In the empty office, the last trace of sunset disappeared beyond the window. The evening breeze drifted in through the open window, rustling the pages of the documents on the desk.
The silence lasted for a moment. As time passed second by second, a petite figure in a Lolita dress suddenly appeared in the center of the office, like a flicker on a screen.
"Finally done..."
Appearing in her own office after a busy day, Natsuki Minamiya closed her eyes and stretched.
"Vali's group was protected by the people behind them, but Cao Cao of the Hero Faction has already been sent into the Prison Barrier by me."
"It's a done deal now. No matter how shameless that god from Indian mythology may be, surely even he can't demand that I release them at this point. And Vali's group will have to spend a few days in the holding area while their marks are removed. That should be enough of a lesson to make them straighten up..."
Thinking over the results of the day, and feeling speechless at the tangled mess of forces behind that group, Natsuki Minamiya leaned back and fell toward her office chair. Onto the cold floor.
"Thud!"
Her petite body hit the tiled floor with a dull sound. Dust speckled her ornate Lolita outfit, but Natsuki Minamiya had no time to care about something so minor.
"What's going on? Did I remember the position wrong and cause my teleportation to deviate? Or did Astarte slack off and not clean properly?"
Standing up in a slightly disheveled state, Natsuki Minamiya looked at the office chair right beside her. She did not think this was her fault. Instead, she frowned and wondered whether the little maid she had found had been slacking off and failed to put the desk and chair back in the right place.
As for the possibility that Natsuki Minamiya herself had teleported to the wrong position...
Impossible. Absolutely impossible. As the Witch of the Void, her spatial abilities were unmatched. How could she possibly make such a rookie mistake with her teleportation point?
She was about to go out and ask, but the moment she took a step, she seemed to notice something wrong. She shifted her leg in its black stocking and froze when she felt a texture clearly different from usual.
Lowering her head, she gently lifted her right foot and twisted her ankle upward. After staring blankly for a moment at the sole of her round-toed leather shoe, which bore obvious cut marks, she turned to look behind her at the spot where she had just been standing. The sliced-off part of the sole was embedded in the floor.
She blinked and looked back and forth for a second. As if only now realizing what had happened, Natsuki Minamiya's blue eyes instantly widened, and she drew in a sharp breath.
"The surrounding space..."
"Has been affected by us!"
Before she could finish, a man's voice came from the door and finished the sentence for her. Natsuki Minamiya immediately looked as if she were facing a powerful enemy as she turned toward the man who had opened the door to her office, dressed in old-fashioned noble attire.
"Who are you?"
Natsuki Minamiya took a deep breath and asked the man before her.
Just now, she had only transferred to her office, a place she used most often, not particularly far away, and where she had left a marker in advance, yet the teleportation still deviated by more than a meter. If she tried spatial transfer in battle later, she was worried she might end up stuck in a wall.
It was obvious. This was an attack aimed at her or the Itogami Island Guard, and her strongest method, spatial magic, had already been banned by some means she did not understand.
"A pleasure to meet you, Witch of the Void. You may call me Asmodeus."
"I came here through your subordinates specifically to find the Witch of the Void and ask you to help us with a favor so small it could hardly be smaller to you."
Faced with Natsuki Minamiya's sharp question, the man in noble formalwear was quite polite, even bowing to her. Of course, it was more likely because he had banned spatial teleportation and already believed victory was in his hands.
"Hah. I don't think my subordinates have the guts to let someone as obviously suspicious as you in here without reporting to me."
"But forget it. If you can tell me your goal, identity, and background, I might consider helping with that favor you mentioned."
Natsuki Minamiya narrowed her eyes and opened her fan to hide the change in expression on the lower half of her face. She did not believe the name he had given at all.
The Devils of the Underworld had just been made to take such a massive blame, and even one of the Four Great Satans had been sent out to seek peace talks. No matter how extreme a faction was, it was impossible for them to attack the Island Guard.
