"Clear your mind... Clarisma!!"

As Yuria's holy power spread, the fear that had been crushing everyone's bodies began to disappear. Freed from the oppression that had made even breathing seem impossible, the student council members prepared for battle without hesitation.

Their opponent was the nun standing before them.

Elysia, the apostle of heretics.

Feeling as though she was staring into a bottomless abyss, Shartia slapped her own cheek to regain her senses and shook her head.

-Slap!

"Get it together..!"

There was no time.

They needed to use the artifact as quickly as possible to call for reinforcements if they were to escape this situation.

Her instincts, sharp as needles against her skin, screamed that there wouldn't be another chance.

"The artifact...!"

-Clang!!

"Mikhail!"

"I'm fine. More importantly, Rohan...!"

Before Shartia's eyes, flashing blades were crossing paths.

Rohan's blade, swinging while tears streamed down his face. Mikhail's sword, parrying those strikes, both dancing right before Shartia's eyes.

Shartia made up her mind.

Don't overthink it—just break the ring.

'Clench.' Shartia made a fist and began channeling magic power into the ring's gem.

'Please break.'

And at that moment.

"Princess."

-Click.

With Elysia's voice, Shartia's body froze like ice. She felt something inside her shatter.

'Eeeeee' A ringing filled her ears as her magic flow was cut off and she couldn't move her body.

"Huh...?"

With that small question, Shartia's legs gave way. She collapsed pathetically, with no excuse to offer.

As she fell, Elysia's smile flashed before her eyes. A gentle smile, as if witnessing something entirely expected, pressed down on Shartia's heart as she fell.

'I can't... fall...'

Elysia approached Shartia, who had fallen to her knees, and spoke in a caring voice.

"Our Princess carries so much pain in her heart."

'Move... please move...!'

"Your family ignores you for being illegitimate. Your father only cares about your brother."

'Snap out of it! Shartia... don't be swayed by this woman's words!!!'

"Your dream is to live happily with your mother... My, isn't that too modest a wish for the great Princess of the Empire?"

'Clap.' Elysia clapped her hands and looked at Shartia with pitying eyes. While offering words of comfort about how unfair the world was, she stroked Shartia's head.

"How heartbreaking this is."

When Elysia's hand touched her forehead, Shartia felt a sense of peace. Despite the swords clashing nearby and people calling her name, strangely, her mind became as calm as a still lake.

-Clang!

-Madam President!!!!!

-Clack-clack-clack!!!

-What the f*ck!

She didn't want to move.

She could see people walking out from inside the open church.

Familiar faces in white ceremonial robes with weapons at their waists, moving in perfect unison like brave warriors, making 'tap-tap' sounds as they marched.

Shartia smiled at the sight of them.

"Ah..."

For some reason she couldn't understand, their appearance made her feel at ease.

They were the missing students.

The ones they were supposed to rescue.

Yet she felt relieved seeing them approach with vacant eyes and drawn swords.

Shartia looked at Elysia with trembling eyes.

Asking what she had done to her.

"You... what did you do to me...!"

"I merely redirected your anxiety elsewhere."

"...What?"

"Like this."

Elysia made a grabbing motion in the air, then pretended to throw something toward Yuria who was using her holy power.

And then.

-Kyaaaaaaah!!!!

A scream erupted from Yuria's mouth.

Yuria clutched her head and fell to her knees. Her hands trembled as she was consumed by fear.

-Aaah... Ahhh!!! I want to run away...! I want to escape from here...!

-Yuria!!

-Haa...haa.. Ricardo! I want to see Ricardo...!

Elysia smiled slightly as she watched Yuria trembling in terror.

"Interesting, isn't it?"

"What...what is this...?"

"I simply placed some of your anxiety on the shoulders of that timid girl."

"What have you done...!"

Elysia roughly grabbed Shartia's chin and said:

"How does it feel? Peaceful, isn't it?"

"Shut...up...!"

"Your mind is at ease, your worries gone, right?"

"Shut up, you crazy b*tch!"

Elysia exhaled softly and looked around at the bloody battlefield. She gazed with satisfaction at the council members fighting the students with vacant eyes in the blood-splattered field.

"There are so many interesting emotions here."

Looking at Yuria with a bright smile.

"That pink-haired friend has a great burden in her heart from an unforgivable mistake she made to someone she loves."

Smiling at Ruin.

"That vain magician still thinks he can change the world if he just puts his mind to it. Ah~ I can see it. That arrogant pride that won't break even in moments of ruin."

