After Yuki had killed every single thing trying to imitate Yamato, the only thing remaining in the space were the gnome creatures and she herself, now covered in blood. The gnomes had hidden amongst the dead bodies, but Yuki had no reason to hunt them, and she was slightly confused why they were hiding in the first place. Even though their reaction was completely justified, considering in the short time where they had known Yuki, she killed almost their entire population as well as what to them seemed like countless versions of who they assumed to be Yuki's boss of sorts. However, despite their limited understanding of what was going on, they seemed surprisingly coordinated in their attempts to distance themselves from Yuki. As she was about to look for them out of boredom and mild curiosity, seeing as nothing happened after she killed the last Yamato-copy, Natsumi suddenly stood in front of her. However, the barrier outside remained intact, with no way in or out even for Yuki, leaving only one conclusion.
"Just give it up already… No amount of trickery will deceive me."
"Yes, I've noticed."
"So now you try to take the form of my sister, hoping I'd feel bad ripping something resembling her apart?"
"No, you've already shown that you have no problem killing loved ones."
"Lookalikes, and don't put my boo and my sister on the same level."
"Whatever, call them how ever you want. Point is you don't care what I choose to show you, and that is a problem for me…"
"You keep saying I and me, but who exactly are you supposed to be in the first place? Bambi? Bongo…? No, Bambini was it! Dumbass name by the way. Anyway, are you him?"
"Not quite, but I understand you are looking for him?"
"Eh, more like hoping I'd run into him. To kill him, of course."
"Naturally. That is what you do best, after all."
"What's that supposed to mean…?"
"You heard me. You take lifes without a second thought. A machine of death, is what I would define you as. Mindlessly killing anything that steps over your imaginary lines…"
Yuki looked at the ground, smearing a line of blood with her foot, as she seemed to be in thought.
"…Ah, I see what's going on. So that's your deal. That's what all that weird stuff up until now was about as well, huh? But what do you get out of making me angry… Is that like your fuel? Or a tasty snack? Something like… Being dependent on the emotions of others… Or maybe you just get a kick out of it? I'm sure I will figure it out eventually, so you might as well tell me now."
"…I find you troubling. It is hard to imagine you as a mother. Especially now, when your supposed daughter is suffering by herself, while you are trapped here, covered in the blood of the one you love."
"Hey, that was really mean! But since you must have really worked hard on that one, I will engage just this once… So what if I'm a bad mother?"
"What do you mean, "so what"?"
"So what. I don't care. Whatever. Take your pick."
"It's a bad influence, and you might endanger her."
"…Since you are not gonna be around for much longer, let me tell you a little secret…"
She teleported behind the entity and whispered into its ear.
"…I don't care about that either…"
The entity then did something very Natsumi-like, jumping back and seemingly being genuinely appalled by what Yuki just said. It made her wonder if the entity was imitating Natsumi there, or had a genuine reaction on its own.
"How could you say that… Is she not someone who sees you as her mother?"
"Again, so? She's always been more of a test run for me! When I first got the idea, suddenly she wasn't all so bad after all! Because it meant I could practice for when he and I would have an actual child together, and not some adopted stowaway! And if I ever did something unacceptable for a mother, it'd be whatever!"
"…"
"Why so quiet now? Didn't you want to push me even further? Common, try another one! Or don't you have any left? Well… Not that it would have mattered~ Because no matter who you threaten, as long as it's not Yamato I genuinely don't care! And if it is him, I will rip your body and consciousness apart, piece by piece, until you wished you never had one to begin with! AHAHAHA!"
"…"
Yuki's eyes had their usual insanity in them, as she laughed maniacally at her inhuman declaration. Then she just stopped and went right back to the completely separate earlier conversation.
"Anyway, do you have a specific kind of person you like to target~? You don't seem to like a challenge, because otherwise you'd get excited by your failure against me. So I am going to assume you like easy targets."
"Urgh… First I lose sight of him, then you turn out to be useless…"
"Y'know, my boo is really amazing…"
"…What?"
"He was it that told me, when analyzing someone, confronting them with what you know, assuming it's correct, will almost certainly irritate them. So much so that their mind gets foggy and loses track of what it actually wanted. That's why you should just talk over them, and ignore what they are talking about entirely, because that's how you steer a conversation!"
"Congratulations…? You achieved what now?"
