.

"Not so fast," Reve said as chains suddenly appeared, wrapping around the doors akin to a boa constrictor, not leaving even one inch of space open as she extended both hands, popping them out of existence one by one. "I'll give you your due compliments, that was clever, but I meant what I told you all. You may have discovered a weakness to my spell, but it won't matter, anything you make me form will be erased,"

Sally gasped. "Does that mean you're going to get rid of my glasses too?"

The possessed captain eyed her plainly. "You may keep them. A tool as mundane as that will do nothing to me, I'll still win,"

"You'll be singing a different tune once we're done with you, and then we'll be free from this place, and then…and then," Charmy began saying, but then, for whatever reason, she trailed off and let out a yawn before she jumped back into attention.

Magna raised a brow at that. "You good? I know it's pretty late into the night, but you were fine just a minute ago, maybe you should-," before he could go on, he felt his eyelids get heavy, but he fought the sensation. "What the hell? It happened to me too,"

"There's no way both of you feeling sudden fatigue can be a coincidence," Sally lightly slammed her palm with her fist. "That means this spell must be responsible," she deduced before letting out a yawn of her own.

"Your friend is correct, I see no issue in hiding it," Reve started to explain. "My Glamour World is a product of Dream Magic, as such, it's only appropriate that being in this space makes all my enemies gradually drift off to sleep, and once you fall asleep…you'll never wake up again,"

"What?!" the group exclaimed in unison.

Rades growled. "So what, that's your plan? Stall until we pass out, then kill us? Well, news flash, we're not letting that happen,"

"I certainly hope you won't," the elf agreed, shocking the wraith mage, but that was only the beginning as a chill went up the spines of the humans. From what exactly?

It was of her expression changing, becoming one full of silent rage on the verge of overload, a look that greatly contrasted the tranquil demeanor Dorothy always held. "Dying in your sleep would be a mercy kill. The sight of you struggling and suffering will bring me ultimate satisfaction,"

"No…this can't be happening!" Asta grunted, trying to do something, anything, but he failed.

While the fight in the dreamscape was going on, the fight in the real world had yet to begin, granted, it would be hard for anyone to fight if they couldn't move a single muscle.

"Damn it," Annalise grunted herself. "Can anyone please tell me how in the absolute hell are we getting done in by the magic of a kid?!"

"It's because she's possessed," Asta answered. "Her magic is being amped like crazy, I'd hate to imagine how strong she'd be if Marie was old enough to get a grimoire,"

From where he stood, Droit couldn't get the happy and smug look off his face, so much so that his sister spoke up. "Are you okay, big brother?"

"Yes, I'm better than okay, this is finally our chance," he replied as he turned to another page in his book, causing a single mirror to appear next to each of the five nearby combatants.

The swordsman grit his teeth. "No, I can't let myself lose here, if I get hit by one, I'm as good as dead,"

"Ah ah ah, incorrect," the possessed mirror mage wagged a finger to correct him. "Did you really think I'd want to end you as soon as possible? Your suffering will be akin to a good meal, it's something to be savored,"

"Mirror Magic: Reflect Ray!" the object next to Asta lit up as it shot a medium-powered beam, hitting the boy right on his side, and with his body frozen, he had no choice but to take it.

"AHH!" he yelped in pain.

"It isn't such a good feeling, is it?" the older elf asked him as Gordon and Grey were hit afterward in different non-vital spots. "What you're experiencing now is merely a fraction of what we elves did 500 years ago. We had nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, we were trapped, forced to accept that we wouldn't make it. Do you have any idea how frightening that is?!"

Annalise was the next to get hit, the beam shooting her leg. "Damn this bastard," she muttered as he continued his rant.

"We didn't do anything to you! We welcomed your kind in with open arms! Before that day, everyone was as happy as could be! I wish our kind never met each other, then everything would've been fine, I wouldn't have to watch everyone I love die right in front of me!"

Henry was the last to get hit, suffering a shot to the shoulder, however, while it hurt, something more important was on his mind. "I got lucky, I'm not close enough to anyone to start draining their mana, granted, without a high enough amount of mana, I won't be able to get the Raging Black Bull back in its former fighting shape. I trust Asta and the others, I know they'll find a way to get us out of this, but I need to be able to act afterward,"

"Gauche! Marie! Can you two hear me!" Asta screamed at the elven siblings.

"Our names are Droit and Eclat," the possessed little girl retorted.

"I think they're talking about our hosts," her brother assumed.

"That's right, I'm talking to them, and I know that deep down, they can hear me!" the magicless mage continued. "I know you don't want to hurt us, and I know you don't want the elves to win either, so don't let them win!"

Droit chuckled. "Those are confident words, human, but you'll find that they accomplish nothing," he ordered another beam to fire at the teen. "Just accept what I told you before, it's over,"

"No, I won't accept that!" Asta protested adamantly, gritting his teeth. "If the two of them can't win against you, then that's alright, because we'll win. We'll win to save them, but not just them, we'll save the whole kingdom!"

At that moment, the mystery sword that was in his grip began to release anti-magic. "So we won't give up!" he exclaimed as the paralysis around the five of them came undone, the mirrors responsible shattering.

"Hell yeah, we're free. I don't know what you did, Asta, but thanks a bunch," Annalise said before her face contorted at the sheer awkwardness of her saying that second sentence aloud.

The elven siblings were just as shocked if not more by the stunt he pulled. "How in the world did he do that?" Droit muttered, his eyes zeroing in on the sword he was holding in his hand, and that made his eyes switch from narrow to wide.

"You!" he got everyone's attention as he pointed at Asta. "Start talking, where did you get that?! How did you get your grimy hands on Licht's Demon Destroyer Sword?! And what did you do to it?! It's not supposed to look like that!"

The swordsman took a few seconds to inspect it before shrugging. "I'm not really sure how it changed appearance; you're right, it was white when he had it, but now it looks like my other swords," he then faced the elf, sending him a playful smirk. "As for how I got it, would you believe me if I told you Licht traded it to me for the Dweller?"

Droit's face darkened. "You dare try to tell jokes?! Just you wait, once you slip up, we'll trap you lot all over again. However, I'll take my wins where I can find them, at least the others don't have some way of freeing themselves, then things may have gotten a little more difficult,"

That last part piqued Grey's attention. "O-Others?"

"Yes," he nodded, pointing in the direction of the Royal Houses. "They're all concentrated in that area,"

Asta turned around, gasping. "No way, I can't even see who's over there. He was able to send his mirrors that far?"

"News flash, asshole, things already are getting more difficult!" Annalise clenched her fists, now acting to address the quartet of magic knights. "Look, I know we're not friends or anything, nor are we really allies, but there's no point in denying it, I want my revenge, and I can't do that or try to atone if I die prematurely, so let's work together and take those two down,"

The magicless mage nodded with a genuine smile. "You read my mind. Do you already have a plan of attack?"

"Sort of. I won't be able to do much here, Ground Sparks is my only long-range spell and it's virtually useless since they're at a higher elevation than me. I need to get closer, that's how I'll take the advantage,"

Asta clicked his tongue. "But getting you closer will be easier said than done. If only Finral was awake and here with us, his magic would've been perfect for this situation,"

"That's the spatial mage in your squad if I'm not mistaken. Hm, we may have another way after all," the spark mage faced the only other female. "Hey, lady with the blue hair, what's your name?"

She covered her face, embarrassed. "I-I'm G-Grey," she responded.

