Drip—

As the pillar of magical light rose, a raindrop suddenly fell from the cloudless night sky and struck a bandit in the face.

“It’s raining?”

The bandit froze for a moment, then instinctively looked up. He saw the rain growing denser by the second.

The air grew increasingly damp. Yet several sharp-eyed bandits noticed something strange.

While the entire camp was being drenched, the small patch of sky above the girl alone remained bathed in cool moonlight.

“Kill that mage! This rain must be her doing!”

The bandits didn’t understand why Sophia had summoned this downpour. That didn’t stop them from wanting her dead.

They charged through the rain toward Sophia, the blades in their hands gleaming with cold light.

Yet Sophia acted as if she couldn’t see the snarling bandits before her. She only raised her head slightly and looked toward the one patch of sky untouched by rain.

“It’s here…”

Rumble—!!!

With the girl’s soft murmur, the earth suddenly began to shake.

Caught off guard, the bandits stumbled. Some nearly fell.

“What’s happening? Is it an earthquake!?” several bandits shouted in panic.

“No, look! Wh-what is that!?”

One bandit suddenly stared toward the mountains beyond the camp. Everyone followed the direction of his finger.

A landslide!

Boulders and mud had broken loose from some distant mountain peak. They surged toward the camp below with unstoppable force.

The landslide was still some distance away, but the surging waves of mud made several bandits’ legs go weak.

“Run!”

No one knew who shouted first. The bandits came to their senses and scrambled toward the camp’s exit.

They had all forgotten the girl still standing where she was. After all, they didn’t believe a powerless noble young lady could survive such a natural disaster.

Besides… compared to avenging their “boss,” their own lives mattered far more.

Rumble—rumble—

The tremors of the charging landslide grew clearer. The bandits fled like stray dogs, racing desperately out of the camp.

Sophia watched their retreating backs without expression. A storm of snow drifted through her water-blue eyes.

The girl raised her wand once more, then gently struck it against the ground.

Another ring of water-blue magic spread outward. The pillars of magical light around the camp brightened, and the rain from the sky fell with even greater violence.

Rumble—

Another violent tremor shook the earth.

The bandits nearing the camp’s exit looked up. A landslide was plunging down the mountain directly before them.

Mud and boulders tore downward with tremendous force. On that towering mountain, every living thing touched by this muddy disaster was unbearably fragile.

One impact shattered them. Then they were swallowed by the flow.

The landslide grew larger and larger, like a snowball rolling down a mountain in winter.

But the bandits knew this muddy torrent was nothing like a soft snowball.

In their eyes, the surging mud had become a roaring monster in the darkness. It charged toward them in a frenzy, cutting down every life it touched.

“What do we do!? What do we do!?”

Caught between the landslide from behind and the mountain ahead, the bandits panicked. They stared in terror at the muddy torrents surrounding them.

But no one answered.

The mudflow crashed into them.

The slower bandits were crushed into bloody fragments the instant the landslide reached them. The mud swallowed them whole.

Their miserable screams rose one after another. Some were buried before they even had the chance to cry out.

Sophia stood quietly in place.

When the roaring, violent landslide neared her, it struck an invisible barrier and split around both sides of her.

The girl’s calm silence was completely at odds with the carnage around her. It was as if, within this hellscape, only the space beside Sophia remained a pure refuge untouched by suffering.

Sophia gazed indifferently at the bandits swallowed by the landslide. Her eyes held neither joy nor sorrow.

“Little princess, I must admit, you’ve made me look at you in a new light this time.”

An surveyed the surrounding scene, then looked at the girl’s tranquil face. For the first time, she offered Sophia a genuine compliment.

Sophia glanced at An without saying a word.

She had begun preparing this magic formation long ago.

Earlier, under the excuse of taking a walk to clear her mind, Sophia had circled the bandit camp. While doing so, she had quietly made a few preparations.

Although the bandit boss had ordered several men to follow her the entire time, Sophia wasn’t foolish enough to let a few minor bandits discover anything suspicious.

“It’s done. We should continue on our way.”

Sophia withdrew her gaze from the bandits. She stroked the fur An had transformed into against her chest and murmured softly.

Then the girl simply stood there in silence.

She remained motionless until the final raindrop fell from the sky and the mud rolling down the mountain finally stopped.

The natural disaster came to an end.

The four pillars of magical light that had reached the heavens vanished as well.