Back in the Marschel residence’s basement. Oricule gave a smile when he saw who had showed up.

The robed figures who fought for the Church of Holy Light from the shadows had all been incapacitated, and even the dolls were now being trampled by Vihera, a beautiful, but brutal person.

As for himself, although he hadn’t received a fatal blow from Rei, he had still taken a number of small injuries and it was safe to say the battle situation was overwhelming against him.

At this point, if a lone reinforcement showed up, there shouldn’t have been a major change to the situation.

However, Oricule knew something. Pree wasn’t particularly good at fighting, but she had the power of the many gems that adorned her body, to the point of being unnecessary. Those gems were obtained at the end of the sacrificing many people. By sacrificing blood, flesh, soul, and magic power, she had been able to imbue gems with great power.

The lightning that struck Nakuto was proof of that.

Nakuto was a well know thief from Sonic Blades, but even he was knocked out in a single hit without being able to avoid it.

Of course, he had been preoccupied with Tivia and the magic circle, which seemed to have been activated. But given that he still didn’t have the time to react, the power of Pree’s gems were clear.

In addition……

「Master, please forgive us.」

About 30 dolls appeared from behind Pree. Leading them was Pree’s masterpiece, the 30cm doll she always held.

「Well, for now……」

Pree glanced over the battle situation.

The dolls she had created were already being overpowered, and even though Oricule from the Church of Holy Light hadn’t received any fatal injuries, he had still suffered numerous small wounds and was likely to lose in the end. This was not to mention the robed figures, Oricule’s subordinates.

As for the attackers, with her smaller build, Byune was already gasping for breath while the other thief was unconscious on the floor after being struck by lightning.

(The ones who can fight are that woman……and boy? I see, that woman has a fairly high amount of magic power, but the boy’s magic power is so terrifying that there’s really no comparison. This is the first time I’ve seen someone with so much magic power.)

Pree muttered to herself as she looked at Rei.

For those who could sense magic power, it wouldn’t be strange for them to lose their fighting spirit if they directly felt Rei’s magic power.

However, despite Pree sensing Rei’s magic power, she didn’t seem to be afraid. She even smiled as if it were a happy occasion.

Since they were going to be her sacrifices, it was better to have that much magic power. The amount of magic power the sacrifice had was one of the factors that determined the beauty of the resulting gem.

A paranoid obsession with gems. Because of that obsession, Pree only recognised Rei as being the finest material.

It was about time the magic circle was completed, so she had come down to the basement. However, it was unexpected that Rei and the others were still fighting and, at the same time, that the Church of Holy Light’s forces were almost non-existent now, with the exception of Oricule. It was surprising that they were so close to being eliminated.

That said, her surprise with regards to the two events were the complete opposite.

(Oricule……how useless. Even though they were outnumbered, they still have so much strength left. If that’s the case, it might be better to let them fight it out a little longer. And, that boy is supposed to have the title of Crimson. It would be a waste to use it here, if I used it here, the damage to the magic circle would be too great, so if possible, it would be nice if they weakened each other.)

Glancing over at Oricule, she found out that the material she had been hoping to obtain since collaborating with the Church of Holy Light still had a lot of strength left, so she decided to let Oricule fight with Rei to weaken the two of them.

Even while thinking of that, Pree kept lovingly stroking the gems on all the rings on her fingers.

If she didn’t do that, she wouldn’t be able to help bursting out with laughter at her unexpected luck.

And so, in the end, Pree looked over to the girl who couldn’t hide the fierceness in her gaze despite her lack of expression.

Unlike Rei and Vihera, she smiled slightly at Byune, which in a sense was her biggest target this time, as she called out to Oricule, who had been maintaining a strange balance with Rei due to her appearance.

「Oricule, I’m sorry, but I’ll deal with the rest, so please take care of that boy for a while.」

「……If possible, I’d like you to lend your strength here. As you can see, I’m in a defensive situation.」

With rapier and sword breaker in hand, Oricule replied while remaining ready to respond to any action Rei might take.

However, as Pree was about to speak in response, things took a sudden turn.

As if to interrupt their discussion, Rei swung the Death Scythe.

「Flying Slash-!」

With those words, a flying slash shot out.

However, Oricule naturally knew of the skill Rei liked to use a lot. Because of that, he dodged it by crouching down calmly.

At the same time, Rei had also expected his response, so he dashed forward to close the distance as he swung the Death Scythe again.

「HAAAAAAAAA-!」

Oricule lowered his head to quickly avoid the attack aimed at his neck while thrusting forward sharply at Rei’s body with his own rapier.

While parrying the attack with the shaft of the Death Scythe, Rei took advantage of that gap to thrust the butt end of the Death Scythe at Oricule’s body.

「Penetrate!」

In an instant, an attack with increased penetration power from the wind was shot out. Oricule, who now realised its power just by looking at it, leapt backwards and took some distance.

Rei was determined to not let him get away and gave chase.

With that, the battle between the rapier, sword breaker, and Death Scythe, resumed.

(……Well, no matter which one wins, if I defeat the remaining one, things will be fine. It’s a bit annoying to have to keep them alive though.)

After seeing the fierce battle between Rei and Oricule break out, Pree smiled slightly.

However, her gaze immediately turned to Byune, who could be said to be her main target this time around.

What she saw was the figure of a young girl glaring at her strongly.

She still seemed to have a calm grasp of her situation though, and she understood that if she had to take on Pree alone, she wouldn’t stand a chance of winning.

(Or maybe she’s waiting for reinforcements.)