Annalise raised a brow at her timid act, but shrugged it off. "Cool. Okay then, Grey, remember when my group and I attacked your base earlier today? I saw that you could change the attribute of spells, you changed my spark magic into mud magic. Is it possible for you to change one of our basic attacks into spatial magic to form a portal?"

The squad's strategist immediately shook her head at the question, disappointing the one who asked it. "Why not?"

Grey turned to Gordon, gesturing for something, the poison mage understood what she wanted right away and handed her his notebook and pen. She then began writing down a couple of sentences before tossing it over to the purple-haired girl.

"You want me to read this?" she asked and got a nod as confirmation, so she read the contents aloud. "I won't be able to create a pseudo portal because it won't work properly. When a spatial mage who specializes in portal formation does so, the nature of their magic allows them to implant a conscious destination so that the other end brings you there. If I transform one of your attributes into a mere rift in space, it won't be possible for me to implant a destination, meaning the portal can send you theoretically anywhere if not simply trap you inside,"

Upon finishing, a thought entered her head. "Damn, she's not just a cute face, this girl's smarter than she looks," she then verbalized the rest of her thoughts. "Shit, and it would've been great if it worked too. I suppose there's only one other way then?"

"And that is?" Asta inquired with curiosity.

"We do it the old fashioned way, with you boosting me," she replied. "I felt it when you did those strange moves on me back in Hecairo, you're strong as hell, you should be able to pull it off,"

He nodded with a serious look. "Okay then, but we need a good opportunity. We should do it when-," he stopped himself, his Ki sense flaring. "Watch your head!"

Annalise promptly ducked as Asta deflected a beam aimed at her. "Hm, you have good reflexes, thief, but they'll only take you so far,"

Instead of being worried, the boy merely sighed. "Great, more people calling me a thief, I didn't even steal anything…technically," his gaze fell on the sword that Licht had dropped during their battle, which he recalled snatching. "Anyway, they may indeed only take me so far, but it's far enough to deal with you. Annalise, are you ready?"

"I was born ready,"

"We just need that opportunity," his gaze shifted to his male allies. "Gordon, Henry, can you keep his attention off of us?"

The two replied with a thumbs up. Henry made his way to the rubble that was the dismembered base, using the strength he had to transform a small part of it into a fist. "Recombination Magic: Mini Mana Rocket Punch!" he sent it flying.

Gordon adjusted his aim. "Poison Magic: Forbidden Fruit," he whispered, firing it directly below the fist.

"It's a futile move, humans. Mirror Magic: Real Double!" he formed a clone of himself, both elves casting another attack. "Mirror Magic: Double Large Reflect Ray!" the two beams were fired in perfect synch, almost appearing as one as they defeated the pair of projectiles.

"Don't leave yet, I'm going to need you for one more thing," the original said as his grimoire turned to another page.

"Mirror Creation Magic: Twin Swords of Infinite Reflections!" they summoned two large blades, bringing them both down.

"G-Gordon, n-now!" Grey exclaimed with a stutter as the man nodded, raising his hands up and shooting poison into the air directly above them. From there, the woman took over, raising her own hands. "Transformation Magic: Magic Conversion - Poison to Steel!"

Her hands glowed as the property underwent a metamorphosis, becoming harder and more rigid, the perfect state of being to protect them from the strikes.

"Crap," Droit muttered.

"Brother, can I have a turn trying?" his sister asked.

He knelt down beside her. "If you were older, then I would," was his response

She pouted. "But I'm over 500, I can do something,"

"You know what I mean. Without a grimoire, you don't have any actual spells, launching an effective offensive just won't be feasible. Besides, you're keeping Reflect Iris active"

"How's this for an effective offensive?!"

Both elves whipped their heads up to see Annalise in the sky, not too far from them. "What the?!"

The spark mage snickered, recalling how Asta grabbed a hold of her hand and launched her away while the others did what they needed to do. She positioned her legs accordingly as she landed a number of feet across from them.

"It looks like I'm your opponent now!"

"Opponent? I suppose. My next victim? Certainly,"

She growled at his apparent confidence. "You're lucky I'm not allowed to kill you, or else you'd be my victim by the time I'm done giving you the Annalise treatment," she then charged.

"Eclat, stay behind me, and don't lose concentration!" he stood protectively in front of her as the enemy closed the distance between them.

"Spark Magic: Flickering Melee!" her fist lit up as she threw a right hook, Droit positioning his arms to block it. She was about to throw another one, but then her mana sense flared, warning her of an attack from above, so she looked up, spotting a mirror ready to shoot.

"Nice try," she backflipped out of the way, avoiding the beam. Droit wasn't going to stop there though, he created three sets of lines, each with seven mirrors, commanding them to fire at once.

"Let's see how you deal with this, human!"

"You don't have to worry, I'll be fine! Spark Creation Magic: Wall of Sparks!" she created her defense and hid behind it as it took damage, but she noticed that it was quickly faltering. "Hey, while I'm here, I thought I'd share my comments about your little rant from earlier,"

"And what exactly do you have to say?" he raised a brow.

"Alright, but you won't like it," the spark wall collapsed as she rolled to the left to avoid the range of fire. "You need to get over yourself!"

"Excuse me?!"

"Look, I get it, dying sucks, especially when it's at the hands of someone you thought you could trust, I've been there, you bunch aren't the only ones who got a chance to cheat death. However, the only reason all of this is happening is because you think you've suffered more than the rest of us, well I'm here to tell you you're wrong,"

The possessed mirror mage was fuming while his sister merely narrowed her eyes. "Wrong? How so?"

"You said it yourself, before you died, your lives were happy, you were happy, so all you had was one extremely shitty day. Well, what about those who have had extremely shitty lives?! Like me!" she rushed at them again.

Droit was about to repeat the wide attack from before, but instead of blocking it, she channeled mana into her legs and jumped over it, reeling her fist back as she descended. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to land a hit as the two backed up, but she didn't quit, letting loose a flurry of punches.

"Can you two even begin to imagine it?! A dad who's dead! A mom who abandoned you and virtually forgets you exist! Struggling every day just to eat! No place to call home! No one to care about you but yourself!" tears began welling up, streaming down her face as she got faster. "Quit acting like your pain is greater than everyone else's, it reeks of entitlement!"

At last, a punch was able to connect as Droit was sent back, the spark mage stopping to catch her breath and wipe her tears away, meanwhile, the bulls watched from below, stunned into silence by her passionate outburst.

"Droit!" Eclat tried to run to him, but was stopped as Annalise roughly grabbed her arm.

"I'm not going to punch a little kid, but you better not tempt me," she said before noting the mirror in front of her before her attention was diverted elsewhere.

"Damn you, let her go!" the older elf ignored his slightly bruised face as he stood up.

"Relax, I won't hurt her or anything. As for that mirror of hers, I'll-," she looked back down at Eclat again, but that was her biggest mistake as the elf stared back at her with one of her glowing eyes, putting her under paralysis again.

"Shit. You no-good little bitch,"

"Don't think I'll let you get away with hurting him," she said back, keeping her eye on her.

Droit wiped the tiny amount of blood running down his mouth. "So, that was your life, aye? I may be angry, but I'm not stupid, that does suck, however," he got right up in her face. "Don't go thinking that means you had it worse! It hurts far more when you have happiness, when you have joy, just to have it be taken from you! It's those who have the most to lose that suffer the most when they lose it!"

He then clenched his fist, letting it glow brightly with mana. "You, on the other hand, started with practically nothing! It's you who had it easier!" he punched her directly in the face, sending her flying back to the magic knights.

