Somnia found herself standing in yet another clearing in the forest littered with leaves, branches, and trees that seemed to encircle her and her opponent as though they were in an arena. She inspected her opponent, Zakaria Robertson, who stood across from her with vines protruding from his forearms like independently thinking tentacles dressed in the same multi-colored clothes he’d been in the day earlier. He’d dragged her to this forest clearing, but the moment she’d gotten there Zakaria just… stared at her. His eyes bulged, his chin was held higher than it should’ve been, and he breathed hard like he was about to have a heart attack. It’d taken a full minute for him to finally speak.

“You,” Zakaria began, pointing vines at her like a dozen accusatory fingers. “You are the prideful servant of the God of Conquest. I overheard your conversation with Denk. And with your subordinate with the black hair and the feminine face. Your pride has led you to covet after my home. After my people and their freedom.” Zakaria shook his head. “I won’t let you have your way with them!”

“Ah, so the most prideful person I’ve met in the past 24 hours suddenly thinks I’m prideful for wanting to get the Wild Men away from you?” Somnia laughed. “For what it’s worth, this is the first time I’ve heard you show concern for someone other than yourself. See? You can learn.”

Zakaria scrunched his face to an almost comical degree. “I am above pride. I am better than you. I am! I am…!” He formed the vines into a sharp, grassy sword. “And I’ll prove it by killing the emissary of the God of Conquest!”

Somnia didn’t have time to refute him, nor to parse what that “God of Conquest” thing even meant. She needed to fight, and unlike the situation with General Denk, she wasn’t opposed to allowing the hovering hand to grip her heart once again.

And so, now that Somnia wanted to tap into that vicious aura of hers, she couldn’t. Though it was more accurate to say the hand refused to close. Hell, it refused to budge. And given how Zakaria fought, it wasn’t hard to understand why…

I don’t need to.

The man charged at her like a child carrying a stick. It took no effort, no aura nor skill, to dodge Zakaria’s sword swings. He even grunted like an idiot with each cut! She couldn’t stop herself from laughing a bit. Rather than play around with him, though, Somnia decided to end this battle here. Recalling her mother’s lesson about “insta-kill” conditions, she cast Devil Dance to buff her strength, revealed her Demon Fangs, and then hacked Zakaria’s head off with a swift pincer attack to the neck.

Somnia knew from Yugo and Hana that Zakaria could revive, so this did little more than buy her time for a few minutes, but that was fine. The Rozen Tower wasn’t built in a day. She’d let him revive, then she’d kill him again. Then she’d do that over and over until Zakaria recognized the futility of challenging her.

Now the hand began to move. It didn’t squeeze, but it moved. Something about Somnia’s thoughts pleased it. She let it move freely. Whenever it came out, it’d be a welcome addition. For now, she focused on Zakaria’s severed head which lay motionless on the forest floor. Curiously, his mouth was wide open, which looked especially haunting considering how unnaturally wide his jaw was. At the same time, he gathered aura in his mouth.

So he’s charging an energy blast of some sort.

That was fine. Somnia had multiple ways to guard against sudden attacks from stronger opponents. Rather than coat herself in armor, though, she decided on Beelzebub Blaze. It’d negate Zakaria’s attack entirely, but it’d cost a decent amount of aura to–

Vines popped out of Zakaria’s bloody neck and dug into Zakaria’s severed head. The vines contracted and snapped the head into place with a loud, wet click. At the same time, Zakaria screeched like the wilder, brutish Wild Men did, except this time it completely disoriented Somnia – so much so that it brought her to her knees. As if that wasn’t enough, Zakaria did it again, the disorienting screech forcing her to undo her Beelzebub Blaze technique. The moment it fell, Zakaria blasted Somnia with a point-blank wave of aura that he shot from his mouth.

It didn’t kill her, of course. She’d trained enough with her parents and her godfather for surprise attacks like this to be enough to do her in. She was in critical condition, though. Somnia’s disorientation was still present, the aura in her body refused to obey her, and Zakaria was suddenly filled with new determination.

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For the first time in her life, Somnia attempted to force the hovering hand to take control, but again it refused her. She cursed as she barely dodged one of Zakaria’s terribly amateur sword slashes.