"That you haven't noticed it, for one…"
Now cleaning the blood of her using a simple spell, she grinned smugly at the entity still disguised as Natsumi. By now, they realized what Yuki had done but it was already too late. They should have asked themselves why Yuki, who was usually always preventing blood from coming into contact with her by having a small barrier on top of her skin, had been covered in blood in the first place. The answer was, that she had purposefully stepped into blood in the ground, with the intention of drawing something on the ground with it, which required her to lift that barrier around her temporarily. Preventing the blood she used to combine with the other blood by combining in with mana, she was able to draw a magic circle while she had been killing the Yamato-copies, one that massively increased the efficiency with which she could analyze the mansion itself. By now, she was able to locate the origin of whatever was speaking to her, and activated Cage of Envy around the identified individual. The void disappeared, as well as the person using Natsumi's appearance, and she woke up in a fully illuminated room on top of Yamato.
"Hey, boo~ Have we been like this for a while?"
"Yeah… We you in some empty space going through some trial of sorts too?"
"Yup! Totally nailed mine too! What about you?"
"Well, I wasn't outright told I passed or anything… But I would say I did what I wanted to do in there."
"Tell me lots of details!"
"Maybe another time. Right now, we need to get going."
"Boo, something changed, haven't you noticed?"
"Yes, the lights turned back on."
"And it's all thanks to me!"
"Oh, really?"
"Yes! I've got this whole place figured out now!"
"Aren't you vague…"
"All you need to know is that I'm awesome, and have all the time in the world. Like, aaallll the time!"
"Aren't we looking for Phoebe? I'd say until we found her we shouldn't be fooling around like this."
"But once we find her she will be with us and then we can't fool around either!"
"You'll just have to wait for us to get back home then."
Yuki pouted, sitting up straight on top of him as if that would make a point. Just then, before she could actually show him her points, the still half open door opened completely, and Sir Bronelli entered, with fhe other children behind him. But he was not sure how to react or approach them, so he just stood there awkwardly, as Yuki turned her head over her shoulder, not bothering standing up and actually facing them, since she had know idea who they were anyway.
"Hey you, we were here first. Get moving with your kindergarten."
"Miss Yuki, you sounded a bit like a bully there…"
"Hm? Oh, wait, I do know you! You're Phoebe's friend! Violetta, right? Of course it's right, I never forget names~ Still don't know the other guys, but whatever. How can we help you?"
"W-well… Phoebe's in a bit of trouble, and we were wondering if you might come take a look at her…? Misses Petrisha said you would know what to do…"
"Trishy did? Well, that sounds serious! You can go ahead and we will catch up to you. As you can see, we were completely disoriented and thrown into this room all of the sudden, and got injured! But no worries, if he gets a bit rest and privacy—"
Yuki's made up story was interrupted as Yamato pushed himself out beneath her, and stood up to leave the room.
"O-oh, look, he's better already… Now we can go right away… yay…"
"Stop joking around now, Phoebe could be in danger."
"…Fine. You guys, which direction?"
"Just down the floor back the way we all came. You can't miss it, and Miss Petrisha is also there waiting.", Sir Bronelli finally managed to get out.
"'Kay, thanks for the info guys. Bye!"
Hugging Yamato tightly, she rushed down the no longer dark hallway at lightning speed, basically immediately reaching Petrisha and the sight of Phoebe's state.
"Huh… Didn't see that coming…"
"Mistress! I'm so glad to see the two of you managed to find us and remained unharmed."
"Yeah, duh? What was gonna harm us in the first place?"
"Nothing of course. I never doubted your ability to return unharmed, I merely expressed my relief that my beliefs held true."
"That's right. Now, what am I looking at right now…"
"We neee to maintain a distance from Lady Phoebe until these particles disappear. The Book of Abilities referred to them as Sloth Particles, and simply put, they cause paralysis and death almost immediately. There was no mention of a weakness, but the particles are released by the plant like orange thing, referred to as Sloth Roots. They originated from below Lady Phoebe upon an encounter with an orange light entity."
"Hm… And she seems unresponsive."
"Yes, she has not moved or said a word since activation of her ability."
"Hmm… Boo?"
"Was there anything written about what happens if the roots are damaged?"
"No, it only said they would spread out from her."
"Okay… Yuki, poke one of them with the tip of your swords."
A golden sword promptly appeared, levitating towards one of the roots and easily penetrating the soft plants fiber. While Phoebe remained completely unbothered, the root twitched and began releasing much more Sloth Particles, while retracting towards the center where Phoebe was.
"Thst might work, boo! But even if we somehow get rid off the roots, what would we do with the remaining particles? I could try breezing them away with a wind spell, but they seem kind of set in their area… Our arrival already created quite a blast because of how fast we were, and they didn't even move an inch…"
"…I would know of a way to make sure her ability deactivates."
"You do? Ah, right, that… I can't think of anything else either right now, so I suppose we don't really have a choice…"
"Alright then…"
Seeing no other way, Yamato used his last resort, though that meant they could no longer use it in case anything else unexpected happened.