"This is fun!" The violet witch ughed, her voice carrying an almost delirious glee as she twirled through the air, effortlessly dodging Yuzu’s relentless assault. Her staff spun in her hands like aension of her body, weaving intricate patterns of magic as she danced around each strike. "I ’t wait to harvest your soul!"

  Yuzu’s only response was the sharp whistle of her katana slig through the wind. She wasn’t holding baymore. Every ssh came with deadly precision, eaent fluid and deliberate, but no matter how fast she struck, the violet witch evaded her with unnatural grace, floating just beyond the bde’s reach.

  The air crackled with power.

  Then, with a flick of her wrist, the violet witch thrust her staff forward, and a violent surge of violet energy exploded outward. Yuzu barely had time to react, she twisted midair, kig off an invisible foothold to propel herself backward just in time to avoid the bst. The shockwave rattled the ground below, sending loose debris scattering in all dires.

  "Hmph," Yuzu grunted as she skidded to a stop, nding lightly on the ground. Her dark eyes burned with unshakeermination, her chest rising and falling with steady breaths.

  The violet witch hovered above her, golden eyes gleaming with amusement. "You're strong, I'll give you that," she mused, restiaff against her shoulder. "But you ething, don't you?" She tilted her head, an almost pitying smirk tugging at her lips. "vi? No, no… it's deeper than that."

  Yuzu didn’t move, but I could see the way her fiightened around the hilt of her katana.

  "You fight well, little fox, but you don’t fight for yourself," the violet witch tinued, her voice dripping with honeyed malice. "Tell me, if your precious friend over there—" her gaze flicked to me, and I felt my stomach lurch, "—wasn't watg, would you still be fighting this hard?"

  My breath caught. Yuzu tensed. And in that single moment of hesitation. The violet witch struck.

  “Don’t worry, I got it.” Catherine’s voice rang with unwavering fidence as she flicked her staff, effortlessly defleg the violet witch’s attack before it could reach me. The crimson barrier she jured shimmered for a moment before dispersing, as if mog the feeble attempt against her defenses.

  Yuzu let out a quiet sigh of relief before stepping forward, her form shifting, her presence growing heavier. A deep, resounding hum filled the air as an overwhelming aura of magiveloped her. Her jet-bck hair grew longer, casg down her back like an endless night sky, and her cloak, otered and simple, morphed into a flowihereal dress adorned with silver and violet patterns that shimmered with divine energy. The katana in her grip vanished, fading into mist as she stretched out her now cwed fingers, sharp as bdes.

  Her transformation was plete. Then, without hesitation, she moved. A blur of motion.

  In an instant, Yuzu on the violet witch, sshing with such ferocity that the air itself seemed to crader the force. Each swipe of her cws tore through the space between them like a phantom’s whisper, leaving behind trails of bergy. Her speed was immeasurable, almost impossible to track. Yet, the violet witch grinned, her eyes alight with excitement as she narrowly dodged each strike with precise, fluid movements.

  Yuzu’s assault didn’t let up. The moment the violet witch evaded her first set of strikes, nine floating bck aed in the air, each radiating with an eerie, suffog presence. Without pause, they dove at the violet witch from all aheir movemeic, relentless, uable.

  The battlefield erupted into chaos, bdes of wind, bursts of violet magic, fshes of silver and bck as Yuzu and her summoned crows assaulted the violet witch from every dire. The sky above us rippled with the sheer force of their g magid the earth trembled beh our feet. Yet, through it all, the violet witly ughed, twirling through the storm of attacks like a specter untouched by reality.

  “What a spectacle!" she mused, her voice ced with exhiration. “Is this the true power of the fox-kin? I love it!”

  “Not good!” Ai suddenly did a little hop, her tiny paws nding with a soft thud as she watched the fierce battle unfold before us. Her golden eyes flickered with unease before she abruptly turned her head toward the abandoned shrihe air crackled with magic, the sky illuminated by bursts of violet and silver light as Yuzu cshed against the violet witch with relentless speed. But Ai wasn’t watg them, she was staring at the shrine, her fluffy tail flig anxiously. “If this keeps going, then the shrine will fall!” she excimed, her voice ced with urgency.

  I blinked, momentarily distracted from the chaos above. “Huh? Why is that?” My gaze followed Ai’s, taking in the worn, a structure of the shri first g seemed sturdy enough despite its age, but now that I looked closer, I noticed it. The wooden pilrs trembled slightly, and cracks slithered up the stone foundation like creeping vihe air around it shimmered unnaturally, as if the space itself was ing, dist. A heavy pressure settled in my chest, an ominous sensation that I couldn’t quite pce.

  Ai’s ears twitched as she turned her sharp gaze bae. “Do you know why monsters exist?” she asked, her tone unreadable.

  Caught off guard, I hesitated before answering. “If I remember correctly, is it because monsters are a form of refle of mana, a maion of the world’s natural energies… and also a refle of life?” I furrowed my brows, recalling the words of a certain maid dragon I had met once before. “Or at least, that’s what I was told.”