I needaa get… play ranged. Auraa shottss…!!!

Somnia gathered aura in her hands and lumbered away from Zakaria. He gave chase, but thankfully the inexperienced fighter didn’t know how to capitalize on the opportunity. As Somnia created distance, she tucked her Demon Fangs and formed finger guns. Just like Yugo taught her, she gathered aura at the points of her fingers and shot at Zakaria with laser-beam-like blasts of aura. She intended on shooting him in the shoulders and knees to limit his mobility and get away, but her disorientation forced her to target the largest target she saw – his body.

Zakaria wasn’t nearly as affected by her Aura Shots as Somnia would’ve hoped. The Wild Man recoiled with each shot, but he continued to approach her. Somnia took advantage of the opportunity she saw.

“Gedda way frumme!” Somnia slurred, doing her best to sound drunker than she felt. “Bazterd!”

“Fitting that your death would happen in a forest where none will hear your last breath,”

“Nuh uh!”

Zakaria shook his head as raised his vine sword over his head.

Now!

Somnia cast Devil Dance to buff her strength and paired it with a Cambion Flurry technique, a rapid series of punches lightly coated with Fire-Attuned Aura. The sudden attack sent Zakaria flying backward into a distant tree, but it also sent Somnia to the forest floor landing flat on her face. She looked up to find Zakaria screaming once again but was surprised to find his scream had abruptly – blessedly – been cut off.

“You’ve seen better days,” Yugo called from above her.

***

Yugo felt a little bad for Somnia. He’d noticed she’d been taken almost immediately, but she’d been doing just fine against Zakaria. Yugo knew when to back off! When he’d hit her with that brain-frying technique of his, though, even Yugo was caught off-guard. Zakaria hadn’t pulled that one in Saikou. So, he decided to step in before anything could happen to Somnia.

He hoisted her over his back like a backpack, even carrying her arms like back straps. Across from him, Zakaria struggled to stand given the hole Yugo’d Wraith Struck through his stomach.

“Y-you!” Zakaria hacked. “You don’t understand my efforts!”

“The floor is yours.”

“Conquering Oni Village is what I must do to ensure the survival of the Wild Man Colony! If I don’t, my God won’t protect me from the God of Conquest!”

Yugo froze. Maybe there was some other God of Conquest he was talking about? All it took for a Wild Man to consider you “God” was to have a Level higher than 500, so maybe he’d encountered Rogue?

You’re not that stupid, Yugo. There’s only one ‘God of Conquest’ in Minashire. And there’s only one ‘God’ who would incite war for no discernible reason.

“Tell me, Zakaria. What did the God who told you this look– no! Don’t!”

Yugo never got the chance to finish. Zakaria placed a hand over his chest and sprouted vines through his own body. He looked up at Yugo, coughed blood, and smiled.

“He will protect me from you. I need only wait!”

And with that, Zakaria died. Not permanently. He’d revive within minutes. What made this one different, though, was that his body decomposed uncomfortably quickly.

It’s like a morbid form of teleportation…

“He’z gunna geddum all killd!” Somnia said from over his shoulder. “He’z leeding um all to there deths, and… and wait, no. I mean he’z gunna geddum all killed by fighting the Oni, but if he doesn’t he’s gonna geddum killed by staying silent!”

Under any other circumstance, Yugo would’ve laughed. Now, though, he found himself wishing for some other circumstances. The unfortunate truth was that the Wild Men were marked for death, and no matter what he did there was no victory here. If he knew Ares well enough, which he did given he knew who created him even better, Zakaria was the target here. One of them, anyway. The war he was trying to incite wasn’t between the Oni and the Wild Men.

“You know, I think I feel a little bad for them,” Yugo admitted, though he wasn’t sure who he meant that for most.

“Well, ima save the Wild men from him,” Somnia said, her senses finally starting to return. “Miths reincarnate. Zakaria will hav a sekond chance somedayy. Even if the circumstances suk, they’re in trubble. If we find the person manipyulating him though, we’ll kill them. okay?”

“Yeah,” Yugo answered, allowing himself to laugh a bit. “Okay.”