This is today July 27th's chapter
Chapter 109: Nahida: I Will Take Three of Them
"Do what? What else is there to do?"
Scaramouche fixed the Fatui soldier with a sneer, clearly unimpressed by the very question.
"Let him come. If he didn't, I'd only be bored."
"Hahahahaha — I haven't even reached my perfect form yet, and dealing with Futsu Mitama is already more than enough for me."
With that, he started forward, already moving to meet the coming confrontation. He had no intention of summoning shouki no kami, the prodigal, to fight through it — he meant to face Futsu Mitama in his own physical form, nothing between them.
"Retreat."
La Signora's frown deepened as the word left her. Her gaze swept between Scaramouche and Dottore, and her tone left no room for argument.
"The time isn't right yet. We need to leave, and quickly. Scaramouche can do as he pleases later — right now, we get out of here. If Futsu Mitama and his group are heading this way, it means our location has already been compromised."
"And with Azar captured, the Akademiya has likely lost access to whatever power Maha Rukkhadevata left behind for them to use."
Her intentions were plain enough — she meant to flee, and she knew exactly why it made sense. Their current position offered relative safety, and if they abandoned it now, Futsu Mitama would find, at best, an empty facility to break into. Nothing more.
As for the experimental site itself — if it was lost, so be it. The Akademiya had poured no small fortune into constructing it, but that mattered little to her now. Whether Futsu Mitama razed it to the ground or left it standing made no real difference to her plans. What mattered — the only thing that truly mattered — was whether Scaramouche could still be pushed further, still made to advance.
By Dottore and Azar's accounts, Scaramouche already carried power befitting an Archon, but wisdom of that same caliber still eluded him.
Without acquiring genuine Archon-level knowledge to match his strength, he would never complete the transformation into a true Archon. Power without wisdom, after all, made him little more than a hollow imitation — a false god wearing the shape of a real one.
That had been Azar's exact reasoning, and while La Signora couldn't claim to fully grasp what "Archon's wisdom" truly entailed, one fact remained clear enough to her: the God Creation Project was not yet finished, and Scaramouche's strength had not yet reached its ceiling.
Given that, retreating now — avoiding a clash they didn't need — seemed the wiser path.
Once the project reached completion, they could regroup with the other Harbingers and move to capture Futsu Mitama and Lesser Lord Kusanali together, quietly, on their own terms. And in doing so, claim both the Anemo and Dendro Gnoses in a single stroke. What could possibly be better than that?
"Leave? And why exactly should we leave?" Scaramouche turned on La Signora with open contempt. "Has Futsu Mitama frightened you that badly, La Signora?"
He was, frankly, growing tired of her — always retreating, always talking of escape and caution. It struck him as almost absurd. Once, she'd been the one hunting Futsu Mitama down, determined to end him herself. Now here she stood, apparently paralyzed by fear of the very man she'd chased. Weakness, he thought bitterly, truly was the original sin.
"This may well be the wiser course."
Dottore's voice cut in, calm and measured, siding firmly with La Signora's judgment.
The experiment remained incomplete, and engaging Futsu Mitama's group here and now offered nothing but unnecessary risk — hardly a rational choice, in his estimation.
Scaramouche's expression darkened at Dottore's agreement, displeasure written plainly across his face. He wanted, quite badly, to argue the point further. But with Dottore's voice now standing alongside La Signora's, there was little more he could say — not when the two of them, united, left him no room to act alone without inviting consequences he had no interest in facing.
And yet Scaramouche had no intention of leaving now.
"No! You can't just leave!"
Firnas's voice cracked with sudden desperation. His eyes darted between them all as he shouted,
"We had a contract! We are allies! Futsu Mitama has taken Azar prisoner — as our allies, you're obligated to save him!"
Was he serious?! Did he honestly believe the Akademiya could handle this on their own?!
They couldn't match Futsu Mitama in standing, let alone in strength. If the Fatui hadn't been backing them, Azar's capture would already be sealed, final, irreversible. And once Azar fell, Firnas himself would follow soon after — he understood that much clearly.
He was tied to a sinking ship now, bound to it whether he liked it or not, which was exactly why he'd invoked the contract. If he was going down regardless, he intended to extract whatever advantage he still could on the way.
"Yes. We had a contract." Dottore's gaze settled on Firnas, his voice unhurried. "But that same contract stipulated something else — that the Fatui would not interfere in the Akademiya's internal affairs."
"Tell me. Does this situation qualify as an internal affair to you?"
Firnas opened his mouth, ready to protest — are you joking? Futsu Mitama just broke in by force! This stopped being internal the moment he crossed that threshold!
If that was true, then Futsu Mitama was an outside threat, one actively trying to sabotage the partnership between the Akademiya and the Fatui — which meant unity, not abandonment, was the only sensible response.
