The golden glow of the fire pythons faded into the distance, leaving the cavern in a state of flickering, blue-tinged twilight. The silence that followed was heavy, broken only by the sound of dripping water and the ragged breathing of the two men who had caused all this misery.
Lencar stood near the center of the room, his breath hitching slightly as he let his mana stabilize. He looked around, his eyes landing on a flash of mirrors. Gauche was still there, huddled in a corner of the cave, clutching Marie so tightly it looked like he was trying to shield her from the very air they breathed.
Lencar frowned, his boots crunching over the frozen gravel as he walked toward them. "Gauche," he called out, his voice echoing. "Why is Marie still here? I created enough transport for all the children. She would have been safer back at the church with the others."
Gauche looked up, his expression a mixture of lingering fury and obsessive protectiveness. He didn't even look at Lencar; his eyes were glued to the marks on Marie's face. "I don't trust your 'pets,' commoner," Gauche spat, his voice low and dangerous. "I'm not letting her out of my sight again. I'll fly her back to the church myself. If anyone—including you—tries to stop me, they'll be picking glass out of their eyes for a week."
Lencar sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. He'd dealt with difficult clients in his past life, but Gauche Adlai was in a category of his own. "Fine. But what about these two?" he asked, gesturing toward the shivering Neige and the groaning Baro. "They're Magic Knight business. You can't just—"
Before Lencar could even finish the sentence, Gauche had already kicked off the ground. A surge of mirror magic propelled him upward, Marie tucked securely under his arm. Within seconds, they were a disappearing streak of light heading toward the cave entrance.
Lencar watched them go, slowly shaking his head. "Unbelievable. No sense of procedure."
He turned his attention back to the silver-haired boy, Neige. The boy was kneeling in the slush, his hands shaking as he tried to summon enough snow to form even a small golem. When he saw Lencar approaching, his fear curdled into a desperate, pathetic kind of anger.
"Stay back!" Neige screamed, his voice cracking. "You ruined everything! I just... I just wanted to have friends! I wanted to play with them, have fun with them... but you took them all away! You took away my friends!"
Lencar stopped a few feet away. He didn't look angry; he looked disappointed, the way a teacher looks at a student who has failed a simple lesson.
"Is that what you call this, Neige?" Lencar asked, his voice calm but cold. "Do you even realize what you and your brother did to those children? You didn't make friends. You didn't play. You hypnotized them. You turned human beings into dolls because you were too selfish to earn their affection."
"No! They were happy!" Neige sobbed, clutching his head. "We were playing!"
"They were in a trance," Lencar countered, stepping closer. "And while they were 'playing' in their heads, you were destroying their futures. You were draining their mana. In this world, magic is life. By stealing their magic, you were stealing their health, their potential, and their ability to protect themselves. You weren't playing with them, Neige. You were killing them slowly."
Neige looked up, his eyes wide and bloodshot. "But... but my brother said... Baro said this was the only way! He said nobody would ever want to be friends with someone like me unless I made them stay! He said this was how the world works!"
Lencar's gaze shifted for a moment to Baro, who was finally starting to crawl out of the debris, his face twisted in a greedy, coward's scowl.
"Your brother used you," Lencar said firmly, bringing Neige's eyes back to his. "He didn't care about your loneliness. He saw a boy with a useful power and used it to lure children here so he could sell their magic for a profit. You've destroyed dozens of lives by now, Neige. Do you think a 'friend' is something you can buy with stolen magic? If you continue to do what your brother says, you will never have a real friend. Not in this life, and certainly not in the prison you're headed to."
Neige collapsed inward, his forehead hitting the damp stone. The fight had completely left him, replaced by the crushing weight of reality. He looked small, broken, and utterly alone.
Lencar glanced over his shoulder at Asta, who was vibrating with a mix of confusion and righteous fury. "Asta," Lencar said, pointing a thumb toward the fat man who was trying to sneak toward the shadows. "Take care of the big one. He's been conscious long enough."
"You got it, Lencar!" Asta roared, his Demon-Slayer sword already in hand. He didn't need a complex explanation. He saw a bad guy trying to escape, and that was all the motivation he needed. With a burst of speed that kicked up a cloud of dust, Asta slammed the flat of his blade into Baro's midsection, sending the man flying back into the wall with a definitive thud.
Sister Theresa walked up to Lencar's side, her eyes resting on him with a newfound softness. "You have a sharp tongue, young man, but a kind heart," she murmured. "Most would have just struck that boy down. You chose to make him see the truth. That's a much harder path."
Lencar didn't look at her. "Truth is just data, Sister. If he doesn't have the right information, he'll just make the same mistake again. It's not about being kind; it's about being effective."
Theresa chuckled softly, but the sound was cut short.
The temperature in the cave didn't drop, but the feeling of the air changed. It became sticky, like invisible cobwebs brushing against their skin. Lencar's hair stood on end. He spun around, his hand instinctively reaching for the hilt of the blade hidden beneath his cloak.
Standing on a jagged rock formation just a few yards away was a woman. She wore a white, hooded robe marked with a strange golden eye, and her messy dark hair fell over a pair of large, round glasses. She was staring at them—no, she was staring at Lencar—with a wide, manic grin that reached her ears.
"Ohhh... I saw that!" Sally giggled, her voice high and echoing unpleasantly through the cavern. "The fire snakes, the wind, the way you talk... you're such a weird, delicious specimen! I've never seen a commoner with a mana signature that flickers like yours. It's almost like you're not even there sometimes!"
Asta, Lencar, and Sister Theresa froze, their eyes locked on the newcomer. The air around Sally shimmered with a dark, unstable energy.
"I think," Sally said, her tongue darting out to lick her lip, "I'm going to take you home and see what makes you tick."
Next Step: Would you like me to write the battle between Lencar and Sally, focusing on how he uses his "ghost" movements and dual-magic to counter her dark magic tools?