"S-She just had to play hero and ruin everything!" The fuming witch charged up another attack. "This time I won't miss!"

And as if it was an invitation, everyone but the young man launched their respective attacks at the witch, forcing her to hightail out of the building. They immediately gave chase, but the witch covered her escape with a barrier of ribbons, stopping them short from the exit.

Vivianne conjured a blade of lightning from her jeweled scepter and made short work of the barrier with a single swing, only to find more ribbons scattered outside. "That girl's getting on my nerves!" she said, looking over her shoulder. "I'm gonna give her a good spanking! You two should keep an eye on them!"

Marice scoffed, climbing aboard Katherine's shield. "Don't tell us what to do."

"And what? She may be just a kid, but I'm the only one here who can match up to her ridiculous power." She glanced at Katherine. "Err, um... no offense, Kath."

Katherine had a stern expression on her face as a bright red light seeped through the gaps of the barriers. "What is she doing?" she asked, looking upwards.

"Ugh, I have a bad feeling about this...!"

As Vivianne and Katherine started slicing through the barrier of ribbons, Marice turned her attention back to the young man kneeling next to Richelle's body. Momentary shock aside, the recent turn of events didn't elicit any strong reaction from him. In fact, he looked like he was annoyed more than anything else that Richelle got herself killed.

But much like Richelle, what caught Marice's interest was his vast reserves of demonic ether. She could also sense a dormant yet powerful presence within him, which she initially thought as the source of his power. But unlike typical cases of demonic possession, he seemed to be in full control of his body, and the link between his soul and this presence should allow him to make use of the latter's power in addition to his own.

However, confronting him would have to wait as Katherine had taken down the last barrier, revealing the witch's glowing form in the sky.

"Took you long enough!" the witch shouted, her voice booming from afar. "Now, disappear!"

And with a dramatic swing of her cane, she launched a telekinetic blast in their direction. Windows of nearby buildings instantly shattered as Vivianne and Katherine took refuge behind the former's barrier, but the actual spell had only begun to materialize in the shape of a massive energy ball, closing in towards the surface.

"A... A disaster-level spell?" Vivianne uttered as a stronger telekinetic blast knocked them a couple of floors down. "She's a bigger idiot than I thought! If that thing hits the ground, this entire city's history!"

"Th-Then I'll go after her!" Katherine said, her mask forming over her mouth. "She's gonna escape at this rate!"

"How about you get Marice and the others out of here instead?!"

"What are you saying?! You can definitely stop that thing, right?"

Beads of sweat ran down Vivianne's face as panicked cries and blaring car alarms could be heard below them. "J-Just because I can cast catastrophe-level spells doesn't mean I can stop them on my own!"

"Th-Then what about that huge beam attack you used in our graduation ceremony? You can probably push the sphere to a higher altitude with it, then detonate it safely from there!"

She gasped, tightening her grip on her scepter. "I-I'll try, but you and Marice should still get out of the blast zone! At least that's one thing off my conscience if I screw this up!"

"Oh, stop acting so coy! It's annoying!" Marice said, wincing from another kinetic blast. "We're not going anywhere, so do your thing already!"

She faced Marice, biting her lip. "But you have to—!"

"You didn't hesitate to try to blow me up along with the entirety of London in our first exhibition duel, but you're now chickening out just because you've finally met your match?!"

"You still don't get it, do you?!" She pointed at the looming sphere. "I can't hold that spell in place while casting Skystream Burst!"

"Tch, then you should've said so earlier! Get me up there, Kath!"

She held out a palm towards Katherine. "Do you want to die that badly? Even if I use you and Kath as spell proxies, the strain from a spell that powerful will still be too much for your body to take!"

Marice could only grit her teeth, unable to respond. But just then, the young man suddenly appeared on the edge of the building and whistled, looking up in the sky. "Looks like we picked on her a bit too much. She really is just a kid."

"What are you—"

He started floating, eyes turning red. "You need some help, right? Hurry and tell me what I need to do."

As another telekinetic burst shook the earth, Marice looked back at the pink-haired witch. "Vivianne!"

"Fine! Ether Link!" A golden burst of light erupted from Vivianne, spawning wisps of ether in its wake. The butterfly-shaped wisps then rushed to the rest of them fused into their bodies, charging them with her ether. "Don't blame me if you get yourself killed after this!"

Not wasting any more time, Vivianne cast a multilayered Geofort above as the rest of them took their positions on the nearby rooftops. And as the destructive sphere struck the transparent barrier, the three of them reinforced the spell while Vivianne began casting Skystream Burst.

However, the strain did prove to be too much for Marice, her knees immediately bucking from the immense pressure. The momentary lapse in concentration cost them the Geofort's first layer, forcing Vivianne to interrupt her own spell and support the barrier.

"Vivianne!" Katherine cried. "Marice can't—!"

With her hand still held out, Marice used her mage golem to prop herself up. "Shut up! I can do this!"

"You say that, but you can't even stand on your own!"

She turned her attention back to the pink-haired witch. "Vivianne, what are you doing?! Start casting that spell!"