"Are you okay?" Asta ran to her.

"Do I look okay?!" she snapped at him. "...Sorry, what he said just said got me on edge,"

"Quick thinking there, Eclat," her brother praised her, patting her head.

"See? I told you I could do something,"

"You did indeed say that," the two stood back at the roof, overlooking their foes. However, something was on the guy's mind. "I have to be more careful now that I know that kid without magic has the Demon Destroyer Sword. With it, he can sever the cause-and-effect relationship of spells, Reflect Iris won't be as effective now. The smartest move will be to overwhelm them,"

His grimoire flipped to a different page. "Mirror Magic: Large Reflect Refrain!" mirrors littered the sky as multiple beams of light bounced between them, coming at the quintet at top speed.

Asta was ready to parry them, but Grey's strategic mind went into action. "W-Wait!"

The swordsman stopped, turning to her, simply seeing her point up, but he understood, grinning at her. "No problem,"

At the same time, she eyed Gordon, who nodded. "Poison Curse Magic: Dwelling of the Poison Cloud," he shot it up as high as he could.

"What is he doing?"

They would soon get their answer as the magicless mage deflected each of the beams, directing them towards the cloud, and then, Grey finished it off. "Transformation Magic: Magic Conversion - Poison to Glass!" the cloud changed, turning into glass that was positioned at a curve, the beams hitting the surface before being redirected behind them.

Droit raised a brow. "What was the point of that? They could've just tried to dodge it. There was no need for the extra-," he paused, his eyes widening slightly as he caught on. "NOOOO!"

Grey, however, gave an extremely rare smirk. "Let's hope it works,"

"This sucks!" Noelle whined, trying everything she could to move, but had no success.

"Tell me about it," Zora agreed, sighing. "I don't know about the rest of you, but it kinda sucks being beaten by a kid's magic,"

"If she's been powered up by elven mana, this is simply the logical conclusion," Nozel tried to make sense of it. "I take it you know this girl though?"

Finral nodded. "Yeah, she's our squadmate's little sister. If she's been possessed and her magic is being paired with mirrors, it's fair to say the same has happened to Gauche,"

"Obviously. But where are they even at? Too many fights have been going on to get an accurate idea," the water mage stated. "If we could figure out their location, maybe we could plan some way to break free,"

"That's easier said than done, Twintails," the trapster called out a flaw in her thinking. "Whatever this spell is doing to us, we can neither move nor use our magic. The best thing we can hope for is to get lucky and hope something or something comes to our rescue,"

"I thought I told you not to call me that! Oh, and get real, Zora. Do you really think luck…not our Luck, is going to save us? Tell you what, if that happens, I'll dye my hair red,"

"Please don't," was all her brother said.

"Relax, Nozel, I won't have to, because I'll be right,"

But right as she finished saying that, they all picked up a strong signature of mana nearing them…it was a spell, and it was coming fast. Due to how they were paralyzed, only Finral's eyes were in the direction to see what was on its way.

"Those look like Gauche's beams! Brace yourselves!"

A total of ten beams were coming, getting closer and closer, but nine of them were duds, just hitting the ground, cracking it. The tenth one, however, was able to stick around long enough to destroy one of the entrapment mirrors, and that mirror belonged to a certain individual.

Zora.

The ash mage was no longer meeting Eclat's gaze, so the glow around him faded and he could finally move his body, he was free. However, there was an important thing left to do. Whistling loudly, he dramatically made his way over to Noelle, standing directly in front of the girl as he crossed his arms and leaned in, his face invading her space, but it was necessary, after all, he needed to make sure she could see the huge, shit-eating grin that formed.

"So, what shade do you want to go with? If I may make a suggestion, I think mine is a pretty flattering one,"

"Um, can we just forget I said that? I actually like the way my hair looks," she tried to chicken out of it.

"As do I," Nozel chimed.

He backed his face away from hers and burst into laughter. "Alright then, I'll let you off the hook this time," he enhanced his fist and destroyed her mirror, the others following suit.

The spatial mage stretched. "Thanks a bunch for that, it was starting to get uncomfortable," he turned to the captain. "What do we do now?"

"We got lucky there, so there's still a chance others are affected by this as well. We need to find them and free them," the mercury mage instructed. "Hopefully, no elves were nearby to take advantage of this,"

"Then we can't waste time," Finral said. "I'll go on my own, my magic will let me travel further and faster, so I can cover the same ground as you three,"

"Okay then, but you better be careful," Noelle told him. "We just got you back,"

He gave her a thumbs up. "Thanks, but I'll be fine, trust in your superior," with that, he entered a portal.

Nozel turned to his remaining teammates. "Let's not waste any time either, time is of the essence,"

"So, that was their plan? They used my attack to give themselves a chance to free whoever in that area was paralyzed by Reflect Iris. Even though it's a gamble, it could succeed. I need to take these humans out fast," Droit thought to himself, his expression not matching the tone of his thoughts as he appeared to be calm, stroking his chin.

Meanwhile, with the quintet, Asta gripped the Destroyer tightly. "Okay, we saw earlier that Annalise was standing a fairly good chance in close combat before she got taken down. That means getting up close and personal is the way to go, and that makes sense, Gauche's spells don't provide much in that category. If we can find a way to not only get closer, but pin him and Marie down, I can free them both with my sword,"

Gordon began writing something down, the trio nearing him to read it while Henry continued to keep his distance. "If we want to do that, we need to do what he did last time for Annalise and make a distraction, but we need to be smarter too. They'll be expecting us to try it again,"

Grey shyly raised her hand an inch or two above her head. "I-I have an i-idea,"

Without divulging into it further, she was enveloped in a puff of smoke, said smoke dispersing to reveal a large falcon. "Oh yeah, you did talk about getting used to transforming into animals," Asta recalled.

"So, I'm guessing you're going to be the bait this time?" Annalise inquired, being met with a nod from the transformed mage. The former then punched her palm. "Why don't we all go then? We may be able to overwhelm his focus with our greater numbers,"

Asta pondered it, shrugging. "I don't see why not, let's give it a try and see what happens," he gave a subtle smile to the spark mage.

Despite that, she picked up on it fast. "What's the matter?"

"Nothing, it's just…even now, I'm a bit surprised at how cooperative you are. You were even the first to propose working together,"

She became somewhat embarrassed. "Well, after what happened with Licht and the fact that you agreed to help us, I suppose I'm feeling a little friendlier tonight. If this was Zuka's bunch, on the other hand, expect my only words spoken to be 'fuck' and 'you',"

The swordsman sweatdropped. "I…see, anyways, move out people," he turned to the recombination mage. "Henry, you're fine with hanging back for now?"

"Ooookkkkaaayyyyy,"

"Nice," with that, the four charged ahead, leaving the squad's fourth member behind, not noticing him tightly clenching his fist.

"They're coming straight at us, they're either confident, or arrogant," Droit commented.

"Arrogant, obviously," Eclat answered the rhetorical statement.

"I couldn't agree more," he snapped as more mirrors spawned in the air, but these were significantly larger than the ones both he and Gauche were used to summoning.

Grey flew up above the rest, catching the elf's attention first. "Oh yes, it's that woman who could transform herself. She wasn't able to do much when I had recently awakened, what can she possibly do now?"

He would get his answer as she entered a stance and dove down at high speeds, but he was unphased by it. "Fire!" the larger mirrors shot bigger and stronger beams, but she was able to maneuver around some of them. Eventually, she broke out of the diving stance, doing so to fly out of range before landing somewhere, but that didn't mean the attacks on her relented.