Even though she thought that, Natsuki Minamiya did not directly expose him. After all, since this man dared appear in front of her, he must have confidence that he could deal with her. Judging by the fact that he had banned her most powerful and most frequently used spatial magic, that confidence was most likely real.
In other words, with her spatial magic banned, her outcome was basically certain. Since that was the case, there was no need to fight him. She would first gather information on him, then decisively reset and start the next round.
"You want to know who we are? Of course. But could the Witch of the Void first help us with this small favor? Afterward, I'll slowly tell you all about our identity."
"I'm right here. Are you still worried I'll run?"
"Tsk, tsk, tsk..."
The man looked at Natsuki Minamiya mockingly, shook his head, clicked his tongue, and finally sighed.
"Miss Witch of the Void, you don't seem to have any honesty when it comes to making deals. The body you're using right now is a Magical Power body. Leaving would be very easy for you..."
He leisurely exposed Natsuki Minamiya's secret. Before Natsuki Minamiya could react, the man raised one hand toward her, and a wild smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
"Since the Witch of the Void broke good faith first, I don't need to be so polite anymore."
An octopus tentacle suddenly extended from the void and wrapped tightly around Natsuki Minamiya's entire body, forcefully keeping up with her attempt to disperse the Magical Power that formed this body.
Spatial ability just like mine!
"Your target is the Prison Barrier!"
Through her office window, as her fading consciousness saw the island faintly appearing on the surface of the sea, Natsuki Minamiya instantly realized what their goal was.
"Smart. But I need to correct you on one point. We have no interest in the Prison Barrier. We only want to retrieve what belongs to our Khaos Brigade. The Red Dragon Emperor you, Witch of the Void, locked inside the Prison Barrier."
After praising Natsuki Minamiya in an exaggerated manner, the man before her, who called himself Asmodeus, began waving his arms excitedly. Believing everything was already settled, and seeing that Natsuki Minamiya knew their target, he no longer bothered to hide it and directly revealed his true goal.
"Khaos Brigade?!"
"Yes."
Perhaps because he had entered the waiting stage and had nothing to do, and because he was certain of victory, the man confirmed Natsuki Minamiya's suspicion. He brought Natsuki Minamiya, who was being controlled in the void, to the window and looked at the small prison island on the sea that had gone from faintly visible to increasingly solid, explaining with great interest.
"Our people have already reached the place where that island will appear. Once we follow your mental link, Witch of the Void, and pull this island up, we'll rush in and take back what belongs to us."
"Oh, right. To prevent you from interfering before the plan is complete, we will also release every prisoner in that prison and have them draw attention for us. Of course, in return, if they survive, they will also gain the freedom they want."
"Looks like your Khaos Brigade has some kind of incredible conspiracy going on. Could you tell me what this plan of yours is? Of course, it would be even better if you told me the name of your faction while you're at it."
Asmodeus glanced at Natsuki Minamiya, who was gritting her teeth beside him in midair, and let out a soft laugh.
"Heh. Actually, I really wouldn't recommend telling you. The plan has already started, and the Cult of Diablos has also secretly tampered with things. Unfortunately, you're still quite important to our plan. To avoid you causing trouble, you should wait until everything is over and ask someone else, hahaha..."
"Tsk..."
Natsuki Minamiya had not expected this arrogant man before her to unexpectedly have a brain. She clicked her tongue in displeasure, closed her eyes, and stopped paying attention to his provocation.
Time gradually passed. The Prison Barrier on the sea became more and more solid, while Natsuki Minamiya's body grew more and more insubstantial.
Just as Natsuki Minamiya was about to disappear completely, a massive blue arm suddenly appeared, broke through the wall, and grabbed the restrained Natsuki Minamiya.
The sudden change made Asmodeus instinctively freeze. Following the arm with his gaze, he saw that it came from a giant whose entire body was covered in blue crystal blocks, with a blue maid in the center controlling it.
"Apologies, Captain Minamiya. I'm late."
It was a flat apology, but Natsuki Minamiya knew Astarte's personality and did not blame her. She simply placed her hand on the blue giant's body.
