Another wave of that same energy from earlier smashed into several of these creatures, flinging them away like ragged dolls.

Enzo looked back with a blank face. "Say...why do you keep on sending them backwards? I need to be killed by them to escape this place."

The monsters scrambled back to their feet, confusion painted on their faces, unable to locate their attacker. But their predatory nature soon overcame their logical self as they once again charged at Enzo, who had been seeing this same pattern for over a dozen times by now. As if he was trapped in some loop except that he actually wasn’t.

It wasn’t all in vain though. He was slowly starting to understand their movement patterns and the way their stances changed when they poised to attack.

He was so focused that when the Bewitcher behind him sighed, he almost jumped.

"You are correct, I am only delaying the inevitable. But oh Goddess Tryst, am I dreading over the explanation I would have to give once I return back."

"Why?" Enzo asked without looking back.

"Damn you! Just shut up! You are the reason I am facing an existential crisis right now. Why did you have to end up in this place? Now what shall I say her...ugh."

Enzo looked back in utter confusion. Her tone kept on alternating between gentleness and aggressiveness mixed with despair as if he had somehow offended her.

He felt a rustle at his side as he turned and quickly jumped backwards.

It was of no use. The monster that had somehow covered the distance without either of them noticing, took one huge stride and clamped one of it’s limbs on his shoulders.

A crack resounded as Enzo screamed out in pain. But that sound died in his throat and changed into a sharp rasp as something pierced his chest. He looked downwards in horror as the monster then tore his chest to free its limb, nearly splitting his body in half.

"DAMN YOU!"

The monster burst outwards in a heap of flesh as a high pitched voice rose behind him.

With his failing body, he turned back as if trying to see what was that shout about.

Feeling his gaze, the girl shouted.

"Why did you use the mana from here? Now you are dying as well..."

Her words caused his pupils to dilate. He looked down to see his body glowing in a golden radiance. It was so bright that he looked like the sun of the Underworld.

The light parted the fog as Enzo’s eyes finally took in the horror. Hundreds of these twisted demons were dashing at him from all direction. Unlike the first demon that the Bewitcher killed, these ones appeared to be in a frenzy state. As if the light he radiated was attracting them to him like moths to a candle flame.

Which seeing by the way they ran, was only right to assume.

’I-I used the mana...no...’

Enzo was on his knees as his eyes were shutting down involuntarily. He tried to keep them open. Afterall, he knew his body here was dying.

And he had consumed the mana of this place. Which meant he would die in the real wor-

"Ugh, you owe me one for your stupidity."

Enzo looked up with great effort. The Bewitcher was now at his side as a shadowy hand touched his unbroken shoulder.

Suddenly, every single bit of mana he had consumed from this forsaken place was sucked away from his transparent body. The glow died and the monsters that had been rushing towards him like a roaring tsunami now returned to their normal pace.

However, in exchange, the shadowy cloak the Bewitcher had been hiding under was now gone. Almost like it evaporated.

Her transparent figure appeared from underneath it.

"Atleast now you aren’t going to die." She spoke, her voice somehow filled with relief.

Enzo couldn’t speak a single syllable. He turned away as he finally lost his balance and fell down on the...ground?

He however knew there was no soil beneath him. Only muscles and blood.

Before he lost his whole consciousness, he watched in horror as the previously dead demon was now rising up, it’s separated body parts stitching itself.

’It is immortal...’

Was his last thought as his body in the Underworld took its last breath.

The creatures of the Underworld, seeing the corpse of a mortal disintegrate into fine particles, growled in dissatisfaction.

They weren’t intelligent but they somehow knew any dead body disappearing from their world meant it was still alive. From wherever they had come from.

Their focus shifted towards the woman, who had suddenly appeared there out of nowhere. Their growls now carried hope, their jaws closing tight in hunger.

Across from them, the Bewitcher now exposed to the Underworld stood awkwardly.

Without her cloak, she was just a normal mortal in this world. The cloak was her power. It was what granted her invisibility and a wide range of abilities that could actually one shot the demons.

The cloak was her talent - a blessing from Goddess Tryst.

"Very well..." She sighed. "Come and kill me. I have been trained for it..."

Her voice trailed into uncertainty. Afterall there was a massive difference between being trained to face death and having snarling jaws on your body, tearing it while you watched your intestines and other organs spill out of your body.

Suddenly, a chilling cold permeated the air, covering wide distances. The fog turned almost clumsy and the demons paused in their tracks, their featurless faces moving around as if searching for anything unusual.

However, that was not the case with the Bewitcher, whose eyes widened. She knew this power, the frequency of the energy that wasn’t supposed to exist in the Underworld.

She turned around and spotted her.

The figure appeared as a small dot in the horizon but was covering the distance between them with startling speed. In a matter of few seconds, the figure stood just a couple feet away from the Bewitcher.

She, just like the other Bewitcher, was wearing the Cloak of Goddess Tryst. However unlike hers, the cloak of this newcomer was intensely dense. Shadows converged and bubbled around the space she occupied, trapping every bit of light that tried to pass through it and forming extremely thick layers.

It was as if the cloak was trying to approach the principle of singularity.

If Enzo called the first year Bewitcher a demon, what would he have called this newcomer? A question that would universally remain unanswered.

"I felt the distress signal. And it’s you who emitted that." The newcomer spoke, her voice authoritative and yet, strangely belonging to someone transitioning into adulthood.

The first year Citadel girl immediately sunk to her knees as she blurted out in greeting. "T-thank you, Your Imperial Highness! My Gift was removed for an emergency that had suddenly appeared."

She answered in a cautious tone, trying her best to omit out details she would rather not say. So when the newcomer across from her tilted her head underneath the cloak and asked, "And what had been the emergency?", the girl almost bit on her tongue.

"N-nothing bad, princess. It has been taken care of!"

The cloak rustled as Princess Valerie looked around her, making a sniffing noise.

The Bewitcher felt her heart almost plummet when the princess made a small noise under her breath aa if recognising something in the air.

*Growl* *Growl*

The demons had finally caught upto the kneeling girl but before any of them, a pink energy swept over the landscape.

The fogs were forcefully thrown back by miles and the demons burst open, not a single sound escaping them.

She then turned her focus on the kneeling girl, who flinched under her gaze.

"The boy was here." Valerie spoke. Not a question but as if speaking of a sure event that had already occured.

"And he took in the mana from the Underworld. Even though I had strictly instructed you to look over him..."

"Forgive me, Your Imperial Highness. I-I wasn’t prepared. He somehow entered this place...I wasn’t even training him!"

"And you won’t. Ever."

The girl wanted nothing more than to dig a hole and hide inside it. Today was her first day on observing the boy’s safety and she had almost failed that task miserably. Now faced with such a dismissal stung her.

"You are to return back with your sisters. I shall inform the Citadel to look into your training. You are...weak. And a failure that must be corrected."

A pause.

"In any case, I am coming to the training centre."

"Ehhhhh?!" The girl squeaked as her eyes snapped towards the princess.

Just in time to see her shadowy hand extending towards her and releasing a blast of energy towards her.

The girl felt her world twist as she was thrown back into the real world.

In the Underworld, Princess Valerie turned back at the same time the demon corpses twitched.

"Enzo...are you always so reckless?"