And then she smiled with interest at Mikhail.

"That friend... looks very sad."

The brainwashed students were being pushed back. There seemed to be a limit to drawing power through mental manipulation, and the council members were slowly gaining the upper hand.

Elysia smiled and lightly stretched her hand toward the sky.

And.

"Now, shall we look at the mirror within? Self-reflection is the core of faith, after all."

Everyone saw identical versions of themselves standing before them. Their own selves, tinged with darkness.

In front of Yuria, who was struggling with an excruciating headache, stood a girl holding a pink dagger and crying.

In front of Mikhail, who had defeated Rohan and was trying to regroup, stood a girl with long silver hair. A girl glaring with a gloomy expression.

Everyone's nightmares stood before them.

Elysia smiled and said:

"Love the Lord."

As she preached her fanatical love, she began to move the doppelgangers created from emotions.

Everyone was frozen.

All who saw each other's nightmares were frozen, unable to move.

Yes.

"Aaaaaaah!!!"

Everyone trembled in fear and ran away.

The student council members began running into the forest as soon as they saw their inner emotions. It was instinctual terror.

The fear of not wanting others to see the past they wanted to hide, the fear of facing that past again.

As they disappeared one by one into the forest, Shartia shouted at them with bewildered eyes.

"We need to stay together!!!"

-I can't do this!!

-I can't do it!

Elysia smiled and kindly explained why they were running away.

"Everyone is so weak-hearted. I only amplified the emotion of fear a little, yet they're so frightened. If they succumb to those emotions, imagine how painful it would be...!"

Elysia looked up at the sky with eyes drenched in pleasure, stroking her own face.

"How pleased the Lord will be!!!"

It was chilling.

Every sweat gland in her body seemed to scream as her skin dried up.

Elysia looked at Shartia and smiled.

"Now let's talk, just the two of us. I've had so much I wanted to discuss. How you'll lead the Empire, what you'd like to do if there were no Crown Prince... I want to hear the evil within you."

Elysia's hand slowly reached out to grab Shartia's hair. She was roughly pulling Shartia to take her into the church.

Shartia, unable to move her body, looked at her immobile hand with trembling eyes.

She had tried everything.

Biting her lips.

Holding her breath, she'd tried everything.

But nothing responded.

"No..."

And at that moment.

"You crazy bitch!!"

With a flash of brown light, Elysia's body flew into the forest.

Effortlessly, pathetically.

Swept away by Hannah's sword, she disappeared from the battlefield.

"Huff...huff..!"

A sense of deflation washed over her entire body.

Now that she was out of Elysia's sight, she could finally move her body.

Shartia barely held onto her spinning mind and exhaled rough breaths. Relief at being alive.

"Huff... huff... huh...!"

"Senior! Are you okay?"

"No... I'm not okay."

"For now..."

Hannah bit her lip and clicked her tongue as she looked at the dust cloud rising from the forest.

"Use the artifact first."

-Nod.

Shartia broke the artifact without a moment's hesitation. This opportunity seemed like it wouldn't come again.

With a 'pop' sound, the gem shattered, and a red sphere rose high into the sky.

Shartia exhaled roughly and asked Hannah:

"How did you get here...? What about the doppelganger!"

Hannah shrugged her shoulders and answered as if it were nothing:

"It wasn't much."

"What about the others...?"

"They're fighting hard. Some have lost."

"How did you do it?"

"Me?"

Hannah smiled faintly, thinking of the red-haired butler who might be somewhere, and said:

"I'm not afraid of anything except my butler. Unless he appeared as my doppelganger. Hehe."

"You are..."

-Crackle...!

"They're coming, senior."

"Yeah..."

"I'll cover you for now, so catch your breath."

"Okay."

No sooner had she finished speaking than a thin tree branch extended like a spear from within the dust cloud. Moving too fast for the eye to follow, it grazed Hannah's cheek and embedded itself in the ground, where it writhed as if breathing.

Thorns bloomed.

-Crack...!

Small thorns wriggled like blood vessels on the extended branch, amplifying the anxiety.

Hannah quickly turned, embraced Shartia, and moved away. And at that moment, with a 'crack' sound, new branches began to extend from the tree trunk.

The branches spread like spider webs, as if intending to skewer them, and Hannah clicked her tongue as she raised her sword.

"This is...!"

-Slash...!

Hannah gritted her teeth and swung her sword.