"Cough. It's fine. It's not too late. At least I still have a little control left..."
Without giving the man any time to react, and knowing that they were no match for him, Natsuki Minamiya immediately activated spatial movement and vanished from the spot.
The second after the giant disappeared, a powerful attack covered the entire building, flattening it in an instant and leaving only the man with an ugly expression standing there.
"The barrier was broken... Those useless fools from the Cult of Diablos. To think they let trash like that destroy the barrier. As expected, joining hands with a third-rate force like them was a mistake. Fortunately... the plan is already more than half complete. Letting that Witch of the Void escape isn't a big deal."
At that point, the man let out a breath of relief and looked toward the Prison Barrier that had fully descended onto the sea.
"Now it's all up to you, Katerea. Make sure you bring back both the Red Dragon Emperor and that witch we deceived."
In a low murmur, the man looked at the powerful figures around him whose attention had been drawn by the commotion caused by the suddenly appearing Prison Barrier, and burst into wild laughter.
"Let those useless fools from the Cult of Diablos stop them. That suits their professional role perfectly. We Devils can't go dying in meaningless cannon-fodder work like this."
...
"Looks like... something happened?"
Lying bored on the ground, Vali felt the sudden earthquake and frowned. He looked at the bracelet still on his wrist, which had clearly lost its effect, then calmly spoke to the companions locked in the same cell as him.
"Hey, everyone! This damn place seems to have come into the real world!"
Naturally, Vali was not the only one to notice the sudden disturbance. A rough male voice came from the corridor outside the prison bars, followed by the sound of steel bars being violently smashed apart.
As if a chain reaction had begun, after the bars of the first cell were broken through, more and more sounds of clashing metal rang out.
"Something did happen, and it's something big. But it has nothing to do with us."
Kuroka Toujou, who was closest to the cell door, leaned over and glanced at the hall outside. Then the corner of her mouth twitched, and she complained to the others.
In the hall that the Prison Barrier had originally used to let the prisoners out for fresh air, more than twenty people, most of them fierce and vicious-looking, walked out of their cells and gathered there. They kept a tacit distance from one another while staying out of each other's way.
"It appears that the prison's administrator, Natsuki Minamiya, has awakened from the dream. Therefore, this prison that exists within Natsuki Minamiya's dream has lost its original ability to confine us."
A refined man wearing glasses stroked his chin and analyzed the situation. Although there was not a trace of Magical Power on him, the moment he spoke, he drew everyone's attention.
"So that means this great one can finally leave this damn place and go back to the outside world?"
Hearing the refined man's words, a man with yellow curly hair who looked like a thug had his eyes light up and spoke excitedly.
"If we can break through the protective barrier outside, then what you said is correct."
A faint smile appeared at the corner of the refined man's mouth. He said "if," but he clearly did not take the protective barrier outside seriously at all.
"Hey, everyone, aren't you forgetting this? With this on, what's the point even if we escape? When the time is up, we'll still be brought back."
A scantily dressed woman shook the bracelet on her wrist, reminding her temporary companions.
"Kill Natsuki Minamiya, and this will naturally disappear."
The refined man spoke coldly and walked toward the place in the prison where Natsuki Minamiya was located. The prisoners behind him also showed ferocious smiles and followed. Only a woman in a kimono remained in place, a thoughtful look on her face.
"Vali, do you think this counts as a one-day prison tour?"
Across from Vali, Cao Cao had overheard everything. He summoned his weapon and gathered with his companions, then complained with a speechless look.
"More or less. What are you planning to do?"
Vali shrugged and casually asked Cao Cao, who looked eager to get started.
"Of course I'll let them help me break out, then take them all down and count it as my achievement. A hero can't just stand by in the face of villains!"
Cao Cao showed an excited smile and exchanged glances with his companions. Each of them prepared for battle. He was different from Vali.
"I knew it. Then I'll join in too."
With the same smile, Vali and Cao Cao shattered the bars in front of them at the same time.
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