Another magic circle appeared beneath her feet as she gave Marice a glare. "Then you better pull your weight!"

"You sure you ladies know what you're doing?" the man shouted.

Marice winced as she felt the immense pressure from the barrier once more. "Oh, don't you dare start on me too!"

"Aren't you an Alcantara heiress? This isn't the time to hold out on us!"

"Yes, I'm definitely holding back just to make a show out of this nonsense! You know, to give you guys a shot at stopping this death ball!"

He gave her an incredulous look as another layer of the barrier shattered. "But you're the daughter of that witch! The one who controls time and space!"

"And tell me how's that relevant to what we're dealing with here?"

"So you really can't do those fancy tricks, huh?"

"What about you then?! You seemed quite gung-ho a minute ago after all!"

"I thought you guys had the plan!"

"This is the plan! You aren't particularly bright for a smartass, huh?"

"Aww, aren't you two getting along?" Katherine chimed in with a cheeky grin.

But just before she could shout out a response, a bright silver light flooded their surroundings. As Marice turned her attention back to Vivianne, the latter twirled her scepter and pointed it at the destructive sphere.

"Skystream Burst!"

And with a wave of searing heat, a large beam of concentrated ether erupted from her scepter, ramming straight onto the crimson sphere's surface. The clash generated a particularly strong kinetic feedback from the sphere, destroying the Geofort's final layer. Fortunately for them, Vivianne's beam had already begun pushing the sphere away from the barrier.

Once the sphere was far enough in the atmosphere, Vivianne unleashed the beam's full power, piercing through the sphere like a steel bolt into a balloon. The resulting explosion generated another shock wave, but it was already far enough to cause any significant damage to the world below.

As the dust began to settle, Vivianne and Katherine flew upwards, surveying the situation across the city. Marice couldn't help but to peer down from her vantage point as well, only to realize how eerily dark and quiet the vicinity was compared to earlier. She could make out the impressive number of debris scattered on the road, but the damages from the nearby establishments and houses didn't look as bad as she thought.

Perhaps they could've mitigated even more damage if they had erected the Geofort a bit earlier, but nobody expected that the girl would just lob a sphere of mass destruction at them without hesitation.

And with that thought, Marice wondered how civilizations survived as long as they did with people like her around.

"What a relief."

The young man appeared beside her. "Can't even begin to imagine what would've happened if that thing reached the ground."

"Yeah."

As they heard the blaring sirens of ambulances and police mobiles in the distance, Katherine and Vivianne joined them. "Are you okay, Marice?" the former asked.

She nodded. "So what did it look like from up there?"

"The kinetic pulses from the spell made a lot of mess, and the worst I've seen were dented rooftops. I saw some injured people on the road too."

"And the girl?"

"She disappeared without a trace. She probably prepped a teleportation spell immediately after launching her attack."

Marice shook her head. "So we lost Richelle, and we have a lunatic on the loose. It's just one thing after another, huh?"

Vivianne flicked her single-shoulder cape and put her hand on her waist. "What's done is done. We did everything we could."

"Yeah," Katherine said, "thanks a lot, Vivianne! You really saved our bacons!"

As she twirled her scepter, its handle disappeared in a mist of golden light, leaving its large turquoise ether gem to hover beside her. "Well, it's a good thing you went out of your way to ask me to help out earlier."

"Oh, actually, Marice was the one who asked me to."

"H-Huh? What did you just say?"

She blinked. "I asked for your help because Marice told me to."

"N-No, I didn't!" Marice replied. "It was your idea!"

"And you agreed to it!"

Vivianne had a dumbfounded expression as she faced Marice. "Her? But...!"

The two witches stared at each other, their cheeks growing redder each passing second. But before one of them could utter another word, the young man let out a big yawn and floated off the edge of the rooftop.

"And where do you think you're going?" Marice asked.

He looked over his shoulder. "We're done here, right? I'll take Richelle with me before things get messy again."

"Why? What are you going to do to her?"

"Well, that's none of your business." His eyes glowed a deep crimson. "That said, you guys do me a solid and find that girl for me, alright? Can't have that brat blow up another city."

As he made his sharp descent, Marice attempted to chase after him, but Katherine snatched her arm before she could jump off the building. "Hey, we can't let him go."

Katherine released her arm and gave her a thumbs up. "I put a tracker on Richelle, so we can just tail him back to his place. We're still looking for clues about our wraith, right?"

"Oh, about that," Vivianne said. "I can only assume that guy has something to do with it? He reeks of demonic energy."

"With Richelle gone, he's kinda our only lead right now too."

She rubbed her chin with a big grin on her face. "Very interesting. This really has turned into quite an adventure, hasn't it?"

Marice furrowed her eyebrows. "Stop that. You're creeping me out."

Vivianne flipped her pigtail. "Hmph. Then do yourself a favor and stop gawking at me. But I suppose I can't blame you if you can't keep your eyes off of me."

She shook her head and grumbled. "Come on, Kath. Let's check on that familiar first."