The whole tree shook from the shockwave of the explosion. I was already on my feet, as well as many others with combat experience. Amongst the panicked shouting of the nobility and rulers, I saw the Pleiades run outside, being the only ones here with weapons.

  As soon as they were gone, they were repced with one of Pristel's guards. The fear in his eyes was clear to everyone in the room, who went silent to hear his report when he ran up to Wendell.

  “S-Shadows! It's the Shadows, Your Majesty!”

  The panic from before the announcement immediately returned tenfold, with many nobles pushing each other to get out the door.

  I happened to look over to where Isaac was, just in time to see him disappear in a fsh of Light magic.

  With no way to get outside and join the battle just yet, I turned to see how Vic and Mary were handling the event. What I saw, however, couldn't be further than what I expected.

  Mary was behind Vic, pressing a knife to his throat hard enough to draw blood. I didn't waste any time in running up there, casting Speed on myself in the hopes that I could get there before she could react.

  I closed in on her in less than a second, her eyes widening in shock as I created a makeshift sword through Metal magic, aiming for the arm holding the knife. Just before my attack nded though, I felt something wrap around my leg, smming me to the ground.

  “Ah!”

  I tried to get back up, but whatever it was that pulled me to the ground was suddenly wrapped around my arms and legs, binding me in pce. Looking at these strange bindings, I noticed they were bck, and suspiciously close to being whatever the Shadows were made of.

  So, I did the only thing I could think to do and started casting Light magic.

  “Oh Godde-” Before I could finish, another one of the bindings wrapped around my mouth, keeping me from talking.

  “Shut up, Hero” Mary said, her voice full of hatred. “Silence! Nobody move, or he dies!”

  Hearing those words, everyone who hadn't yet noticed what was going on finally turned to the altar, seeing Vic held hostage in simir bindings to my own. Turning my head up, I could see Mary's face. Or at least, what was her face.

  The Mary from before was gone, and in her pce was someone completely different. She was repced with a shorter, tomboyish woman whose bc hair was done in a wolf cut with pink highlights.

  The first to react to her change in appearance, surprisingly, was the head of the Augmonica family.

  “Trisha…?”

  “Did I say you could speak?" Hearing the man speaking as if reuniting with a lost child,.the woman apparently named Trisha immediately silenced him- and the rest of his family- the same way as she did with me.

  She raised her free hand, prompting shadowy tentacles to appear and drag the Augmonicas to her. Finally coming out of his shock during this, Wendell finally raised his voice from behind me.

  “I do not care who you are, girl! If you threaten my family, you will not live to see another day!” he yelled, somehow causing the whole tree to shake in response. “You will do well to remember that you are in my domain!”

  “Quiet,” Trisha only said one word to reply.

  I've heard stories of how strong Wendell's Forest magic was, but seeing it in the flesh is another thing entirely. Spears of wood unched themselves towards her from every direction, and several root looking things attempted to wrestle Vic away from her.

  Before anything managed to make contact with her, however, a shadowy aura appeared around her for a second before expanding throughout the whole room. When it cleared, all of Wendell's magic had disappeared, and he was bound like the rest of us, struggling to break free. Finally, everyone got the hint and stopped trying to stop her. Whatever magic she's using, it's not something we can fight. We can only listen to what her demands are and hope to settle this peacefully.

  “Great!” she cpped her hands. “Now that the distractions are done, we can get to business. See, these bastards calling themselves nobles killed my parents and tried to take my power for their own. Luckily, I escaped, and when my lord saw me in that state, he gave me the power to enact my revenge, with the sole condition that I assist in his.”

  She threw Vic to the side, not needing him as leverage anymore after her previous show of power. Then, she used the same shadowy tentacles as before to pull the Augmonicas- along with myself for some reason- in front of her, forcing us to our knees in the process.

  “Now, the conditions! Every one of you here will leave unharmed once I have what I want. First, I will kill my ‘family’ so my real parents can rest in peace. Then, I will take the Hero to my lord, and he will decide her fate. Let's get started, shall we? I want to hear bastards scream~”

  She approached the head of the family, the same man who tried speaking earlier. She removed his gag, likely so she could hear his screams…

  “You may kill me here, but you're not leaving this pce alive, Trisha!” he yelled as soon as his mouth was free. Then, it looked like he had bitten down on something, as I could hear a crunch and see a brief fsh of silver light as his mouth was closing.

  “Tch. If you're not gonna beg for your life don't bother saying anything,” she repced his gag and covered her hand in the same shadows. “Die.”

  She swung her hand at his throat, and with the shadows on it, it never even slowed. As the man's headless body hit the ground, all I could do was sit and watch in horror as she moved to her next victim, presumably the man's wife.

  “You're turn, ‘Mother’.” Unlike st time, she didn't bother with the theatrics, simply raising her hand to kill her.

  Before she could, she suddenly jumped backwards, making a wall of shadows in front of her. As I was wondering the point of it, a beam of silver light, like what came from the mouth of the Augmonica's head, collided with the wall. Both were destroyed, with Trisha's expression contorting in annoyance.

  “Fuck! You were all supposed to be fighting the Shades!” she created several projectiles from her shadows as several Shadows rose from the ground around her feet.

  “Our job here was to protect the Osakaran nobility attending the wedding, not to fight those Shadow creatures. And I am ashamed to admit that because of you, our job is now a failed one. Descendent of Augmonica! You will now face the wrath of the stars!” The voice that called out was unfamiliar, but it was obvious who she was. It seems the Pleiades have returned.

  “Just give up and die already!” Reaching the limit of her patience, Trisha unched all of her projectiles towards the entrance, and the Shadows she created started running after them.

  “Sisters!” The voice that spoke before addressed her allies, though they didn't respond.

  Instead, I could feel them building up rge amounts of mana behind me. Just before they were hit by Trisha's attacks and Shadows, the mana released, filling the room with the silver light from before. Before it had even cleared, I could feel my bindings disappear, and I was back on my feet immediately with another makeshift sword, this time with Divinity casted on it so I wouldn't be caught by any shadows again.

  “Damn it… Damn it all!” Trisha screamed. “Fine. I still have the Revierre woman. She'll make a fine enough sacrifice for my lord, and when he returns, I'll kill every st one of you!”

  “You're not getting away!” One of the Pleiades yelled, readying another attack.

  This time, she shot a simple beam of that silver light at Trisha. Before it hit, however, the woman was covered in shadows, and she was gone.

  The sounds of fighting outside began to lessen as well, and as quickly as it had begun, the attack was over.

  Alpy376