(Third POV)
Night fell quietly over Rikarisu. The illuminators bathed the streets in a pale glow as the city settled into sleep. Some citizens were still tidying up shops, preparing for the next day, but for most, it was a night like any other.
It was the first night since Paul had left the city, accompanied by Ruijerd and Ginger. The rest of the group remained behind, going about their usual until the three returned.
Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
Zenith had taken it upon herself to sit with Rudeus at night, keeping him company in Paul's absence. In all ways, it felt routine. Safe.
But something was about to change.
***
In the room adjacent to the Greyrat family's quarters, Ghislaine, Eris, Vierra, and Shierra were fast asleep—save for one.
Ghislaine's sharp senses stirred her from slumber. Something was off.
Footsteps were coming from the floor, and based on their direction, they appeared to be coming from the room next to them, the one where Zenith and her family were.
And through her hearing, she could tell that they were the steps of a child, not an adult.
Silently, she slipped from her bed and stepped into the hallway. As she turned the corner, she caught sight of a small figure standing at the far end.
It was Rudeus. He just stood there, motionless, his back to her. His staff—the evolved weapon he rarely let go of—was missing.
"Rudeus?" Ghislaine whispered cautiously.
To her surprise, however, he answered.
"Rudeus can't speak right now."
The voice was undoubtedly his. But something was wrong. Slightly off in tone. Calm, deliberate… yet detached.
Before she could react, the boy vanished in a flash, his movement fast, even by her standards.
Ghislaine didn't hesitate. She bolted after him, instinct overriding thought. There was no time to wake the others.
The chase led her through the silent streets of Rikarisu. Even at the outer walls, she kept pace—barely. But the moment she reached the edge of the city, a burst of white fire forced her to a halt.
Two guards lay on the ground, flames licking at their bodies. But there was no scent of burning flesh. Just silence. The unnatural stillness of death.
She didn't linger. They were already gone based on the white fire covering their bodies.
Minutes passed, and the city is now distant behind her. And finally, atop a hill overlooking the forest, Rudeus stopped.
He sat cross-legged on the grass, eyes closed, one arm propped under his chin as if he'd been waiting for her, the distant but faded light of Rikarisu's glowing stones making him visible even in the dead of night.
Ghislaine slowed down as uncertainty befell her steps.
This wasn't right.
Then, he spoke, his eyes remaining closed. "Have you figured it out yet, or do I need to spell it out for you?"
The voice was calm. Confident. Too old for the boy it came from.
"You're… not Rudeus, are you?" Ghislaine asked warily.
He looked like Rudeus, sounded like Rudeus, but it didn't feel like Rudeus at all. It had to be an impostor, but Ghislaine couldn't figure out who it could be.
A slow smirk curled his lips. "Ruijerd never told you, did he? About the unique traits of the sentient slime tribe. Maybe Laxus's little crusade wiped us out from history too much."
The name Laxus didn't ring a bell for Ghislaine, and she had no idea what Ruijerd had to do with this.
Still, there was only one being she knew who spoke like this—someone who would pull strings from the shadows.
"Kagami," she said, narrowing her eyes.
A low laugh escaped his lips. "Hah. Did you actually figure it out on your own? Nah, I had to tip you off when I said slime."
His voice oozed amusement, mocking, and superiority.
And now she knew for certain: this wasn't just Rudeus under a spell. This was possession.
"How?" she demanded, hand twitching toward her sword, though she couldn't draw it. Not against him.
"Demons from my tribe can divide themselves—leave fragments behind in a host," Kagami said smoothly. "It takes time, but if left inside a host, those fragments can grow, especially if the host is weak and vulnerable."
He opened his eyes, and for a moment, they shimmered—not Rudeus's eyes, but something ancient behind them.
"I left a piece of myself inside Rudeus before I dropped him into that Black Dragon nest. The crystal hindered any control I could have had against him, but now that he's free and his will is shattered… there's nothing left to stop me."
Ghislaine's chest tightened.
"You used us," she growled. "All of us. From the start. And you're still doing it now! HOW DARE YOU!!!"
Kagami shrugged, unfazed. "Of course. And I'm not here to hurt him. I told you my goal, didn't I? I want to turn Rudeus into a Magic God. But leaving him with his family—where he's coddled, protected—that won't do. If I don't push him into the fire, he'll never awaken and reach the peak of his potential. Or at least enough so that we can return to the original world."
She took a step forward. "He just got back. He's with the people who love him. And you want to rip that away? After everything they went through?"
"This isn't about love," Kagami replied coldly. "This is about gaining power. He's wasting it here."
"You're using him!"
"I'm saving him from a future of nothing but regret and morbid hatred of himself."
Ghislaine's fists clenched. She knew she couldn't strike—not without harming the boy. And yet every instinct in her screamed to act.
"I won't let you take him," she said, voice low with fury.
"Well, you don't have much of a choice. And Rudeus is far from reaching his true power, especially with the one power that hasn't finished hatching."
As he said that, he finally opened his eyes, revealing a pair of eyes that Ghislaine was not ready to look upon.
The once black eyes, once green before getting sealed, were now with black sclera, golden irises, and silver slit pupils. They were eyes not meant for a boy—divine and cold, forged for command, not empathy.
Just one glance at them, and Ghislaine's instincts screamed in terror.
"Do you wanna know why I've let you chase after me?" Kagami said, but Ghislaine was left speechless, already putting the dots together that he wanted her to follow him.
