The beast that the red-haired youth was pointing at was a massive bear-like creature whose black scales glimmered in the rays of sun that managed to pass through the thick gray clouds.

The monstrosity pushing around mounds of carcasses was only noticed because it stood up on its hind legs and keenly turned towards the slopes of the mountain strip bare from all vegetation.

"Tsk! Somebody smacks this moron for me! False alert! New guy shat himself at the sight of lord Banemor!"

Thin pale-blue lines disappeared from Devios's body as he released the defensive spell and called out in annoyance to put his soldiers at ease.

"Did...! Did you just say lord Banemor?! That thing?!"

George shouted in utter disbelief looking between Devios and the monstrous figure Zoemi transformed form.

"Indeed. It has been a good few hours that he is like that. He also refuses to rest so even I am getting worried. He burnt down those mountains himself, you know"

Devios shrugged his shoulders lightheartedly, causing most of the others to flinch in shock – especially so for the two fire magicians from the Victureo family.

"He is looking kind of alerted, don't you think? Maybe it will be for the best to go and check up on him?"

"You have a point."

Xeonith raised his brow and pointed out to which Devios nodded in agreement and both of them began to walk toward the beast in the distance.

The rest of the newly arrived group followed them too, although with a healthy dose of reluctance.

"Huh...?"

As they were halfway there something unexpected got their attention – two unknown people showed up behind Zoemi's best-like form.

They walked out of a jet-black portal that disappeared just as fast as it emerged from the ground.

The pair consisted of a dark-haired man and a black-haired girl – anything else was hard to discern from a distance, but their apparel didn't suggest that they were soldiers...

----

A girl with jet-black crystals replacing her eyes moved forward towards the monstrous bear without making any noise – the muffle spell she was under was assuring that much. The man behind her was tense, this situation was not what they expected.

The Zoemi at the Atreterve border was an easy enough target he looked like a human and was taken advantage of at the perfect opportunity.

This one though... Would the artificial basilisk be even able to lock eyes with him now?

That much was essential...

No. any worries were unnecessary. The copies created with the law of Gemini were connected to some degree. If anything, this Zoemi is already possessed, and putting him under the empowered hex was only an unnecessary overcautiousness on the part of great Cherro.

Yes. There was nothing to worry about. He and the artificial basilisk had nothing to worry about. After all, getting possessed by the great Cherro was a privilege accessible only to a selected few! They were special and therefore precious so...

*WHAM* *SQUELCH*

Out of nowhere the monstrous bear in front of them swung its massive paw and the dark-haired man got crushed into a meaty paste with white bone shards shooting out from the unimaginable pressure.

"HIIIIIIII!"

The girl with crystal eyes cried out and plopped to the ground as fear completely overtook her. The oppressive aura released by the beast was just too much.

"I-ignore...! Ignore m...!" *SHING* *CRACK*

The girl sobbed while crawling backward doing her best to catch even a glimpse of the monster bear's eyes – but her own jet-black crystal eyes ended up being pierced right through by the beast's claws...

...together with her head...

"...kghhhhhh...!"

The girl with runes tattooed all over her body went into a seizure but the trembling stopped within seconds as her body realized it was already dead.

"So those filth-infested scum got me by using muffle... This is just an embarassing oversight on my part..." *SQUELCH*

Zoemi bellowed to himself, shaking his paw and turning the artificial basilisk corpse into mincemeat.

-----

"He just killed them! He killed other magicians! See?! He's just a monster, we need to get rid of him!"

The group approaching from the back saw it all but lacked the context of what happened, but that didn't stop Grazio from shouting in a high-pitched voice and already conjuring a fireball about to launch an attack.

"Just try it and I will skewer you all the way from asshole to throat."

Devios, although shocked by the sudden outburst of violence, didn't get carried away by the blatant fearmongering and reached out his hand, glowing with the condensing ice mana aiming not towards the monster bear but at young lord Victureo's chest.

"!!!" *haaaa*historical

"Lord Perserios, you are getting ahead of yourself in a clearly dangerous situation!"

Grazio's fireball dispersed into mana as his face turned blue from the terror over the threat and his older sister had to be the one to talk back to the pale-blue-haired boy.

"Oh, am I? I swear if I learn that my sweet Metavi has to endure idiots like the two of you all the time..."

"...e-eeehhh...?"

