Published: January 24, 2026
“Kuhaha! I never thought Fred would attack me so easily. I thought I had him bound by fear, but it seems that was too difficult.”
Oswell, pierced through the chest by a lightning arrow—who should have died instantly—was laughing with blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.
“No, no~ The ‘Doctor’ is the source of our fear. It’s just that the feeling of ‘I don’t want to regret anymore’ has won over the fear of the Doctor.”
Frederick spoke to Oswell in a serious tone, a stark contrast to his earlier drawn-out manner of speaking.
“Don’t want to regret, huh? Ahahaha! Too bad. You’ll soon regret betraying me!”
As Oswell laughed, the lightning arrow in his chest disappeared, and the hole in his chest rapidly closed up.
“Is that… ‘Self-Healing’…? Why does the Doctor have the same supernatural ability as me…?”
Caroline, discerning that the phenomenon closing Oswell’s chest was due to Self-Healing, let out a confused voice.
“What are you surprised about now? I experimented on you for the big goal of inducing Self-Healing in others. Thanks to your cooperation, I learned a lot about supernatural abilities. And about what lies ahead as well!”
Oswell’s eyes, laced with madness, fixed on Caroline. To protect her, Ruella stepped forward and spoke.
“You’re acting pretty confident just because you have Self-Healing, but aren’t you actually quite panicked inside? The Doctor can’t face this force, can he?”
“True, I don’t have much fighting ability myself. No matter how many demonic beasts I summon, you guys would handle them with ease. That’s a correct assessment. But I rose to be an executive in that cult. Do you think someone like me would fall behind against a bunch of kids like you? You’re seriously underestimating me.”
Oswell’s aura shifted in response to Ruella’s almost provocative words.
“Well, during the war or right after, I’ll have to fight the ‘Guide’ eventually anyway... This might be the perfect opportunity for a test run. So, Twilight Moonbow, you’ll accompany me in my experiment!”
Oswell snapped his fingers again.
All the demonic beasts transformed into red-black mist and gathered into his palm, forming a red-black sphere.
“…I don’t like you saying Fred and I are out of your consideration.”
Ruella voiced her dissatisfaction upon hearing Oswell’s remark.
“No, no, it’s just that Ruella and Fred don’t have the right to participate in this experiment. You two will bow out here.”
“What!? What is this...?”
Suddenly, Ruella and Frederick clutched their chests, writhing in pain.
They soon dropped to their knees, unable to stand.
“Big sister Ruella! Brother Frederick! What’s wrong!?”
Caroline rushed to the siblings, worried about their sudden distress.
“Hahaha! Didn’t I say? You’ll ‘soon regret it’! Of course, I prepared countermeasures for your betrayal. But it would be a waste to dispose of you so easily. You’ll be useful to me until the end!”
From the red-black sphere in Oswell’s hand, two thin lines appeared and shot rapidly toward Ruella and Frederick.
“Don’t let those lines reach them!”
Caroline swung her dagger to cut the lines.
But the red-black lines passed through the dagger without touching it.
The lines connected to the siblings’ chests, causing them more agony.
“…Th-this is… our blood… being sucked out…?”
Ruella, whose senses had been sharpened by the Doctor’s human experiments, realized their blood was being drained into the sphere in Oswell’s hand via the red-black lines.
“I don’t know what he’s doing, but I won’t let him have his way! Sister Ru!”
“Yes!”
Sophia and Luna launched attack magic together to disrupt Oswell.
However, the attacks were blocked by the red-black mist surrounding Oswell.
“In that case, I’ll do it!”
Seeing their magic ineffective, Logan thrust his spear into the mist.
But it was also blocked.
“This is… hopeless, huh…”
Feeling the approach of ‘death’ all at once, Frederick muttered.