[You have leveled up to Level 3 (EXP 40/450)]Health Points: 120/120 → 144/144 Mana: 24/24 → 28.8/28.8Physical Attack: 12 (+3) → 14.4 (+3)Magical Attack: 0.2 → 0.24Defense: 2.4 → 2.88Agility: 14.4 → 17.27

  I murmured, gng at my stats. "I leveled up again!" A satisfied grin tugged at her lips as I flexed her fingers, feeling the surge of power c through my veins. My movements felt sharper, body lighter, like I could take on aire army of these grotesque creatures without breaking a sweat.

  I pressed forward, my wings flickering as I dahrough the air, weaviween ining attacks with precise, fluid motions. Another swarm of Gokibura leaped toward me from the shrine’s rooftop, their grotesque mandibles snapping hungrily. Without hesitation, I twirled midair, my bde cutting through their chitinous bodies in a swift, elegant arc, sending dark ichor spraying through the air.

  Each strike summoned anlowing swallowtail butterfly, the shimmering creatures darting forward to deliver ara blow before vanishing in bursts of ethereal light. The battlefield glowed with their lumirails, a mesmerizing trast to the darkened sky above. Their fluttering wings created a hypnotic pattern, almost making the age look like an intricate dance of destru.

  More Hebira slithered out of the portal, their eerie golden eyes log onto me as they coiled in preparation to strike. One lunged, its fangs gleaming with venom, but Mashiro twisted just in time, flinging a talisman at its open maw. The sacred paper tched onto the creature’s scales, pulsing with purifying energy. A crag hiss echoed through the air as its NONO status shattered, the snake writhing as it was forcibly returo a weakeate. I took the opening and delivered a powerful downward ssh, cleaving through its elongated body with a fsh of steel, watg as its severed form dissolved into bck mist.

  Another Hebira attempted to ambush me from the side, but I reacted instinctively, spinning on my heel and smming a talisman-ced palm into its face. A brilliant fsh erupted as purification energy surged through the creature, disorienting it just long enough for me to follow up with a series of rapid sshes. Each cut recise, deliberate, my bde moving with deadly grace. The Hebira let out one final screech before vanishing into oblivion.

  "e on, you creepy noodles! Keep up!" I taunted, exhaling sharply as another wave of enemies surged forward. The thrill of battle coursed through my veins, each strike fueling my momentum. With my newfound strength and agility from leveling up, I moved faster, hit harder, and dodged with eveer precision. The battle wasn’t over yet, but I was just getting started.

  Thirty minutes had passed, and the battlefield was littered with the dissolving remains of my fallen foes. I had cut down dozens of those grotesque cockroaches, their twisted forms vanishing into nothingness as my bde tore through them. The Hebira, though tougher, had met the same fate, their eerie hissing silenced by the swift precision of my strikes. The shrine rooftop was now my stage, eaent aep in the deadly dance, my glowing butterflies trailing behind me like echoes of my relentless assault.

  ? ? ?

  “Hmph.” The violet witch scoffed, narrowing her eyes in frustration as she realized her pns were unraveling before her.

  “You’re not gonna win this, sis,” Catherine called out, her voice steady as she tio support Yuzu, reinf her spells while she fired another volley of projectiles. “It’s meaningless. Stop it before it’s too te.”

  "Yuzu Surprise Attack!" Yuzu shouted with unshakable fidence, her sharp cws glinting uhe dim, chaotic light as she lu the violet witch with all the grad majesty of a beast ready to strike. Her fox ears twitched with excitement, her tail flig behind her like a banner of war. The wind rushed past her, carrying the st of burnt air and lingering corruption as she propelled herself forward with a burst of mana, her entire body coiled with the force of her impending strike. To her, this was the ultimate ambush, an attack so swift and decisive that the enemy wouldn’t even have time to react.

  The violet witch, however, barely seemed to aowledge the ining assault. With a zy step to the side, she effortlessly evaded the attack, her cloak billowing slightly from the sudden movement. It was as if she wasn’t even trying. Yuzu’s cws sliced through empty air, the momentum throwing her slightly off bance as she nded on the rooftop with a disgruntled huff.

  “Yuzu—!” Catheriarted, her voice tinged with urgency, but before she could finish, Yuzu suddenly whirled around, her light blue eyes burning with indignatioail bristled slightly as she jabbed a cwed finger in Catherine’s dire, her frustration spilling out in dramatic fashion. "Code Nine, I meant Code op yelling out the attacks! It ruins the surprise part!"