"Not done yet," the transformation mage thought, choosing a defensive option as she became a large Galapagos tortoise, retreating into her shell as it took the brunt.

Droit summoned more mirrors, aiming to eventually get through her guard, but at the corner of his eye, he spotted the others getting closer. "Thinking you can sneak up on me a second time?" he commanded half of the mirrors to divert their attention to the others.

"Here they come," Asta switched out the Destroyer for the Slayer, using the bigger sword to either block the beams with the flat side, or deflect it. In contrast, Gordon and Annalise opted for a more evasive tactic, dodging and flipping their way around.

"He has the Demon Slayer Sword too?!" the possessed mirror mage thought, unintentionally putting more attention on the magicless mage, giving Grey a chance to transform into the falcon again and dive his way.

He recovered from the shock fast though, fast enough to see it coming. "Oh no you don't," he surrounded her with smaller mirrors on all sides, preventing easy escape as they all fired at once. The woman tried to weave around them, but it was no use, she got hit in both the chest and the back, plummeting and crashing near the unrepaired base, transforming back into her original appearance, luckily, she managed to remain conscious.

Satisfaction formed on the elf's face. "One down, just three to go," he muttered to himself as he noticed something odd. Annalise had managed to bypass the barrage of beams coming her way, but instead of jumping at them as she had done before, she was heading to the base of the building the siblings were standing on.

"This is a good idea. Thinking back to earlier today, both my Ground Sparks and the spell that Gordon used to restrain me need to have the opponent be on a similar level of elevation, so I'll just blow up the building and put them on our level, easy. I hope that place doesn't have an owner, or someone won't be happy after this is all over," she thought, reaching where she was going as her grimoire flipped to the desired page.

"Spark Magic: Twin Flickering-!" she just needed one more word to complete the casting, but alas, she wasn't given the chance as her mana sense went off and one of the larger mirrors appeared by her side, charging its blast. This one was faster, way faster, she may have been able to sense it, but like before, her reaction time was too slow.

"Shit," was all she could manage to say before she was blasted head-on, sent all the way to where Grey was. "Ow,"

Asta noticed the decrease in their numbers as more mirrors focused on him and the poison mage. "This isn't good, I have to get these attacks under control somehow!" he moved faster to account for them, but that's when one of the beams he deflected hit a mirror, destroying it.

"Huh?" the surprise only lasted for a moment before he grinned. "Gordon, if you can, aim for the mirrors themselves!"

He nodded, flipping to a spell that could do the job. "Poison Curse Magic: Aufwachen Dachs," he whispered, conjuring the small army of badgers, giving them silent orders as they scattered, using the nearby debris as leverage to jump high into the air, crashing their heads into the mirrors to destroy them.

At the same time, Asta changed up his movements to account for the strategy, assuring that nearly every beam he redirected would hit one of the opposing constructs, and it worked as they were all gone. "How do you like that?!" he pointed defiantly at the elf.

Droit just shrugged. "It's of no consequence, I possess nigh limitless amounts of mana, making more isn't a struggle, but I think I'll try something different,"

At his call, three of the larger mirrors appeared in front of him, their beams were then released, but instead of going forward, they met at the center, becoming an orb that grew in size and charged with power. "You're all done for now! The range of this attack will be like nothing you've seen me use before, so you can forget about dodging,"

The swordsman was a little daunted, but still remained optimistic. "You're talking a big game about it, but I dealt with something like this in Hecairo. How strong it is doesn't matter if you don't get to use it, one Bull Thrust is all I need and it'll-,"

It fired.

The amount of power that came from it was intense, managing to cause surrounding debris to rumble, and the opposing mages could feel the sheer force coming from it. However, Asta wasn't going to let it end, so he tensed his muscles, prepared to meet it…but he wouldn't have to as a large object came to their rescue. That object was none other than the Raging Black Bull, or at least, a part of it.

Everyone's eyes turned to see Henry, both of his hands outstretched, his eyes visible as they expressed determination, having just commanded the arms of the base to protect them. "I won't let my friends die here, they saved me, so I have to save them!"

Eclat sucked her teeth. "Shit,"

"Language, young lady," her brother lightly scolded her.

"Sorry," she apologized, but right as she did, the mirror that was in front of her vanished, shocking her. "What? That's not possible,"

Droit sucked his teeth this time. "Crap, I guess that gamble of theirs paid off after all, if your mirror is gone, then that means no one is currently under Reflect Iris' influence," he then peered up at the floating base. "Those guys had better hurry up then, I don't know how long we'll have until they decide to come here,"

Henry sank to his knees, exhausted, he could feel his mana quickly depleted, so he summoned his strength and limped closer to Grey and Annalise, stopping once he could their mana entering his body. However, he could see them beginning to show signs of discomfort, so he backed up soon after. The recombination mage stared at his hands before staring at the possessed siblings, he knew what he had to do.

"Heeeyyyyy!" he exclaimed slowly. "I haaavvveeeee a plaannnn! Cooommmmeee heerrreeee!"

"I've never seen you come up with anything before. Show us what's cooking in that brain of yours," Asta said as he and Gordon rushed over to him, helping up their injured allies along the way.

As they neared Henry, he could feel his mana supply rising even higher, so he distanced himself from them once more, focusing on the damaged base, specifically on a certain portion, transforming it into a long, rocket-esque vehicle with two sections.

The slurred speaker pointed to the section in the back. "Geeetttt innn theeerreee, yooouuu'll beee saaffeee froommm meeeee,"

"No problem then, but this plan of yours better work," Annalise said as they entered the back and the man entered the front. The construct then began moving, quickly taking to the skies, heading for the enemy.

"I'm not sure what they're doing now, but it may have just made our job easier. All of them are together in a single, easy-to-destroy target," the possessed mirror mage launched his usual set of attacks, but the opposition was tough, its progress steadfast.

"I think I see what he's trying to do," Asta voiced aloud. "We've been trying to get close, but he counters with mirrors to keep us at bay, but the base has a strong enough defense to withstand it and close the distance safely,"

"And once we're close enough to get out, it'll be five on two, we can jump them before they get a chance to do anything," Annalise finished his deduction as she crossed her arms and gave a look of approval. "Okay, I can work with this kind of plan,"

However, even though the exterior was tough, it wasn't invincible, pieces began to chip off ever-so-slightly, forcing Henry to take control, maneuvering it around the incessant waves of purple blasts, but it was only helping a little bit as it couldn't evade everything.

The quartet stared out of the lone window in their section to observe. "Fuck, this isn't looking good, I think it can only take a couple more hits like that before it breaks apart entirely," the spark mage commented. "Asta, do you think it's possible for us to head outside and lend a hand?"

She got her answer though, but not from who she expected. "Nooooo neeeeeeddddd," Henry's voice echoed around them.

"But we have to do it or else we can't get close enough and your plan won't work," the swordsman tried to convince him.

"Thhaaatttt waaasssnn'tt myyyyy plaaaannnn,"

All of a sudden, the sound of a clap echoed, causing the construct to shake violently. "What the hell?!" the two mages screamed as the two sections detached from one another, the back one crashing to the ground while the front soared even higher.

"U-Ugh. T-That h-hurt," Grey groaned from the crash, but she and the rest recovered quickly to check the window.

