"UGHUHIIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGFGH!!!"
The monstrosity howled and started backing off while flailing its limbs in a desperate attempt to shake off the spell, but all of the needles continued to bore relentlessly into it!
"Water ball!"
"Wait! Don't wash it off!"
Bernadette followed up with another spell, causing Mira to panic and call out as the spell was sent out.
But the spell wasn't aimed at the monstrosity, but at the floor it was standing on.
As the sphere touched the surface, it spilled all around and froze almost immediately casuing…
"GHAAAAaaaaa" *THUMP*
…the monstrosity to slip and fall out of the same hole it created with its attack…!
"Mud fortress! Transmute, Dilatant!"
Bernadette rushed over to the edge of the building and didn't waste any time before recreating the same trap again.
After that, she turned right around and ran off, grabbing Mira along the way.
"Didn't it fail last time?"
Mira called out, glancing over her shoulder before they turned the corner and she lost sight of their battlefield.
"No need for experiments! It worked for a little bit! Just what we need now, too! Levitate!"
"EH!?"
Bernadette called back and cast a spell on the black-haired girl, jumping off the whole staircase in one go, carrying her like a balloon without a string attached.
"What was that potion anyway, and do you have more?"
The younger girl asked without looking back, a little bit intimidated by how Mira could possibly be reacting to being treated like an inconvenient piece of baggage.
"A recipe I re-discovered while searching for medicine for Tsar! Highly effective purification potion... very harmful for those corrupted by gedwyld!"
But despite Bernadette's worries, Mira answered her properly and with very little hostility or even annoyance.
"How do you know the latter…!? WHAT?! Are we too late!?"
Bernadette frowned and asked while turning around, only to freeze up and gasp in disbelief as the sight of the hallway, the class of her sister presented itself to her.
The entire thing was in ruin, most of the inner walls had been destroyed, and there were hundreds of spikes piercing through the floor to the ceiling and the other way around.
"What happened here…?"
Mira muttered in horror.
"Why are there no bodies here?"
"!!!"
Bernadette furrowed her brows and muttered, bringing out a far more suspicious point.
"Wait… then…"
"This is an illusion, but who made it…? I don't sense nearly enough gedwyld pollution for the sight."
Mira said with a worried expression while glancing back, but Bernadette shook her head and wondered out loud.
"If it's something created to confuse the doefolized humans, we shouldn't mess with it. But if it's something that's supposed to aid them…"
The younger girl breathed out and reached out her hand as if she was about to grab something.
"Spell bre…"
"Miss Bernie! Please stop!"
She breathed out before making a decisive expression and chanting, only to get interrupted by the chirp of a small gray bird with black streaks on its wings and head.
Emilia Edemsworth's very own contracted fae, in person.
The bird-like fae did not fly through many of the broken windows, but rather appeared out of a faintly bluish fluctuation in the air, suggesting that it passed through the illusion rather than materializing into the world out of the faefolk's dimension.
"Butch!"
"Miss Bernie! The deofolized human targeted Master first, but there were a lot of collateral victims! We couldn't contact either the headmaster or the vice headmaster, and Master used the illusion spells to distract the attacker while we attempt to figure out a way out of this mess!"
Bernadette called out at the sight of her sister's fae, and the fae began chirping in a hurry.
"Then the help still didn't arrive…?"
Mira gasped as the spell cast on her ran out, and she landed softly.
"...not yet… Other places were also attacked, and then that black dome appeared too and… Master is currently treating the other students and herself. What happened to you two, were you also attacked?"
"At different times, but yes… oh, and the dome isn't the enemy's doing, It's Rotsard Vallhall's spell."
Butch chirped, looking between the two girls, prompting a nod and an explanation from Bernadette.
"Are you… certain…?"
The bird-like fae was not convinced in the slightest, flapping its wings as it looked towards the window.
"I am. Now, take us to my sister, it won't take long for the deofolized human to come after us again."
"...!"
Bernadette shrugged off Butch's doubts and urged, which, for some reason, caused Mira to flinch as her eyes widened with realization.
"Wait…! So, you're saying Amelia was attacked first… and once that deofolized human lost sight of her… It moved on and… attacked me. Miss Bernadette, do you remember? When you got in its way, it specifically called you out for it."
"Alright… That still leads us to the conclusion that we should join my sister and student Justin, like I was told to. With both of you being the target, it would lessen the collateral damage to the bystanders."
Mira pointed out, causing Bernadette to furrow her brows and shake her head with a doubtful expression.
