“All of it...” Desty murmured, her voice like a snowflake melting on stone.

“All of it... that’s... terrifying.” Shock flickered across Nirael like lightning beneath cloud. “You fooled every one of us.”

“Yes, I fooled you all.” Lucimia squared her shoulders like a proud banner. “Don’t forget—I’m the Deity of Deception now. Elyssus? It’s just an octopus. For a Dark Deity, strangeness is the heart, and I nailed it.”

Lucimia’s gaze cut to Joanna like a blade of ice. “You killed only my Fuzzy Orb, and that self-detonating ice orb? I made it explode.”

Fury roared in Joanna like a bonfire in snow. She yanked at her wound and snarled, “Don’t think I came unprepared! Die!”

In the next heartbeat, a Magic Array flared under Lucimia like a burning sigil. Frost flooded her, then shattered; ice shards spun in the air like silver petals.

A sigh drifted from behind Joanna like wind through reeds.

She whipped around, eyes widening like moons.

Lucimia leaned against the back tree like a lazy cat and shook her head.

“The one you just killed was only my double, a paper lantern in a storm.”

Rage knifed through Joanna like a cold blade. She clenched her teeth and cast again. The same scene played out. Lucimia neither dodged nor resisted. Frost sealed her like glass, then burst; glittering snow sprayed.

“Sadly, that one was a double too.” This time, Lucimia stepped out from behind the front counter like a stage magician.

Disbelief clawed at Joanna like cold water. She raised her right hand and loosed an Ice Lance.

Lucimia, calm as moonlight, lifted a finger and drew a circle. The Ice Lance wheeled in the air like a hawk, turned, and aimed back at Joanna.

Shnk!

The Lance hit with storm speed; wounded Joanna couldn’t react. It punched clean through her chest like an icicle.

Pain and disbelief tangled in her like thorns. She spat blood. “Why can you control the ice magic I’m best at...?”

“Best?” Lucimia shook her head with a spring-breeze smile. “Unlucky for you—ice magic is my specialty too.”

Joanna stared, her worldview crumbling like a sand tower. Ordinary mages don’t seize another’s spell—so how could she?

She tried to cast again, heart bucking like a trapped horse. Lucimia detonated the piercing Lance, and ice-light burst like stars. With bitter eyes, Joanna fell to the ground.

“Handled.” Lucimia brushed her palms together like dusting snow from sleeves.

“So strong...” Awe rose in Desty like dawn light. She felt she didn’t need to lift a finger.

Desty stepped up and poked Lucimia’s cheek with one finger like a curious child.

“What are you doing?” Her voice rang like a small bell.

“I want to ask—are you still a double right now?” Desty pinched again like testing clay.

“Not telling~” Lucimia brushed aside Desty’s fidgeting hand like a moth and walked to Nirael, Gendi, and the fake Gene.

As she reached them, Nirael spoke, his tone dark as storm clouds. “If someone’s blocking us now, they’ll block the road ahead. Ment might be nearby. He won’t let us go easily.”

“I know.” Lucimia nodded, calm as still water.

“Do we still stick to the plan?” Shadows flickered across his face like passing clouds. “I don’t know what Ment will do. Even the Purification Church is helping him.”

“Mm... Maybe the town is seeded with Purification Church people,” Lucimia judged, voice a blade under silk.

Desty blurted like a startled sparrow. “Why? They shouldn’t get in—it’s sealed, right? And doesn’t the Empire reject the Purification Church?”

“The one who rejects the Purification Church is me, not Ment,” Nirael said, his words dry as old leaves. “I’ve suspected them for a long time without proof. Now it seems...”

Desty wavered, hands fluttering like willow leaves. “Uh...”

Lucimia patted Desty’s shoulder like settling dust. “The town might have a Teleportation Array. The Purification Church can come through it. Which means Ment found help.”

Panic bubbled in Desty like boiling water. “Help? What do we do? We don’t even know their rank. And me... am I a traitor now? Can I still go back?” She clawed at her hair like a storm-tossed bird.

“Uh... looks like it,” Lucimia said, a headache thumping like a drum. If Desty was branded a traitor, no one would clear her name, and her path home would be fog.

“Forget it. One step at a time,” she said, like a traveler pacing in rain. “We keep to the plan. But first, we clean up an internal problem.”

“Internal?” Nirael looked at her, confusion misting his eyes like dawn fog.

“Internal,” Lucimia echoed with a crescent-moon smile. She stopped before Gendi, whose baffled face was blank as fresh snow.

“W-what is it?” He rubbed the back of his head, his gaze flickering like minnows instead of meeting hers.

Lucimia watched him, lashes fluttering like moth wings. An ice blade condensed in her hand, and in one clean stroke she drove it into Gendi’s heart.

“Urk!”

“Gendi!” Nirael shouted, his voice cracking like dry twigs. “Lucimia, what are you doing?”

“Solving an internal problem.” Lucimia kept her gaze on Gendi like a spearpoint. “You gave them our location, didn’t you?”

“Gendi gave our location?” Doubt pooled over Nirael like fog. “No—impossible. I watched him grow up. How could he help Ment?”

Lucimia ignored him, her words dropping like beads on stone. “From the moment we met, I wondered: you like Nirael, right? So why play the pure, shy boy, too bashful to look at me?”

“Huh? What? Gendi likes me?” Nirael’s head felt stuffed like wool.

Lucimia glanced at Nirael, her voice a cool stream. “You wouldn’t know. I used Devouring on Gendi’s memory. From it, I learned he likes you.”

“I...” Nirael’s mind went blank like an empty field.

“And when I first met him, he didn’t turn shy just because I’m pretty.” She meant the first Reversion, the time she grabbed him; back then, his gaze was steady as stone.

“So you clearly like Nirael. Why avoid my eyes and act the bashful boy? Is it fear I’d see through you, or just a persona you wear?”

“Right, Ment?”

As the words fell, Lucimia’s eyes changed—orange rings spun around black pupils like embers around obsidian. The ground and walls warped like heat-haze. Pitch-black Fuzzy Orbs crawled from the shadows and encircled Gendi.

Octopus tentacles unfurled behind her like river weeds and speared into Gendi’s legs, pinning him to the earth.

At the same time, Gendi changed. Confusion drained, leaving a severe mask like carved stone. His eyes went hollow, and coils of mist poured off his body.

But the fog barely left him before Lucimia’s Fuzzy Orbs performed Devouring, gulping it down like hungry crows.

“Tch. You found me,” came his voice without his mouth moving, like wind through a flute. “I thought I could keep the disguise until you moved to another site, then spring an ambush.”