Chapter 286: The first thunderstrikes

"It's a dome or at least a cylinder that goes all the way to the ceiling."

Zombie appeared behind the red-haired Cranberry and reported with an annoyed expression.

"Not good. Haa... let's just hear what little miss Wrath has to say to us after all that happened."

Cranberry sighed, shook her head, and motioned at the approaching girl - or at least at the direction she was coming from since with her meager heights, it was actually kind of hard to spot her actually moving behind the other people.

"And why is that trash coming here exact... huh...?"

Zombie shrugged his shoulders and frowned, rolling his eyes but once he actually looked in the right direction, he stopped his act and furrowed his brows in shock.

"What is it...?"

The red-haired girl asked, locking arms with the blue-skinned corpse puppet even though that caused a great deal of animosity to arise for the ashen-haired girl.

Such a close relationship with the undead was frowned upon by both the commoners and nobles alike even without additional fueling it by the members of the system's faith church.

"That trash is coming here together with one of the four distorting life signatures... but I could swear that this signature wasn't there when I was testing what area do the invisible walls encompass..."

The blue undead turned to the red-haired villainess and spoke with an unnatural cautiousness.

"Ha. So, a blink, or a teleport even. Interesting. Seems like Caramel brought someone who she thinks is capable of dealing with us."

Cranberry hung onto Zombie's arm, squinting her eyes, looking for the mysterious companion - but no matter what, she couldn't spot a thing.

It was either some really short person walking with the ashen-haired Justice's Wrath, or someone invisible...

Already prepared with all kinds of skills active, the master-servant pair followed by Mary, Arion, Claymore, and Roan, walked forward, there wasn't even a speck of hesitation in the leading pair's act - as if they didn't care about the damages they are doing to their opinion.

..well, the damages that Cranberry was doing to her opinion - as a corpse puppet, Zombie's opinion was already at the very bottom, and basically, no one present knew that his rank was that of a king monster.

With all that, they thought that they were prepared for whatever might be coming, no matter how strong.

"...ha...?"

That's why once the ashen-haired Mika appeared in Cranberry's field of vision, holding hands with a cute white-haired child, the red-haired girl flinched and gasped in confusion.

"Young lady Pride. It's a pleasure to see you here in good health today."

Mika approached their group and curtsied to the frowning Cranberry, without letting go of the white-haired child's hand.

"Radiance, come on, you too. Say hello."

The ashen-haired girl tugged on the child's hand and encouraged them with a soft smile.

"..."

The child called Radiance looked at her with innocent eyes and...

"Okay."

...nodded without hesitation before lowering their head towards the master-servant pair.

"Hello."

Radiance said with their head down.

"...!"

"...?"

There was something about the child's voice that made Arion flinch, and Mary tilted her head looking up at his handsome face.

"Ha..."

But for the red-haired villainess, the detail more important than the child's voice, were two bumps on the child's back just around the shoulder blades.

"I'm sorry for her, Radiance is a bit shy with strangers, she must be baffled because everyone is bigger than her now."

Mika straightened her back and explained calmly, before turning to the white-haired child and smiling at her.

"...maybe..."

Radiance fidgeted and pouted adorably while looking away in embarrassment.

*BOOOOOOOOOOM*

*BOOOOOOOOM*

"AAAAAAAAHHH!"

"KYYYAAAAH"

"WHAT, IN THE NAME OF THE SYSTEM...?!"

Two consecutive explosions resounded and caused all of the high nobility to panic - no one came here expecting any trouble, so no one brought weapons for self-defense.

Still, everyone had at least one defensive skill that they could use so the entire ballroom instantly lighted up with bright white lights.

"What the hell?!"

Mary gasped, staring at the cube of smoke and dust that appeared around the master-servant pair right when the explosions resounded through the ballroom.

"Are, are those the invisible walls...?"

The blond prince Roan gasped and raised his hand towards the unnaturally shaped dust cloud.

"...!"

And his eyes widened once his hand stopped an inch before reaching it, held back by some invisible boundary that felt as if someone made the air turned solid.

"Wh-who cares about some invisible walls?! Why aren't you more worried about Cranberry and Zombie?!"

Claymore raised her voice and started hurriedly walking around the cube, looking for an opening.

"Young lady Cranberry, there's no need for any rush, your end is already set in stone."

"...!"

That's why she could see the ashen-haired Mika facing the dustcloud, touching her face with a mocking expression, while the white-haired Radiance was reaching her pale hand forward...

A hand surrounded by a distinct glow of the active skill.

After a few more seconds the dust settled and revealed the furious Cranberry, glowing with every skill she had with her hand and baseball bat still mid-air, less than ten inches away from Mika's head.

Same with the blue-skinned corpse puppet by her side.

The high heel of his boot was separated by the exact same distance from the head of Radiance.

/Unable to leave the quest area

/Unable to leave the quest area

"Tsk...!"

Cranberry clicked her tongue with disgust, glaring at the two messages that popped up for her and her undead the moment their attacks were stopped and rebounded causing the dust could to raise up.

"We don't want other important ones to get involved in this. Radiance, could you be so sweet and get them away? Maybe to another end of the kingdom?"

Mika smiled and asked the white-haired child, crouching by her while smiling encouragingly.

"Alright, I can do that for you."

Radiance made a cute serious face and nodded.

"Let them g...!"

Claymore was stepping forward, her body glowing with a pale-blue light but as soon as Radiance raised her head and looked at not only her, but also Mary, Arion, and even Roan, they all vanished into thin air as if they were never there.

"..."

Cranberry watched it all while gritting her teeth and clenching her fists so hard that her knuckles turned white.

*BOOOOOOOM*

/Unable to leave the quest area

Then another explosion resounded - it was the blue undead who tried to attack the white-haired child once more despite already knowing the outcome.

The invisible walls didn't falter and the only result was for more of the avatar dust to raise up.

"Now then. Shall we begin...?"

"!!!!!"

A soft voice spoke, but it didn't belong to either Mika or Radiance - another person has come out from in between the crowd.

A tall, light brown-haired young woman with a satisfied smile.

"Well, well, well, we met again, young lady Cranberry. It has been a while."

The young woman snorted and touched her nose as if there was something wrong with it.

"...commoner trash. I would prefer if you had never tried to face me again, but oh well."

The red-haired villainess smirked and shrugged her shoulders.

"Oh, how curious... anyway. Up until now you never gave me a chance to introduce myself. I am Ca..."

The light brown-haired girl didn't get discouraged and even attempted a mockery of a courtsy but...

"I don't give a shit about your name, commoner trash, I didn't care about it when I crushed your nose and I still don't care about it now."

Cranberry didn't let her finish and instead scoffed at her with a mocking smile while pointing her baseball bat at her.

"...haa... guess I should just crush your whole head this time."

She added with a sigh and her body glowed briefly before disappearing once she used the blink skill and vanished!