"This was a huge miscalculation." Thorvadis mutters as he lets his gaze sway across the room. Taking in the aftermath of the battle against the fledgling Crawling Chaos, his expression grows grim. "And we have paid dearly for it." They came with nine people, and five were dispatched in a matter of moments. And the demon was not even vanquished, only temporarily exiled.

If Thorvadis and Basarab had not been among them, not a single one would have survived this battle. It goes to show how dangerous the existence of a sentient Crawling Chaos is, even if it is just an individual as young as the one they faced today. There have been sightings of similarly intelligent ones over the years, but none had been as resourceful as Chloe Marcott. She knew that she lacked physical mass, so she fought using a combination of spells and physical attacks, and she put her recently learned transportation magic to such unexpectedly masterful use.

"Onee-sama!!!" Kamii screamings at where Chloe had been standing only moments ago. Basarab lets her go and she stumbles forward, before falling to her knees on the spot her beloved older sister figure vanished from. She turns around with a hateful glare. "What did you do to Onee-sama?!" Her body is quivering in fear and anger, and her cursed arm is clattering against the ground.

"Lost child, we saved you from that monstrosity." Wind magic instructor Stigand comes forward, holding his bleeding left shoulder. He had been too slow to erect a shield to cover his entire body in time, and one spike from the Crawling Chaos' first attack had pierced his flesh. He walks over to the dark elf with his open palm held out in front of him, as if trying to calm down a wild animal.

For an instant, Kamii looks like she is actually calming down, as tension escapes her body, but in the next she jumps up and swings her deformed right arm at Stigand's head. He flinches and tries to avoid the crab claw by leaning backwards, but because of the belated reaction and his wound, he cannot avoid it and it approaches his face.

"Limit Break." A whisper on the wind speaks and in the next instant, it is as if the world has frozen in time.

Senka stands up from between the beds, where she dropped due to the struggling of the instructor whose face was melted off by Chloe's spirit spear. She licks her lips tainted in his blood; he could have been saved but his life force was taken to power her for this moment. An annoyed expression appears on her face as she looks around to take in the situation. In reality, it is not that time has stopped, but that its perception was slowed down to a minimum for her. She walks over to Kamii, who is floating in midair and moving towards the instructor in incredible slow motion, and sighs. How should she deal with this, she wonders.

"... you made me use this without even knowing how to continue from here? You know that this costs a lot of energy, right?" Her annoyance grows even more intense as her eyes focus on an empty spot in the air. She sighs again and her expression softens as she looks at Kamii's face. "You really love that cosmic horror, don't you?"

Senka slowly pulls Kamii backwards by a tiny bit while she is still in midair, moving her as if she is just an object floating in space. Then she rounds her, jumps up into the air and looks into the dark elf's eyes, while her own grow completely black. The infinite darkness extends to the skin surrounding her eyes, creating a void into which one's soul could seemingly be swallowed at any moment. For an instant, even within the slowed down perception of time, it seems to stand still completely. Then she lands on the ground again, dispels the darkness in her eyes and walks back to the position where she lay in acting like a doll earlier.

"I hope you know what you're doing..." She mutters towards the invisible entity she seems to be convinced of must exist, before lying down on the ground, relaxing her body and becoming lifeless again. The moment she turns into a doll, the flow of time normalizes again.

Kamii's swing misses by a hair's breadth as her momentum seems to have run out in midair. She lands on the ground awkwardly and falls on her bottom, allowing Basarab to restrain her once again.

"Do not struggle, Kamii. It is for your own good." Basarab speaks softly and the dark elf unexpectedly stops moving. For a moment he is taken aback, since he did not use his ability to command her. Maybe it was just a final outburst, and now she finally realizes the situation she is in. "What shall happen to her now, Master Eklundstrom?"

"Bring her to the infirmary. I will send a raven to ask the Saint of Luminosity for assistance." Thorvadis looks down on Kamii with a pitying expression. "We have to do our best to save her from the Crawling Chaos' influence."

"Come, child." The man with the mesmerizing voice whispers, trying not to agitate her again. He is not keeping hold of her, instead only gently guiding her along with his hand on her back. However, when they are about to pass Senka lying on the ground, Kamii suddenly breaks away from him, picks her up and hugs her tightly. Scratching his chin, Basarab looks to Thorvadis with a hesitant expression.

"Let her have the doll, if it calms her down." The principal says with a warm smile on his lips. She is only an innocent child, after all.

Kamii Side

"I'm speaking into your mind directly." A voice in my head says. I know it, it belongs to that living doll that Onee-sama likes. "Don't look around, don't say anything. Answer by thinking what you want to say."

"Do not struggle, Kamii. It is for your own good." My teacher for dark magic, Basarab, says and grabs my shoulders.

