"Belle… let… let go first, there are still others here…" She whispered; the display at the girl's waist turned pink, the emoji shifting to (灬´ ˘ `灬).
Only then did Luna Belle come back to her senses. Ignoring everything else, she hurriedly explained. "Alice… this is urgent! Ellen and Miss Sayu are surrounded down there, and the enemy keeps growing… we need you!"
Alice's gaze instantly shot to the battlefield below the high ground. Her beautiful heterochromatic eyes narrowed slightly, accurately picking out the Thiren and the silver-haired girl struggling against the black-robed figures and skeletons, as well as the altar exuding an ominous aura. The emoji on her waist display immediately switched to
(｀へ´*)ノ.
"Enslaving the dead and coercing the innocent… such acts are unforgivable. More importantly… this altar is arranged so asymmetrically—it's a disaster!"
Alice's voice turned cold. She gently straightened the necktie slightly disheveled from the sudden teleportation, her right hand lifting elegantly to rest at her waist as though gripping an invisible sword. "Luna Belle and this young lady, please wait here…"
Her gaze turned to Tineva, and she nodded slightly.
"My name is Tineva!" The Water Spirit hastily spoke, eyes full of hope. "Please, Miss Alice!"
Alice answered with a reassuring smile. Then, moving like willow floss brushed by the wind, she lightly floated down from the high ground.
"Another one here to die!" A black-robed figure spotted Alice entering the battlefield from the flank. Grinning hideously, he charged with a black-mist–shrouded shortsword.
Alice didn't even look straight at him. Her steps were like a precisely calculated dance; at the critical instant she slid sideways, brushing past the black-robed figure. At the same time, her seemingly empty right hand now gripped a slender, ornate rapier.
"Right now… you're nothing but openings!" Accompanied by her cold murmur, the rapier struck like a viper, its tip slicing accurately across the black-robed figure's wrist, drawing a fine spray of blood and a pained grunt.
The shortsword in the black-robed figure's hand clanged to the ground; clutching his wrist, he staggered back, eyes full of terror. Alice's steps never paused; like a butterfly flitting through flowers she cut into the enemy ranks. Her fighting style was completely different from Ellen's fierce dominance or Sayu's stealthy speed—it was filled with artistic beauty. Every step, every spin, every sword-swing seemed to match a silent melody—fluid and mesmerizing.
The sword-light did not flash with blinding chill but glowed with a gentle yet lethal white, like drifting petals swirling around her. The skeleton warriors rushing forward found their sturdy bones crumbling like rotten wood beneath that seemingly soft radiance, the green soul-fires in their eyes snuffed out.
"What… what kind of combat is this?" Sayu, parrying in a brief lull, glimpsed Alice's dance-like battle; her violet eyes showed surprise. She had never seen anyone make fighting look so… graceful yet efficient.
Ellen smashed a skeleton and a wolf-demon together with her shears, glanced over, her red eyes showing no surprise. "A new partner Belle knows?" She yawned, yet her strikes grew fiercer, shark-toothed scissors whirling to mow down foes like weeds.
Alice's arrival instantly shifted the battle's momentum. Her elegant, lethal sword-dance not only thinned enemy numbers but also disrupted the black-robed figures' formation and casting rhythm. The Silver-Edged Priest, seeing this rabbit-eared Demi-human noblewoman wield such power, felt his unease and anger peak.
"Focus fire! Kill that rabbit first!" He rasped, staff pointing at Alice. Several thick, dark-purple energy arrows shot at her like vipers, while the remaining enemies—apart from those tied down by Ellen and Sayu—swarmed Alice.
Faced with the concentrated assault, Alice tapped the ground lightly and drifted backward as though weightless. Yet the foes were many, their attacks a seamless net about to swallow her. At that critical instant she halted her retreat. She raised two slender fingers and, with exquisite delicacy, pinched the tip of her rapier.
A gentle pull, and the folding blade slid smoothly out, extending into a full-length sword. The moment the blade fully extended… Alice vanished.
"What?!" The Silver-Edged Priest cried in shock, pupils contracting behind his bird-beak mask. He waved his staff frantically, trying to locate her.
But there was no need. A path woven of countless fine sword-lights flared at a speed beyond sight! The trail was not random; it possessed absolute symmetry, carving the ground with precision. In less than a breath, a huge, perfectly symmetrical golden pentagram blazed across the earth, centered before the altar.
The instant the pattern completed, Alice reappeared like a ghost at its center. Still graceful, as though she had never moved, she held her rapier upright before her chest in one hand. She lowered her gaze slightly and brushed aside an unruly golden strand.
"I dedicate to you… my most symmetrical, resplendent swordsmanship!"
As her words fell, the vast pentagram erupted in blinding radiance!
Clang!
Not an explosion but a clear chime—and every enemy within the golden star, whether snarling black-robed figures, skeleton warriors with flickering soul-fires, or the weapons they wielded, dissolved the instant the light flared, crumbling into glittering dust that drifted skyward. No screams, no struggle, not even a speck of dust remained.
Where a moment before the ground had been crowded, it now stood empty, only the fading symmetrical star left behind. Silence. Deathly silence enshrouded the battlefield…