Devios scoffed with disgust, staring daggers at Ehmi until the white-as-snow girl keeping herself in the back of the group let out a short embarrassed gasp.

"...!"

"...Devios... Metavicero doesn't have memories of the past timeline...!"

The pale-blue-haired boy realized his extremely embarrassing mistake just by looking at the expression the white-as-snow girl was making, he didn't need Xeonith whispering to him from the side...

Metavicero could not blush but with the time she and Devios spent together in the past timeline, the pale-blue-haired boy could tell exactly how she felt.

"...please pardon this slip of the tongue... Let's go, we have to check what is going on with lord Banemor..."

Devios ended up completely red in the face, deeply ashamed of himself, bowing apologetically towards Metavicero before turning right around and continuing to march on looking extremely stiff.

That event certainly didn't put Grazio and Ehmi's minds at ease but at least it seemed to lower the tension of the rest.

"...sister, I didn't release my spell, it was extinguished by something..."

*haaaaaa* "I see..."

The siblings whispered to each other with Ehmi trying to activate a spell only for it to end up being turned back into mana right away.

"GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGH!" *RUMBLE*

"!!!"

Out of nowhere the monstrous bear leaned back as if winding up and unleashed a roar that shook both the earth and the sky bringing every living being in dozens of miles of radius to their knees.

"Zoemi?! What the hell?!"

Devios wiped off the blood that started to trickle down from his nose and shouted at the monstrous figure in anger.

"I've had enough. I wanted to believe that the alliance the other kingdoms created was just using Cherro as a means to complete their goal, but it's clearly the other way around... All of you. Listen."

The beast turned around and approached the group of youngsters causing the earth to tremble with each step.

"There are enough high nobles here to make things official."

Zoemi bellowed with grim satisfaction and the silver sphere above his head flickered. Then, in the next couple of seconds, the monstrous bear-like beast turned back into the black-haired young man smirking devilishly.

"I. Zoemi Benevi Banemor officially relinquish my title as an aristocrat of the Bellcpehora kingdom. From this point on none of my actions are connected with this country."

"What are you saying, boss?!"

The black-young man declared causing Xeonith to cry out in disbelief as the others were too shocked to say anything.

"I am saying that I am going to slaughter every and all fool connected with Cherro. Make sure to pass on the news – otherwise, whatever will be left of those other nations may go cry to Heavenly Star Nation about Bellcephora Kingdom being the evil one. And since the martial artists don't seem to be involved with Cherro voluntarily, I will not care about that conflict."

Zoemi declared, spreading his arms to the sides.

"H-hold on, lord Banemor...! I at least understand that you are doing it for the Bellcephora kingdom – but think about it – some of the enemy forces were able to break free from your power so...!'

Devios stood up on shaking legs and called out feeling deep in his core that Zoemi not being tied by the rules of the society will become a threat that the whole world would unite against, no matter whether his intentions were good or not...

"Devios... You, with all due respect to how you remember me being in the past timeline... Now, you don't know shit about my strength."

Zoemi scoffed and his smirk turned into a grin and then...

*@%^@^%@^%@^%@%#$@^#$@%&#&$^#@^$#@%^#@^%^@%^@^$@&^^&@^#^@^$%#@%$* *BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

*RUMBLE*

"!!!"

The entire mountain range was swallowed by a wall of silver light reaching towards the heavens, the shockwave that spread in all directions was so powerful that despite the distance monster corpses and soldiers in the back were sent flying – with the exception of the group that had Zoemi acting as a shield in front of them.

The silver light faded away and...

"...!"

...it revealed a strip of completely flat barren ground... The mountain range... was gone...

The natural border had disappeared without a trace and anyone keen-eyed was able to spot the outline of the buildings of the Barbariacca nation's villages and towns.

"That filth's followers were trying to set up some suspicious magic devices back there in the mountains. Sorry for inadvertently changing the climate of your land, Devios. Make sure to pass my apology to the highlanders, they will not have a chance to reclaim their mountains."

Zoemi shrugged his shoulders before looking back at his work.

"Now then. Time to reaffirm the crippling fear that filth has of me~"

"Z-Zoemi, wai...!"

*WHOOOSH* *BOOOOOOOOOOM*

The balck-ahried young man laughed morbidly, and while Devios reached out his hand towards him, he already vanished and the eruption of silver light and the echo of an explosion far in the distance over at the Barbariacca nation side marked his new location.