  Yuzu huffed, crossing her arms as if Catherine had just itted an unfivable sin.

  Catherine blinked, utterly baffled. “You literally just screamed it at the top of your lungs.”

  "Nyever!!" Yuzu decred with absolute vi, flipping her hair with an exaggerated flourish before immediately leaping bato the fray, her battle cry eg through the sunlight.

  “Tch.” The violet witch clicked her tongue in irritation, her eyes narrowing as she observed the battlefield. The tide of battle had shifted, and she hated it. Her carefully id-out pns, her orchestrated chaos, were beginning to crumble. And worst of all, she art of the reason why.

  Her gaze locked onto Catherine, who was still supp Yuzu with spells, her golden aura shimmering faintly uhe shrine’s flickering light. It made her sick to her stomach.

  “Why…?” Her voice was ced with disbelief and something b on pt. Her fingers ched arouaff, the swirling dark energy crag ominously. “Why are you getting friendly with the fox, sis?”

  There was a raw edge to her words, as if she couldn’t prehend how Catherine could stand side by side with someone like Yuzu, fighting together so naturally. The way they covered for each other, the way Catherine’s magistinctively followed Yuzu’s movements—it was seamless. Almost like they had been allies from the very start, and that infuriated her.

  The violet witch’s grip oaff tightened, her voice dripping with venom as she gred at Catherine. Dark energy crackled at her fiips, pulsing in rhythm with her rising fury.

  “Is this why you didn’t take part in the War of the Witches?” she sneered, her words ced with s. “Were you such a coward that you couldn’t even choose a side?”

  Her eyes burned with something deeper than mere rese. Betrayal, disappoi, perhaps even pain. To her, Catherine wasn’t just an oppo. She was supposed to be more than this, a force to be reed with, an ally, family. A, here she was, standing against her, aiding the very ones who had no p their world.

  The violet witch’s energy fred wildly, dist the air around her. "Tell me, sister—was it weakhat held you back? Or was it them?" She cast a goward Yuzu and the shrine maiden who were fighting the unknowns, her lips curling in disgust. "Have you really thrown away everything for the sake of a bunch of strays?"

  Catherine narrowed her eyes, grippiaff a little tighter as she studied her sister’s expression. “I don’t get it. What’s your obsession with fox-kin?” she asked, her voice ced with both frustration and curiosity. “Were you really so desperate for their spatial magic power?”

  The violet witch let out a low chuckle, dark amusement dang in her eyes. “Yeah,” she admitted without hesitation, a twisted smile spreading across her lips. “And what’s wrong with that?!”

  Catherine’s heart sank. There was ation, no remorse in her sister’s words—only raw, unfiltered ambition. "What were you pnning to do with those powers, Vio?" she pressed, though deep down, she already feared the answer.

  Vio’s grin widened, her aura fring with unchecked malice. "So I teach those arrogant humans and elves a lesson," she decred, her voice dripping with a thirst for vengeahey’ve looked down on us witches for long enough. It's time they learheir pce."

  The air between them grew thick with tension, the crackle of dark magitertwining with the distant sounds of battle. Catherine ched her teeth, her grip oaff unwavering. "So that’s what this is about," she muttered. "You never ged, did you, Vio?"

  Vio’s eyes gleamed with an uling light as she took a step closer, her dark cloak fluttering like a shadow behind her. “Oh? Is that so?" she mused, tilting her head. "It’s not my fault. They were foolish enough to start a war. After sacrifig so much to defeat the Demon Lord, after our people gave their very lives, those arrogant fools trampled over the witches who bled for them.” Her lips curled into a bitter smile. “Don’t you think they deserve punishment?”

  Catherine’s heart ached at the venom in her sister’s voice. "You think vengeance will fix anything?" she shot back. "All it'll do is drag us even deeper into the cycle of hatred!"

  Vio scoffed, rolling her eyes. “Spare me the moral lecture, Catherihis world isn't fair, and I’m simply rest bance. If the humans and elves won't respect us, then I'll make them fear us.” She spread her arms, the air around her crag with dark energy. "And once I wield the fox-kin’s magio one will be able to stop me."

  Catherine shook her head. "You're wrong, Vio. Power won't bring you justice—it'll only make you the vilin in aory."

  Vio’s smile didn’t falter, but her eyes darkened. “Then I suppose I’ll just have to rewrite the story myself.”