Sherry, hiding behind the door, shrank her shoulders, feeling a little afraid.

The truth was, she wasn't very far from Carlisle. She'd only slipped into a nearby low building while the smoke was swirling around.

She planned to wait until he left, then open the door and escape Candlelight Sanctuary.

For now, all she could do was pray the Knights of the Round Table wouldn't find her.

Once things quieted down, she finally had a chance to look around her surroundings.

This seemed to be a place where scholars held lectures. The desks and chairs were arranged neatly, and the blackboard was covered in white chalk drawings she couldn't make heads or tails of.

It kind of looks like... a tentacle monster? And that puddle that looks like water—is that its slime?

She studied the drawings on the blackboard closely and felt a shiver of revulsion.

Just as she'd thought, scholars researched things that ordinary people couldn't stomach.

Thud—thud—thud—

Suddenly, her ears picked up a strange sound.

It sounded like a heartbeat heard with an ear pressed to someone's chest—or the heavy, bare feet of a large body walking over stone tiles. The strange sound surrounded her, growing unnervingly clear no matter how tightly she covered her ears.

It was as if its source were right beside Sherry.

The ground beneath her feet felt unexpectedly soft. She drew a deep breath, steeled herself, and looked down.

What she saw wasn't gray tile at all. Writhing crimson lumps of flesh, like plump maggots, rapidly covered the floor. Even the walls were gradually being overrun.

They pulsed in a steady rhythm. Their thudding revealed that somewhere, out of sight, a heart was pumping the blood they needed.

Plip—plip—

Disgusting slime dripped from the ceiling above. Sherry looked up and saw countless fleshy growths pushing out of the mass of meat, eventually forming a tangle of thick tentacles.

At the tip of each tentacle was a narrow slit lined with sharp teeth.

Like snakes flicking their tongues, the tentacles emerged from the ceiling, writhing as they reached toward Sherry.

Sherry took a step back and pressed herself against the door.

They stopped right in front of her, barely a hand's breadth from her little face.

They had no eyes, but Sherry still felt as if they were staring straight at her.

Scarlet tentacles and white slime...

Thinking of several rather unwelcome images, she felt her legs tremble and shakily reached for the doorknob behind her.

The tentacles noticed her movement. They all straightened, ready to strike.

“S-sorry to bother you.”

With that, she flung the door open and bolted out of the room. The tentacles followed close behind.

They smashed through the doorframe, their thick bodies baring sharp teeth as they snapped at the air behind Sherry.

If she'd been even a step slower, the tentacles would've caught her and torn her apart.

But what made her feel most hopeless was the gaze Carlisle turned her way.

That guy still hadn't left the street!

“You vile Witch! Stop!” he shouted, blocking the only road leading out of the Holy Land.

A purple spell flared to life. He didn't attack the long, disgusting tentacles—instead, he hurled it at the girl.

“You're a Knight of the Round Table! Your enemy should be the monster! I'm just a defenseless, weak girl!” Sherry barely dodged the spell Carlisle threw at her, then stopped short, turned, and fled deeper into the Holy Land.

“Trying to guilt-trip me? Who do you think you are?”

Carlisle lowered his stance, then shot forward like a cannonball, closing in on her at incredible speed.

They weren't the only ones on the road. There were plenty of distressed scholars, too, so the tentacles had stopped chasing only Sherry. Now they attacked any living thing they saw.

Carlisle planted a foot on an incoming tentacle, closing the distance between himself and the girl by several paces.

Then something suddenly occurred to him.

“Maybe you were behind that explosion! Surrender at once. If you do, I might even plead with the Church to leave your corpse intact!”

“How can you just make things up and slander me like that?!”

What utter nonsense! If she weren't weaker than him, Sherry would hang him outside the church and kick his butt with iron boots polished to a shine with sandpaper!

She hated being falsely accused more than anything.

After rounding an alley, she tossed another bottle of white-smoke potion behind her.

The tentacles behind her had already been drawn to the scholars in the street, and the Church's late-arriving guards and priests had joined the fight. That left Carlisle as the only person she needed to shake off.

Humans could never be as keenly alert as monsters.

White smoke filled the alley entrance. Hidden within it, she headed in a direction Carlisle wouldn't think to look.

The smoke in the bottle couldn't actually hurt the human body, but cautious Carlisle kept his mouth and nose covered. In his eyes, Sherry was a cunning, treacherous Witch. One careless moment, and he'd fall for one of her tricks.

The last time he'd let his guard down, he'd lost his ring and the ability a man was supposed to have. He didn't even dare imagine what he might lose next time.

There were several roads to choose from at the alley entrance. The brief cover of the white smoke had cost him Sherry's trail.

But that wouldn't stump him. There weren't many buildings nearby, so the odds of her hiding inside one were low. And after the tentacle crisis, he refused to believe Witch Sherry would go hide in a house again.

He murmured a low incantation. Purple wings wreathed in flames sprouted from his back.

With a gentle flap, they lifted him into the air, giving him a clear view of every road at the alley entrance.

There weren't many people on the roads deeper in the Holy Land, and most things were still. A quick glance was all it took for him to spot Sherry fleeing.

“Found you.”

He gave a cold laugh. A magic spear appeared in his hand, lightning crackling around it with a sharp, teeth-grating sound.

“Go.”

He hurled the magic spear with all his strength. It flew so fast that the air let out a mighty wail.

The roar growing louder in the distance caught Sherry's attention. She turned—and saw the terrifying spear pierce her body like a nail, pinning her to the ground.

The powerful current blacked out her vision, and her body convulsed uncontrollably.

“Hm?” Carlisle flew to her side, ready to taunt her, but then he saw white smoke rising from beneath her black cloak, wrapping around her whole body.

He frowned and took two steps back.

Soon, Sherry's figure began to shrink. Her head and limbs gradually took on the shape of a beast, while her clothes turned into points of light and vanished into the ground. In the end, a transparent rabbit rolled its eyes back and collapsed beneath his magic spear.

Its magic exhausted, the rabbit grew more and more transparent until it vanished completely.

“Tch. A fake.”

He waved his hand and dismissed the magic spear, his fury at being tricked burning even hotter.

...

After tossing the potion, Sherry used her magic to summon a rabbit spirit that could change its appearance.

The real Sherry pulled up her hood and blended into the shadows, making for a basement deep in the Holy Land, by the giant eagle's third toe. Her fake, meanwhile, ran around at random to draw Carlisle's attention.

The plan had worked perfectly. She'd shaken him off.

A summoned spirit didn't die when it vanished. After resting for a while, it could serve her again.