At the same time, far from the bustling streets—on a secluded coastline where even the neon lights could not reach—a fierce battle had just come to an end.
"Damn it…"
"Why… why is this happening…"
Two glamorous women dressed like medieval witches—and in truth, witches themselves—lay sprawled on the ground, bodies covered in wounds. They groaned in pain and frustration, while all around them lay a number of obvious grunts, each badly injured. Some had even lost consciousness entirely, unable to so much as stand.
The one who had reduced them to this state was a Gothic girl, calmly standing beneath a black parasol despite the darkness of night.
"Looks like that guy called it." Natsuki Minamiya's face remained expressionless as she spoke. "You people from the Library never learn. You already lost once on this island, and now you've got the nerve to sneak back in? Seems I've been keeping too quiet lately—you've all forgotten where my line is."
After Kaiser's warning, Natsuki had ordered the Special Zone's security forces to tighten patrols and watch for suspicious figures approaching Itogami Island.
And sure enough, it paid off. Here she'd caught a group of illegal entrants—members of the international crime syndicate LCO, the Library—including two witches.
"The Black Witch, Emma Meyer."
"The Crimson Witch, Octavia Meyer."
"Meyer Sisters—First Platoon of LCO's Philosopher Corps. First-Class Criminal Magisters. The same two who once turned roughly three hundred hectares of forest around Ashdown City in the Northern Sea Empire into guardians, earning themselves the name Witches of Ashdown."
With her back to the moonlit sea, like a goddess of the night, Natsuki calmly pronounced their fate.
"You've come all this way to turn yourselves in. Don't worry—I'll reserve a nice cell for you in the Prison Barrier."
At those words, the sisters' faces paled in horror.
The Prison Barrier—built to hold dangerous demons and magic offenders too vicious for any ordinary facility—was shrouded in grim legend. Some said it was where the wandering souls of criminals who had died without salvation drifted forever, earning it the nickname "Ghost Prison." Others claimed it was another name for a sunken temple of an evil god, a cursed prison capable of binding even the gods themselves for eternity.
Within Itogami City, the Prison Barrier was one of the most infamous urban legends—everyone had heard of it, but few knew whether it truly existed.
Only insiders knew the truth: the Prison Barrier was real. It was an artificial otherworld, created by harnessing the power of the ley lines that flowed through the Demon District. Hidden away in a dimension unreachable to ordinary people, its exact location was a closely guarded secret.
And Natsuki Minamiya was its warden.
That sealed world—an eternal penal colony, a labyrinth of time with no exit—was her personal detention facility.
Only Natsuki knew where it was.
Only Natsuki could open its gates.
Once imprisoned there, escape was impossible without her consent.
"Your purpose in coming to Itogami is to free LCO's Grand Librarian, Aya Tokoyogi, and retrieve the magic tome she brought here—the Dark Oath Grimoire, isn't it?" Natsuki's voice turned icy.
"Well, since you want to see her, I'll grant your wish. You can all have your reunion in the Prison Barrier."
As she spoke, silver chains appeared in the space behind her.
"Restraints of Penance!"
The Meyer sisters gasped in shock.
That was a powerful magic tool created long ago by the Celestial Realm to capture mythical monsters, forged strong enough that even divine beasts could not break it through brute force. The heavenly chains sprang forth like swimming dragons, darting toward the sisters.
"Get away!"
The two injured witches screamed, forcing themselves upright.
Boom!
From behind them, massive tentacles burst from the sea. Each was up to a meter and a half thick, its length impossible to measure. Semi-transparent and unsettlingly reminiscent of squid flesh, they writhed like snakes, exhaling a foul miasma as their number grew, surging toward the silver chains.
"This is the guardian you gained by sacrificing those three hundred hectares of forest around Ashdown, is it?" Natsuki's expression twisted in disgust.
"Witches these days really have regressed—resorting to methods like this just to obtain a guardian of that caliber."
A guardian was a demon-bestowed familiar, the source of a witch's power and her watchful overseer. It protected her, granted her the strength to fulfill her wishes, and—if she broke the pact—became her executioner.
By rights, a witch was given her own guardian at the moment she made her pact with a demon. No other method should have been necessary.
Of course, guardians varied in strength. Weaker ones might only match the familiars of common vampires, while stronger ones could rival even the beasts of Old Generation vampires—or match those of a True Ancestor.
If a witch lacked a guardian, it meant one of two things:
One, her guardian was too weak and had been abandoned.
Two, she was an irregular, unorthodox witch who could not obtain one at all.
Either way, it marked her as lacking in ability—or flawed in some critical way.
The Meyer sisters were clearly the former, hence their need for such an ugly substitute.
"As a parting gift, I'll show you what a real guardian looks like."
Natsuki closed her parasol, her tone regal as she addressed her own shadow.
"Rise, Rain Gold."
