Mistress Of The Evil Forest

''Hah...''

Since HE has left the battlefield, Aurora confidently explodes the Backrooms' essence on her palm, engulfing everything into the realm of the infinite. Black particles hitting the dolls squarely, while also piercing into Neyd's giant body, which just happens to be in a tangible state at the moment.

In an instant, the dusty air of Evone Hall is replaced by a less toxic yet perhaps equally annoying one—the scent of moist carpet.

''...''

''...I sent the doll to Ash. Sorry.'' Aurora utters, swallowing a sigh.

''That's not a problem, Miss.''

As she turns to the man with hollow eyes, she finds his gaze on her a bit... worried. It is as though he is expressing concern for his daughter.

Is her state that bad? Maybe not. Her mood has just been unstable today.

At some point, the annoyance—the turbulence of emotions felt as she brought down Nuf—has disappeared. Now, neither that sense of omnipotence nor that sense of hollowness is present, but it instead leaves a bad itch behind.

'...I should check on them once and then get some rest.'

Even if this side is practically solved, there are still Chloe and the others to be worried about.

---

The Backrooms is suddenly stemming with life.

Its owner, Aurora, has intently sent each demon and their opponents to a separate room, aiming to isolate and properly finish off the targets. Each fight proceeds differently, yet the result stays the same.

In this environment, none can match the natives.

A certain small room.

One of the deadly dolls, Jet, looks around in confusion. The space seems unremarkable, without any furniture to speak of. Alongside the constant light flicking, there is only one thing to look at.

The angel statue.

A peacefully praying angel statue. 

[...]

The doll stares at the statue for a long while... since it is the only thing in the room. The statue seems to be staring back at it.

Maybe not.

Eventually, sensing nothing noteworthy from this harmless object, Jet turns its head around, determined to find something to work with. As always, with its impressive speed of 7.9, virtually none can match its swiftness—not even a conventional grandmaster.

And as long as it can react, the assailants will surely have their attacks returned wholly.

CRACK—!!

[...?]

The moment Jet comes to its realization, the eyes under that coat of the plastic-like material—its eyes—are rapidly descending to the ground. No, its whole head is.

A sight of a doll's headless body falling down.

Pitch-black, goo-like blood spurts out, covering the severed spine... before everything starts to disintegrate.

The last image Jet sees is that of the statue with its two hands extended forward, posing a cruel smile—rows of sharp teeth in full display.

At the same time, in another room.

The stand-off between Slenderman and Coun continues. 

Once the former refuses to attack, neither of them can move on. Coun doesn't possess the firepower to damage Slenderman, and Slenderman doesn't possess the method to avoid attacking itself.

At least, that is what Coun thinks.

So, even as Slenderman raises his tentacles, it remains calm, moving at a leisurely pace.

However, this wave of offense seems different.

As if following a certain rhythm, around a dozen of the tentacles lightly jab at the doll, one after another. Since they are not lethal attacks, the pushback is negligible. Still, Slenderman will just waste his stamina like this. 

Eventually, the demon senses something wrong about this whole thing.

The tentacles... are getting faster.

Individually, they cannot match Coun's natural speed, yet when working together, they make for a ridiculous show of continuous, rain-like attacks.

Sharp screeches begin to ring in the room as the tentacles tear through the air.

Panic starts to set in. The limit of what Coun can follow seemingly draws near. At some point, the demon decidedly backs away, attempting to circle around the room to stall.

However, as soon as it turns away—

[Invincible].

The doll's vision suddenly darkens. Upon looking up, a bloody, bottomless jaw of crooked, sharp teeth greets it.

The next second, everything shatters.

After done playing with his food, Slenderman finishes crunching the head before vanishing somewhere, leaving behind a headless body that soon turns into dust.

As quiet and brief as the two battles with Jet and Coun are, the remaining opponent is indeed hard to deal with.

''Please do not damage its organs too much, for it is indeed more convenient to experiment on an intact specimen.''

''Dude, it's a demon!''

''It won't leave a body behind, so don't worry.''

''Oh, is that so?''

''Yes, so can you help us...?''

Seemingly ignoring Ariel's cry for help, 049 returns to stroking Smiley's head. Even though he has lost his corpse dragon to this silver snake, he has also gained something more valuable.

The Plague Doctor's expression brightens as he pulls out a flask containing a gooey, purple-ish substance. This is what he has harvested at one of the craters Nuf made with its dark spells.

''With this, certainly...''

Meanwhile, the struggle on the other side of the room continues.

Neyd, who had now lost ground to hide in, squirms helplessly around the space, trying to swallow the two annoying 'flies' present. One skeleton, one ghost.

Yet, it has not been able to touch them.

On the one hand, the skeleton can freely fly and teleport around, although it hasn't done the latter since entering this room, and on the other hand, the ghost can freely switch between states of existence just like it can.

Combined with the strange ability to cast 'disconnected' spells of the ghost, it makes for a very annoying fight.

Although Neyd appears to be fine on the outside, parts of its inner organs have already been frozen or torn apart.

Since losing one of its advantages will certainly not turn the tide, the demon keeps getting pushed back, its HP being chipped away by the second. Eventually, Ariel delivers an ultimate spell right into its heart, completely freezing the vital organ from the inside out.

Soon, the fable of the 'World Eater' completely crumbles into fine dust, which then flies away into nothingness.

Such a creature with meager size and strength... can never be assigned a title that grand.

Thus concludes the demon attack on Astra Academy.

---

At the temporary shelter in the academy, a gloomy atmosphere persists.

When the whole capital is once again under attack, and even the imperial palace has been penetrated, none of its citizens can remain calm. The mood is further tugged down by the sight of Claire—supposedly humanity's hope—sitting dejectedly in a corner.

Among the students and faculty members alike, the heart of a certain raven girl is in a bigger turbulence than anyone else's.

''...''

Nydia lightly presses her hand on the window, gazing out at the dim sky.

'Amelia Luminous... in the end, what has gotten into you?'

When the group made its exit out of Evone Hall earlier, the first thing Nydia did was search for Aurora, her precious, precious crush. Yet, after frantically running around for a while, she realized something was wrong.

Amelia Luminous.

She was unusually calm. For someone just as smitten with Aurora as Nydia was, she seemed more absorbed in the incident happening at the palace.

That struck Nydia as strange.

It is as though... Amelia knew Aurora would be alright.

'Based on what?'

Even now, Aurora is nowhere to be seen.

A frustrating sense of helplessness takes over the raven princess's heart. She wants to find out the truth behind it. She wants to... know everything about Aurora.

'Even as a princess...'

She is still powerless.

Letting out a sigh, Nydia quietly wonders... if she can one day get to discover her love's everything.