"What the hell is he doing?!" Annalise was dumbfounded. "If what we thought was his plan ended up not being his plan, what's his actual plan? With how it's looking, the only thing he'll succeed in is getting himself kill-,"

Their eyes widened simultaneously. That's when it hit them, they realized what the knight was going to do. "No, he wouldn't!"

On the contrary, he would. In his section, his face was blank, but his mind was somber. "All my life, I've hated having this curse. It's stolen so much from me, I never got to grow up with my parents, I never got to go outside and leave the confines of the building during my childhood, and I was never allowed a normal life. So now, it's time I finally put it to good use, and protect the one good thing it gave me," a thought flashed in his mind, showing all the Black Bulls.

"No, we can't let him do it!" Asta rushed to the entrance, trying to open it, but it wouldn't budge an inch. "He…he trapped us in, didn't he?"

Even though the target got smaller, Droit's onslaught continued, the construct buckling under the pressure until it finally gave out, but that's what Henry wanted, giving him a chance to jump out, now free-falling towards the elves, no attacks prepared or anything of that nature, just his limbs stretched as his hair flapped in the wind.

Since the beginning of the fight, the two elves had made a short set of expressions, whether it was happy, or angry, surprised, or confident, but this one was different. On their faces were cryptic looks that held a fair share of pure bewilderment.

"Are you some kind of fool?!" Droit exclaimed at the descending human.

"I'mmmm gooiinnngg toooo saavvveee myyyyy frrieeennnddsss!"

"Your friends? You should be worried about yourself, you're completely vulnerable to any of my attacks. Whatever you're trying to do, you know you'll die afterward, right?"

"I knnoooowwwww, annnddd thaaatt'ss okkaayyyy!"

In an instant, the elf's face shifted to shock, he wasn't expecting to hear that response. Those words transported his mind back in time, back to the day when everything went to hell. He could remember where he was, on the ground, bloody and in pain, trying to move towards a little girl in the distance, but she was then impaled before his very eyes, dropping onto the crimson grass. He could recall himself screaming something, and it was…

"Droit!" Eclat snapped him out of his thoughts.

"I'm here, sorry," he then brought his attention back to the fight and conjured a trio of large mirrors, having them perform the same move as before. "If you want to die, then so be-," he stopped at the tail end as a strange sensation washed over him.

"Yes, I can feel it!" Henry began thinking.

"Eclat, are you feeling your mana level decrease, or is it just me?"

"No, I can feel it too, I'm starting to feel a little light-headed. That guy must be responsible," his sister replied.

"Then that just means he needs to die faster!" the compound beam set its sights on the cursed knight.

This was it for him. It was strange, for years, he had imagined what death would be like, always being just a few steps away from its door. He imagined it would be scary beyond all measure, but here he was, his death just a few seconds away, but there was no fear, no pain…just peace.

He closed his eyes. "Goodbye, my friends, I did my part, now you can do the rest, win this,"

"DON'T YOU DARE DIE ON US NOW!" the ceiling of the rocket burst apart as Asta's loud declaration was heard clearly, the swordsman now transformed as he rushed to his squadmate's aid.

"Anti-Magic: Black Hurricane!" he spun around Henry, generating enough force to protect him from the devastating attack.

The elves were incredibly shocked by this. "How did he do that? He was looking like some kind of demon," Droit muttered to himself.

Asta ceased his rotation, holding the recombination mage in his available arm. "Thrrooowww meeee baaccckkk!" he pleaded.

"No way! I'm not going to let you sacrifice yourself, you're a part of our squad, we protect one another!" the magicless mage retorted, tossing him down where the others were.

The others used the recently made hole to escape, and were ready to help. "Grey, use my magic as a base!" Annalise covered the ground in her attribute.

"Transformation Magic: Magic Conversion - Spark to Cotton," she said with a low volume as it changed and Henry landed softly, but they weren't out of the clear yet. Once the cursed knight was in range, they could feel their mana leaving them, dropping to their knees.

"What you did there was risky. Don't do it again, please, I want to make sure all my friends live through this," Gordon spoke, trying to ignore the discomfort.

"He's right. You've been here the whole time, but we only met today, losing you would be such a shame," Grey added.

The spark mage did her best to stand, dragging Henry from the others until they were out of his curse's range. "Look, I don't know you at all, but if I imagine someone I care about trying to sacrifice themselves, I wouldn't like it either. When you form bonds with people, you can affect them, and you need to be aware of that. In trying to be selfless, you ended up being selfish by not considering what your death would do to them,"

In all honesty, Henry didn't think about it like that. "I seeeeeeee,"

Once they were close enough to the base's remains, she started to leave. "Good, now-," she began to trail off, dropping to her knees a second time. "Damn, I can't see straight. That draining of yours is…no joke,"

Up in the sky, Asta stood still, gripping his sword, revealing that he had switched back to the Destroyer, and that meant just one thing…he was going to end this, here and now.

"Who cares if you can change your form, you're still a human, so we're stronger!" the possessed mirror mage called out the most amount of mirrors he ever had since the fight's beginning.

"Hold nothing back, kill him!" he commanded, fury in his voice. As the beams fired, Asta switched to a more defensive mindset, flying out of range to avoid what he could, and using his swords to parry what he couldn't.

"Your days of using the bodies of my friends will be over! I know you got screwed over, but this doesn't fix anything! All you're doing is hurting people!" Asta cried out as he adopted his earlier plan and began using the beams against them.

He then noticed another one at the corner of his vision, not attacking just yet, so he wished to take the initiative. Turning to get a better look at it, he was instead met with a mirror, showing Eclat's glowing eyes.

Droit chuckled. "There we go, I knew a fakeout would get him. We have to kill him quickly before he uses the Demon Destroyer's power to free himself,"

"Brother, we have a problem!" his sister suddenly gasped. "Look!"

He kneeled to get a better look at her mirror, and that's when his eyes widened, seeing that the transformed swordsman was doing the exact opposite, his eyes shut tightly. "What?"

"You think I didn't think you'd try that?! I can read your ki, I knew what you were up to," Asta revealed, cutting the mirror in front of him in half. "And it's not going to work!"

With the threat gone, the black bull opened his eyes and grinned. "Time to end this! Anti-Magic: Black Meteorite!" he became a flash of darkness, destroying each mirror in seconds.

"It can't end like this, I won't let it! Mirror Magic-,"

It was useless. Just as quickly as he destroyed the creations, Asta came after the creator, punching him in the gut with massive force, doing the same to Eclat with considerably less force.

With them pinned down, the victor let himself catch his breath. "...It's over," he positioned the sword's tip so that it was horizontal, he then brought it down, the change allowing him to touch them both at once.

The red circle from before appeared, but it was larger. "Hey. It's Asta, right? I can see you in my host's memories. Can I ask something?" Droit spoke up.

"What is it?"

"Before I go, I want to know," he began. "That guy from earlier who talks weird, he was trying to sacrifice himself for you. Why? It's not in your nature, humans don't possess such a selfless quality like that,"

Asta raised a brow. "What makes you say that?"

In response, the mirror mage stared at the sky. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

[Flashback]

Elven Village. Five Hundred Years Ago.

As the elf looked up at the night sky of the present, it transitioned into the blood-red sky of the past, the perspective falling to reveal the massacre in full swing, having occurred three or so minutes ago.

Droit was currently running around, having been one of the few who managed to not get hit by the raining arrows of light. "Eclat! Where are you?!" he screamed amidst the chaos.

However, it was useless. With so much noise, getting his voice across was a fool's errand, but he had to keep trying, he needed to find her and keep her safe…somehow.

