Chapter ?548 Chapter 181 - Grand Ball (part 7)

"No. I am quite certain that you are the one with no idea."

Metavicero smiled and walked to the side, flaunting her incredible figure, that even Ehmi had a hard time matching, while a small piece of her dress detached from the rest and turned into a snowball that started rolling towards the wall next to the crimson-haired young woman.

"I'll take the sixth window and go early, okay?"

The otherworldy white girl spun around and motioned towards one of the windows pried open by the people who tried to escape through it – a window that was most definitely blocked by the darkness...

...that was no longer pitch-black but rather murky black...

"You will take it? What is that supposed to...?"

"Go ahead – in case you will be in a tight spot. Run."

Ehmi frowned, not amused by the behavior of the other girl in the slightest, but was talked over by confident Zoemi.

"Thank you~ Now then. Dumbass redhead. Let's go."

Metavicero winked at Zoemi before glancing over at Ehmi as she walked towards the chosen window.

"Who would react to that, you bi-KYAAAH?!"

*WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH*

Angered Ehmi glanced over at the obviously hostile group but when no one else made a move she turned back to the white-as-snow girl and scoffed – but just then the small snowball that Ehmi ignored, underestimating it as insignificantly weak, erupted into a massive avalanche that hit and carried her all the way to the window, pushing her through right into the murky darkness.

"Aaaaaand sealed~!"

Metavicero nodded with a laugh and clasped her hands together as the fresh snow turned out into hard as stone frozen mass blocking the window.

*click*

Oemir snapped their fingers and the frozen snow got engulfed in the murky darkness and disappeared, leaving only the normal window with the view of the outside of the castle lighted up by the few magic crystal lamps and the moonlight.

"Lord Banemor, if you hated that girl so much, you could have told me to deal with her. If that was my acid instead of big sis's snow..."

Roiso fidgetted, looking up bashfully at the back of the black-haired boy.

"Believe me, I was this close to asking you..."historical

Zoemi said raising his right hand and straight up touching his index finger and thumb together to demonstrate his point.

"...but knowing how much of a stuck-up moron I was in another timeline I chose this outcome... All in all, Ehmi is out of the picture for now so... How about you will stop playing around and tell us your plans or whatever the third-rate villains that think they are heroes do? Cherro."

The black-haired boy breathed out heavily as if he himself was disappointed with his decision, and glared at the hole in the wall where everyone other than them already evacuated through.

"...you know about different timelines and even my real name... I knew that it could not be a coincidence that Zoemi always messed up my plans..."

The white-haired Arisu – or rather Cherro – walked back inside the ballroom, taking off the ripped jacket and throwing it to the side while glaring at Zoemi almost with the same amount of hatred that the black-haired boy was looking at him with.

"Ah, ah, ah... so annoying – but I guess a hero is not a hero without a proper villain that needs to be defeated. It makes so much sense now. Zoemi keeps me from my true love time and time again, countless lifetimes, countless failures... It's almost annoying how good you were with playing a clueless idiot up until now."

Arisu was no more, the personality made up only to appease the people around him so that he could ascend the throne was dropped by Cherro the moment he thought that the secret was out of the bag.

What was really surprising to Zoemi, though, was the fact that it sounded like the hero talk was not a part of the act at all and the white-haired young man really considered himself to be one.

"You lulled me into a false sense of security with those fake darkness barriers – but that's about it. I just need to adjust. You have some fools with you – even though I don't need help dealing with them all, I want to show you the power of family and friendship."

Cherro declared, spreading his arms open.

For the third time that evening, his eyes and hair turned jet-black...

|...this guy didn't just say that. He did not say that he has the power of friendship. Nope. I must have misheard him...|

Meanwhile, Zoemi was doing his very best to fight the headache that Cherro had caused him with his previously unknown variant attribute – talking.

|Let's erase him for good so no one needs to suffer him.|

The original personality called out from the depths of the black-haired boy's mind, cheering him on with unceasing rage burning brightly in his artificial soul.

"Ugh...!"

"...?"

While Cherro was concentrating Teo trembled and let out a disgruntled noise while backing off.

