Having taken the ruined Paraviel as his main base, Miasma sat on the throne made for the Lord of the city.

As he pondered his next move, his army composed of mindless corrupted humans and beasts patiently waited for their next order.

At his side, three shadowy figures waited, with two of them anxiously glancing at their master from time to time.

Behind him, a broken wall stood, barely supporting its weight after the carnage that took place in the city. Past it, two giant figures could be seen peeking through one of the broken parts.

One had deep purple colored irises, while the other had a vivid yellow, almost as bright as the sun itself.

At some point, Miasma turned his head and stared at an empty space of the room, intently focused on something.

(Maybe...)

He mumbled something, before closing his eyes for a brief instant.

"Hey."

Suddenly, he turned his head to one of his followers.

"What is it, master?"

"Where did that explosion happen at again?"

"Explosion?"

"You're the one who mentioned it recently. Can't you remember?"

With a sharp glare, his follower couldn't help but straightened and think carefully.

"T-The one caused by Elliott?"

"This one. Not that there was another. So, where did it happen?"

Miasma began to tap his finger on the throne's arm with impatience.

"I believe it happened near the border between Eogis and the main continent."

"Is it still inside the barrier?"

"It should be?"

"Hmm~"

Returning to his thoughts, Miasma brought one finger to his chin, while his follower breathed a sigh of relief.

On the side, the third cloaked follower began to fumble around, before suddenly tripping over its own feet, missing one of the steps in the process.

It began rolling down the stairs, before crashing into one of the pillars supporting the ceiling. A faint groan escaped the follower's mouth as it struggled to get up.

"You imbecile..."

Miasma glared at it, before closing his eyes.

"Somebody, pick up this fool and bring it back up here."

One of the nearest mindless soldiers turned to the fallen figure, and approached it. It grabbed the figure, and placed it over its shoulder, before going up the stairs.

At the top, it threw it on the ground, and walked downstairs to return to its original spot.

"Good job. You can have a reward."

Miasma opened his hands and shot a beam of concentrated corruption toward the soldier, who showed no signs of reaction.

The beam entered its body, before changes began to appear.

Its teeth began to clatter loudly, as it grabbed its head. The legs gave out in a loud thud as they dropped to the ground, before it lifelessly arched its body backward.

A few seconds later, its left hand began to twitch, before it awakened. The red glow in its eyes was no more, replaced by a deep purple.

Its muscles grew in size, surpassing those of its former self, and it grew in height during this process. The puny sword it had bent weirdly the moment it picked it up, before throwing it on the ground.

"Master, I broke the sword."

"Good luck finding a new one."

"Yes."

The new follower kneeled in front of its master without hesitation, and closed its eyes.

"How do you feel, now that you have free will again?"

"I don't feel like I have free will, though?"

"Hahaha~ Well, that's true."

Miasma laughed for a second, before standing up.

"I'm impressed you had what it takes to change. Less than ten percent manage to mutate without problem. You will be put to good use."

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"Thank you."

While taking his time, Miasma walked down the stairs. Using Layla's graceful appearance, he quite liked to put on a show.

"You should be able to remove that bead inside of you, now that you've evolved."

"Is that so?"

The transformed soldier looked at his hand, before plunging it into his chest. When it removed his hand, a dark core rolled into his open hand, as the wound closed by itself.

After stopping in front of him, his master picked up the core and crushed it in his hand.

"So?"

"I feel no different."

"Perfect."

Miasma opened his mouth and sprinkled the core's dust into it, before swallowing.

"Alright, we move. You and me. The others are staying here."

"Yes, master."

They all bent forward to his words, before Miasma walked past the soldiers. Only him and the new addition to his force walked out of the dilapidated castle.

~

"How do I stop that?!"

"I don't know?! Do something?!"

Amelia, Deveralna, and Karteira were all running around the training ground.

"I told you so! I said to wait for Orion!"

The three of them were panicking, dodging the rain of plasma falling on them.

-

A few minutes before.

"Are you sure you don't need Orion to look over you?"

Amelia, who was in her lightning mastery form, asked while spinning her chain dagger.

"I don't intend on using a lot of power. What I need to do is getting accustomed to the intensity."

"Be careful. Orion would probably scold you if you damage the area too badly."

With Karteira next to her, Deveralna couldn't help but smile dryly at the thought.

"Do you need him every time you try to improve?"

"N-No..."

It was true, both were the same. They couldn't wait for Orion most of the time, and kept improving regardless.

"Since he's gone to check on his brother, there's nothing we can do."

With a serious face, Deveralna said. After becoming a Remnant, she also became more confident in her way of thinking and talking.

At first, they were shocked to see the changes, but after a few minutes, they immediately registered that she hadn't changed at all.