"Eclat!" he screamed again, but that's when his luck ran out and an arrow went right through his knee, forcing him down on the grass, but regardless, he kept dragging his body forward, his spirit unwavering.

But then…he stopped. He could hear something, beyond the cacophony of terror. It was…laughter? Raising his head the best he could, he followed the faint sound, and there he saw them, standing in the far distance was a group of humans. There appeared to be about twenty or so.

"The humans? But, how did they find us? And why are they doing this? I thought we were supposed to be friends," his mind was racing a mile a minute, trying to make sense of it.

"Droit…Droit!" he could begin to hear another voice, getting closer and closer. He knew exactly who it belonged to.

"Eclat!" he mustered his strength, ignoring the pain his leg was in. Right now, all he needed to do was make sure she could see him. "I'm right here!"

At last, the siblings were in view of one another. Droit could notice blood on her clothes, and tears flowing down his sister's eyes, and for good reason, no child should ever have to witness this, but there was nothing he could do about it.

The older elf began limping over to her while she ran, alas, that's as far as they got before two arrows came in hot and went through the little girl's gut.

"AHHH!" she wailed in pain as she fell, all the while, tears welled up in her brother's eyes.

"No! Stop, please stop! She's just a kid!" he threw all caution to the wind, running to her and wrapping himself around her. "C'mon sis, stay with me, don't go, just hold on and we'll get you some treatment,"

It was too late though, her eyes were growing blank by the second as she bled out. "Droit…you have to…get out of here…or you'll die," she muttered.

However, it would be too late for him as well as an arrow shot him in the back, tearing through muscle until it reached and punctured his lung. He didn't have much time left, so he opened his mouth, letting his last words be a response to hers.

"...I know, and that's okay,"

[End Flashback]

The possessed mirror mage looked back at Asta. "Let's just say I've seen the way your people operate,"

"That isn't fair," the swordsman countered. "You can't judge everyone off the actions of only a few people. All of existence capable of good and evil, humans and elves,"

Droit sighed as his marking was starting to fade away. "I guess you're not wrong about that. This crusade of ours wouldn't exactly fly in God's eyes all things considered,"

"Brother, are we going away again?" Eclat asked him softly.

He held her warmly. "I'm afraid so, but look on the bright side, I got to see you again,"

She smiled. "Likewise,"

Asta found himself frowning. "I wish it didn't have to be this way, but I have to stop you here,"

"I understand, but before I go, I want to tell you something else,"

"And that is?"

"Always remember that power comes at a cost. For us elves, our cost was losing ourselves to our hatred, becoming what we despised; nothing in this world worth anything is free, not the reincarnation that brought us back, nor the power you're using to undo it. Don't forget that, okay?"

"I won't, and I won't forget you two either," he replied as the spell became completely undone. It was over.

Asta let himself relax as his form undid itself. "I wonder how the others are doing?"

"Everybody, keep moving, and don't get hit!"

While the fight with the siblings went on, the fight against the possessed captain occurred too, and things were going a little better for them.

Sort of.

At the current moment, the seven had chosen to split up, going their separate ways, running at top speed. Why exactly? To not get eaten alive by the monstrous stuffed animals chasing them.

Despite being the one to make the prior statement, Rades moved the slowest of the bunch, he was almost about to be caught, but that's when some help arrived.

"Flame Magic: Prison Death Scatter Shot!" Magna destroyed the ravenous creature, standing a few meters across from the one he saved. "You're welcome. Oh, and remind me to never listen to one of your plans again,"

"Oh c'mon, it wasn't that bad!" he protested before spotting something behind him. "Look out!"

Magna turned and saw more stuffed monsters coming his way, so the two broke into a mad dash. "Split up and go in different directions, you said; it'll be smart, you said," the mage in shades rolled his eyes.

"It seemed like a good idea at the moment. I was thinking that doing so would force that lady to spread her attention thin, plus, it would keep us active enough to not succumb to the urge to fall asleep,"

"Well, as you can see, she doesn't need to pay complete attention to us! She just needs to know where we're going and those things she makes do the rest,"

"Yeah yeah, I get it, mistakes were made, just keep running!"

The two of them were currently running north, putting them close to the ones running in the western portion, said people being just Charmy and Sally.

"Cotton Creation Magic: Sleeping Sheep's Mega Hit!" the tiny glutton exclaimed as her large titan of a spell made short work of the scaradorable foes.

"This shit sucks!" the girl whined, not at the fact that she was swarmed by the possessed dream mage's creations, but by the action of the mage herself. Despite not being in view, whenever the black bull tried to create food with her magic, it would be sealed in the same metal box without fail.

"How is she even doing this?! Is she spying on me or something?! Oh wait, that actually does check out," she peered around the space. "I bet she's got tiny things around here, watching my every move. Well, if you are, then here's something for you!" she flipped her off with both hands.

Right as she did that, a sound began to register in her ears, and it was coming from above her, so she looked up, her eyes widening to see a storm of various sharp objects, ready to rain down upon her.

"Hell no! Cotton Magic: Cloud of Wool!" she commanded her previous to undo itself as she flew out of range, but to her horror, the multitude appeared to gain a mind of its own as it stopped in mid-air and pointed their tips at her.

"Gotta keep moving," Charmy continued, the weapons in hot pursuit. "Okay, think, there's got to be a way to get these things off my tail. I don't think going faster will solve anything, so let's try a more direct approach,"

She turned the cloud around and started zooming right at the sharp objects, getting closer and closer, she then channeled mana into her legs and jumped off her mode of transportation and high above them. Charmy moved to the second step, commanding her cloud to expand to massive proportions, trapping them.

The cotton mage made another cloud before her feet touched what can be called the 'ground', smiling proudly to herself. "Nice,"

However, it wasn't going to be that easy. While one problem was solved for the most part, another came in the form of a dark cloud that loomed overhead.

"Great, now she's copying me. What's next, is the cloud going to rain sheep or something?"

It in fact, did not rain sheep, instead, it shot concentrated beams of electricity, the cotton mage being able to dodge the initial strike before she skedaddled, the dark cloud following her.

"Okay, this might be a little harder to deal with,"

"Then how about I lend a hand?"

Charmy turned her head to the right to see Sally sitting on a teacup, the creatures chasing trapped rather uncomfortably in gel, the Sticky Salamander standing over them. "I guess so, but it does feel strange accepting it from you,"

"Believe me, the feeling is mutual, but I promised Asta I'd help out," she answered as Charmy flew over to her, the salamander jumping in front of them.

The dark cloud neared the two, firing its attack, but against the gel lizard, it didn't stand a chance, the beam refracting upon contact every time.

On the southern side of the space was Luck, having accessed his Calamity Fiend form. Even though he agreed to split up, he wasn't satisfied with running away, he had to fight.

"Lightning Magic: Voltage Trail!" he subjected them to a shocking surprise as he came in and dropkicked one with enough force to tear it in half, moving on to the others.

"Oh yeah, this is pretty fun. Granted, I can't spend too much time enjoying myself, this plan wasn't too smart when considering the abilities of the opponent. We need to regroup, but how?"

He was soon about to get an answer as more adversaries appeared, putting him in a semi-excited mood, but before contact could be made, a portal spawned in the air as Valtos dropped down from it.

"Spatial Magic: Swift Space Slash!" he cut down the newcomers in no time at all.

