Elyssus slipped out of Robin’s body like smoke leaving a lamp. It rallied its believers and drove them to set up Magic Arrays at a gallop.

It also reached out to one believer alone, like a hook cast into deep water.

“How’s the array?” Elyssus asked.

“Reporting, my lord, almost done.” The believer was a man. His voice rang clear, like water over stone.

“Good. Once the Magic Array is done, activate it at once. The souls are prepared, right?”

“Rest easy, my lord. There won’t be a misstep.”

“Very good. Of all my followers, you’re the one I favor most. Help me descend, and I’ll grant your wish.”

“Thank you, my lord.”

With that, the figure thinned like mist and vanished.

Elyssus flicked its tendrils like snakes tasting rain. It muttered, “Strange. Why isn’t Lucimia using Reversion?”

Town of Tranquility, Lancelot Family.

Lucimia returned to her room. In the bath, she rinsed her body like moonlight washing marble.

Hot water fell from above, streamed through her hair and along her cheeks, then slid down smooth shoulders and a graceful frame, like warm rain on jade.

She cut the heat, like snuffing a candle.

She towel‑dried, then changed into clean clothes, fresh as linen in sun.

She bathed to scrub away fatigue. Now she felt light, like a leaf lifted by a breeze.

She stepped out, rubbing her still‑damp hair. Lucimia flopped onto the newly placed bed like a cat into warm straw.

Yes—she had Miss Kaeli bring in a new bed, as soft as the last, like clouds stacked in wood.

After a bit, the drying felt too slow. She used magic to warm it dry, like a hearth breathing over silk.

Once done, she rose and sat at the desk. She actually started reading a novel from this world, flipping pages like a small river.

Mm. By now, doesn’t Lucimia look too at ease, like nothing’s looming?

Not really. She was waiting—waiting for one event to fall into place, like a star in fog. She needed confirmation, and only then would she strike.

To hit back, Lucimia had to mirror Elyssus. She had to lay a board, a game that could choke the octopus dead, like a net drawn tight.

At first, frustration gnawed. If Elyssus hadn’t activated a Magic Array, how did it gain the power to possess?

She pondered long, like pacing a cliff. Then she dared a guess: Elyssus could possess without an array.

To test it, she flew for hours and set up multiple Teleportation Arrays. Then she used Devouring Authority to swallow the concept that Teleportation Arrays reset, so the arrays stayed put like anchors in sand.

The final array sat in Robin’s bedroom. She used Reversion again. She devoured the link between Elyssus and Bazeroth. Then she went invisible, devoured her own aura, and hid in that room like a shadow folded.

She watched Robin enter and commune with Elyssus. To truly enrage it, she timed it and triggered Reversion again, like plucking a string at the beat.

Once Robin called Bazeroth, she struck Robin. She forced Elyssus to use Authority Power to save him, like a hand snatching prey from a trap.

And so, Lucimia confirmed it. Elyssus had unlocked possession without a Magic Array, like a key turning by will alone.

Later, she ambushed Bazeroth. Elyssus didn’t change much. It could still possess. That meant little energy had rolled back, enough to keep possession steady, like a lamp with oil.

That confirmed another point. Elyssus had other followers. Each summoning ritual was likely started by a different Deceiver. Elyssus didn’t put all its eggs in one basket; it spread like seeds in wind.

This peeled back fog and let Lucimia deduce Elyssus’s moves in past cycles, like footprints in dew.

Another question lingered: Were the other believers in Val Town, in the Town of Tranquility, or elsewhere, like thorns in the grass?

In short, that’s what she needed next—to find a Deceiver’s location, at least one. Only then could she set her plan like stones in a river.

She also dared a broader guess. Elyssus likely had Magic Arrays and believers all over the world. After centuries, it wouldn’t be foolish enough to plant only in a few spots. That wasn’t its style; it spread like ivy.

To end Elyssus, you hit the same walls. First: arrays and believers. Lucimia couldn’t scour the whole world for them, like chasing sparks in a storm.

While she searched, its believers would keep activating Magic Arrays for it, even without fresh planning, like mills turning in rain.

She suspected another thing. Elyssus sped up because it used the same trick—keeping array progress across Reversion, like embers carried to dawn.

Second: Elyssus itself, and its energy—a sea under black wind.