A moment later, a massive figure loomed behind her, towering over the grotesque tentacles. Feminine in form, graceful yet fierce, she was clad head-to-toe in golden armor, her entire body an intricate mechanical construct—a golden knight.
When she stepped into the world, the very earth of the coastline trembled. From within her thick armor, as if locking away the darkness itself, came the grinding of colossal gears, the roar of a great engine that made the air itself quake.
——!
The monstrous tentacles froze in midair, shuddering as though in fear.
The Meyer sisters, too, went rigid, trembling uncontrollably.
The Rain Gold radiated staggering magic power, its presence carrying a dread not of this world—something that could erode both light and the human heart.
Boom!!!
With a single sweep of her sword, the golden knight erased the tentacles as if they had never existed.
Clatter—
The silver chains shot forward, wrapping around the Meyer sisters and binding them tight.
"Let me go, Natsuki Minamiya!"
"You monster…!"
The witches thrashed and screamed, their fear plain.
Natsuki's face was cold as she manipulated the chains, dragging the sisters into a warped space—the gateway to the Prison Barrier. Once inside, they might as well have vanished from the world.
The witches' battle was over.
"What a troublesome bunch…"
Her icy expression softened, replaced by the weary fondness of a fussy schoolteacher.
And then—
"Not entirely. At least I got to watch a good show."
A pleasant, melodic laugh answered her murmur, making her pupils contract sharply.
But what truly shocked her was the speaker's face.
The girl sat casually atop a rock, looking down at Natsuki with a smile as dreamlike as a bubble. She had fairy-like beauty, at once seductive, childish, and ethereal, golden hair cascading to her waist and eyes that burned like living flames in an innocent gaze.
Natsuki knew that face. She knew exactly who this was.
"Avrora Florestina…!"
How could it be her? How could she be here?
She should have been—
"I'm already dead. My soul's barely a remnant, sleeping inside that spirit medium's body. I shouldn't be able to appear here, right?"
The girl's smile deepened, clearly savoring Natsuki's shock.
"Don't worry—your understanding's basically correct. So don't think too much about the me standing here."
"I'm only here in this form to meet someone."
Natsuki instantly guessed who that someone was. And her instincts as a witch screamed—if she let this girl do as she pleased, Itogami Island might be destroyed.
"…You think I'll just stand here and let you?"
Her voice was grave, the air behind her twisting as the golden knight reappeared, radiating killing intent.
"So this is the Rain Gold—the Witch of the Void's guardian…"
Where the Meyer sisters had cowered, Avrora only looked intrigued.
"Such magic, such presence… No wonder you're the Prison Barrier's warden. This might really match a True Ancestor-class beast."
"But tell me, witch—is it worth it? The price you paid for this power… even I can hardly bear to watch."
A guardian's strength was proportional to the weight of the pact that created it. The greater the price paid, the stronger the guardian.
To wield a guardian on par with a True Ancestor's beast—what an unfathomable price that must have been.
"Rain Gold!"
Natsuki ignored the girl's pity and snapped her command.
But instead of obeying, the golden knight's form twisted—drawn into a deep, endless darkness—and vanished from the world.
"What?!"
Natsuki's expression changed instantly.
The next moment, she herself was pulled into that same darkness—as if hurled from the earth into outer space—helpless before the alien world that swallowed her.
"This… a familiar?!"
Darkness filled her vision, her body—everything. She realized it at last: she was inside a familiar.
A familiar whose very body was space itself.
This entire dark world was the familiar—an alternate dimension it had carved out.
"Fighting you would be fun, but that might draw his attention—so I'll pass."
Avrora's innocent laugh echoed in her ears.
"This sealed space should unravel that illusory body of yours, leaving you unable to interfere with the outside world for a while."
"That way, I can move more freely."
"Don't take it personally, Prison Warden—your existence would only get in my way here. Consider this a temporary removal."
Her voice began to fade.
"If you want revenge, bring your real body. That'll make the fight more interesting."
And then she was gone, leaving Natsuki alone in the darkness.
"Damn these bastards… acting with impunity on this island…!"
Natsuki was furious—and helpless. She tried to trigger her spatial control magic, to shift herself out of the darkness, but found the space around her completely sealed. Rain Gold had been banished deeper still, unable to return to her side for the time being.
"So I have to accept it?"
Through the dark, she looked back toward the artificial island.
"I guess this is as far as I go. The rest is up to you, transfer student. Don't you dare die…"
With those words, her body shattered like glass and vanished.
Before long, the coastline welcomed a newcomer—a dark-skinned boy, no more than twelve or thirteen, with black hair and golden eyes.
"…Too late?"
He surveyed the scene in silence, then muttered to himself.
"This magic… so it really was her?"
His golden eyes flared crimson.
"To show up personally… still as unpredictable as ever…"
(End of Chapter)