"Hey, portal guy, just the person I was looking for," Luck walked over to him. "Not that I don't appreciate the help, but I had those things under control,"

"I see, it's just that I sensed danger over here from where I was in the east and came to check on it," he answered. "That and your friend wanted to make sure you were okay,"

"Which friend?" he asked, but he got his answer faster than he expected as Vanessa dropped out of the portal.

"That would be me," she placed a hand on her hip. "I know that Rades guy was just trying to help, but splitting up in a place where she can control almost anything wasn't too smart if you ask me,"

"You all chose to go along with it though," Valtos pointed out.

The thread mage shrugged. "I wanted to give it a chance, perhaps he could've been onto something,"

The spatial mage thought about it, shrugging as well. "I suppose. However, if we want to stand a chance, we need to start by regrouping," he made a portal beneath them, bringing them to the spot where they first entered Glamour World.

He then spread his arms out and focused. "What are you doing?" Luck inquired.

"By concentrating my senses, I can detect where the others are and make portals for them simultaneously," he explained.

The lightning mage's eyes became like stars. "Ooh, I heard about this from a report, this was what you did when you attacked the capital. I've always wanted to see it in action,"

"Then sit back and watch," in a short ten seconds, a massive portal formed above them, the other four descending, landing rather unceremoniously.

"Get your foot off my face!" the exclamation came from multiple people as they stood up.

"Thanks a bunch for that, Valtos," Rades said gratefully. "Alright, we're together again. My plan didn't work out so well, does anyone else have some bright ideas?"

"I have one: you can stay still and let me kill you," Reve suddenly interjected, floating up in the sky. "Not that it's a hassle to deal with you all separately, but I'd prefer to take you out while you're together, that way I can have this victory all to myself. I may have created them, but it feels better to take your lives with a more direct approach,"

"It's not going to happen, don't forget, Rouge and I are here!" Vanessa fired back.

Rades put a hand in front of his mouth at a curve so the elf couldn't see his lips moving as he spoke. "I'm still waiting on those bright ideas,"

Luck scratched his head. "I'm a bit stumped. We're at a disadvantage while we're in here, the only person I can see beating her is well…her,"

"You want her to fight herself?" Magna facepalmed. "You know that's not possible, right?"

"Hm, maybe it is possible,"

All eyes turned to Sally, the scientist stroking her chin. "After all, that elf lady said it herself, reality bends to her whims, so let's use it against her," she said, turning to the group. "But you're going to have to trust me. Whatever I say, just go along with it, 'kay?"

"Okay,"

"Perfect!" she turned back to the enemy. "Fire guy, use a spell to obstruct her vision,"

"You got it! Flame Magic: Timebomb Explosive Scatter Shot!" Magna declared, reeling his arm back as the fireballs were launched, getting close before they vanished.

"What the?" Reve began darting her eyes around, attempting to locate them. But in a few seconds, they reappeared and exploded in front of her, smoke entering her eyes.

"Damn it!" she screamed in pain.

"Good work. Vanessa and Charmy, you're up! Make her 'appear'!"

The two ladies got to work, the older one starting off by gathering her threads and shooting them out in a meticulous fashion, moving them carefully until they formed the outline of Dorothy's body. The younger one knew what to do next, conjuring cotton to fill the outline, giving it dimension.

Sally nodded. "And there we go, all that's left to do is wait,"

Reve began to open her eyes, but they were watery, her vision blurred, and because of that, she couldn't help but raise a brow at the figure some meters away from her. "Who is that? I don't remember bringing anyone who looks like that, but it's hard to make out their appearance. If I didn't know any better, that looks like…,"

Sally snickered. "That's right, whatever you imagine becomes real in this place, so as long as you think the captain of the Coral Peacocks is here, then…,"

In a matter of seconds, the replica began to change, taking on a pink color before details were added one by one, all until what floated across from Reve was Dorothy Unsworth herself, her eyes closed.

The possessed dream mage wiped her eyes, the stinging sensation finally receding, but then she widened her eyes. "It's not possible,"

"What do you mean? Of course it is!" Dorothy asked before exclaiming with a chipper tone, opening her eyes as she struck a pose, a horizontal peace sign in front of her face. "After all, that's the way I made it!"

"What?" the seven deadpanned. In all honesty, none of them, not even Sally was sure if the replica would do anything but fight upon being brought to life, so to see such a display be the first action surely gave them mixed feelings. Was Dorothy actually like this? With how much she slept, it was anyone's guess.

The dream mage spotted the group, gazing down upon them. "Hey, whoever thought of this, thanks a lot! It's not often I'm awake, I usually stay here while I rest, just doing my own thing, I've never fought in here though, so that can be fun!"

"Holy crap, it really is her!" they shouted in unison.

"Wait, just for the record, how old are you?" Charmy asked.

"I'm 26, and looking pretty good if I do say so myself," she answered happily.

"Really? With that attitude, I thought you'd be around the age of Zuka's captain,"

The captain held her chin. "Hm, I don't know who Zuka is, but if this captain you're talking about is supposed to be younger, you must be talking about Rill. Nope, I'm much older than him!"

"Enough of the chit-chat, you shouldn't be here!" Reve exclaimed, losing her composure. "You should still be inside of me, I have control of your body,"

Dorothy poked her cheek in a cutesy manner. "What do you mean, silly? I am still inside you. When you imagined me here by giving life to this fake body, all you did was provide a vessel for me to interact with the outside world. You shouldn't underestimate ingenuity, it's a powerful quality we humans have in spades. But that's not all you shouldn't underestimate, now that I have a vessel, temporary as it may be, I can fight," she entered. "So let me see what you got!"

"Gladly!" the elf sent out an array of creatures, merging them all into one enormous monster.

"Wow, that's a pretty big one, bet you I can make something even bigger!" the woman conjured a boat along with an oar, setting it on the monster's body as she paddled up its exterior rapidly, making it to the top in no time.

She then jumped and raised her hands high, creating the moon. "Holy shit!" the group exclaimed as they spectated the fight, completely taken off guard by what she made, currently basking in the shadow the enormous object produced.

"Take this!" she brought it down, crushing the foe in one fell swoop. "C'mon, I know you can do better than that!"

"Indeed!" she responded as the two engaged in a back-and-forth.

"Alright, I'll admit it, this was a way better plan," Rades voiced. "Anyone wanna place a bet on who's going to win?"

Everyone shifted their eyes in his direction, the wraith mage receiving different cryptic looks, forcing him to put his hands up. "It was just a joke, just trying to lighten up the mood,"

"Dorothy kinda beat you to that one," Vanessa stated dryly as the space suddenly began shaking.

The ongoing fight also ceased as the rumbling became the least of their concerns. All around them, cracks were appearing throughout the pink sky.

"What's going on?" Reve was confused.

"If I had to guess, Glamour World can't contain the dreams of both of us and is subsequently failing to maintain its existence," Dorothy surmised, her theory proving to be true as her fake body began to transform back into cotton and thread, starting with her legs.

"Aw man, I was hoping we could've fought for a little while longer, but it seems it wasn't meant to be. Cya then," the captain waved goodbye as the life faded from the replica entirely, and soon after, the world broke apart.

In a brief flash of light, they were back in the real world, right above the spot she abducted them.

Annalise managed to bring herself to her feet. "Hey, they're back!"

Reve looked around, seeing that they were indeed back. "No, I won't allow it! I don't have a limit, I'll just send us all back to Glamour World and-,"

In an instant, Magna and Luck were right in front of her. "Combo Spell: Flame Lightning Exploding Canon!" they were hit dead-on, causing her to plummet to the ground roughly with a thud, knocking her out cold. Luckily for them, Valtos made it so they didn't have to experience that while landing.