Pree turned to look at Vihera next. Vihera was considerably inferior to Rei, but even so, compared to ordinary humans, she still had a large amount of magic power.

(A beautiful body, an endless desire for strength, and a huge amount of magic power……I wonder how beautiful the gem would turn out if I sacrificed that woman……but I can’t do that right now.)

Seeing three of the best materials she could ever have, Pree smiled at the luck that had rolled straight into her hands. However, she frowned slighting when she saw the dwindling number of dolls fighting Vihera.

Even though she didn’t care for them as much as her gems, it didn’t change the fact that she still loved her dolls. The sight of them being trampled on like that was still something that pierced her heart.

「I guess it’s necessary to buy some time. ……You guys should take care of the woman for now.」

「I understand. Don’t worry.」

The doll in the lead spoke out of concern for its own creator.

Its voice was very mechanical, but its feelings for Pree were still clear.

Hearing the doll’s response, Pree replied with a smile as she admired the gem hanging from the tip of her necklace.

「Our opponent is the young lady. It’s true that she may have become a thief, but she’s still not good enough to be my opponent. Her hatred can’t be hidden.」

She turned to look at Byune with a smile, who glared back hatefully.

It was a wide smile. A benevolent smile. ……But her smile wasn’t something direct at a person, it was a smile directed towards one’s precious possession.

Seeing Pree’s smile, Byune’s glare only got stronger.

Pointing her index finger at Byune, Pree spoke up.

「Well then, let’s go. However, you will be busy with various things after this. Avoid exhausting yourselves.」

As soon as soon as Pree finished speaking, half the dolls headed towards Vihera while the other half took action to support Pree.

『Running Thunder.』

The next moment, with her words, magic power flowed out from the purple gem on the ring on her right index finger……or more precisely, the magic item was activated.

A line of lightning shot out from it.

It was the same lightning that had knocked Nakuto unconscious with a single blow earlier, as it headed for Byune.

「Mm!」

However, Byune already knew from Pree’s previous attack that she could attack with lightning. And since she knew, it wasn’t impossible to deal with.

The moment Pree’s finger shot out lightning, Byune had dashed out while keeping low. It was as if she was crawling just above the ground.

She could smell her hair being singed from the lightning, but disregarding that, she closed the distance and readied the daggers she was holding……before suddenly leaping to the side without a sound.

The next moment, arrows pierced the place where Byune had been and, as if chasing after her, more arrows followed, widening the distance between Pree and Byune.

At the same time, a doll with a long sword and a doll with a spear stepped forward, weapons at the ready.

「Mm!」

Byune glared at Pree with a rare irritated look in her eyes.

It wasn’t like Byune knew. Even now, she was searching for the truth behind her parents’ death, but there was no one who could tell her.

Even Serakant, who she trusted, hadn’t told her anything, considering her age.

Even so, she felt something, either with her intuition as a thief, as a woman, or as the remaining survivor of the Fraut family.

In any case, Byune semi-intuitively knew that the woman in front of her was responsible for the death of her parents.

「We won’t let you run at Pree-sama!」

With those words, the doll with the long sword swung its weapon down. Byune jumped back to avoid it before dashing forward to close the distance to the doll.

「I won’t let you.」

However, as if foreseeing this, a doll with a dagger went in to support the other doll, swinging its dagger to exploit Byune’s opening.

「Mm……Mm-!」

The dolls attack was aiming to make it as difficult for her to avoid as possible. Parrying the tip of the incoming dagger with her own dagger, Byune had to leap back to take some real distance.

The fact that her usually expressionless face was slightly distorted unpleasantly was probably because the dolls were stronger than expected.

Compared to the dolls they had been fighting in the room earlier, they were faster, stronger, and more skilled.

The dolls that Pree had brought alone and the other dolls, the difference was clear.

No, rather, the difference in performance was probably because Pree was the one leading them.

『Burning Flame.』

Short……the incantations were very short.

Normally, magic would have to be activated by chanting an incantation of a certain length. But in Pree’s case, it was possible to activate the magic contained in the gems by simply saying a few words.

『Penetrating Ice.』

A moment ago, flames erupted where Byune had just been, and although she managed to avoid it, the next moment nearly ten ice arrows flew through the air, aiming for her body.

While making full use of her dagger to deflect the arrows, she also parried, dodged, and blocked the weapons of the dolls that were targeting her openings.

After receiving a hit from a halberd, she flew back while using her light weight to twist in the air and land on the ground.

(She’s calmer than I expected. ……The other side is getting quite heated up.)

Quickly checking over on the fight between Rei and Oricule, it was still in a state of balance, but it was only a matter of time before it would change to be in Rei’s favour. Vihera’s side was even worse. Nearly half of the dolls Pree had sent over had already been incapacitated.

(Then, let’s play our trump cards here. Now, it’s time to reunite the daughter with her parents.)

Reaching into her her bosom, Pree took out two gems before speaking.

「You guys, come back.」

Hearing those words, the dolls immediately distanced themselves from Byune as they faced each other.

If they had continued to attack, she would have lost, why did they stop? Such doubts dwelled in Byune’s heart, but she didn’t show it on her face as she remained cautious and wary of Pree’s every move.

Meanwhile, taking her hand out, Pree stuck out two gems in front of herself so that Byune could see them.

An orange tinged red gem and a light blue gem.

For some reason, Byune couldn’t take her eyes off them after seeing them.

Pree spoke with a big smile on her face.

「How is it, Byune? How does it feel to be reunited with your father and mother? Isn’t it nostalgic? Your parents’ blood, flesh, soul, and magic power. These gems were created by sacrificing all of that. The crystallisation of your parents.」

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