"Oh, those people from the Witch Cult have already arrived here."
Under the perception of Fujino's spiritual power, dozens of Witch Cultists were already hidden in the shadows of this forest. Their hidden positions vaguely surrounded a village; predictably, that was the village where Rem and Ram were located.
Fujino also discovered someone else: that pervert Roswaal, who would support Emilia in the future.
Suddenly, within Fujino's spiritual perception, not far outside the forest, someone was running toward it, heading right in her direction.
"It's actually her?"
A flicker of surprise crossed Fujino's face. Why would Teresa come here?
Teresa, the contemporary Sword Saint—according to the current timeline, she should have been dead by now, yet she was still alive and well. What surprised Fujino most was that Teresa wasn't with the Sword Devil. This meant that the guy Reinhard hadn't been born yet, or rather, he wasn't Teresa's grandson but had become someone else's child or grandchild. Among the information Fujino had read from that woman's brain earlier, Reinhard existed, but he wasn't famous; the woman's memory only held a vague impression of him. This meant the current Reinhard hadn't obtained the power of the Sword Saint yet, which made sense, as the Divine Protection of the Sword Saint was still with Teresa.
Back in the Royal Capital, Fujino had also felt some surprise regarding this matter.
"It's the world will's doing, isn't it? She has quite a few Divine Protections on her."
Fujino wore a playful smile. This world will really loved courting death. Its brain must be fried; even after she had left it in such a state, it still wanted to seek revenge.
Teresa currently possessed hundreds of Divine Protections, undoubtedly the work of the world will. After being heavily injured by Fujino and having a significant amount of its world power taken, the world will had given Teresa so many protections just to get back at her. Now, the world will was weakened to the extreme. Unless it reclaimed the distributed Divine Protections to recover some power, its remaining time was short. Alternatively, Teresa could defeat Fujino—but was such a thing even possible?
"I don't have time to play with you right now." With a wave of Fujino's hand, specks of starlight emerged, resonating with the astral power between heaven and earth. In an instant, the forest was covered by an invisible layer of Star Power. As long as Fujino did not withdraw this starlight power, Teresa could forget about entering the forest, and even the world will wouldn't be able to peer inside in the slightest.
As for the survival of this world, Fujino had already made a decision. Being a world-destroyer once in a while was quite nice.
"What's going on?" Teresa stopped in her tracks and frowned as she looked at the forest before her.
Teresa could feel that the forest was wrapped in a powerful force. If she didn't break through it, she wouldn't be able to enter at all. Moreover, if it weren't for her Divine Protection of Insight, she wouldn't have even noticed this power enveloping the entire forest.
"Let's try to break it." Teresa's gaze sharpened as she placed her hand on the Dragon Sword Reid at her waist. Under the power of the world will, Teresa could use the Dragon Sword's power at will. However, this time, she found that the Dragon Sword seemed to be afraid of something; the blade inside the scabbard was trembling slightly.
What was going on?!
This was the first time Teresa had encountered such a situation. Could the Dragon Sword be afraid of the power covering the forest?!
"Let's try!" Teresa drew the Dragon Sword, held it high above her head with both hands, and shouted, "Break!"
A white sword light, carrying an unstoppable momentum, slammed into the forest, sending dust flying and obscuring the scene.
"Disperse!"
Invoking a Divine Protection of the wind, a gust blew away the floating dust. In the next moment, Teresa's eyes widened slightly. A thin blue barrier had appeared where the Dragon Sword had struck, and it was completely unscathed! There wasn't even a single ripple.
"How is this possible!"
Teresa looked at the forest, where the blue barrier had already vanished, in disbelief. Even the Dragon Sword was useless; what should she do?
"What a fool." Fujino didn't pay much attention to Teresa's attempt to strike the Star Power with the Dragon Sword. Even if Teresa hacked at it for years, she wouldn't be able to break the Star Power barrier. The gap between the two was so vast it wouldn't be an exaggeration to describe it in cosmic distances.
The level of the Re:Zero World was truly not that high. Almost all abilities could only be achieved through the empowerment of world power—namely, the Divine Protections granted by the world will. Without those protections, this world really wouldn't be much to look at; only those few Witches were worth noting.
Fujino looked up at the sky. The sun was already setting, and night was fast approaching. The time for the Witch Cult to attack the Oni Clan was at night. Fujino needed to make some preparations to avoid being disturbed by a certain pervert when the time came.
Night fell, and the bright moonlight dispelled the darkness, bringing traces of light. Somewhere in the forest, Fujino clapped her hands contentedly. A small magic circle manifested in the air, which she then pressed into the ground.
"Mission accomplished." Fujino looked at her masterpiece with satisfaction. It was an object resembling a Spirit Tablet stuck straight into the ground, and on it was a portrait of a person—none other than that pervert Roswaal.
"Just stay here quietly. This seal should last for about half a month. If someone breaks the tablet, you might get out early. If not... heh, then you, you pervert, can just stay inside for a good half-month."
After speaking, Fujino vanished instantly, reappearing outside the forest in the next moment. Standing on a tree, she watched that idiot Teresa looking deep in thought and couldn't help but smile. This fool hadn't given up; she had clearly tried countless times, yet she still persevered in trying to break the Star Power Fujino had set up.
Should she call her incredibly stupid or just plain dense?
Fujino knew very well what Teresa wanted. Teresa's decision to move against her was surely based on a promise from the world will: that killing her would fulfill her wish. Otherwise, with Teresa's personality, she would never attack someone she had never met. However, the world will likely hadn't spared any effort in slandering her.
Fujino glanced at Teresa once more before her figure vanished from the tree. The Witch Cult was about to move against the Oni Clan, and she needed to start her own operation. Although Fujino could save the Oni Clan, they held no value to her. Who she really cared about were Rem and Ram. If the Oni Clan didn't disappear, Rem and Ram probably wouldn't easily follow her. Thus, Fujino could only let the Oni Clan vanish entirely tonight. In any case, she had already decided to destroy this world; even if they didn't die now, they would die later. This was merely moving up the date of their death.
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