  “Correct,” Ai nodded, pleased. “However, this is different. Fox-kins don’t rely on mana the same way other creatures do. Instead, they use spatial magic.” Her small paws gestured in the air, trag invisible lines. “Unlike mana, which regutes the world’s natural bance, spatial magic is something that exists beyond this world. It doesn’t follow the same rules. It doesn’t belong to this realm at all.”

  I tilted my head, still trying to piece together what she was getting at. “Okay…? And that means?”

  Ai’s expression darkened as she let out a small sigh. “That witch,” she muttered, her tail flig toward the violet-robed figure dang through the battlefield above us. “She’s not just fighting. She’s been tearing at the space around us sihe moment she got here.”

  I froze. “What?”

  “The shrine isn’t just some old ruin,” Ai tinued, her voice dropping to a whisper. “It was built to seal something away. It acts as a stabilizer, preventing the natural bance from shifting too much. But that witch…” She growled lowly. “She’s been deliberately unraveling it. Every spell she casts, every attack she dodges, she’s dist the space around her bit by bit. She’s using Yuzu’s power as an excuse to keep pushing, to keep breaking the boundary between this world and the void beyond.”

  I sucked in a sharp breath. My heart pounded as I slowly turned my gaze back toward the battle. The violet witch wasn’t just fighting recklessly. Her movements were precise, her attacks carefully pced, and the eerie shimmer in the air around her wasn’t just an aftereffeagic. She was doing this on purpose.

  “She’s f a dimensional rift to open,” Ai firmed grimly. “And if she succeeds… the NONO creatures, or the Unknowns will break through.”

  Ai’s predi came true in the worst ossible. Above the shrine, space twisted and torted, ing into something unnatural. Then, with a siing rip, three massive portals tore open in the sky. A foul wind howled through the air as the familiar grotesque figures of NONO creatures began crawling out, three from each portal, their segmented bodies and writhing limbs eerily remi of the ones I had fought mere ho. Their exoskeletons gleamed uhe flickering violet light of the battlefield, their soulless eyes log onto the shrine as if drawn to the corruption seeping from it.

  I gritted my teeth, my hands balling into fists as an overwhelming sense of dread settled over me. “We have to stop Yuzu! If this keeps up, the shrine will—”

  “No…” Ai interrupted, her voice carrying an odd, uling ess. It was the first time I had ever heard her speak without a hint enotion. Startled, I turo her, fused, only to find her golden eyes glowing with an eerie intelligence. She remained perched atop my head, her fluffy ail curling thoughtfully arouiny body as she stared ily at the system windows h before us. There was something in her gaze, something unnervingly calg, like she was already three steps ahead of everyone else.

  “We make this work to our advantage,” Ai said, her voice quiet but firm.

  I blinked, caught pletely off guard. “What?” My mind struggled to keep up with her sudden shift in demeanor.

  Ai extended a paoi the fluctuating numbers dispyed on the corruption interface. “The shrine is already filled with corruption,” she expined, her tone void of hesitation. “That witch has been forcefully unraveling its boundaries to destabilize the seal. Every spell she casts, every ounce of spatial magic Yuzu uses, it all accelerates the decay. But what if we don’t stop the rift?”

  A cold chill ran down my spi her words. I hesitated, barely able to process what she was suggesting. “You’re saying… we let the rift get bigger?” The very thought sent arm bells ringing in my head. That’s insane, I wao say. That’s exactly what the enemy wants.

  Ai nodded without an ounce of doubt, her ears twitg as if she had already anticipated my rea. “The shrine’s corruption is already nearing its limit,” she tinued. “If we push it past a certain threshold, it won’t be able to tain the excess energy anymore. But instead of letting it fully colpse, we redirect that corruption into the void.”

  I sucked in a sharp breath. “Would that even work?” My voice came out quieter than I intended.

  Ai didn’t hesitate. “Shrine Maidens are meant to purify corruption,” she said, as if that single sentence expined everything. “But purification isn’t the only way to remove it. If you redirect the corruption into the rift before it stabilizes, it will be ed by the void instead of being absorbed into the world.” She gestured again toward the interface. “Look, it’s already dropping.”

  At her words, a sed system window blinked ience beh the first one:

  [Shrine Maiden Authority Activated: Summoning Corruption Interface]

  Ah it.

  [Corruption: 205,422 / 231,234 (88.83%)]

  My breath hitched. The numbers had gone down. I flicked my eyes back to the first window, watg iime as the corruption pertage tio shift.

  [Corruption: 201,422 / 231,234 (87.10%)]

  It was l. Slowly, but noticeably.

  Ai’s golden eyes gleamed with unwaveriermination. “If we do this right, we use that witch’s own pn against her,” she decred. “The more she pushes to open the rift, the more corruption we force out of the shrine and into the void. If we time it perfectly… we might even be able to colpse the rift entirely and seal it from the other side.”

  A mix of excitement and apprehension swirled in my chest. This was reckless. Dangerous. Insanely dangerous. If we miscalcuted even slightly, it could meahing colpsing beyond repair. But… if Ai was right, then this was our best shot.

  I ched my fists and nodded. “Alright. Tell me what to do.”