"Nice work, you guys!" Asta congratulated them as he lifted the Adlai siblings, and came down, approaching the group. He then set them down and took out the Destroyer, placing it on the possessed captain, freeing her. "Another set of hard fights are behind us,"

"What in the world?" they all gazed down, seeing Gauche clutch his head, waking up before Marie did seconds after. He stared up at his squadmates. "Thanks for bringing me back,"

The other lent their hands and helped the two up. "No problem, you were quite the hassle though," Asta rubbed his nose.

"Thank you so much, that was really scary!" Marie showed her gratitude in a different way, hugging the teen tightly.

"You're welcome," he said, but then he stopped, peering at Gauche, but to his surprise, the expression of anger and jealousy wasn't there, he was perfectly calm.

The mirror mage was aware of the teen's shock. "I'm letting that one slide, you really did come through for us," he said before the usual expression returned briefly. "But don't get used to it, you hear?"

"Whatever you say," he sweatdropped. "By the way, Henry, can you fix the hideout?!"

The recombination mage nodded, using the mana he drained to repair the base, transforming it into its Fighting Style configuration. "Gooooodddd tooooo gooooo!"

Gauche smirked. "Looks like you guys have met Henry. Can you believe he's been living with us the whole time?"

"I mean, Captain Yami and I have known about him for some time now," Asta pointed out in a comedic manner.

"What?! And you didn't bother to tell us?! What, was it for our safety or something?!"

"Actually, yes,"

"...Oh," he scratched the side of his head, making short eye contact with the former terrorists, his eyes widening as he did a double take. "What are they doing here?!"

"Temporary truce," they all answered.

"There they are! Hey!" they heard a familiar voice, looking up, they saw Noelle and Zora, flying overhead on a broom.

"It looks like we're not the only ones who noticed you!" another voice called out to them, the mages looked to the right to see Kenos and Zuka, riding on a chimera.

The two royal knights were the first to jump off. "Draglide, return to the estate!" the solar mage told her as she flew off. Seconds later, the other pair landed as well, all of them regrouping, but with that came a bit of a problem.

"What the hell?!" multiple people blurted out the same question, but before it could turn into a storm of chatter, Asta spoke up. "Everyone, hold on, I can see that we all have questions, but let's be calm. Now, what's the first thing we want to tackle?"

"What are they doing here?!" the new arrivals pointed at the former Midnight Sun members.

"We got a temporary truce going on," Rades replied. "We help you deal with this, pay for our crimes, and then get our revenge on Licht for betraying us, or Patri, I guess,"

"Patri?"

"Yeah, apparently, that's the real name of the Licht we've been following,"

Asta held his chin. "Yeah, that does fill in a few blanks. What's the second thing?"

"Why is he wearing our squad robe?!" some of the bulls pointed at the ash mage.

"Yeah, about that, I'm not really Xerx Lugner, I'm Zora Ideale, a member of your ragtag crew, in fact, I've got seniority over you, being the fifth member and all," he explained.

"What? Captain Yami let you into the squad before the rest of us?" Magna couldn't believe it.

"So you were here before us all, but you've never been to the hideout?" Luck asked with a tilted head.

"I only stopped by once after joining,"

Vanessa nodded at the logic. "I guess that explains why neither Glynda nor I ever met you. A year after we left the Witches' Forest, she bought a house and I moved in with her for some years, then I moved back into the hideout when I joined the squad. I may have been too drunk to remember, but I think I heard Yami say I was the sixth member,"

"Ok, we can discuss that later, I want to get to the third thing," Kenos spoke up, pointing a thumb where the cursed knight was. "You mean to tell me that guy's real and I wasn't just imagining him? And what the hell happened to our base?"

"You've seen Henry before?" Asta was surprised.

"Yeah, it was after our battle in Nean, when I went exploring with Magna and Luck. At first, I thought I was going crazy, but it appears I wasn't,"

"Then you saw him before I did. He's real alright, that's Henry Legolant, the fourth black bull and the rightful owner of our hideout. He's the one who makes it shift around even now and then, and his magic lets him change its form, as you're seeing right now,"

"I see. It's nice to meet you, Henry, I'm Kenos. As a member of our squad, you're officially family, so what do you say we have a get-together after this?" he began walking to him, but was stopped.

"Careful, he's cursed, being too close to him drains your magic," Asta informed him.

"You don't say?" the noble thought back, recalling how being close made him feel.

Even though they couldn't get close, the recombination mage waved from where he was, the ones unacquainted with him waving back.

"Are there any more questions?" Kenos asked the group.

"Yeah, I actually have one," Noelle raised her hand, tilting her head to get a look at Zuka, raising her brow. "Shouldn't you be possessed?"

The other royal knights did a double take, she was right, the elven features were still present, but she appeared to be normal. "I was wondering when someone would ask. I was able to beat Yoveen, that's the elf by the way, in mental combat and took back control of my body," she told them, crossing her arms proudly.

"What?!" Gauche and Luck were flabbergasted. "No fair!"

The sparkle mage shrugged. "Hey, I don't make the rules, I just break them,"

"Is that everything?" Asta asked, the rest nodding. "Good, it's nice to have the whole squad together, makes me feel invincible,"

The very second he said that, the royal grinned. "Wrong you are, Dorksta," she pulled out a communication device from her satchel, speaking into it. "Not all of us are here,"

On cue, a portal formed in clear view of them all as Finral stepped out confidently. "Well hello there, everyone, how nice it is to see you on this eventful evening. Sorry to keep you all waiting, but-,"

He didn't get to finish as everyone essentially dogpiled on him. "You're awake! Oh thank heavens you're awake!" nearly all of the bulls said ecstatically, hugging the spatial mage tightly.

"Aw man, can no one here let me finish my dramatic entrance," Finral sighed.

"You can save the entrance for another time, just let us enjoy this," Vanessa said back as they all stayed like that for about a minute before separating, many of them wiping tears away.

"I guess that except for Captain Yami, all of us are here," Asta repeated his statement.

"Yes, and with all of us together, our friendship will save the kingdom!"

Upon the finishing of that passionate statement, all of the bulls except for Gauche and Henry merely blinked. They didn't recognize that voice, but it was coming from behind them; they slowly cocked their heads in that direction, seeing only the poison and transformation mages.

"Don't you agree, Grey?" Gordon spoke again.

Grey nodded. "I do, we're Magic Knights, we need to rely on one another,"

The jaws of the rowdy squad hung agape at what they were hearing. "I-Is this really happening, or am I still in a coma?" Finral managed to voice his thoughts.

"You're not imagining anything, this is real," Gordon told him. "We've begun to conquer our fears, and it started like this,"

"But, you were communicating like you normally did just a little while ago," Asta tried to make sense of it.

"About that, we decided that we wanted to surprise you all, so we waited until everyone was together," Grey told them. "I still may get a little shy now and then, but I'm going to try my best,"

Kenos placed a hand on his forehead. "Damn, the surprises just don't stop tonight, I don't know how much more I can take,"

Ironically, just as he said that, one more surprise snuck in as a shrill sound echoed throughout the night. "Shit! My ears!" Annalise yelled what they all were thinking.

"Where is it coming from?!" Marie was the one who asked.

"Over there!" Valtos pointed in the direction of the ethereal dark construct. Everyone followed his finger, seeing that the circle in the middle of it was changing color, becoming a vibrant purple, and that meant one thing.

The Shadow Palace was open.