"You're more proactive now than you were before. Are you sure you're alright?"

With a smirk, Karteira jabbed her elbow into her rib.

"Are you trying to say I became nuts after evolving? That's rude."

"Everyone in this group who has power is nuts..."

Amelia shrugged and confessed the reality of things.

"Of course, I am, too."

"Haha... That's... quite right."

With an awkward smile, Karteira placed her hand behind her head and looked away.

"Don't forget that most of us have powers that surpass even the strongest beings on the continent. That's probably because of Orion, but still."

"Even Remnants cannot stand a chance against you now. That's how absurd the power you've obtained is."

Deveralna recalled the awful feeling she felt in front of the tesseract. With that in mind, she agreed.

"You're not wrong. But that's why I want to control it. I have no idea how to gauge the amount of energy I release, so in any case, I need to try."

"We'll be looking on the side then."

Karteira and Amelia began to walk away, losing sight of Deveralna for only a split second.

"Eh? Hah!"

The moment they turned their back, she pointed her palm toward the sky, and released a bright ball of plasma.

It traveled high into the air, until it exploded like fireworks into millions of minuscule particles of energized plasma.

-

Back to the current time.

"I swear! If you burn down the place!"

Said Amelia, spinning her dagger chains wherever a plasma particle dropped around her. She managed to block them with her lightning weapons without suffering.

"At least..."

Karteira appeared next to her before vanishing from her spot, only to reappear on a few meters away on her right.

"It's good training for me."

She then moved rapidly to avoid another spark, leaving a trail of light behind her.

"Hieeee!"

With her hands on her head, Deveralna braced herself, scared by her own power.

"She's definitely...not used to fighting. Even training for that matter."

"Can you blame her? She's been thrown into our world without preparations."

Both Amelia and Karteira began to leisurely chat with each other while avoiding the rain of particles in their own ways.

Compared to what they usually went through against Orion, this was barely challenging.

"This will either require our help, or Orion's? Which do you prefer?"

With a serious face, Amelia looked at Karteira, just to realized she was already gone from her spot.

"Well..."

The rain of particles finally subsided. Luckily, no one was hurt, but the grass' state was another story.

Fire had consumed the grass, propagating rapidly in all directions. If nothing were done, it would devastate the trees farther away.

That's when Karteira's power shone the brightest. She snuffed the fire using her high speed before it could do more damage.

Just running past the flames extinguished them, and before Amelia could blink, there was no other danger in the horizon.

Karteira stopped in front of Amelia, whipping the sweat from her forehead.

"Fuu~"

"Good work."

Amelia held her hand in the air, hoping the other party would answer. It didn't take look for Karteira to slap her hand with her own.

*Slap*

The two smiled at each other, before turning to Deveralna, who was slowly getting out of her panicked state.

"To answer your question."

Listening to Karteira, Amelia glanced at her.

"I think it would be for the best if we helped her."

"The reason?"

"Orion can be quite... hard on you during training. I fear she won't be improving much if she's constantly stressed out."

With a nod, Amelia agreed.

"I see. She was normal until now. Since Orion always goes all out without thinking, it could definitely hinder her learning."

"Yes, I wouldn't want her to suddenly be sparring against Orion in his demon form. That form's scary, even for me."

The two shuddered in unison.

"Those dark tentacles... They're repulsive to no end."

"Agreed."

Deveralna looked around her with a worried look, before finding the two she was looking for.

"A-Are you alright?"

"We're fine. What about you?"

She checked herself, only to notice that nothing was wrong.

"I'm fine."

"Then that's the most important."

Anxiously, Deveralna looked at the burnt grass.

"Hum... What about this? Am I going to get in trouble?"

"That?"

Karteira pointed at the ground with a confused look. She turned to look at Amelia, before she began to laugh.

"Don't worry."

Just when Amelia said that, the grass began to heal, returning to its previous state.

"This whole area is blessed with Tiohr-nam's power. It automatically returns to normal after a few minutes."

Wiping her tears away, Karteira continued.

"If not, this place would be turned into a barren land because of us. Though, it is only this place. Don't go burning other places."

"I'll try..."

With a dejected look, the lamia Remnant looked at the ground.

"Don't look so down. Were you expecting to be able to control it on the first try?"

"..."

"Since nothing major happened, you should continue to strive for success. Nothing is obtained without effort, so keep trying."

"She's right. We'll keep looking over you, so try again, and again, until you get the right amount of power you're trying to get."

Feeling the sincerity from her two friends, she recovered her spirit.

Having given hoped, she continued to push herself the rest of the day, with both Amelia and Karteira at her side.

At the end of the day, little progress was made.