Lucimia planned to forge it a new cage. But because of the first issue, its believers would keep feeding it souls inside that cage. The new cage wouldn’t hold long. If array progress stayed at 100%, that’d be a perfect dead end, like the door sealed with iron.

If so, right after Lucimia used Reversion, the next second it could launch the summoning ritual. That’d be a final dead end, like a snare snapping shut.

In other words, if Lucimia roamed the world hunting believers, Elyssus would hit 100% mid‑search. Then Lucimia would step into checkmate, like a deer into thorns.

Try another way: bind Elyssus first, then hunt believers and arrays.

Sadly, no. Progress would still reach 100%. Dead end again, like tides against a cliff.

Then… can she devour Elyssus outright?

Clearly not, like trying to swallow fire.

Devouring Elyssus was too hard. It wouldn’t fall easily, like iron refusing teeth.

She tried once in Val Town. The Deception Power fooled her Devouring. Elyssus, an ancient beast of centuries, gripped concepts with iron hands.

She couldn’t keep using Reversion to grind skill. That would still push array progress, like water rising behind a dam.

She guessed Elyssus was now driving its believers madly to finish the arrays, like whips snapping in a corral.

Yes. The advantage sat in Elyssus’s hands. Lucimia was fully on the back foot, like a boat against a gale.

So… did Lucimia truly have no way? Would Elyssus really get its wish? The questions hovered like crows.

No.

Elyssus won’t win.

Lucimia conceived a plan that would cut through the believer‑array issue and end Elyssus itself, like one blade severing two knots.

But it was a high‑stakes gamble. If she won, Elyssus would fail utterly, like a temple falling to ash.

“...Need to find one more. Just one... Confirm it, and that’s enough,” Lucimia murmured, like speaking to a lantern.

Soon, noon drifted in like a bright coin.

Lucimia went alone to the town’s central square. She sat on a bench and looked up at the sky, like a hunter waiting at a pond.

Before long, the sky dimmed, clouds gathering like bruises.

It was a sign Elyssus would appear, like drums before a storm.

“...So you came. Heh.” Her smile cut like a thin blade.

Lucimia smiled. This time, it wasn’t fear—it was joy, bright as dawn. She had confirmed it. She had found it.

She had found who the Deceiver was, like a needle turned in light.

“Devouring... cancel Deception’s effect.” She closed her eyes and laid Authority on herself. When she opened them, she saw what had been hidden, like ink washed from glass.

Black rings rose at the town’s four corners. Summoning arrays, no doubt, like wells breathing night.

Earlier, Deception had tricked her sight. Now she saw clearly, like fog burning off.

“Kekeke...” Elyssus’s octopus head pushed from the clouds and let out a wicked cackle, like knives on glass.

“Lucimia, thanks to your Reversion, I got to absorb energy again. Tell me—think you can stop me?” Its voice rolled like oil.

Lucimia smiled and stood. She swept the loose hair from her chest to her back, like gathering silk. “Elyssus, thanks to your showing up, I finally found the critical piece.”

“...What did you say?” Elyssus’s face darkened like a storm front. “Hmph. Found a Deceiver? So what. Even if you cut down one, there are thousands more. You really think I set arrays only in Val and Tranquility? I have them worldwide. You can’t stop me.”

“Is that so?” Lucimia lifted her head and met Elyssus’s gaze without bowing or bluster, like mountains looking at clouds. She raised two fingers. “Two rounds.”

“What?” Elyssus didn’t get it, like a beast staring at a mirror.

“You said a few rounds would make me despair, right? Now I say, with two rounds, I’ll erase you. Do you believe it?”

“Hehehe...” Elyssus laughed at her tone, like crows in a barren tree. “I don’t buy it. What could you possibly use against me? You’re not stupid; you’ve guessed it all. Arrays and believers around the world. Array progress carries to the next cycle. My energy’s one step from enough. Your so‑called Devouring doesn’t work on me. What method will you use to end me?”

“Mm‑hm. What method indeed? Watch and see, Elyssus.”

She said it and prepared to trigger Reversion, like a hand on a hidden lever.

“Hmph.” Elyssus snorted coldly. Two tendrils appeared in front of Lucimia, eager to spear her eyes, like hooks from dark water.

But a black shadow snapped into place before her and devoured the tendrils, like night swallowing flame.

Lucimia smiled. White light bloomed in her eyes like twin moons. Reversion opened!