Janice rushed to Lola's side, her heart pounding as she lifted the unconscious girl and gently laid her across her lap. She shook her lightly, her voice urgent and laced with concern, "Lola! Lola!"
Receiving no response, Janice pressed trembling fingers to Lola's neck, feeling a faint but steady pulse a relief washed over her, but it did little to stop the tears that spilled down her cheeks. Wasting no time, she activated a long-distance teleportation curse tool. The air around them shimmered as space itself began to warp.
But her uncle, still reeling from the backlash of his Dark Dominion being shattered, sensed the shift. His head snapped up, eyes blazing.
"Oh, no, you don't!" he snarled, lunging toward them with terrifying speed. Janice's breath hitched finding he was too fast. Faster than her teleportation tool. A lot faster. Just as his fingers were mere inches from Lola—the golden cross on Lola's pendant floated up, radiating a brilliant light.
A horrifying snarl tore from the man's throat as his curse energy ignited in contact with the light from the cross. The burning spread through his body like wildfire, sending waves of unbearable pain through his body.
"Rrraaaghhh!!!" His guttural cry shook the walls. Yet, despite the agony, he still reached for Lola, desperate, reckless. But the moment his fingers edged closer, the light flared even brighter—the burn spread faster. He paused as a chilling realization struck him—if the burning curse energy spread to his curse core, it could cause it to detonate like dynamite. He wasn't about to find out if that was true. With a fierce growl, he staggered back, retreating from the cross's glow, focusing all his will on purging the burning curse energy before it could consume him.
Seeing her uncle at his weakest, Janice saw her chance. Without hesitation, she yanked the teleportation curse tool from her wrist and flung it at her uncle. The moment it neared him before he could react—she detonated it. A violent rip tore through space, revealing the endless void beyond. Due to the energy from the explosion, the void pulled him in like a black hole. Janice watched as her uncle was sucked into the void.
However, knowing the void wouldn't stop her uncle, Janice sprang to her feet, yanking a cursed tool—shaped like a wooden wheel resembling a ship's helm—from her earring. Without wasting a second, she pressed it against the fractured space, watching as it slowly began to spin between their reality and the nothing mending the paper-thin space separating them.
Urgency twisted her features as her tool worked, but her uncle was already adapting. He planted his foot on the void itself, stabilizing as if it were solid ground. Then, without hesitation, he bolted straight for the closing gap. Her heart pounded. At this rate, he'd escape before she could seal the tear completely. Gritting her teeth, she started flinging cursed tools into the void, aiming straight for him. Each one detonated with a violent burst—but to her horror, he barely flinched. He tore through the explosions like a runaway train, unstoppable.
As he neared the opening in the space, noticing the desperation etched on her face, he sneered. Janice's stomach dropped, her legs trembling beneath her. But she refused to falter. She kept going, pushing forward with her plan—even as he reached the very edge of the opening. His lips curled into a triumphant smirk. He thought he had won.
Then, out of nowhere, a massive tentacle lashed out, coiling around his wrist with an iron grip. His fingers had just breached the opening—brushing against their reality itself—but before he could react, the tentacle yanked him back into the void's depths.
Janice barely registered his stunned expression before she forced herself to finish the job, repairing the space shut with the last of her strength. As soon as it was done, her legs buckled, and she collapsed to her knees, a shaky sigh escaping her lips. Relief crashed over her like a wave, thinking to herself, 'It was over. For now.'
Without sparing a second or a single thought about her uncle's well-being, Janice let herself sink onto the floor. Her body ached with exhaustion, but as she turned her head and caught sight of the unconscious Lola, a gentle smile tugged at her lips. Despite everything, she was in a great mood—she had just successfully stopped a Void-Tier Curse Master.
Sure, she had been lucky, and yes, her uncle had been holding back. But how many Mortal-Tier Curse Masters could say they had faced a Void-Tier Curse Master head-on and lived to tell the tale?
Not even Delories, the infamous Sky Slayer—who had taken down half a dozen Sky-Tier Curse Masters as an Ocean-Tier herself—could make such a claim. Then again, comparing their feats felt almost insulting to Delories. Janice had never truly been in danger; her uncle had never intended to harm her. This had all been a lesson—one she barely scraped through.
Regardless, Janice was proud of what she had accomplished today—no one could take that away from her.
Most importantly, she had protected a soul under her care. That alone made everything worth it.
A satisfied smile tugged at her lips as she stretched out on the floor, letting exhaustion settle into her limbs. She made herself comfortable, breathing in the quiet, knowing the hardest part was over.
Now, all that was left was to wait.
Her brother would return from his crusade soon, and when he did, he'd take them to safety.
"Hi, Lola," Ace greeted, his voice laced with awkwardness as he struggled to process the bizarre scene before him.
Lola's torso appeared normal, but below that—nothing. Or rather, not nothing, but something else entirely. Her lower body had seemingly been replaced by the plush she was perched on. Ace's confusion must have been obvious because Lola, catching the look in his eyes, quickly dove back into the plush's mouth. The plush's jaws snapped shut around her, and then, disturbingly, it began to expand, growing to a towering 6 feet 4 inches. Its mouth opened just enough to reveal Lola's face peeking out. She had transformed the plush into a costume.