"What... is this?" I ignore him and think to Senka.

"... I put a spell on you. We can now talk without anyone else hearing us." Her voice answers.

"Bring her to the infirmary. I will send a raven to ask the Saint of Luminosity for assistance." The old man principal responds when asked what to do with me. "We have to do our best to save her from the Crawling Chaos' influence."

"Pick me up and take me with you." Senka quickly says when my teacher begins to guide me towards the door. I do as she tells me and take her into my arms. She's only slightly smaller than I, but she's really light. Like a stuffed toy. "... that's rude, I'm not some toy." Hm, all my thoughts are transmitted now? "No, but I can tell what you're thinking anyway..."

"Let her have the doll, if it calms her down." The principal looks at me with an evil smile. He must be really sure of his superiority. But it seems he doesn't know that Senka is a living doll, so he isn't as smart as he thinks he is.

"Do you know what happened to Onee-sama?" I look down at the doll, but obviously she doesn't move as to not reveal herself.

"She was most likely teleported out of the academy. That guy behind you must be the one who has the ability to erase memories, and erased it when you were at that support group meeting. He commanded Chloe to 'forget space magic' when he looked into her eyes earlier." Her voice answers in my head. "Of course, if such a vague command was enough to have a really profound effect on someone's mind, the battle would have been over before it began. There must be conditions attached."

"I... I don't really understand." She's using some difficult words, so I have no idea what she means.

"Yeah, don't worry about it. What I can say is that you're not in any danger right now. I don't know what they mean by saving you from Chloe's influence, but if it's memory wiping, don't worry." She sounds confident. "I'm in your head now. As long as I'm near you, nothing will happen to you." And I believe her. "You're that chaotic girl's favorite after all..." Her voice somehow sounds lonely.

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"... Senka?"

"... nothing." She simply says and stops talking for a while afterwards.

Basarab leads me to a church-like building, and the inside is filled with white beds. An elderly woman with a friendly face comes to greet us. She looks at my teacher behind me and then sees the wounded one that has been following us. Her expression changes into a frown.

"What happened?" She asks, her soothing voice warming my inside.

"We fought the demon lord's scion." Basarab responds with a solemn look. "Five masters are dead."

"By the gods!" The old lady covers her mouth and looks at him in shock.

"Please take her in for now. We await the Saint of Luminosity to help us remove the demon's taint on this child's soul." He's clearly talking about me. I don't have any taint, I simply love Onee-sama because she was the first person who was nice to me and has promised to stay with me forever. But now they took her away and think they can separate our hearts, too! I don't say anything, because I understand it's better not to cause any problems right now.

"I understand..." She still has an expression of disbelief at the news. "Come, my child. Sit here and rest for now." The old lady lightly pushes me along and directs me towards a bed. I do as I'm told for now. I'll wait - wait for Onee-sama to return for me, or to find a good opportunity to run away from here and find Onee-sama myself.

Gram Side

"I can't believe it... the missy..." I'm shaken to the core. Rolan just received a letter from Runa, detailing what went down earlier this morning. It was revealed that Chloe is the daughter of the demon lord, so she murdered five instructors, kidnapped the Fata she corrupted, and was ultimately transported away with space magic, because she proved impossible to kill.

After all we went through together, I now have to believe that she is of such evil? Was her clumsily direct attitude, her sometimes haughty behavior, her compassion for Kamii, her actions that saved us all when we passed through The Maw, her wish to join us in the endeavor to vanquish the demon lord... was everything just a facade? I can't believe it.

"I don't want to believe it either, big man. Let's go and meet up with Runa, she's waiting at the citadel gates. They have Kamii in custody and I would like to ask for them to hand her over to us." The leader says and stands up from the table while putting down the coins for our breakfast. "I believe we can hear from her what really happened."

"But remember not to let your emotions cloud your judgment." Sigurd warns us with a serious expression. I'm sure he doesn't really want to admit that he feels the same as us, since he flirted with Chloe at every turn, even after being rejected repeatedly.

We depart and go towards the citadel silently, each of us deep in our own thoughts. I replay my memories forwards and backwards, but I can't find any indication that the Chloe I know could ever do something like they say she did. I mean, the corruption of the Fata can be considered bad, but Runa said that she seemed really happy being with Chloe afterwards.

What would I do if everything was an elaborate lie? That every single action she ever took was a means to deceive us, so that she could enter the academy just to capture the Fata? No, I shouldn't doubt her before learning more from a witness to it all, first. Kamii is the key to understand what really happened in the academy. While her opinion will certainly be biased, she is a child, so I'm sure she will tell the simple truth without trying to hide things. I want to believe that she at least will not lie.

Reaching the entrance of the citadel, we spot Runa waiting on the other side. She signals to the guards to let us through with a stamped permit from the Royal Academy, so we're granted passage. Inside, we walk towards the main building, while she begins to explain what she has heard about so far.