But a nearby Fatui soldier beat him to the answer, her tone matter-of-fact. "No — Azar was brought down by an Akademiya Scholar, alongside the long-absent General Mahamatra, Cyno. That makes this an internal matter of the Akademiya, plain and simple. It has nothing to do with Futsu Mitama. As for him — he's already inside the Akademiya now, and he's coming straight for us."
Firnas rounded on her, jabbing a finger in her direction, his expression somewhere between fury and disbelief — why didn't you say that from the start?!
Alhaitham's eyes flickered with genuine surprise at the mention of Cyno.
The Mahamatra — returned?
He hadn't had that piece of intelligence, but it was welcome news regardless. His return alone shifted the balance considerably; the Matra, after all, answered to Cyno far more readily than they ever had to the so-called Sages.
"You heard her, didn't you?"
The Lady's arms folded across her chest, her voice cool and final. "This is an internal power struggle within your Akademiya. It has nothing to do with us, the Fatui." She let the words settle before adding, "So stop making unreasonable demands, Sage."
With that, she turned and made for the passage leading toward the surface — a safe route, and by now a familiar one.
Ever since Futsu Mitama had marked her as a target, she'd made a habit of keeping an escape route mapped out no matter where she found herself. Now, once again, it was time to run.
Scaramouche and Dottore both possessed the strength to stand against Futsu Mitama if it came to that. She did not. And so retreat, swift and immediate, remained her only sound option.
Boom—!!
An explosion rang out somewhere ahead, followed by a chorus of shouting, screaming, and the roar of battle — unmistakable proof that the intrusion had begun, and that the Fatui soldiers stationed there were fighting back with everything they had. Yet the sheer noise of it made one thing clear: even their most elite soldiers wouldn't hold that line for long.
"They're here."
Dottore's expression remained utterly composed as he turned his attention toward the commotion.
"I'll admit, I didn't expect them to arrive quite this fast. It seems we should move quickly now — if we delay any further, we may lose the chance to leave at all."
Futsu Mitama's group had covered ground faster than anticipated. Dottore had no interest in fighting just yet — the experiment remained unfinished, and given the choice, he would rather buy as much Time as possible before any confrontation became unavoidable.
The Lady nodded firmly; she'd been ready to run long before this moment arrived. Scaramouche's expression soured with impatience, though he offered no argument.
Firnas, watching the three of them prepare to leave, felt the color drain from his face. If the Fatui abandoned this place now, it meant everything was finished — for all of them.
Alhaitham stepped forward before they could move further, his voice measured and deliberate.
"You cannot simply leave. If you do, the Fatui's credibility collapses entirely. The Akademiya poured enormous effort into advancing the God Creation Project. If you walk away now without leaving behind the Archon you promised us, that would hardly be acceptable."
The implication was unmistakable — they could leave, certainly, but Scaramouche needed to remain behind. In truth, Alhaitham had no genuine interest in keeping Scaramouche here at all; his true purpose was simpler than that. He was buying time, nothing more — Time enough to hold out until Futsu Mitama's group finally arrived.
"Yes! Exactly!! At the very least, leave our Archon here with us!!"
Firnas seized on the suggestion at once, aligning himself with Alhaitham without hesitation, privately cursing himself for not thinking of it sooner.
Why waste breath on empty arguments, when they could simply let Scaramouche — this Archon forged from the combined wisdom of the Six Schools — face Futsu Mitama directly? Didn't the boy want that fight anyway?
Here was the perfect opportunity, handed to him without cost.
"Oh? Do you think I'm some object to be handed off?"
Scaramouche's expression darkened, displeasure creeping into his voice as he came to a halt, fixing both men with a stare.
"To be clear, I have no objection to fighting Futsu Mitama. But your tone just now — I find it genuinely irritating."
Purple sparks of Electro flickered through his eyes as he raised a hand toward Alhaitham and Firnas.
"I have become an Archon. And you dare address an Archon with such disrespect? Prepare yourselves for divine punishment."
The instant the words left him, Alhaitham felt an inexplicable wave of danger wash over him. Without hesitation, he drew his blade, Dendro energy already surging around him in response. Two bolts of lightning tore from Scaramouche's outstretched hand, streaking toward Alhaitham and Firnas with a speed that defied comprehension.
Firnas barely had time to widen his eyes before the lightning struck true, and he crumpled instantly, unconscious. Alhaitham, faster to react, threw himself aside and avoided the bolt entirely, hurling his sword forward in the same motion as a counterattack.
"Heh."
Scaramouche's mouth curved into a disdainful smile as he watched the blade sail toward him. He raised two fingers almost lazily and caught it between them without effort.
