Kintovar’s mind shifted to the present. A sense ency gripped her. The memories of her past retreated into the recesses of her sciousness. She khat in the present, her creations, Roselle, Risebelle and Runebelle were already created but are in grave dahe battle against the headmaster raged on and she had a role to py in ensuring their safety.

  ‘Focus, Kintovar,’ she thought ‘I ’t let my past e me now. Roselle, Risebelle, Runebelle—they need me. I o find a way to wake up from this dream and rejoitle.’

  In the midst of the intetle within her fragmented sciousness, Kintovar’s will to find a way out grew stronger. She knew she had prepared for a situation like this, a secret on or trump card that could potentially help her break free from this mind-broken state, but how could she remember it without keeping her mind together?

  Kintovar’s sciousness tio unravel and crumble uhe relentless psychic assault of the headmaster. Her desperate attempts to remember the and er for her hidden ability proved futile. The overwhelming psychic power bore down on her breaking apart her thoughts and memories like fragile gss.

  With a heavy heart and a profound sense of helplessness, Kintovar finally aowledged the futility of her efforts. The memories, the and and the trump card she had prepared for this exact situation slipped away from her grasp, lost in the swirling abyss of her shattered mind.

  “I remember... nothing,” she whispered with her being barely audible even to herself. It ainful admission and surrendering to own limitations. In the face of the headmaster’s overwhelming power, there was no escape, no trump card and no hope left for Kintovar.

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  The Psychids of the headmaster closed around Sybil, she struggled against their grip with all her might. The initial attempt to break free was met with resistance, but she mao free herself usirength.

  However, the headmaster was not so easily deterred. She summoned even stronger psychids which cmped down on Sybil with an iron grip. Sybil’s struggle intensified, but the headmaster’s power seemed insurmountable.

  “You are a threat with that teology,” she remarked with her hold tightening. “Your relian these iions challehe very foundation of ical society.”

  Sybil straio speak but retorted, “You’re afraid of ge, ress. That’s why you killed all the stists who dared to challehe status quo. And that’s why you killed Kintovar, because she represented a new way, a future you couldn’t trol!”

  The headmaster’s gaze remained ral, but a flicker of irritation crossed her features. “Dr. Kintovar was a nuisance, aion,” she stated with a touch of satisfa. “Finally, she is in checkmate, and there’s nothihat you or anyone else do to ge that!”

  The headmaster’s grip on Sybil tightened further. Sybil’s struggle tinued.

  “Finally, I have all of you in my grasp. Watch closely as one by one, you fall.”

  She tinued with a malevolent tone, “I’ll save Sybil for st. I want you to bear wito the end of Kintovar’s creations. Roselle, Runebelle and Risebelle. They are abominations, fake mages and nothing more than that. They will be treated like the garbage they are.”

  With a sinister grin, the headmaster tinued, “Once I’m done here, I’ll take the energy Kintathered, bi with my own, and fly to the city. There, I’ll spread the news of the Uprising, ensuring that teology never has any p this world!”

  The headmaster raised her hand, her psychic power prepared to unleash the devastating Miru, a heavy siletled over the battlefield. Risebelle held fearful tears in her eyes along with Roselle. They were ensnared by the unyielding grip of psychids and there was absolutely nothing they could do to break free. Nothing awaited them except the impending doom.

  “Let this be a lesson,” Aimathema decred with cold authority, “Magic reigns supreme.”

  The headmaster’s malevolent ughter echoed through the battlefield. She raised her hand gathering the energy in it. Her gaze was fixed on Risebelle, who was held captive by psychids. The tears tio drop from her eyes. Roselle was also trapped and overwhelmed with fear. She didn’t dare to look up as she knew what was i.

  Her hand desded, and a wave of psychiergy surged toward Risebelle, ready to crush her mind just as it had doo Kintovar.

  Suddenly, arifle sh out with a crag surge of lightning energy aimed directly at Roselle. Upon the bullet nearing her, Roselle’s own lightning powers surged to life. Electric sparks danced around her f a protective barrier of crag energy. The bullet struck true and exploded in a burst of lightning sending shockwaves through the air. Roselle’s small body quivered with the unleashed power and she broke free from the headmaster’s psychic grip, nding on the ground.

  A sed shot followed. This time a water bullet that homed in on Risebelle. Risebelle’s eyes widened as her water magistinctively respoo the approag threat. She summoned her power, and a swirling vortex of water enveloped her. The water bullet collided with the vortex, causing a spshing explosion. Risebelle emerged, drenched but unharmed. She broke free from the headmaster’s hold.

  Aly, another one echoed through the battlefield targeting Runebelle. She dropped to the ground, unscious but unharmed. The mysterious sniper’s intervention had saved her from the headmaster’s grasp.

  Roselle and Risebelle looked around, trying to identify the source of the shots.

  The headmaster herself had no idea what was happening. She looked around with fusion and anger. “ons? What in the name of magic is going on!? Kintovar is right on the ground, dead. Who could have...?”

  Her words were abruptly cut off as her eyes widened with shock. The headmaster’s gaze locked onto a figure in the distaanding amidst the chaos of the battlefield. It was a figure shrouded in a long, dark cloak with a hood pulled low to ceal their identity.