"Dumb muscle-brain," he mockingly said as he lifted his free hand. "You walked right into my trap."
And then, the air around Ghislaine began to rustle, and even though she tried to leap away, something was keeping her in place.
Next thing she knew, everything began hurting as a flash of light blinded her, and her consciousness was lost for a second.
And as she came back to it, she was unable to move her body, her muscles were paralyzed, and her skin burned. She was struck by a lesser version of [Lightning], something her Touki could not protect her from.
A dull hum rang in Ghislaine's ears. Her breath hitched. Her muscles refused to obey her, twitching helplessly as she collapsed onto one knee, then fell fully to the ground. Smoke drifted off her skin where the lightning had seared through her defenses.
Pain lanced through her nerves like barbed wire—but worse than agony was the shame of stillness.
A Sword King, brought to her knees by a child's body, worn like a mask by a puppet master. She bit back a growl, tried to move—even just her fingers—but nothing responded.
Kagami stood over her now, still wearing Rudeus's face, though it twisted now with contempt and something close to pity.
"You're strong," he admitted, tilting Rudeus's head. "You kept up your consciousness longer than I expected. But strength alone doesn't matter if you don't know what you're fighting against."
Ghislaine's gaze bore into him, a silent threat. If she could move, she would tear him apart.
Kagami knelt beside her, and for a moment, he just watched her eyes flicking across her still form, as if studying an artifact in disrepair.
"I didn't want to hurt you," he murmured, softer now. "But I needed to make sure no one followed me any further. You're too loyal for your own good, Ghislaine."
She couldn't respond, but the hatred in her eyes said enough.
Kagami rose to his feet again. "Don't worry. You'll recover... eventually. I was merciful on you because you're important to Eris."
He turned away, wind rustling through the dusty wasteland as he faced the horizon. The faintest edge of dawn tinted the sky, and with it, the silhouette of a golden, shimmering object began to appear.
"I'll be taking him somewhere better," Kagami said aloud, almost to himself. "Where he'll learn. He won't return the same, but he'll be… different."
He paused for a moment, taking off the pendant hidden under the shirt and putting it into Ghislaine's hand.
Then, as he walked away from her, he glanced over his shoulder one last time.
"Tell Paul... this was always going to happen. Sooner or later, I would have taken Rudeus away eventually."
And then he vanished along with the golden shimmer. No spell, no flash—just silence in the ever-so-oppressive darkness. Leaving Ghislaine to do nothing but grit her teeth and scowl in fury.
Pain throbbed through Ghislaine's limbs, slow and searing, like molten iron beneath her skin. She lay on cracked ground as the silence pressed on from every direction.
Dawn crept in, dull and colorless, washing away the stars with a lifeless haze. The wasteland stretched endlessly around her—just wind-scoured stone and silence, as if the world itself had gone numb.
She tried to move. Her arms barely twitched. Her muscles were numb, burned from within by the lingering shock of Kagami's attack. Whatever spell he had struck her with, it hadn't just hurt—it had shut her down.
And still, she forced herself to breathe.
Footsteps pounded toward her, wild and desperate, crunching gravel with every uneven stride.
"Ghislaine!"
The voice broke through the haze like a whip crack—hoarse, urgent, unmistakably Paul's.
He dropped to one knee beside her, covered in dust, panic carved into every line of his face. His hands hovered uncertainly over her, as if afraid she might shatter.
Then, the familiar sensation of Healing Magic washed over her, done by one of the Healing Bracelets Paul still had on him.
"Ghislaine, what happened?! Who attacked you?!"
She tried to speak but choked on dryness. After a moment, she forced the words out, cracked and barely audible.
"He's… not here."
Paul froze, his breath hitching. "What… what do you mean?"
Ghislaine turned her head an inch—every movement agony. Her voice was barely a whisper.
"Kagami… he's gone. He took Rudeus."
For a moment, Paul didn't move as if the air had been sucked from the world.
"Kagami... what?" he whispered.
"He waited... until you left. Possessed Rudeus. Used his body…" Her jaw clenched with pain, unable to make eye contact with him. "Said… staying with us… would keep him weak... so he took him away... he's... gone."
Paul fell to his knees fully, hands digging into the dirt, devastation written all over his face.
The reason he came back was that what they found at the marked area was a Teleportation Circle hidden by a barrier, which only the bird, the one that clung onto Rudeus's, and suddenly appeared out of the pockets of Paul's luggage, was able to open through a hidden Magic mechanism under a small rock.
Inside where the Teleportation Circle was, they tested it out and found out that it led to a hidden basement at the new Boreas manor in Ars.
There, Paul reunited with Phillip, who, after hearing about the events that happened, briefly told Paul what had happened in Ars recently as well.
After hearing that the situation in Asura had been handled and Darius had been publicly executed, he figured something was wrong.
He knew Roxy wouldn't have left out such an important detail, so he deduced that Kagami left it out intentionally. Paired with the marked map that unknowingly was a Teleportation Circle that brought them to Asura Kingdom, Paul's gut was screaming that something wasn't right, so he sprinted off back to Rikarisu through the same Teleportation Circle.
Even as his body was protesting to him to slow down, the thought about the things that could happen to his family fueled his spirit more than anything else.
But all his efforts were in vain now, in the face of not questioning Kagami's motives further.
Trembling with rage, Paul slammed his fists into the earth, shouting wordless fury into the barren air. Kagami had fooled him again. And this time, the price was his son.
///