Alhaitham watched his own sword arrested so effortlessly, and something solemn flickered across his gaze.
The gap in power between them was simply too vast to bridge.
That final strike hadn't truly been a spontaneous counter, either — from the very moment he'd stepped into this chamber, Alhaitham had been quietly calculating how best to land a single attack at full strength. And the result now stood plainly before him: his strongest blow amounted to nothing at all in the eyes of the being who called himself Scaramouche.
"Not bad technique. But striking an Archon carries a price — a capital offense, in fact. Still, I respect the nerve it took, so I'll go easy on you."
As he spoke, four or five bolts of lightning, each thick as a barrel, surged forward and slammed toward Alhaitham — clearly meant to leave him gravely wounded.
"So this is the Archon the Akademiya created."
Alhaitham's voice remained flat, unbothered, as though he'd already anticipated exactly what would follow.
"As expected — nothing compared to a true Archon."
Om—!!
Just as the lightning bore down on him, a verdant surge of Dendro energy bloomed from within Alhaitham himself, forming a protective barrier around his body an instant before impact.
"This is—?!"
The Lady, who had already begun her retreat, froze mid-step at the sight, surprise flashing across her face. Realization followed close behind.
"I hadn't expected you to be under Lesser Lord Kusanali's protection,"
She said slowly, studying Alhaitham with new understanding.
"So you were never truly concerned with the Akademiya's interests at all. You meant to keep us here the entire time."
In that single instant, she'd pieced together exactly what Alhaitham had been orchestrating from the start.
A cold thread of unease coiled through her chest alongside the realization — thank goodness Azar had kept this man out of the God Creation Project entirely. Had he been drawn into it even a few days earlier, and had Futsu Mitama learned she was hiding here as a result, her position now would have been far more precarious than it already was.
"Hehehehe."
Dottore watched the scene unfold, his smile deepening with something close to genuine delight.
How interesting. It seemed the Akademiya's cleverest minds truly were clever — quietly choosing their allegiance well ahead of time. That fellow Azar, meanwhile, had proven himself lacking not only in research, but in his judgment of people as well.
"Buer?" Scaramouche's lips curled into a mocking smile as he took in the sight before him. A spear of destructive Electro energy condensed in his grip as he regarded Alhaitham.
"How many times do you think your little Archon can keep protecting you?"
"How pathetic, Buer. Caged by your own people, and all you can manage now is to spare a fraction of your strength to shield your believer, while your true self remains trapped, unable to even step beyond your prison."
With that, he hurled the spear forward, intent on tearing through Nahida's barrier in a single strike and inflicting serious harm on Alhaitham in the process.
Boom—!!
The explosion rang out — but what followed left the Lady, Dottore, and Scaramouche all equally stunned. Alhaitham stood entirely unharmed. The barrier hadn't so much as cracked. And standing before him now was a small, delicate figure — Nahida herself.
She stood between Alhaitham and the attack, one hand gripping the Teleportation Scepter, the other weaving a Dendro barrier that had absorbed Scaramouche's strike without difficulty.
"Oh? You escaped?"
Dottore's brow lifted, genuine surprise coloring his voice — he hadn't anticipated Nahida breaking free of her confinement at all.
Truly unexpected.
Then again, today had offered no shortage of surprises already, and the accumulation of them had begun to fray even his composure. One unexpected turn could be called a pleasant surprise. Two, perhaps, double fortune. But three in a row started to feel less like luck and more like a warning sign.
"I'm leaving, now!"
The moment the Lady laid eyes on Nahida, she understood instantly that this situation had moved entirely beyond anything she could hope to influence. With Futsu Mitama's group closing in from the distance as well, she had no choice but to withdraw immediately — lingering any longer risked turning this very day into the anniversary of her death.
"Hahahahaha!! Escaped, has she?! Perfect! Buer — you'll be my opponent, then!"
Scaramouche, in stark contrast, could hardly contain his excitement. If anything, Nahida's sudden appearance thrilled him even more than Futsu Mitama's approach had.
She was, after all, one of the Seven Archons — a being who stood on the same tier as Beelzebub himself. Weak as she undeniably was, her status remained unchanged. Defeating her, by any measure, would serve as proof that he'd finally reached the height where Beelzebub himself resided.
"I'm sorry, but none of you are leaving today."
Nahida's gaze swept across the Lady, Dottore, and Scaramouche in turn, verdant light beginning to radiate outward from her small frame. Her voice, though soft, carried unmistakable resolve.
"I may be weak, but I can hold the three of you back for a little while. And a little while is all I need. So... won't you come visit my home, Harbingers of the Fatui?"
The moment her words settled, verdant light surged outward and enveloped the Lady, Dottore, and Scaramouche all at once, sealing them within.
Today, Nahida intended to face all three of them at once.