"Miss Chloe did not show any strange movements right after the corruption of the Fata, Miss Hestia, was completed. However, she, Miss Hestia and Kamii were approached by a male demon during dinner two days ago and they went to the warehouses behind the dorm together." Runa explains her observation of Chloe. "They disappeared between two warehouse buildings, so I do not know what happened afterwards. But not long after, pairs of students came out from there and returned to their dorms, with Miss Chloe's group being the last to leave. They were in a good mood and returned to their room together." She seems a little shaken, too. It's understandable, someone we were considering a friend all this time turned out to be the child of the demon lord and has killed five people.

"She went for a walk towards the wall last night, carrying that creepy automaton with her. I could not follow her without being spotted, but there were no signs that she did anything strange before returning to her room soon after." Runa gathers her thoughts, and it would seem that the complicated situation comes next. "I was awoken by the entire dorm building shaking from the battle between Miss Chloe and the instructors. But by the time I could try to see what was going on, it had already ended. I saw Kamii being escorted away by two instructors, one of whom was injured. I went to take a look in her room, and it was devastated. I... saw the corpse of one of my instructors and could not go in..."

So the fact that she killed someone is irrefutable. The fact that she kidnapped the Fata but left Kamii behind doesn't add up, though. I simply cannot believe that her compassion for the cursed dark elf was all just an act. Then again, Runa did say that she was transported away with space magic, so she might not have had  enough time to take Kamii to her side? And maybe the instructors confronted her about her origins and drove her into a corner, so she fought back. But even then, that is no justification to kill five people.

"Please follow me, the principal is ready to see you." The woman that greeted us the first time we came here allows us into the academy this time, due to the special circumstances. She guides us through the building, up the stairs and to the principal's office. With a knock on the door she announces us, before opening the door and entering.

"Thank you, Astrid." The principal is standing by his window and looking outside. He turns around after a moment of contemplation and his gaze goes over every single one of us. It rests on Sigurd for a little longer, but it may have been just my imagination, as he gestures to the couch in the middle of the room. "My name is Thorvadis Eklundstrom. Please take a seat." Someone is already occupying one spot.

"The Saint of Luminosity!" Runa exclaims in surprise. It really is the saint we met in Hovsgaerden, who assessed Chloe's elemental affinities and found out that she possesses all of them. She is the sole reason the missy and Runa were admitted to this academy. But I have to wonder why she didn't notice that Chloe was a demon back then. She even touched her hand.

"I have asked for her assistance in purifying Miss Kamii's mind from the influence of the demon." Thorvadis states in a matter of fact manner. I don't like how he is referring to Chloe as an irredeemable demon already, despite the fact that he seemed really intrigued by her the first time they met - according to Runa.

"We would like to talk to her before you do that." Rolan says in a definitive tone. "While it may be true that Kamii was influenced by the de... by Miss Chloe, I want to see it with my own eyes first." It's exactly what I wanted to say, too. I find once again that I chose to follow the right man, and my lips curl into a smile.

"... very well." Stroking his white beard, Thorvadis scrutinizes the leader for a moment before responding. "If you would follow me, please." He gestures at the Saint of Luminosity as well as us.

We are led through the academy once again, towards an annex with a bronze plate at the entrance, denoting that this is the academy's infirmary. Its interior looks like a church, repurposed to be a hospital. An elderly lady in a nun habit comes to meet us and lead us further in, towards a bed with a curtain drawn around it.

Upon opening the curtain, Kamii and the automaton Chloe was always carrying with her come into view, sitting on the bed and seemingly sulking. A man with long black hair, pale skin and red eyes is sitting on a chair beside her. He stands up to greet us with an enchanting voice - although he more specifically addresses the saint first.

"Thank you for coming, Saint of Luminosity." He bows his head before her, suggesting that they know each other already. "My name is Basarab Laiota, the instructor for defense against dark magic." He turns to announce his name to us afterwards.

"These are the people who traveled with the demon before coming to the capital. They wish to speak to Miss Kamii before we begin the purification." Thorvadis explains to Basarab with a neutral expression. If he thinks that it's an exercise in futility, he's not showing it. "But we will have to insist in staying here while you talk. Please understand."

"Yeah, I know..." Rolan mutters, clearly unhappy about being treated like a possible collaborator with a demon. "Big man, I think it's best if you talk to her first." He pats my arm and whispers to me. I understand what he means. I was the one who spent the most time with both the missy and Kamii on our travels, be it taking the night watch or going shopping together. She should open up to me more readily.

"Kamii, how are you feeling?" I sit down on the bed next to her and speak to her softly. She looks up with an expression that clearly shows that she feels abandoned. "Can you tell us what happened?"