"Yeah, I relate to that reaction, this guy is... huh...?"

Zoemi breathed out and smirk at the short brown-haired girl in a butler's uniform, only to then froze in place, stunned.

With the massive shadows o almost everyone in his group, Zoemi had a hard time differentiating the unique shadows that were in line with standard sizes – such as the one that Teo had.

Still, a second ago the unique shadow in form of a stone golem was just as it always was, but not anymore.

Teo groaned in pain, grabbing onto her ear where a tiny black spot replaced the hole for an earring and her unique shadow suddenly grew a few pairs of arms and a second head.

Only once did Zoemi see something similar.

During the tournament for Ehmi's hand, the judge possessed by Kiorterell had his shadow changed because of the Ghosts possessing him!

"Metavi! Freeze her!"

"Wha...? O-okay...!"

The black-haired boy roared, causing the colorless girl to gasp in shock before adjusting to the situation and reaching her hands toward the suffering Teo.

*GUBLUB*

"...!"

Unfortunately, all of the reactions were too late. The black spot on Teo's ear spread out, engulfing her in the jet-black darkness and the girl's body turned into a puddle of jet-black liquid that spread around, having everyone except Miriette jump away from it.

The black puddle then turned into a shadow gate and every single remaining Ghosts of Bellcephora emerged from it with more than confident expressions.

All while the stunned group could only watch.

"Teo...?! TEO!"

*click*

The disintegrated girl's older twin sister, Veo cried out and tried to run towards the liquidy remains that got stepped on by the Ghosts but she was stopped by Horeo who looked at her and Patishi apologetically and snapped his fingers, causing the two to disappear in a flash of golden light.

"Aww. Do you think that anyone is safe from us? Just ask that traitor over next to you – it's not how things work, little guy~"

One of the Ghosts, a skinny woman with long hair that was almost the length of Oktria's hair snickered at the sceene...

*#######*

"...eh...? GUH-HUAGH...!"

...just to have a massive hole shot through her chest with a light beam before she properly finished her sentence.

"...that wasn't nice..."

The woman groaned and stumbled back but did not fall – there was also no blood of chunks of flesh or internal organs getting flung around as the Ghosts were no longer beings made of flesh but concentrated darkness mana.

"Pffft! Bravo~! It seems you think you might stand a chance! Why don't we give you a chance and have like five minutes head start to let you try to...?"

"Shut the fuck up and move away from her."

Another person clapped their hands together and laughed – but then was talked over by ice-cold Miriette who was pointing the index finger at the puddle while tracing a counterclockwise circle in the air with no other visible effect except for her gaining more and more platinum hair each time she repeated the gesture.

"Her...? Oh! The portal base? Why? Was she important to you? A precious friend? A...?"

"Did I fucking stutter when I told you to shut the fuck up?"

The Ghosts laughed amongst each other – one of them went even so far to grind the sole of their shoe against the jet-black liquid – which obviously wasn't going to sit well with Miriette, who lost all dark green from her hair and eyes and spoke in a calm, bloodcurdling terrifying voice.

Both the new color and the words of the platinum-haired girl caused the Ghosts and Cherro to stop in place in shock.

"...my mana is getting drained like crazy... kill as many as you can...!"

Getting stopped like that wasn't just for show – Miriette was literally using her second attribute – time – to capture every single one of their enemies in the moment of eternity cut out from the timeline.

*click*

_)(*&%^#$$%^&*(_

Horeo raised his brows and snapped his fingers with a dry sound – the next moment bringing golden light engulfed the entire ballroom, hiding whatever the others were doing.

"AS IF I LET YOU!

Despite everything, one Ghosts managed to break through the power of the time attribute spell and move – a spot of jet-black darkness in the sea of light.

Kirissu, original Cherro's mother and the vice commander of the Ghosts of Bellcephora, roared and a torrent of blackness erupted from her stump and wrapped her and a few closest Ghosts and Cherro in thick cacoons, protecting them from instant disintegration.

[I...! I will not let it end like this...!]

...but that only caused the intensity of the golden light to increase a thousandfold and overwrite the darkness after everyone present heard a voice of a child scared to tears...