  “Who are you? What is the meaning of this?” the headmaster demanded with her psychidrils recoiling as she shifted her focus to this new enigmatic figure.

  The figure threw off their long dark cloak. The headmaster’s fury trailed off while she went to try and tinue asking questions.

  Standing before her now was a girl with bubblegum-colored hair, her medium-length locks framing her face like a vibrant halo. She wore a pink b coat over a matg pink dressn with bck pants underh. She had a high-pitched tone which was filled with boundless energy.

  “Dr. Haras rep for duty!” she excimed, her words with enthusiasm that seemed out of p the midst of the battle. Then, as if correg herself, she put one finger up to her lip and added with a pyful tone, “Wait... that’s nht... I am a stist, I am here to experiment!”

  Risebelle’s eyes widened in disbelief. She watched as Haras made her ued entrance.

  “Haras...” Risebelle breathed with astonishment and relief. She couldn’t believe her eyes.

  The headmaster, rec from her initial shock, seethed with anger.

  In the depths of Risebelle’s memories, a poignant fshback pyed out. It was a moment from a time when her hatred for humans ran deep and the ued presence of one had stirred flig emotions within her.

  In that memory, the forest was shrouded in an eerie stillness, its arees t above like sileinels. Risebelle, her blue hair fluttering in the breeze moved with lethal grace through the dense undergrowth. She had pleted her objective of eliminating the mages who had ihe area of Kintovar’s b. Her heart was filled with a sense of grim satisfa.

  But then, a sudden presence disrupted her focus causio whirl around. Her on was at the ready. The intruder was Haras herself. Her appearaartled Risebelle and sparked an instinctive rea.

  “Who dares…” Risebelle said with a gre.

  The girl was unphased by Risebelle’s menag demeanor and responded with boundless energy and a cheerful tohat seemed out of p the tense forest.

  “Oh, hey there! Sorry to startle you. I was just looking for you,” the girl chirped.

  Risebelle’s eyes narrowed as she assessed the person. “You seek me out? Do you not fear my wrath? Look around you. All of ye friends are dead…”

  The girl chuckled, seemingly unfazed by Risebelle’s threat. “Well, that’s the thing, I’m not actually a mage. So, no wrath, please! Thank you…”

  Risebelle’s fusion deepened. “Not a mage? What trickery is this?”

  The girl approached with a friendly smile, her energy iious. “I’m Dr. Haras, and I’m one of your creators. Do you seriously not remember me? I work with Dr. Kintovar!”

  Risebelle’s hostility wavered as the girl’s words sank in. Her creator? The one who had bee with Kintovar during Risebelle’s awakening in the boratory, with that ‘me elevator joke’ that had infuriated her so much?

  “You... you’re the one I saw with Kintovar,” Risebelle muttered.

  Haras nodded, her eyes filled with an uanding and warmth. “That’s right! I’m here because I wao find you, to talk to you. I know you may not have the best opinion of humans, but I promise I’m not like the others!”

  Risebelle’s memories of her past iions with humans flooded her mind—their cruelty, their exploitation of her kind. She had hated all humans, including Haras, but with the undeniable truth of her creator’s identity, Risebelle felt a sense of flicted emotions in this situation.

  Haras’s ughter broke through the tension and she reached out with a friendly gesture. “I know it’s a lot to take in, but we’re not enemies, Risebelle. We have a on purpose, and I want to help you to uand that.”

  Risebelle’s sciousness shifted to another memory, ohat was shrouded in the darkness of her past missions. She found herself in the depths of the mystic forest.

  Her mission was clear: elimihe mages who went upon the clearing close to the b. Risebelle was known for her cold attitude and ruthless effid she had a fierce reputation among the mages who dared to ehis territory.

  She stealthily dispatched the mages one by one. Her hatred for humans burned like a sm fire within her. Each shot of her on killed a mage without showing any mercy. On her face was not a grie her satisfa, only a mean stare which if looks could kill alone, she would not he gun.

  Whe of the mages fell, their lifeless bodies crumpled to the forest floor. Risebelle took a moment to take in a pleted mission but then amidst the clearing, there was an ued presehat sent a surge of ahrough her.

  It was Haras, one of her creators.

  Risebelle’s eyes bzed with fury as she fronted her creator. “What the hell you doing here, idiot?”

  Haras responded with her usual cheerfulness.

  “Oh, Risebelle, always so serious! I’m here to collee of the mystic forest’s energy, you know, ued.”

  Risebelle’s anger simmered just beh the surface as she demanded an expnation. “Why didn’t you just give me that mission? I could have doh tasks simultaneously.”

  Haras ughed. “Well, you see, I thought you might enjoy the mages’ elimination job. Plus, I didn’t want to overwhelm you with too much multitasking. Even if you’re a creation, you still need your ow aion, you know?”

  Risebelle’s face turo a scowl. “Don’t uimate me, Haras. I am more capable than you think.”

  While Haras and Risebelle versed in the memory, their exge suddenly came to an abrupt and tragic halt. A sharp, pierg paied through Haras’s back as a shard of earth energy struck through her body causio cry out in agony. Blood began to pour from the wound as she crumpled to the forest floor.

  Risebelle’s usually cold gaze turned into one of shod disbelief. For the first time in her existence, she looked truly surprised. The realization that her creator was in mortal danger washed over.

  “Haras…”