"In such a case… why isn't it here already? It must have been weakened by your attack and my potion, but let's not fool ourselves, it is a deofolized human. They are not considered walking calamities just because… It should already break free again."
"...!"
Mira said, and Bernadette flinched, freezing up while staring blankly to the side.
"But… the thing you two have in common…"
"Is that they're both people that Rotsard cares about."
"!?"
The younger girl muttered with a frown, only to have the answer given to her by someone who passed through the illusion, following the bird-like fae.
Their appearance caused quite the consternation for the two girls.
Because there, right in front of them, in a baggy, oversized boy's uniform with sleeves and pants' legs rolled up, with a pale-blue sword at the hip, stood a petite black green-eyed girl with short black hair.
"Ffff…! S-student Justin! Your disgui…! I mean, ummm…!"
At the sight of her, Mira freaked out a little bit, rushing forward, trying to shield her from Bernadette's eyes in a rush while stumbling over her words.
"What is going on…? Blanid…? Why are you dressed like a…? Wait! Student Justin?!"
On the other hand, Bernadette furrowed her brows in confusion, calling out to the girl in an oversized school uniform, trying to move past Mira, only to gasp in realization and stare between the other two.
"Student Justin?! HER!?"
"..."
Bernadette raised her voice in utter bewilderment, prompting an indignant glare from the one she was pointing at.
"Umm… well… there is an explanation and…"
"Mira, it's okay. Don't bother with her."
The older black-haired girl swallowed her saliva and tried to decelerate the situation, but the petite black-haired one grabbed her uniform and tugged on it while shaking her head.
"My choice of attire isn't up to debate with you, Young Miss. Your proficiency with healing is required to help your older sister and other students. I've left them with my contracted fae, Polaris, she will help out and protect you all there, too."
She then moved past the much taller girl and confronted Bernadette.
When standing face to face, it suddenly became obvious how similar the two were. The most distinctive differences were in the length and color of their hair, and maybe that Blanid's nose was a little bit more upturned, and her eyes were a bit deeper shade of green.
Despite being only half-sisters, they could have even pass off as twins, actually.
"Mira, do you have something that could help me with that deofolized human? I was barely able to chase it away last time, but this time I want to be certain to take it down."
Balnid turned to the older girl and asked her in a cutely troubled voice, like an embarrassed younger sister asking her older sister for a favor.
"I have something that was effective in weakening it… here. But, if you want to defeat the deofolized human, wouldn't it be better to get all the help you can…?"
Mira's eyes widened, but she quickly started rummaging through her bag-like fae and handed Blanid an orange-sized potion bottle, before asking while glancing rather obviously at the frowning Bernadette.
"Thank you~ As for Young Miss Bernadette, though… Despite being a prodigy in magic, she isn't proficient enough with defense spells to properly use the magic she developed. That's why she needed to enroll in the first place, to focus on defense spells and better control. If she is pressed and uses one of her more powerful original spells, the effect on the Royal Academy will be no lesser than if we left the doefolized human to its own devices."
"!!!"
Blanid took the potion with a smile, opened it, and then poured the contents into her weapon's sheath without batting an eye before pointing out with a mocking smirk, giving her half-sister a scalding side-eye.
Bernadette tensed up and already opened her mouth to retort, but ended up biting her lips and looking to the side.
Putting aside the snarky tone, Blanid wasn't wrong about her spells.
She didn't bother to mention it to Mira earlier, but even her Needle Drill Lance had a chance of shooting out the needle drills towards bystanders if they happened to be too close to the original target.
…not to mention some of the stronger spells that could very well level the whole neighbourhood…
Official spells, like the 10th tier Sun Drop, were created in a way that shielded at least the caster from its destructive might.
Bernadette hasn't figured out a way to do the same with her original ones, though…
"Fine. But, the thing you said before… About the deofolized human attacking those Rotsard cares about…"
"Yes. It is doing that. If it can't find either Young Miss or Mira, the next target potential target could be... well, I'm not so sure anymore but I don't think it will be difficult to find that deofolized human."
Bernadette breathed out and inquired, but Blanid did not bother with explanation for the claim and instead simply declared her plans while approaching the window by the staircase.
She opened it and put one foot on the windowsill when…
*BOOOM* *RUMBLE*
"?!"
A sudden impact and the tremor that followed shook the entire building, almost knocking all of them off their feet.
"...what the…?"
Blanid leaned out the window and looked towards the part of the building where the hospital wing was, and gasped, finding it completely intact.
"???"
As she turned the opposite way, her eyes widened.
"Why there!? Isn't that where the cafeteria is?!"
She called out in confusion before jumping out anyway.